Now that we’re inside and safe, my teeth begin to chatter wildly and my entire body shakes.
“Here.” He grabs his towel and quickly dries me off. “Get under the covers.”
I scramble to get into his sleeping bag, shivering violently as I watch him towel-dry himself with frenzied hands. He dives into the sleeping bag in another minute, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close to him, chest-to-chest. Our ragged breaths and sporadic giggles are the only sound in the cabin for what seems like forever, until our bodies begin to warm and calm, and the fact that Kyle is naked and pressed against me finally moves to the forefront of my thoughts.
“That was fun,” I admit. “Even the running-through-the-camp-naked part.”
He chuckles. “We won’t forget this night anytime soon.”
“I won’t forget anything about this summer anytime soon.” I press a kiss against his lips.
“We’ll have to do it again next summer. Darian just upped the stakes on the skinny-dipping tradition to include streaking.”
“Right.” Next summer. I try in vain to push aside the dread that comes with talk of next year. It’s so far away.
“You warm enough now?” he whispers, his mouth finding my throat.
I let out a soft moan of yes.
“Good.” His lips begin moving downward—along my collarbone and over my breasts, pausing to suck on a nipple, the cool metal of his lip ring tickling me. “I need to undo this.” He pulls down the zipper on the sleeping bag, opening it up so he can shift freely. He keeps moving downward, his mouth trailing softly against my skin, the nervous flutters in my stomach growing.
He pauses at my belly button, and I giggle as his tongue dips into the center, as his eyes lock on mine.
And then Kyle’s shifting farther down.
To let me experience another of so many firsts.
Chapter 23
NOW
I’m absorbed in monthly financial reports when knuckles rap twice against my glass door. I look up, expecting my dad.
When I meet Kyle’s golden eyes, I can’t help the wide grin that erupts.
“Good morning, Miss Calloway,” he says in his calm, professional tone. He holds up a small rectangular box. “You have a package.”
I lean back in my chair, taking in the sight of his hard body in that uniform. I watched him dress for work from the comfort of my warm bed at five thirty A.M.—as I have all week. It’s become routine—we part with a kiss and then I study the clock all day, counting down the hours until we’re home and we can be just Piper and Kyle again.
“Mark just stepped out to grab coffees.”
Kyle strolls in casually, coming around to my side of the desk, to set the box down. It bears my brother’s store label. “I know. I saw him and Renée leave.”
“You could have given this to him to bring on his way back.”
“I could have. I wanted to see you, though.”
“Really.” I can’t help but stare at the way he’s standing so close to me, his belt buckle and those fitted pants at eye level, the strain behind the zipper taunting. My body begins to stir. I tip my head up to find him peering down at me with heated eyes.
And, I’ll admit, as much as I can’t wait to be Piper and Kyle at home, playing senior VP and the security guard in the office garners a high level of thrill.
“Busy?” he asks.
“Always.”
His eyes flip to the numbers on my screen. “That looks . . . enthralling.” The boredom in his voice says otherwise.
I sigh. “This part isn’t, exactly. But what all these numbers and plans and meetings turn into at the end is . . . spectacular.” Skyscrapers and condo buildings, homes and jobs for thousands. A mark on an entire city.
He eyes me strangely.
“What?”
“You work a lot.”
“Yeah. I know.”
He bites his lip. “Your ex paid me a visit today.”
“What did he say?” I ask warily. It’s been four days since David found out about Kyle and me, and he has been oddly subdued. He’s made no mention to me about it. He’s walked past Kyle without acknowledging him. All in all, he’s been very un-David-like, and it’s beginning to worry me. “He didn’t say anything. He just stood there and stared at me.”
“Stared at you.”
“For ten or twelve seconds, until Gus stepped in and asked if he was okay. And then he left.”
I roll my eyes. “I’ll see what’s going on in that child’s brain of his.”
Kyle nods slowly. “Are you going to be late again tonight?”
“Probably. I’m sorry. Things are nuts right now.”
“Okay. Just let me know when you think you’ll be home and I’ll come down.”
A forty-five minute transit commute home, only to head back down two hours later? I sigh. “Why don’t you just bring a bunch of clothes with you so you don’t have to keep going back and forth after work? You can use the building’s gym. I’ll give you a key.”
His eyebrows spike. “You’ll give me a key?”
Unease settles in my spine. “Is it too soon?”
He hesitates. His long eyelashes bat as he blinks. “I don’t know. Is it?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, reaching forward to drag my nail along his thigh. “All I know is that I love being with you every night.” There has been no question or hesitation so far. Kyle finishes his shift at six and goes home to work out and change. He’s back downtown by the time I’m home from work. It’s only been a few days and yet the very idea of Kyle not staying a night, of us not waking up with our naked limbs tangled together, makes my chest tighten.
“Same.” His voice is husky.
“Okay. So . . . maybe we shouldn’t worry about moving too fast or too slow. Maybe we should just do whatever feels right.” Because, though it has only been a few days, Kyle and me have been years in the making.
His lips twist into a smile. “I’ll bring a few days’ worth of clothes with me tonight.”
My heart skips a beat. “Good.”
His eyes graze my lips. “It’s killing me not to kiss you right now.”
The tension in my office is escalating quickly. For once, I’m glad I’m in a fishbowl. If this were my father’s office, we’d likely be on my desk by now.
“Think about it all day and save it for tonight.”
His jaw tenses and I chuckle, reaching for my envelope opener, to run it through the sleek brown kraft-paper packaging. “What could Rhett have sent me now, I wonder. Oh, also . . . before I forget, I was asked to pass along this message.” I pause my unwrapping to reach for my phone and find the text from Christa to read aloud: “If your boy toy is going to be wandering around the kitchen in the middle of the night, can you ask him to put on some clothes. Thanks.”
“I had clothes on!”
I give him a look.
He shrugs. “I’ll put on track pants next time.”
“Thank you.” I pick up the note that sits on top of the wrapped gift. A housewarming gift. I pull back the tissue paper. And gasp. “I totally forgot about this!” Inside the box I find a picture of my parents, Rhett, and me, on the bow of my father’s old yacht. I’m around ten, with bangs and a blue ribbon pulled through my hair. Rhett looks like the token prep school student who he used to be. Dad and Mom stand arm-in-arm. We’re all wearing crisp white-and-navy-blue outfits, and grinning.