Page 124 of The Men of Summer Collection

The flight attendant sets down a white ceramic dish of warm nuts for me, then one for Declan.

“Thank you,” I say as she moves to the couple behind us. I pop a pecan in my mouth, moaning in pleasure. “Here’s the thing about mixed nuts. They just taste better on planes.”

My travel companion bites into a cashew. “I call it the first-class effect,” Declan says.

“Right? These are the same mixed nuts we could get at Trader Joe’s,” I point out. “But they’re just better on planes.”

Declan laughs. “Because they’re warm.”

I can’t not go there. “You know that’s low-hanging fruit, right?”

“I do know that.”

“And I’m going to pluck it,” I continue.

He ruffles my hair. “Of course you are.”

I wiggle my brows. “I’ve got your warm nuts, right here,” I whisper, my eyes traveling to my crotch.

“You couldn’t resist that.”

I toss a peanut in the air, catch it on my tongue, yank it into my mouth. “Nope. Also, did you know I could do that?”

“Catch peanuts in your mouth like a dog?”

“Yep.”

“I did not know that,” he says, taking a macadamia from the dish. “So much still to learn about you and all your special skills.” He eats the macadamia, then drops his voice to a smoky whisper. “Your special skills with your tongue.”

“You do seem to enjoy all the things I do with my tongue,” I say.

Declan shivers noticeably. “I do. I’d like to enjoy it on a lounge chair under the sun.”

I stretch my legs out in front of me, lean my head back against the leather. “Someone is ordering up his Hawaii sex.”

“Someone definitely is,” he murmurs.

I sigh happily, then glance down at my pelvis, lean closer to my boyfriend, and cup his ear. “You’re turning me on right here on the plane, man. That is not fair.”

He brushes his stubbled cheek against me. “I’ll turn you on more when we get to our private villa tonight. When I take you out on the balcony overlooking the ocean. When I get my mouth all over you.”

I suppress a moan. “Are we there yet?”

Declan laughs, takes my hand, kisses my knuckles. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

He always does.

Six hours later, we’re naked and wrapped up in each other, our skin slick, our lips eager. My breath comes fast and hard. His moans are loud and passionate. Our hands explore. Our bodies come together.

We go deeper.

We touch everywhere.

The night stars flicker in the sky as Declan and I indulge in the first fantastic night of off-season sex on our balcony, overlooking the endless ocean.

I groan a fevered yes as I reach the edge, and he follows me there, panting yes, yes, yes.

It’s sex, but I sure as hell hope it’s a prelude to the other yes I want from him.

Tonight, though, it’s late, and I’m blissfully tired. We collapse together onto the king-size bed as a tropical breeze blows past the curtains.

Declan drifts off to sleep first, like he used to back in Arizona when we first hooked up. He flips to his chest, his arm stretching across mine. My body is exhausted, but my mind is racing, traveling back to that night we spent together and how it felt to connect with him. Remembering, too, our plans to meet in the off-season.

Our plans fell apart, but we put ourselves back together again.

Took us more than five years, but as I gaze at the man in bed with me, my heart gives a kick, then flutters some more. Funny how you don’t know it at the time—you simply can’t know it as it happens—but the pain and the hurt you go through can serve a purpose.

So can the hard times. The terrible heartbreak.

When you make it to the other side, you can finally look back and see that it was all worth it. I wouldn’t change a thing because... here I am.

And it’s not luck.

It’s not fate.

It’s work, and it’s time, and it’s patience. It’s late nights, and early mornings. It’s listening and learning and doing.

Like playing a game of baseball.

And, like playing a game of baseball, I’ll never quit.