Page 40 of The Four Engagement Rings of Sybil Rain

I WAKE TO THE SOUND OF RAIN. Q UIETER NOW, A GENTLE TAP.

I close my eyes again, unwilling to shake the heady warmth of this moment. Jamie is still here in the bed beside me, breathing softly into the back of my neck, and I’m afraid that if I wake him, this comfort and closeness I’m feeling will vanish with the night.

“Mmm,” he moans into my neck, beginning to stir. And then, as if realizing for the first time the intimacy of the moment, he pulls away a little, removing his arm. “Morning,” he whispers.

“Morning,” I say, rolling over to face him. “Thank you.”

“For what?” he asks.

“For all of this,” I say. “For taking care of me. For being here. Even after everything I told you.”

“Sybil,” he whispers, his eyes scanning my face.

“Yeah?”

“You need to stop feeling guilty, okay? I know I shouted at you for lying to me, for keeping things from me, but the truth is, you were right too. I was keeping things from you as well.”

“You were?”

“Of course. I mean, look,” he says, taking a breath, as if readying himself for something. “I think it’s obvious.”

“Obvious? What is?”

“That I’m still in love with you, Sybil.” His voice is low and raw, his face flushed with emotion. “That I never got over you. I don’t think I ever will.”

“Jamie, I—”

“Wait, let me finish. You don’t have to say anything,” he says quietly.

“But I would be a fool not to tell you now. Not to just leave it all on the table. I have no expectations. I just need you to know that I am fully and completely in love with you. And if you want me to leave now and give you your space, I totally get that. I just want us both, finally, to be as honest as we can. And that is the honest truth.”

“Jamie,” I say, my chest racing with a strange mix of euphoria and fear and hope. “You idiot. I love you, too. Obviously.”

His face breaks into an uncontrollable grin. “Really? And you’re not just saying that because I saved you on a dumb helicopter?”

I laugh. “The helicopter has very little to do with it. Though it was a nice, dramatic touch, I will admit.”

He laughs quietly, and then we’re both silent, staring into each other’s eyes.

And then, slowly, he closes the small distance between us.

He whispers my name one last time. And then his lips find mine.

J AMIE KISSES WITH HIS whole body. As his tongue softly pushes apart my lips, the energy of his body changes. I feel him tensing against me, his breath hitching in his chest.

He pulls back slightly. “God, I’ve missed you.”

“I know,” I whisper, reaching up to touch the collar on his shirt. He slept in it last night, and most of the dampness has dried off, but it can’t have been very comfortable. Maybe I should help him out of it…

To say that our movements are hasty, like desperate teenagers, is an understatement. It’s like I’ve never met a button before, the way I tear at his shirt, even as his lips trail my neck and behind my ear. There’s a gentle tug on the knot in the bathrobe I slept in, and then, it comes undone.

He pushes the robe apart as I pull him even closer, feeling alive and focused in a way I haven’t felt in a long time.

His hands run through my hair, drawing another gasp from me as he moves his mouth along my jaw, licking and kissing my neck, my collarbones, my shoulders, his mouth finding my breast and sucking.

A tiny bite makes me catch my breath and writhe, but he doesn’t slow down, trailing his hands along the sides of my stomach, toward my hips as his head slips beneath the sheets.

He kisses my belly button, then moves lower, until I find I can hardly breathe.

His mouth comes to the place between my thighs, and my hands clench the sheets as he spends what feels like forever relearning which spots make me gasp and which spots make my muscles quiver.

Outside, rain is still tapping gently at the windows. I hear the wind, and the shuddering of his breath against my skin… And then—

He pulls himself back. I feel cool air race across my bare skin, making me shiver. He’s on his knees, staring up at me, his hand at his belt, as if deciding whether to go through with this.

“Sybil…” he whispers, looking at me as if seeking an answer.

I search his eyes. “You don’t have to hold back,” I tell him. I feel like I’m going to completely come apart.

He turns to me, ready. Leans over me, and whispers, “You’re everything to me.” I gasp as he presses inside of me. He takes my arms and places them up above my head, and I surrender to him, to this.

To us.

W E SPEND A COUPLE more hours tangled up together.

Kissing, laughing, clearly both of us in a little bit of shock that this is happening.

I rest with my head on his chest, and we talk about all of it a million times.

Then we let our conversations wander to silly, irrelevant things—funny memories from the past, our favorite foods on the hotel menu.

And it’s surreal, like we are on the honeymoon we never had.

By now, streaks of midday light are dancing through the curtains when I feel Jamie’s lips on my neck. His hands roam down the length of my side, sending tingles all along my skin.

And then we’re kissing again, and unstoppable.

The second time is slower. He pulls me to him, my back to his chest, pressing hot lips to my shoulder and across the back of my neck.

His hands sliding down the length of my torso to circle my waist. We rock together, as his hands reach around my hips, pulling me gently into him, and I feel fully in the moment as we connect, moving as one, until all of a sudden I’m gasping and laughing a little at the same time, my whole body trembling.

Then we lay together for a little longer, before Jamie clears his throat. “My flight is in a few hours,” he whispers. “I have to pack up and head out to the airport soon.”

“Cutting it close then.” My smile is watery. This morning was so special I let myself forget that Jamie is supposed to be leaving this afternoon.

But before I can let myself spiral too far, Jamie says, “Come with me,” his lips ghosting against my back.

I roll over to face him, curling my lips into a bigger grin. “I believe I already did. Twice.”

“Sybil.” His cheeks turn pink, and I love that I can make him blush with a dirty joke, even after everything we just did.

“I can’t come with you,” I say, letting regret creep into my voice. “I have the—”

“Oh!” He cuts me off with his little gasp of realization. “Your eclipse event. That’s tonight, right?”

I nod, a little shocked myself to find that the day is already here.

“You could…” I pause to swallow down any insecurities, trying to just trust myself, trust Jamie and this fragile moment between us. “You could stay?”

Jamie’s eyes turn down in the corners as he looks at me.

I can’t read all the emotions reflecting off his beautiful face, but I think he’s maybe considering it.

God knows Jamie’s financially secure enough to eat whatever change fee the airline would impose on him for pushing his travel back a couple of days.

Something ripples like a cloud across his forehead, wrinkled for a moment in thought, and then it clears.

He reaches out to take my left hand in his, pulling it to his face and pressing a kiss against the back of my fingers.

“I wish I could, Sybs,” he says, after placing my hand on his chest. “But I really do have to get home. I’m supposed to give my dad and the rest of the board a full report on Halia Falls this evening.”

“Oh!” I trail my hand over to his bicep and give it a squeeze, excitement bubbling up inside me.

“That’s right! Kauffman Estates I’ll stay up.” The look on his face is so open and affectionate that I lean up to kiss him again.

The kiss grows, Jamie’s hand coming up to grip the back of my neck, and I can feel myself starting to be pressed back into the doorframe before Jamie wrenches himself away with a groan. “Ugh. I really do have to go.”

This is really it. Jamie’s heading back to the real world, and I’m not far behind.

What will happen when we leave paradise and get back home?

“I fly back tomorrow afternoon, so maybe you could come over tomorrow night?” I hate the uncertainty that’s crept into my voice. It’s like this perfect bubble Jamie and I have been floating in since last night is now drifting toward a field of pushpins. At any second, we could pop.

“Count on it,” Jamie says, squeezing my hand.

“Well, um… Safe travels.” Safe travels? Am I signing off a business email?

Jamie presses a kiss to my forehead. I watch him make his way down the hall.

I blink, trying to hold back the tears. When he gets to the elevator, he turns back and offers me a half-hearted wave.

I wave back, and once he disappears, let myself sink to the floor.