22. Delaney
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
delaney
W ALKING ONTO OUR FLIGHT this time around felt completely different. We were immediately directed to the first-class cabin, which was even more luxurious than our other flight. We settled into our seats, which had curved walls on the outside for privacy and a collapsible divider between us that Blake immediately took down.
The seats weren’t what felt different. It was Blake. It was us. It was the way he held my hand through the airport and let his gaze drift to my mouth every time he looked at me. It caused heat to simmer just beneath my skin. A want like I’d never known before burned inside me. All I could think about was last night. All I could picture was Blake between my legs, watching me with molten desire in his gaze. All I could hear was Blake rasping my name. All I could feel was the brush of his lips across my skin.
I could still feel it, a ghostly touch, taunting me. Reigniting my need for more. But there hadn’t been time for more this morning, and now, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.
There hadn’t even been time to talk. I’d been tangled in Blake when I woke up, his warm body encompassing mine, making me feel things I didn’t understand. But then he quickly extracted himself and shuffled out of bed, returning a moment later with a cup of coffee. He placed it next to the bed for me and leaned down to press a kiss on my temple. And then he’d gotten busy—packing, arranging transportation to the train station, tidying the rental home.
We didn’t talk about what happened. The things we’d said. The things we did.
I wasn’t sure how I should feel about everything that transpired, but I knew the entire night made me feel shamelessly good. I’d never in my thirty-three years had a sexual experience like what I’d just experienced, and knowing that, of all people, it was with Blake ? It was both shocking and weirdly sensical. We’d always understood each other in a way that no one else had; why wouldn’t that extend to the bedroom?
This trip had been our catalyst. We’d left for this honeymoon as friends and returned as something entirely new. Blake didn’t mean more to me than when we’d left, and I doubted I meant more to him. He’d always occupied such a big space in my life, but the way he occupied it now had changed .
That fact was exhilarating. But also terrifying. Because despite the stint of time when he’d moved to Boston without me, Blake had been the one constant in my life for so many years now. And what happened when something so solid suddenly morphed in front of your eyes, became something different, something you didn’t quite understand yet? Even if I really liked this new version of him—of us—it still made my stomach flip when I thought about the uncertainty that accompanied it.
“You’re wearing your compression socks, right?” Blake asked, his eyes sweeping down to my feet as though he could see through my sweatpants.
“Yes, I am,” I answered, and Blake gave the kind of perfunctory nod he would at the hospital.
“That’s my girl,” he muttered—something he absolutely would not have said at the hospital—before tugging my seat belt tighter.
My chest ached as I wondered if Blake had always been this attentive and I’d just missed it or if this was new.
It felt new.
But it also felt comforting.
Like it was just Blake.
And Blake was a form of home I’d always relied on. And maybe just the understanding of how deep that ran was new.
After all the passengers boarded, the plane took off, and I curled up in my plushy seat, pulling one of the blankets they provided over me. Blake tugged on the corner of it like he wanted to be included in my cozy setup, and I draped the blanket over him, too.
For some reason, it made me excited to get back to Boston. I liked imagining this same scenario on the couch in Blake’s apartment. I wanted to spend my weekends like this, watching movies and cuddling under blankets. I had no idea if that was what Blake wanted, though. We might have shared a bed the past couple of nights and done other unspeakable things, but maybe that wasn’t the direction he wanted to go with this. Did I want to go in this direction?
A flight attendant came down the aisle as soon as we got to cruising altitude, taking our drink orders and giving us a rundown of the menu options for the flight. She didn’t give an indication that she knew who we were until she came back with our beverages a bit later and smiled.
“Tell your brother good luck at training camps for us,” she said and then continued to sweep her gaze over Blake as if to quickly compare him to his brother. And when she apparently decided she liked what she saw, she did it a second time, this time so blatant that I acted without thinking, slipping the hand with my wedding ring onto Blake’s thigh possessively.
“We’ll be sure to tell him,” I said with a tight-lipped smile. “We’re all really excited for this upcoming season. I was just making plans with Noah’s girlfriend to go to his first preseason game together. It should be so much fun.”
Blake stayed silent. Or nearly silent. Just as the attendant gave a placating grin and walked back down the aisle, I heard him swallow a throaty noise.
“Jesus fuck, Delaney,” he groaned before shifting in his seat.
“What?” I glanced over at him, noting the way his jaw flexed. “You’ve never cared before when I scare off the women who try to use you because of Noah.”
“No.” He gave me a steady look that flared when I slipped my hand beneath the blanket and started trailing my hand up his inner thigh, tracing the seam of his pants. “I’ve never cared about that.”
No, he hadn’t.
I’d interrupted women who were hitting on him a number of times, and he’d never cared, had he? He let them walk away without so much as a glance their way and then turned to me with a knowing grin.
Like he’d known what I’d done.
Even if I hadn’t.
Oh my God, had I always been so?—
“Jealousy looks really fucking good on you, though, Lane,” Blake murmured in my ear, suddenly so close to me that I could feel his breath on my skin. “And it feels good, too.”
He found my wrist beneath the blanket and wrapped his fingers around it, stopping my movements.
“ Too good,” he rasped, leaning back and squeezing his eyes shut. “Also, Gemma’s going to love you when I tell her what you just did. I hope you’re ready to actually go to that game with her because you’re definitely getting an invite now.”
“Of course. Happy to help out my new sister-in-law.”
“And Noah’s going to love that you just called her that. Fuck, I do, too.” His breathing grew more labored as I traced circles on his thigh despite not being able to move my wrist. “ Shit , Delaney.”
My heartbeat was so loud I heard it pounding in my ears. “Something wrong?” I asked, half-teasing, half-serious.
Maybe I was being too forward. Maybe he didn’t want to continue whatever had happened between us on this honeymoon.
“Wrong?” He shook his head, eyes still closed. “God, you have no idea.”
Nerves tightened in my stomach as my brain rushed through the possibilities of what that might mean. I hesitated for a moment, debating, before I leaned over the space between our seats and lowered my voice, finding his ear. “Give me an idea, Blake. Please.”
He opened his eyes and dipped his head, facing me. Our mouths were only an inch apart, and after getting to taste him yesterday, I badly wanted to kiss him again. How many days had we been married? Was it more than twenty-one? Was that why kissing him and touching him already felt like a habit? Or why was I already so addicted to this, whatever this was?
Maybe this wasn’t new. Maybe I was.
The cabin grew dark a second later, the lights dimming to allow for sleep on our trip across the Atlantic. Too bad I wasn’t tired. I was more awake than ever. Passengers’ screens cast the only soft glow in the plane. That, and Blake’s eyes. They shone through the darkness.
“You want to know what’s wrong?” he breathed.
I nodded.
Desperately. I desperately wanted to know. I didn’t want anything to be wrong. I wanted everything to be right. I wanted last night to be right. I wanted this to be right.
“I’m not okay, Delaney,” he confessed. “Your hands are on me, and now all I can think of, all I can see, is you kneeling in front of me in that hot tub last night. How your mouth—” His husky words broke off momentarily as he got a grip on himself. Or tried to. “Fuck, Lane. And the way you just got possessive, I—” He swallowed. I watched his corded throat work. “How the fuck am I supposed to make it through this plane ride?”
I stared at him, stunned in a way. So he was right where I was, then. We were here, together.
“I shouldn’t even be saying these things to you,” he went on. “Not before we have a chance to talk about what happened. Not when I’m still not sure how you feel or what you want. I’m not trying to shy away from that conversation or what happened, but I wanted to give you time to process everything.”
“Do you need time?” I asked, wondering if that was what he was really trying to tell me. Because I didn’t feel like I needed time. My body didn’t feel like it wanted anything but him. More of him.
I held my breath while waiting for his response.
“No, Delaney,” he said slowly after a beat of silence. “I don’t need time. But it’s d—” He cut himself off, pressing his lips together. “I don’t need time,” he repeated instead, eyes wandering my face.
My eyes, on the other hand, lowered to his lips. They were close, with so many memories of last night attached to them.
I released a shaky breath, relieved by his response. And ignited by it.
“Then maybe you can do something for me,” I said.
“Anything,” Blake murmured, and my gaze flicked back to his eager one.
I had to swallow past the nerves threatening to choke me before answering. “Tell me the occasion calls for it.”
His brows shot up. “And what, exactly, is the occasion?”
“To say thank you,” I answered because it was all I could think of. “For this trip. For last night.”
Blake’s gaze heated at the mention of last night, lingering on my lips before sweeping around the rest of my face. I watched with bated breath as his lips twisted in barely concealed amusement. “You don’t have to kiss me to say thank you, Delaney. You can just say it.”
Damn him.
“I know, but?—”
“Just tell me what you really want,” he cut in. “No more games.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “That’s not fair, considering how in the club you?—”
“I know. I’ll start, then. Would that be fair?”
I gave a slow nod, feeling more jittery than my first day of med school.
Probably because I met Blake within the first five minutes, and then everything was okay.
“Yes,” I breathed.
“I want to kiss you,” Blake said simply, making my head spin. He tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and then left his hand there, cupping my cheek. “Badly. I don’t know what’s going on in your head, but I’ve been thinking about it all morning, wondering if I’d get a chance to do it again. I want to kiss you, Delaney. And the next time I get a chance, I’m going to.”
I stared at him in awe before finding the courage to whisper, “I think you have a chance right now.” And when Blake still hesitated, I added, “It’s all I’ve been thinking about, too.”
“Delaney.” His gaze smoldered as he took in my words. “While I’m so fucking happy to hear that, you clearly don’t understand what the feel of your lips do to me if you think I can kiss you right now and still survive this plane ride back to Boston.”
“I could help you survive,” I offered, only half-aware of our surroundings at this point, my brain hazing over with an undeniable level of lust. I tried moving my fingers again, wanting to feel him, to help him, but Blake’s grip tightened on my wrist as he swore under his breath.
“Lane. Baby.” A rumble came from deep in his chest as he closed his eyes. “You don’t understand,” he croaked.
He was right about that. I didn’t understand a lot of this. But I did understand the way he made me feel and that I wanted more of it.
“I think I understand a little bit.” I smiled, enjoying his tortured look, enjoying the knowledge of what I could do to him.
“I don’t think you do.” He shook his head, leaning back, distancing himself from me. “Because just the thought of your lips, your mouth, your touch fucks me up so bad that I need to pretend you don’t exist for a few minutes.”
I thought at first that maybe he was exaggerating, but the way he tipped his head back and refused to look at me told a different story.
“Just picture me wearing that ridiculous helmet from the Vespa ride,” I offered with a light laugh.
To my surprise, that made Blake squeeze his eyes shut and grunt, “I don’t think that’s going to help.”
“Really?”
“Your hair was in braids that day. In a way that really made me want to tug on them and see how you’d respond.”
“Oh,” I said breathily, feeling that tug he’d described between my legs. “I…I guess I know how I’m doing my hair from now on.”
Blake groaned. “Not helping, Lane.”
I bit down on my lip, thinking for a second before offering, “What about the time in med school when?—”
“Also not going to help.”
“Wow, you didn’t even let me finish.”
“Delaney.” His free hand gripped his armrest, fingers curling over the ends. “I can’t pretend you don’t exist if you keep talking.”
“Right.” My lips curved. “Sorry.”
“I can hear you smiling.”
A full-out grin broke onto my face. “It’s just not every day I get to see you, you know, struggle.”
“I usually hide it better.”
“What do you mean?”
“Never mind.” He squeezed his eyes closed tighter. “Just shut up.”
“You’re the one who started talking to me again.”
He blew a breath out between his lips. “This is why we can’t sit together.”
“Never could.”
“Never for reasons like this , though.”
“You never thought about me touching you while sitting in lecture?”
“Delaney…”
The way he said my name sounded like a warning, and I wasn’t entirely sure why. Out of all the things I had said and done in the last few minutes, I wasn’t sure why bringing up med school lectures was the one thing that had pushed it too far.
“What?”
He sighed, his eyes blinking open again. They took a second to find me, and when they did, I realized there was nothing teasing in them. His lips were set in a firm line. “First of all, I’ve already told you how seriously I take our friendship and how much I respect you as a person.”
I cocked my head to the side, my lips tilting. “Is that a no, then?” I asked, trying to bring back the Blake who didn’t respect me quite so much.
“Second of all,” he continued, only acknowledging my question with the little twinkle that appeared in his eyes. He leaned forward, his lips flirting with my ear. “It’s pretty bold of you to be sitting over there laughing about what you do to me when you were begging me to touch you in front of everyone in that club last night.”
There he was. And he punctuated that statement by nipping at my earlobe, causing me to let out a tiny whimper as heat enveloped me.
The gravel in his voice, the reminder of the club, of what happened when we got home from it, the feel of his lips grazing my skin, giving me goose bumps.
Fuck.
“Ah, goddamn, Lane,” he moaned into my neck.
“What?”
I didn’t even do anything that time.
“You made the noise,” he breathed. “That little whimpering you do that drives me absolutely wild.”
“It’s your own fault,” I argued weakly. “You brought up last night. Again.”
“That was a bad idea.” Blake released his grip on my wrist and slipped his hand beneath the blanket, too. I felt the moment his fingers found my thigh, tickling over the top of it. “So is this, but I…”
“But you what?”
I had to hold in a sigh when his touch brushed between my legs.
“Need to hear you make that sound again,” he murmured, sounding dazed and barely audible above the hum of the plane. “God, the way I wanted to reach beneath your dress and touch you in that club.”
My eyelids fluttered shut as his fingers pressed harder. “Blake…”
“Fuck,” he hissed. “This is bad. This is so bad.”
“So bad,” I echoed, tilting my hips because it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t feel enough of him. There were too many layers of clothes for me to feel him the way I wanted to. Needed to.
Blake’s breathing hitched as I began to move my own fingers again, drawing a line up his rock-hard cock. “How much longer is this flight?”
“Hours,” I groaned. “So many hours.”
“I can’t do this.”
He abruptly yanked his hand away, and I thought he was going to put a stop to whatever we’d started until he leaned back in, issuing a gruff demand in my ear.
“Bathroom. Follow me in two minutes.”
It was the longest two minutes of my life.
A different version of me might spend those two minutes trying to decide if this was really something I should be doing, but no. I didn’t have any doubt when I got up and followed Blake through the first-class cabin to the bathroom, and the only anxiety I felt was in the form of pure anticipation.
As soon as I slipped into the bathroom, Blake grabbed my hand, pulling me to the side, into him. With his other hand, he simultaneously shut and locked the door. And then his lips were on mine, and I was reeling, lost to the desperate way he was kissing me. A hot rush of desire flooded my body—an instantaneous reaction to the feeling of his mouth ruthlessly taking mine.
“This is what I wanted,” he groaned before slanting his mouth over mine and deepening the kiss further. His tongue sought mine, not even letting me respond as he stroked into my mouth, reigniting a familiar fire within me. “Your lips on mine again. You wanted it, too, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” I gasped, drowning in the reality of what he’d just said.
“No more games, Delaney,” he said brusquely—almost like a demand.
“No more games,” I agreed, sounding breathless.
“There doesn’t need to be an occasion to call for this. It’s yours whenever you want. Got it?”
I nodded, eager and ready for these new rules. “Got it.”
“ God , Lane,” he moaned in response, canting his hips so I felt how aroused he was. His hard length rubbed between my legs, causing a whimper to fly out of me—just like the one he’d wanted to hear. “Yes,” he hissed. “Fuck yes. Just like that. Just want to hear you make more of those sounds. Want to touch you. Feel you. Slip my fingers into your underwear like I was itching to last night. Can I? Please say yes.”
“Yes,” I consented, and within seconds, Blake had flipped me around, pressing my back against the tiny counter in the bathroom and sliding his hand into the waistband of my sweatpants. And then when he found the seam of my underwear, he slipped his fingers beneath that, too. His fingertip flirted with my clit and then dove deeper between my legs, making me gasp against his lips and grind against his hand, seeking more.
“That’s it, baby,” he praised while sinking his fingers inside me and pressing the heel of his palm against my clit. My mouth opened and closed in shock of the sensation—the immediate high. “Ride my hand and take what you want. Just let me hear you.”
“We need to be quiet,” I argued, all while I continued to rock against him like he wanted, chasing the buildup of pleasure his touch caused.
“I don’t fucking care.” Blake’s voice was hoarse, like he was hanging on by a thread. “I only care about you, Lane. Have only ever cared about you.”
He angled his hand in a way that created more pressure directly against my clit and pushed his fingers deeper inside me, and a silent scream slipped through my lips.
“ Delaney .” He pushed my name out through his gritted teeth, a reprimand for keeping my sounds to myself.
“Blake,” I moaned in response, giving him what he wanted. “Oh my God .”
“Fuck, you have no idea what it does to me to hear you say my name like that.” He licked the seam of my lips before diving into my mouth, tangling his tongue with mine for a breathless second. And then he was back to murmuring against my lips with a gritty, sinful voice. “You feel so fucking good, Lane. So wet for me. God, I want to strip you down and worship your sweet body until you’re chanting my name, begging me to let you come. But we don’t have that kind of time right now.”
“I’m already so close,” I assured him, meeting his hand with little thrusts of my hips, uncontrollably seeking more.
“I know you are.” I could feel his smile against my mouth. “Your tight little pussy is clenching around my fingers. And I love it. Love this pussy. Love when it comes for me.”
He punctuated that by curling his fingers deeper, rubbing them against a spot that made me see stars, succumbing to a feverish explosion. I clutched onto his broad shoulders and chased after that high, grinding harder against his hand.
“Yes,” he encouraged, a low growl that shot a thrill through me. “Come all over my hand. Soak my fucking fingers, baby. I want to taste you on them for the rest of the goddamn day. Until the next time they get to be inside you like this.”
The combination of his crude, gruff words—ones I never imagined Blake, my Blake saying—and his insistent, demanding touch pushed me over the edge, and I climaxed within seconds. It was fast and intense, and I crumbled into Blake, my legs shaking and my cries soft against his chest, repeating his name over and over again.
“Good girl.” Blake kissed the top of my head as the aftershocks rippled through me. “You’re such a good girl for me, Lane.”
He pulled his hand from my pants, and I looked up to see him licking his fingers, sucking them into his mouth with an expression of pure enjoyment. Like I was a delicacy he’d been waiting years to taste. His cock twitched against my stomach, and I squirmed in response. Feeling and seeing how much he wanted me quickly reignited something that I had no idea could burn so bright. So hot.
So incredibly hot.
“You,” I panted, struggling to say any more words than that.
Blake shook his head as he looked down at me. “Delaney, if you wrap that pretty little hand around my cock, I’m going to make an absolute mess of you.”
I wanted that. Badly. But I also had enough reason to know that it wasn’t the best way to go about this.
Because we were going to go about this. I wasn’t going to let Blake suffer through the rest of this flight without getting his own relief.
“I told you I was going to help you survive, and I’m going to,” I insisted. “Come inside me, Blake.”
He lifted his brows, but I saw the flash in his eyes. Pure electricity, like a bolt of lightning. But still, he choked out, “Delaney, no.”
“Yes.” I nodded, pulling my sweatpants down over my hips and kicking them off. Then, I unzipped Blake’s pants and pushed them down. Blake watched me, seemingly dumbfounded, but as soon as I wrapped my fingers around his cock, he grabbed my wrist to stop me.
“I am not fucking you in an airplane bathroom, Delaney,” he said, his voice harsh but unraveling at the same time.
“But—”
“No,” he asserted through gritted teeth, but at the same time, he moved us closer together. Like he couldn’t help it. Like we were magnets, and words did nothing to resist the pull that anchored us together. The tip of his cock brushed between my legs, and I widened my stance, wanting more. “I’m not rushing this with you, Lane. Not after so—” He broke off with a groan. Most likely because I pressed my hips closer to his, letting him slide further between my thighs, hitting the apex of them. I knew I was soaking his cock, knew he could feel how wet I was for him. How hot I ran for him. How badly I wanted him to just say, “ Fuck it .”
“Oh my—oh, shit —” Blake choked off his words, tipping his head back and squeezing his eyes shut. I watched the muscles in his throat work, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed down whatever else he was going to say. Grabbing both of his shoulders to steady myself, I swallowed a groan.
But staying quiet was useless because a second later, Blake glanced back down at me with a piercing look, gripped my ass with both hands, and lifted me up into his arms, making me gasp—probably too loud. Then he lowered me down slowly, allowing his cock, which was erect against his abdomen, to glide through my pussy. His tip grazed my clit as he moved both his hips and me up and down, exploring feeling me like this. “You’re so—” he choked, but that seemed to be all he could say.
“Blake, please,” I whimpered, tightening my grip on his shoulders. I wanted him so badly. He was so hard between my legs, but it wasn’t enough.
“If you still want this when we get home, I’ll give it to you,” he rasped. “I promise I will. I’ll give you so much more, too. Everything. But right now, I’m not going to last.” His breathing sounded stilted in my ear, proof of his words. “This is all it’s going to take for me. Just feeling you like this. Hearing you. Just you , Lane.”
“That’s okay,” I whispered in his ear, struggling to speak when I had his dick between my legs. But I understood what he was saying, and I could wait for him. I could wait until we got home. “That’s perfect. Just come for me, Blake.”
“Is that what you want? You want my cum all over that pretty pussy of yours, baby?”
I nodded.
“Need to hear you say it.”
“Come all over me, Blake,” I panted.
“Oh , hell ,” he groaned, and true to his words, that was all it took. He moved me up and down once more, and then I felt his climax tear through him, felt his release coat my skin. All I could do was watch him—the way his eyes fluttered shut and his throat rippled and his jaw clenched, trying to keep in the roar of pleasure as it coursed through. We were making a mess anyway, but I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything except the expression on Blake’s face and how it felt like he was seeing right through me when he opened his eyes again.
Neither of us spoke at first. I wasn’t sure either of us knew what to say. Wordlessly, Blake reached between us and swiped his fingers through my pussy, causing my breath to hitch. His gaze grew steely.
“You wanted it inside you,” he said, sounding strangled. His fingers swirled around between my legs, and I realized he was catching his dripping release. “You wanted me to come inside you.”
I whimpered, nodding, and Blake thrust his cum-soaked fingers back into my pussy without another warning. Then he leaned closer, breathing in my ear. “There you go, baby.”
“ Blake ,” I breathed, unable to believe the sparks he just ignited inside me by doing that. What the hell was he doing to me? What the hell was happening? Instinct told me to laugh it off, so I tried. “When I said that thing about coming home with a baby on the way, I swear I wasn’t serious. You know that, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” he said solemnly, not laughing even a little bit. He lowered his voice. “But I was when I said it wouldn’t scare me.”
My throat constricted. My chest tightened. My pulse soared.
But he didn’t mean it like that .
“No, you’ve always wanted kids,” I said as Blake let me slide back down to the floor. Because it was true. He had, hadn’t he?
Blake only responded with a soft hum, focusing instead on fixing our clothes so we could escape the bathroom before we were detected.
I never would have guessed we’d be ending this trip by nearly fucking in the plane bathroom, but I had absolutely no regrets.
Especially because this new era of our relationship meant that when we both had righted our clothes and snuck back to our seats, Blake immediately pulled me into his arms. And while I couldn’t decide if that meant cuddling was on the table or if this was just an extension of fooling around, an aftercare moment, I was enjoying myself too much to think about it for more than a few minutes.
It was the most comfortable I’d ever been on a flight and certainly the happiest. It might have been the happiest I’d been…ever.
I turned on a movie, and Blake’s lips grazed my neck before he sighed in my ear, sounding almost regretful and setting alarm bells ringing in my head.
“Everything okay?” I asked, glancing back at him.
“Everything is more than okay. Everything is amazing.” Despite his words, his voice sounded strained. “But also, no.”
“No?”
He sighed again, his eyes rolling up for a moment. The plane could have fallen from the sky, and I probably wouldn’t have noticed, too busy waiting for whatever Blake was about to say. And when he spoke, it was with such a hushed reverence it felt like the world stopped spinning for a second, and we were just floating in the air.
“I’m just constantly tortured by you, Delaney.”
I laughed, but it was forced. Because there was simply nothing funny about this moment. “Tortured?”
He lowered his voice, leaning closer. As close as he could get. I reveled in his nearness in a way I never suspected I would. I knew it wasn’t scientifically possible for a heart to vibrate, but that was what it felt like when Blake’s skin kissed mine.
“Tortured, baby.” He sucked my neck like he wanted to mark me there. “You’re sitting there like nothing happened, and meanwhile, all I can think about is how my cum is between your pretty thighs. I still don’t know how the hell I’m going to make it to Boston in these conditions.”
I sucked in, reeling from his words and crossing one leg over the other, trying to tame the pulse between my legs before it grew unbearable again. And once I thought I could speak coherently, I muttered, “I am not sitting here like nothing happened, Blake.”
“You could have fooled me.”
I shook my head, looking at him. “I was actually just thinking about how happy I am.”
Blake’s gaze bored into me, studying my face. His breathing seemed stilted, and his lips parted before he licked them slowly. “Really?”
I nodded. “Really. I’m very…happy about what just happened. And I’m going to be thinking about it the entire way home. Likely longer than that.”
“Mm,” Blake murmured. “I think maybe this is a sign that we should travel more often. I can book the next flight as soon as we get home.”
“I’d like that,” I whispered. “We should see how many plane rides we can squeeze in over the next year.”
I’d never been much of a traveler before, but I’d learned I really liked traveling with Blake.
“Yeah.” Blake’s voice suddenly sounded duller. “I bet we can fit in a lot…in a year.”
In a year.
Was that when this—whatever this was—ended?
I wasn’t sure.
But I was starting to feel sure I didn’t want it to.
Maybe that thought was rushing it.
Or maybe that thought was way past due.