Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Tate
“I thought their heads were bigger than that,” Penn says as I walk out to the car with our room keys. We made a quick stop at Mount Rushmore as the sun was going down.
Carol made me promise to keep a low profile for the rest of our adventure. I don’t disagree with her. The five of us do sort of cause a spectacle when we are together. But the closer we get to Montana, the more I want to draw out this trip. Part of me wants to try making things work with Lacey one more time, but a part of me that is growing bigger by the hour says to not do that. Do I even want a life with her anymore?
“It was cool to see. Plus, I got this awesome Black Hills gold necklace. I love Black Hills gold,” Sophia says dreamily as she plays with the flower pendant I bought her. I said it was a thank-you-for-your-car-services-on-this-road-trip gift, but really, I just wanted to buy it for her. She loved the pink and green gold and it suited her.
“Keys?” Rex asks, shaking me from my thoughts.
“Oh, right. Uh, so there was a bit of a problem. There are only two rooms left,” I state as I hold up the keys.
Everyone’s eyes widen.
“Dude, isn’t there another hotel around here?” Penn asks. “I don’t want to have a slumber party.”
I shake my head. “I called a few. Everywhere is booked. It’s summertime and people are traveling,” I explain.
“Anyhow, there’s a double with a pull-out sofa, and a king with a sofa,” I explain.
Rex gives me a look that I can’t quite decipher. Either he has a plan or he’s trying to get the upper hand. “Penn, Jordan, and I will take the double. You and Soph get the king,” he says as he grabs the key card marked double from me and heads inside.
“Seriously, dude!” Penn calls out after him.
“Grab your bag, pretty boy. The last one in gets the sofa bed,” Rex says as he walks inside.
“Fuck you, T-Rex,” Penn grumbles as he follows him inside.
“Have fun, you two,” Jordan adds with a wink as he too goes inside, leaving Sophia and me alone in the parking lot.
I watch her neck muscles constrict as she swallows. My hands involuntarily twitch at my side as if my body wants to touch her even though my mind says that’s off-limits.
“You can have the bed,” I offer as I pick up my bag from the ground and turn toward the hotel.
“No, really, I’m smaller…ish,” she says, and I look over at her. She’s flushed.
“Ish?” I ask.
“I mean…I’m not a twenty-year-old anymore,” she says quietly as I open the door and hold it for her.
She stops at the elevator, which opens immediately, and once inside, I turn to her.
“You are small. Period,” I state as I scan her body. She’s a good foot shorter than me. And while she has curves, she’s got to weigh a less than I do. I frown as she quickly looks down at her feet.
“Right,” she huffs as the elevator stops and the doors slide open. She steps into the hallway, and for reasons that I don’t want to explore at the moment, I reach over and grab her, slinging her over my shoulder. Her bag goes sailing and hits my ass, but I don’t care.
“Hold on tight,” I whisper in her ear as she squeals, and I walk us to our room.
“What are you doing?” she laughs. And her laughter makes me grin.
I slap her ass. “Carrying you to the room to prove a point,” I state as I reach out and scan the card over the door lock. It makes an electronic noise and I open the door.
“Put me down,” she insists.
I slowly let her slide down my body as the door shuts behind us. As she steps back, she looks up and we both stare at each other. Neither one of us moves or breathes for a long moment. I swear I don’t even blink. I have no idea what is happening, I step closer to her, and she swallows hard again.
I drop my bag to the ground and my hand reaches out to her face, grazing her cheekbone. Her eyelids flutter closed, and she sucks in a breath.
“I have an idea,” she says, her voice trembling slightly. “I should go write it down before I forget.”
Without any other explanation, she turns and tosses her bag on the bed, pulling out her laptop and beginning to type.
“What idea?” I ask.
“For your grand gesture,” she explains.
“Oh?” I answer because I don’t know what else to say. I was about to fucking kiss this woman and that gave her inspiration to write a scene where I get back together with my ex? Maybe I misread her cues. Maybe she didn’t feel what I did a moment ago.
“Just give me a few minutes. You can use the bathroom first if you like,” she says without looking up at me.
I contemplate pulling her into my arms and kissing her. I contemplate telling her that in only a few days I’ve started to fall for her. There’s something about Sophia. I’ve never met anyone like her. She’s different in the best way possible. I want that in my life. I want her in my life. That realization has my heart racing.
Deciding I need a moment to compose myself, I grab things from my bag and head into the bathroom. I shut the door and stare at myself in the mirror. Am I losing my touch? Also, why do I feel like Rex set this up? He jumped at having me stay with Sophia. Is it obvious I like her? Shit. What a fucking mess!
I quickly shower and then groan when I realize I left my toothbrush in my bag. With the towel still wrapped around my waist, I open the door and step into the room. I come crashing into Sophia who seems to be walking toward the bathroom without looking.
She freezes with her face and hands pressed to my chest. Neither of us moves. I feel that electric current between us again as she very slowly steps back.
“I—I’m s-so sorry,” she stammers as she glances up at me, her face flushed from embarrassment.
I reach for her chin again and force her to remain looking at me. “Don’t ever be sorry, Sophia. For anything.”
Her eyes mist for a moment and her face twists before she composes herself. But it’s long enough for me to grow concerned.
I step forward, keeping my hand on her chin. “What’s wrong, gorgeous?” I ask as I search her eyes and watch as her skin flushes again when I call her gorgeous. Damn, she really doesn’t know how beautiful she is, inside and out. I need to figure out a way to make her see that.
“N-nothing. I…I’m just sad our trip is almost over. I think I have a really good idea for you though,” she says as she looks back up at me.
“I’m sure you do. You’re the expert at grand gestures,” I state.
The pink hue of her skin darkens under my praise, and something about that gives me the primal urge to kiss her. Then it strikes me, an idea.
I pull back and try to look sheepish. “So…” I trail off and chance a glance at her. She’s watching me intently and I fight a smirk, this just might work. “What does this grand gesture involve?”
Please say a kiss, please say a kiss!
“Well, I did some research and asked the guys some questions, and from what you said, it sounds like having roses delivered to the set was a thing for you guys, yes?” she asks.
“Yep,” I reply, curious as to where this goes.
“OK, well, we can get a shit ton of roses delivered the morning you’re going. Then, we find you a helicopter. I read once you took her on a romantic helicopter ride to see the Napali Coast in Kauai,” she adds.
Damn, this woman is like a freaking private investigator. “Correct,” I state.
“Great. So, we find the closest airfield with a helicopter. From what I can tell, there’s one about an hour from where they are filming. You swoop in with a helicopter full of flowers and say a whole speech…I’m working on that part…and then hopefully, if all goes well, you kiss her and you live happily ever after,” Sophia finishes.
Thank fucking God! A kiss.
I pretend to frown and then she frowns. “You don’t like it?” she asks. “We can tweak things,” she adds hurriedly.
“It’s not that. I love the concept, but…” I trail off, trying to add some hesitation before I throw out my suggestion.
“But what?” she asks, her eyes widening.
“I…we…haven’t kissed in a long time,” I state, trying to will myself to blush a little.
“Really?” she asks.
“Well, we broke up officially like six months ago,” I explain. “I’m a little out of practice.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Didn’t you just film a movie where you kissed the heroine?”
Fuck.
“Well, that’s different. It’s not real kissing,” I try to mask.
“Oh? How’s that?” she asks as she places her hands on her hips. Fuck, she’s onto me.
“Lots of different camera angles make it look more than it is,” I answer.
We’re silent for a moment. “Could we practice?” I motion between us.
Her eyes widen. “You want to practice kissing with me ?” she asks.
“I mean, if you would be willing,” I say. She looks everywhere but at me. I see a flash of panic and I’m momentarily preparing myself for the disappointment I will feel when she says no. But then, it’s like a lightbulb goes off in her head and she nods slowly.
“Like…acting?” she finally says as if remembering my vocation for a moment.
“Yep. Acting. But like real acting. No fake camera angles. Sorry, if I had a leading lady to practice with, I’d do that, but no way am I practicing with Penn, Jordan, or Rex,” I say and I watch her lips twitch with amusement.
“I mean, Penn might be a good kisser,” she teases, and I glare at her. “Or not,” she adds as pink crawls up her neck.
We both stand there for a long moment as if neither one of us knows what to do.
“Uh, do you want to practice with my full script?” she asks as she glances back over at her laptop.
I clear my throat and nod. “Sure…I mean, that makes sense, right?”
“Yeah, absolutely. I haven’t acted since my high school drama club play, but I’ll do what I can,” she says and the way she looks at me as if she’s trying her best to be the leading lady I need her to be is more endearing than she can possibly know.
She turns and picks up her laptop, typing something and then handing it to me. “There, just read from there,” she says as she points at a paragraph on the screen.
I nod and study her words for a long moment. Damn, she’s good, really good. Clearing my voice again, I begin.
“Lacey”—but in my head I say, Sophia —“I know we made decisions based on what was best, but I’ve thought about those words, those conversations for the last six months, and we were wrong. We belong together. Kids, no kids, it doesn’t matter.” I set the laptop down and look into Sophia’s eyes. “I just want more, so much more. And I think as long as I’m with you, then that’s all the more that I need. You are my more . You are it for me. You always have been.”
I step closer and take her face in my hands. “You went off script,” she whispers.
“I like to improvise,” I reply as I lean down so our lips are nearly touching.
“Would Lacey say something now?” she murmurs, her eyelids closing.
“No, because after that speech, I’m not leaving time for my leading lady to say anything,” I reply as I press my lips to Sophia’s.
And holy shit! It’s better than I’ve imagined it for the last few days. Her lips are soft and warm against mine. I decide to go for gold. I run my tongue along her lower lip, and she gives a surprised little gasp. And I use it to my advantage as my tongue plunges into her mouth, running along hers. She sighs and I feel her body relax as I deepen our kiss. Our tongues slide along the other’s. I nip at her bottom lip and then plunge back inside. She tastes like the chocolates we had in the car, and I want more.
In her book, she talked about that electric moment between the main characters. I always thought that was some kind of fluff, an unreal expectation of a connection between two humans that can never really exist. But I stand corrected. It’s real as fuck and I’m experiencing it right now. There’s most definitely a connection between us. And I know she can feel it too; it’s undeniable.
Slowly, Sophia’s arms come up around my neck, pulling me more tightly against her. Her eyes open when she feels my erection pressed to her belly. She steps back, panting.
“Sorry…I…my acting skills…I got a little carried away,” she rambles as she looks at my ear instead of my eyes.
I’m still clutching her face and I press her chin a little to force eye contact. “It’s OK,” I say with a smile. “I couldn’t have asked for a better kissing partner.”
Her body relaxes a little, her shoulders releasing. “Oh, uh, good. I’m glad I could be helpful,” she says. She glances at the bed. “Maybe we should…I mean, I’m going to use the bathroom.”
She grabs her bag and hurries inside, shutting the door. I sit down on the bed, leaning back against the headboard, and pick up her laptop, scanning to the top of the scene she wrote. The roses, the helicopter…it’s all over the top. She’s not wrong. Lacey would love that shit. But the gnawing feeling I’ve had all week has now turned into a typhoon of feelings that I can no longer push aside. I don’t love Lacey anymore. Maybe, I never really did. Perhaps I just wanted a family so badly that I forced myself into believing I loved Lacey.
But one thing is perfectly clear. I’m falling for Sophia. I want Sophia.
I stay on the bed and eventually she comes back out from the bathroom. She’s in her cute little unicorn pajamas and I want nothing more than to peel them right back off her.
Her gaze darts to mine and she licks her lips. It’s not meant to be sexy, but I have to stifle a groan. Thank God this laptop is covering my dick because right now, I’d be embarrassingly at full staff.
“You want to go over the rest of this,” I say, motioning to her laptop.
“Oh, sure,” she says as she places her bag down and then glances at the open space on the bed. I pat it.
“Come sit down. I promise not to bite,” I assure her. She rolls her eyes.
“A little late for that,” she mutters, and I smirk. She crawls in beside me and we begin talking about the scene. I ask about her normal writing process, and she tells me. We play off each other as we work. Each idea grows bigger as we both embellish things. She’s a perfect collaborative partner.
I don’t know how long we talk but Sophia’s yawning and her head is now resting on the pillow next to me. I glance at her and see her eyelids droop.
“We should finish later,” I say softly as I close the lid.
“No, we’re so close to it being perfect,” she says with her eyes closed.
I lean over and press a gentle kiss on the top of her head.
“Tomorrow. Rest up, gorgeous,” I whisper, and when I pull back, I can tell she’s already asleep. So, I place the laptop on the nightstand, turn the light out, and lie down next to her. Her body instinctually snuggles closer to me, an arm and leg wrapping over my body. I slide my arm under her and pull her flush with my side. She feels so perfect here in my arms. She feels like home. For the first time in my life, I’m exactly where I should be.