Page 74 of Keep Paris

He growls, “How do I get revenge on a dead man?”

“Be with me.”

“Christ, I need to get to our hotel.”

He mashes his face to mine. Our needy lips and tongues trying to outrun our lost time and prove to my dead father we were meant to be together. Fate saw it, even if he didn’t. I believe more in fate than I ever did in my dad.

A car pulls up and we get in it before he kisses me again.

I look at him and say, “I didn’t talk to my father for the last three years of his life. Does that help?”

“Regrets?” His anger is still simmering, but it’s also an honest question. He’s checking in with me.

“No regrets. Only issues to work through.”

He winks at me. “I’ve got a guy if you need him.”

I tried therapy, but I got too angry at everything in the world and didn’t like being angry all the time.

“Perhaps anger management might be a better route for me. But there’s something more I need to tell you.” We both laugh but it’s forced. I turn my body all the way to his, and he sits up a little straighter.

I stumble over my words. “Uh. You’re...”

He squeezes my knee. “Find your words, then tell me, Lizzie. I’m not going anywhere.”

I exhale and almost cry again. I’m a sappy, saucy puddle of confusion right now. I look out the front window for a moment and find it. The thing he gave me so long ago.

“You’re the reason why. You telling me to be brave and be bold and go after things I want and love. You’re the reason I write advertising copy in Chicago.”

“And you’re the reason I found a way to be into the ‘arts.’ You told me talent can be used in many ways and that it’s ok to be good at two things. How did we get here?”

I take his hand before he can make a fist and flick his thumbs in and out again.

“Thank God for whatever mystic force brought us together.”

“Eva and Rinaldi?”

I grin, then touch his face. “I don’t know how much longer I could have gone on as half a person. Thank you for reminding me I’m Lizzie, too.”

He pulls me close and holds me, as if I could fall out of this cab and slide back through time. “I don’t know what this all means, but I know I’m not a whole person without you, either.”

He kisses my forehead and I feel something wet hit my arm. I look up at him.

“You can’t leave me again,” he says. “I won’t know what to do. Are you planning to leave me?”

I shake my head.

“Well, I do have lunch plans tomorrow with Sophie, so I’ll be gone a couple of hours, but for the larger part, no. What about work?”

“Not now. Later.”

“And shouldn’t you be heading to your brother’s game?”

He kisses me slowly. His lips feathering over mine. He hovers, making me want it even more. I break the spell by nipping at his bottom lip. And then the kiss becomes feral. His tongue slides against mine and I shiver everywhere, as if a sudden chill came over my body, but it’s him. It’s the excitement of him kissing the hell out of me and the words we shared. Did he mean it? Does he want to keep me? Because I sure as hell want to keep him. His hands move up my legs and tuck under my sunny yellow skirt, and I gasp. His fingers gently feather over my skin and goosebumps erupt everywhere.

He takes my earlobe between his teeth and tugs. “Tonight, I need to be with you properly. Not hate fuck you but find my way into this divine pussy that I dream of all the damn time. I need to make my fantasies, realities. I want to hold you and taste you. Then I’m going to tell you how much I’ve missed you.”

“That sounds good. But if we never actually broke up, you should know, I’ve cheated on you a lot.”