Unlike her, though, I didn’t say hi to it out loud. That air of humor between us had disappeared, and right now, I didn’t want it back. Since she’d specifically told me she didn’t want to wait today, I didn’t tease her.
I tucked right in, licking and sucking until she was screaming my name all over again. Once she’d stopped shaking, I left the bed for a minute to grab my wallet and pulled out a condom, rolling it on as she watched with hungry eyes.
“You’re ready to go again already?” she asked when she saw how hard I was.
“Yep.” I shrugged. “It’s you, Serenity. I’ll never get enough of being with you.”
She smiled, opening her arms when I got back on the bed and pulling me down with her, her mouth slanting over mine as she lay me down on top of her. I sank into her as we went, reaching for her hands and holding them as I started moving inside her, kissing her deeply as I completely surrendered to how it felt to be with her.
Neither of us lasted long, and we kept kissing until we broke apart. Once I’d taken care of the condom, we lay in bed with her head on my chest and my arms around her. I wished we could go for that second round already but we were both still catching our breath. Besides, we had the rest of the day and tonight if we wanted to spend it here, so there was no rush.
“Can I get you some water?” I asked.
She shook her head lazily. “No, I’m okay for now. Thanks, though. After what just happened, I suppose we don’t need to talk about the kiss anymore?”
I laughed softly. “No, I think we’re past that. Do you want to talk about what just happened and what is, hopefully, going to be happening for the rest of the day?”
“It’s definitely going to be happening for the rest of the day, but do we have to talk about it now? We don’t have to be serious all the time.”
“True.” I paused for a beat. “Do you want to hear about our next trip?”
“Definitely,” she replied. “We’re going to Egypt, right?”
“Well, that was the plan for my next stop when I was still going to go alone, but it occurred to me that since you’re coming with me now, you might want to weigh in on the destinations.”
“Egypt is a definite yes from me,” she said immediately. “We can go see the pyramids and the Nile, and we can try some new foods again. After Iceland, I’m really excited to try some other cuisines. I’ve been reading up on Egyptian food and it looks interesting.”
“Egypt next then,” I agreed. “We’ll go see the pyramids, the Nile, the temples, and decide if there’s something else we want to do while we’re there. I’ve been thinking we should make this a longer trip, anyway. Maybe spread things out a bit more and then fly directly to our next destination, which I was thinking could be Hawaii? It’ll bring us back closer to home, but we’d also be adding another stop before we come back.”
“I know we’ve been on one of the trips already, but it all still seems too surreal to me. Yes to all of the above, though. A thousand times, yes. Do you need any help with the arrangements?”
“Nah, I’ll start finalizing them tomorrow. Tonight, I just want to focus on you.”
She let out a content sigh, nodding as her eyelids fluttered shut. “Funny. I want to focus on you, too. Maybe we could have a nap first, though. All that excitement really got to me.”
“We can definitely have a nap first,” I agreed, stifling a yawn. “Although I can’t pretend it was the excitement that got to me. It was last night that did me in.”
Chuckling softly, she stroked my abdomen until her breathing evened out soon after. Realizing that she was already asleep, I extricated myself from her carefully and pulled my dad’s old bucket list out of my wallet.
As I stared at the possible destinations where we could go next, my gaze snagged on one of the few items my dad had managed to cross off—marrying the woman he loved.
Almost acting on instinct, I reached for the complimentary pen on my nightstand and circled that entry.
I glanced over at Serenity, knowing that there was no one else for me. She was the woman I loved and I never should’ve given her up back in the day. It had seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but being with her again had proven to me that it had been utterly stupid.
Sometimes, it felt like it had never happened at all. Like we’d been together all along and just hadn’t seen each other in a while. We still had a lot to talk about, though, which was unfortunate. We’d had it all figured out once upon a time, and even though we were starting over, it felt silly to have to figure it out all fucking over again.
If she even wanted to figure it out, that was. I didn’t know how yet, but I needed to find out if she felt the same way I did or if she was just doing this for the money. It would really suck if she was because I was falling in love with her again and I really fucking hoped she felt the same.
CHAPTER28
SERENITY
The next week, I was once again packed and ready to go. My bags were standing at my door and I turned in a slow circle in my living room, checking that all my windows were shut and my lights were off.
There were so many things about my life right now that I couldn’t believe, and Bart was responsible for all of them. His presence in my life had become synonymous with adventure. With passion. Withlove.
A thrill passed through me when I even just thought about him. Sleeping with him had been a spur of the moment decision, but even a whole week later, I didn’t feel like it had been a mistake. It had felt right then, and it felt right now.