Chapter Sixteen
MILES
PAST
My breath escapes my lungs as I two-step my way to the bar. “I’ll have a Coke, please,” I say in between breaths. I need something to cool me down.
Marina hauled my ass to a country night at a pub across town tonight.
Her and Rosalie managed to both get out of their shifts tonight so they could come practice their hoedown throwdown— whatever that is.
But I am dead on my feet. I apparently did not wear the right shoes for dancing, though I’m not sure what those would be.
I’ve spent the whole night staring down at the sneakers I’m in, trying not to trip over my own feet as Marina spun around in front of me.
She’s a natural, she’s got rhythm that I can’t imitate no matter how hard I try.
And she caught the attention of every person in this place, male or female, everyone was watching her.
Subsequently that meant they were also watching me stumble around like a dickhead behind her, but the shine in her eyes when she smiled at me was worth it.
The bartender places a glass of dark fizzing liquid in front of me. “ Grazie . ”
He nods back. “ Prego .”
Tennessee Whiskey starts playing from the speakers as I take a big gulp of my drink. The fizz burns in my nose, but I sigh in relief as the cool liquid trails down my throat. It’s almost like I can feel it making its way all the way down to my stomach.
I spin around on my chair, my gaze searching the room for those signature curls. I find her almost immediately. Her smile beaming as she stands at the pool table, her hands resting on the edge as she talks to two guys who are obviously playing a round.
My eyes flick to where Rosalie and her boyfriend Stefan are wrapped around each other on the dance floor, swaying slowly to the music, and all it makes me want to do is have my hands on Marina.
I down the rest of my drink, keeping my eyes on her as she laughs, her head tipping back as she does, giving me a perfect view of the smooth column of her neck.
The two guys at the table smile, like they’re so proud of themselves for telling whatever stupid joke made Marina laugh like that. What they don’t know is that she will laugh like that for anyone.
It’s the quiet chuckle or nervous giggles that only I hear. Those are the precious ones, and I’m aching to hear one right now.
I catapult off my seat, beelining straight through the dance floor in the direction of the pool table. I don’t stop until I’m right behind her, until my arms mirror hers, my hands leaning on the edge of the table just beside hers, caging her in.
“Hi, hotshot,” she whispers, barely turning her head.
“What’s got you laughing like that, huh?” I say, my lips grazing her ear.
She merely shakes her head.
“Hmm?” I murmur, my voice low, and I see the goosebumps that almost immediately skate up her arms. I feel the delicate hairs stand on their ends and brush mine.
The two guys quietly lay their cues down and make themselves disappear. It’s the decent thing to do .
“Is this you being territorial?” she asks, pushing her hips back so her ass is rubbing against the crotch of my jeans. “If so, I like it on you.”
I take one of my hands off the table, giving her the opportunity to move, but she stays completely still as my finger toys with the waistband of her skirt.
It’s been a week since the day I finally got a taste of her, finally got to feel her, and I’ve barely been able to keep my hands to myself ever since.
And when I had to leave to go on an overnighter to Paris yesterday morning, Marina barely let me get out the door.
I had to go slightly above the speed limit to get to the airport on time. Just slightly .
I flatten my palm against her lower stomach, rubbing my pinky finger back and forth over the sensitive skin. “Do you, now?”
“Mm-hmm.”
I use my hands on her hips to spin her around and sit her on the edge of the pool table, settling between her legs. She grants me one of those quiet giggles, and I nearly fall to my knees in front of her.
Her beautiful eyes meet mine as she brings a soft hand to my cheek. “I like every side of you.”
It’s simple. A few words that make up an easy sentence. But it’s one that has me being dragged even further towards her, like an invisible chain that wrenches me further into her with every simple sentence that exits her mouth.
Her soft lips meet mine as the chorus of the song builds.
Everyone on the dance floor is singing terribly, but Marina’s kiss drowns out all of the noise.
It’s just me and her here now, our kiss nothing less than extraordinary.
Not as she smiles against my lips. No, this is something like ecstasy.
It’s something I don’t want to give up, something I don’t know if I can live without now that I’ve had it.
I use my hand to brush her curls over her shoulder, clearing the way for my lips to meet the warm skin of her neck.
I press a kiss just under her ear, in the sensitive spot I know she loves.
She proves it by arching into my kiss, a small noise escaping her, one only I can hear being this close to her.
I kiss her again and again, leaving a trail of kisses down her neck as she grinds her hips into me, her body asking for more.
I never want to be further away from her than this. I never want to be an inch away from her skin for an extended period of time. The days I spend flying, all I want to do is get back home to her.
Home . That’s what this place feels like.
It’s what she feels like. It’s almost foreign to me, that feeling of home.
I haven’t ever felt at home, not even in my own house as a child.
But she—Marina—she feels like what a home should feel like.
Warm, loving, supportive, and somewhere you want to run to when things get hard. I want to run to her.
The realization cracks something in me, something I have been happy to ignore for the last month. Something inevitable. I won’t be here forever. I’m going home soon. Not home . But I’m leaving here.
At some stage, Everglades is going to call me back to full-time duty, the only question is when. And when that time eventually rolls around, I don’t know how I’m ever going to be able to leave.