Page 97 of Riptide

Finn stretches beside me, his voice still rough with sleep, mouth tugging up at one corner. “Don’t worry, Professor,” he says, sliding a hand across my stomach, fingers tracing idle patterns there. “I’ll keep you busy. Wouldn’t want your brain to go soft.”

A laugh rumbles in my chest. “Not much goes soft around you, baby.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“It’s fucking criminal, actually. You should come with a warning label.”

He pats my chest twice. “I do. You just ignored it.”

I shake my head, hand brushing back through his curls, already hopelessly out of place. “You’re such a fucking brat.”

“Come on.” He nudges my thigh with his knee. “You love me bratty.”

“I love you always.”

I say it easily, my heart swelling with each beat. Because it’s true, and because I want him to hear it as often as it takes for him to believe it every single day.

“I love you, too.” And I’ll never get over hearing him say it either.

We lie there for a while, the lazy winter air outside, never touching us in our cocoon. His skin is warm, his breath brushing the hollow of my throat. The blankets are kicked halfway down the bed, one of his legs tossed over mine, and it feels so fucking good. Being here, I’m so high on him that I feel a sense of confidence I’ve never felt with a partner. Granted, my only relationship was Ryan, but I spent all of it proving my worth somehow, and yet Finn hasn’t once asked me to do that, subconsciously or not.

“What will you do with Thursday evenings now?” he asks, bringing my thoughts back.

“I can do whatever I want, and that feels really damn good.”

He tilts his head, curious. “Like what?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “See things. Travel. Not spend my summers working summer school. Let myself want things without apologizing for it.”

He looks up at me, baby blues gleaming. “You should. You absolutely should.”

I glance at him. “You don’t think it’s selfish?”

He shakes his head. “I think it’s probably the first truly unselfish thing you’ve done for yourself in years.”

I let that sit for a second before asking the one question that I’m dying to know the answer to. “Would you come on vacation with me during the summer?”

His mouth curves into a grin so big and so blinding, it feels like I’m looking out at the sunrise.

“I mean, I’m a really busy guy, I’d have to check my schedule.” He’s joking, or at least I hope he is.

I blink at him, needing to check. “You’d better be joking.”

I’m still watching him when the smile sneaks back onto his face. It’s full of mischievous promise and so damn irresistible. I know that look. I’m in trouble.

So I roll. Fast.

I flip him onto his back with one clean twist, straddling him before he can wriggle away. His laugh bursts out before I even touch him, hands already trying to push me off like he knows exactly what’s coming.

“Foxx—don’t you dare—”

“Youhavea schedule?” I say, already dragging my fingers down his sides. “Really? You?”

He’s gasping, laughing now, trying and failing to squirm away. “I’m very busy! I have…plans—” he cries through grunting laughs.

“You are such a menace,” I mutter, grinning as I tickle his ribs with merciless precision. “Say you’re coming with me.”

“Okay! Okay!” he wheezes, clutching at my arms, half laughing. “I’m coming! I’m coming!”