Page 94 of The Best Laid Plans

The thought was wild and terrifying as he sucked at my jaw and filled his hands with my breasts.

How do we only stop here?

How do we ever not have more?

Have everything?

I had my hand around him as he pushed me against the tile. He moaned my name, and I shivered.

I wished we were in a bed.

I wished he were on top of me.

Wished he were inside me.

Wished I could wrap my arms around him and kiss him.

And even as I thought about all those things I wanted, I knew exactly why we couldn’t have them. Why I shouldn’t have them. And he shouldn’t either.

Burke wanted all the same things, if I had to guess, and he held back for reasons all his own.

Butthiswas something we could have.

Something we could give each other.

He rocked into my hand, pushing open my thighs with his big palm and his demanding fingers.

There was an unnerving ease in the way we knew each other’s bodies now. Something bigger than sex. Bigger than a deep, seeking kiss that went on endlessly.

He had me arching up on my toes, gasping his name in only a couple of minutes. And he groaned his own release into my shoulder, his trembling arm braced next to my head while the water beat down on our bodies.

We stood there until the water cooled. He kissed the pulse at the base of my throat and then wrapped me in a towel when we got out. Burke’s eyes were intense as he swept the wet hair off my face.

I closed my eyes when he started toweling himself off.

And it was the first time I wanted to climb into bed with him and listen to his heart as we fell asleep.

But I didn’t ask if I could.

And neither did he.

Chapter Twenty-One

CHARLOTTE

It was when he came back from Florida that I had to admit there was something wrong with me. Something I might not ever be able to fix.

An infection in my blood.

A virus in my brain.

It was the only explanation. Not because things were going bad. It was the exact opposite, actually.

Somehow, despite all the strangeness of how we’d begun, Burke had become my favorite person to be around.

We’d found a rhythm, as odd as it may have seemed to anyone else.

We began our mornings by checking in with William and the crew. Each change at this stage seemed to require just enough discussion, just enough decision-making, that Burke’s continued presence was justified.

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