Page 12 of The World

“Of course. And I mean, your market share in several areas is insane. You don’t need to build anymore. You’re already huge. Can’t you just… enjoy it?”

I shook my head, licking sauce from my lips. “I understand the individual words you’re speaking, but not as they pertain to me.”

“Uh huh,” he drawled.

The wind kicked up again, sending a napkin skittering across the pavement. “Looks like we’re in for rain. Want to duck into one of the buildings?”

“Nah, I laugh in the face of rainstorms.” Ethan leaned closer and confided, “I love storms. The worse, the better.” He took his last bite of steak and chewed thoughtfully. “If I had the resources, I’d travel the world and never stop. I’d write a travel blog, then maybe a book. I want to explore all the places off the beaten track.” His voice had gone soft and dreamy, but he shook his head and gave me a lopsided smile as he crumpled his empty container. “But it’s a vicious cycle. Gotta stay home and write the boring stuff that pays the bills. Got a piece on Thanksgiving turkey alternatives waiting for me when I get home.” He rolled his eyes.

“Could you move somewhere cheaper?” I asked, as we made our way to the next booth. “Boston’s expensive, comparatively.”

“I’ve thought about it,” he said. “Once my student loans are paid, without the rent to tie me down, maybe…” He shook his head. “But I’ve told you about O’Leary, the town where I grew up?”

I nodded. He’d texted about it. It seemed small and picturesque and… well,small.

“It was a huge risk just moving away from there, taking on a billion student loans to attend the school I wanted. I was so sure I’d be able to get a job, be successful, but it’s been hard. I don’t know if I have it in me to take a risk like that again.” He grinned, but his eyes were sad. “Maybe I’m just getting old. May be time to rethink the dream. Make it smaller and more manageable. Macaroni and cheese, not steak. Not everything has to be fancy and exotic, like you said. My parents would be thrilled.”

I shook my head in instinctive denial and pulled him off to one side, into a tiny alcove by a Mexican restaurant. The sky got darker and people scurried into a nearby store. I took advantage of the relative privacy and grabbed both his hands, forcing him to look at me.

“Don’t do that. Don’t settle. You’re bright and intelligent andcuriousabout the world. I don’t think you get how rare that is. Most people stay where they’re planted their whole lives and never know what they’re missing, butyou would. So make it happen, Ethan. Don’t hold back.”

I don’t know if he leaned into me first or I leaned into him. Maybe it didn’t matter either way. The important part was that our lips met finally, after an entire lifetime apart, and it wasperfection.He tasted like fruity soda and herbs, like fresh air and liquid sun, likehome.

And with a giant crack of thunder, the heavens opened.

Warm rain poured down on us in sheets, soaking us both to the skin instantly, but I didn’t care and neither did Ethan. I wrapped one hand around his waist and the other around the back of his head. He threw both arms around my neck and pressed himself against me from chest to groin, right there in the one wide-open, utterly private corner of the busiest theme park I’d ever seen.

I leaned back for a second, just long enough for him to smile up at me, and in that moment, I knew I didn’t want to be without him again. Just one kiss, and I couldn’t fathom going back to a life that didn’t have his enthusiasm and joy.

He shook his head just slightly and blinked the rain from those gorgeous blue eyes. “Wow,” he said dazedly. “When you say don’t hold back, you really mean it, Tai.”

I threw my head back and laughed while he held me.

Four

~Ethan~

“Holy shit,it’s chilly in here,” I said, as we stepped into the air-conditioned hotel. I leaned more fully into Taika’s side, and the hand I’d wrapped around his waist dipped into his pocket, hoping for warmth.

Taika smiled the same gorgeous, lopsided, absolutely delightful grin he’d been giving me for the past hour, despite the monsoon rain and the squelch of our shoes, and wrapped his arm over my shoulder, tucking me against him. When we’d met weeks ago, after I’d gotten over my annoyance, I’d been determined to make him smile and now…Damn. It was pretty close to addictive.

I’d thought he was arrogant and didn’t appreciate the people and blessings he had, when the truth was, he’d worked his ass off for everything he had and was scrambling still to make sure the people he loved were taken care of. I couldn’t help but respect that. I couldn’t help but respecthim.

“I can think of ways we could get warm,” Taika said with a playful leer, turning to embrace me as we stepped onto the elevator that would take us up to our room.

“Blankets?” I suggested, snuggling my face into his chest. “Cocoa?”

He ducked his face into my neck and licked at the water droplets that clung to my skin. “Those, too,” he agreed, and a shiver that had nothing to do with air-conditioning chased up my spine.

But the second he let us into our room and the door closed behind us, he hesitated. “Is this… are you sure you…?”

There were a thousand reasons why this was a bad idea but I didn’t care about any of them. I’d lied a little, earlier today, when I said I didn’t know if I had it in me to take one more risk. The truth was, I was already taking one, just by being here with him, and I was going to soak up every moment we had together.

“I’m sure,” I said. “Kiss me, Tai.”

And then he did, placing his lips against mine with the same single-minded intensity he showed most things. His tongue swept into my mouth and I moaned, long and low. I was hot and cold, shaking and shivering.

My hands found the tail of his button-down shirt and pushed it up in the back so my fingers could coast over his skin, but when I touched him, he gasped.