Page 75 of Jesse

“You don’t miss it?” I ask.

“Almost never.” She turns back on her side again. Beams at me. “Until now, that is.” She huffs out a small laugh. “I’ve never been on a dive date before.”

“Me either.”

“That’s weird, right? I mean, I grew up diving. You’re the big boat guy. And yet, it took all these years and this weird day to finally make it happen.”

I turn now too. I just want to stare at her. Her pigtails are curling and drying in the late afternoon heat and sideways beams of sun. She got a little glow to her that only a day in the tropics can bring on so quickly. And she smells like a perfect summer sea.

“I’ve missed you,” I say. Not really appropriate and kinda stupid, but I say it anyway because it suddenly feels true. Like this was the elusive emotion bubbling up inside me since I first saw her at the auction last night and I just now figured it out.

She starts to shake her head and laugh, but I don’t let her brush off like that. Not this time. I lean over, positioning my body over the top of hers, and kiss her.

We sink a little deeper into the bouncy tarp in this moment. Like the weight of the world is on top of us, but disappears at the same time because we are still floating. Still suspended above reality, hovering in mid-air above the calm water below and the endless sky above. Rocking with the up-and-down motion of a moving sea.

“Now’s your chance,” she whispers into our kiss.

I know what she means. Now’s my chance to get that fuck I’ve been wanting. Now’s my chance to take control.

And I take it. I take all her control away and say, “Yeah. But I’m gonna pass.”

“What?” She laughs.

“I’m gonna pass,” I say again, still kissing her. “I don’t need that right now. I just need this.”

She must understand because she doesn’t object. And we lie like that for a good long time. We watch the sun set and the stars come out. And I feel like I made good on those promises I made her all those years ago.

I will take you places and show you things.

And I have. At least… I’ve started to.

The night air grows chilly after a while and both our stomachs start rumbling. We motor back to the marina and ease up to the dock well after midnight.

I have a moment of regret that we missed Saturday night dinner with her family, but only a moment. And then we’re back on the jet being served an elaborate meal of steak and lobster by Miles, who still looks as fresh as he did this morning.

My shirt is even waiting for me. Clean and pressed, just like he promised.

Emma drinks champagne and laughs as she tells me about how her mother will be monopolizing two of my weekends a month from now ’til eternity. And I listen, and smile, and picture it in my head as I down some fizzy orange drink.

I picture a whole life spent with Emma and the diving, fishing, boating Dumas clan down in Key West and everything in my world is right again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - EMMA

“Do you want to come up?” I ask, just as he pulls the Huracán into the valet of my building. He didn’t ask me to drive the Lamborghini, just took the key from the parking attendant at the airport and opened the passenger door for me.

Who gets to drive my shiny new sports car wasn’t a battle worth having. Besides, I have this new urge to be under his control.

I’ve thought about this question for hours now. We’re both exhausted and it’s nearly dawn. But I have an unreasonable urge to keep him here with me.

It was a dream date. And while I kinda planned it that way, the entire thing was so perfect and beautiful, and unexpectedly real there’s no way it could’ve been planned.

Except… we didn’t have sex. And I really wanted to have sex. I’m hoping he’s feeling the same way. I’m hoping he reads between the lines and says yes to my offer.

“No,” he says.

I shoot him an open-mouthed look of shock.

“I want you to sleep for as long as you like. Then text me. Our weekend date isn’t over yet, ya know. I have one more day with you, Ms. Dumas.”