Sunrise.Blue eyes and a kiss dusted under my ear.
“Morning, pretty girl.”
A chill zipped through me at the sleep-roughened words, at the familiar pet name, at the smell of his skin and the feeling of him surrounding me. A husky laugh melted into my neck.
“Made you shiver.”
Colton.
I lay on my back, and he was propped on an elbow on his side, tracing a gentle finger over my collarbones.
Those eyes: bright, deep, and more than anything, full of adoration. No one could make me feel cherished like Colton did.
Then he smiled. With teeth. Or perhaps, without teeth.
“Oh my god, your teeth!” I shrieked. “Where did they go?”
Colt let out a deep and hearty laugh. “Took ‘em out for the night. You sleep over, you see the party trick.”
It was so unexpected, so bizarre. “Geez, you think you know a guy, and then you see him with his teeth out.”
“Excuse me, I’m naked and the teeth is what makes youscream?” He pulled the sheets down to his hips and wiggled his eyebrows with an even bigger smile. “How about now?”
I patted his tight-as-a-drum stomach. “I mean, it helps.”
“Oh, so you hate my natural smile?” Colton made puppy dog eyes at me.
I slapped his chest. “Fuck off. I like your smile regardless of your tooth count. But it’s not natural to have a frozen piece of rubber knock out your teeth.”
“Potato, potato.”
I chuckled. “That’s not really what that phrase means.”
“No, but it made you laugh, so I got what I came for.”
I lolled my head his way to find him looking so pleased with himself. “Careful. I’ll make it my mission to lick the gap in your teeth.”
Colt cackled and slipped a hand under my ribs, drawing me closer. “That’s the spirit.”
I returned the cuddle, my stomach twisting at the thought that our time together could now be measured in minutes. We settled into each other, his head buried in my chest. He stilled, then let out a labored breath, the air steaming against my skin. “I needed this.”
I pressed a kiss to his forehead and he whimpered. His finger traced the bottom of my ribs.
“I never forgot about you.”
I bit my lip to keep it from trembling. I didn’t want to hurt him. It would be cruel of me to give him effusive love declarations this weekend, only to leave him at the end. But on this, he deserved my honesty. What if something crazy happened and one of us died and the other didn’t know how earth-shattering their presence was, no matter how brief? “I could never forget you, Colt.”
His eyes shot up to mine. “Then stay.” His voice took on afrantic edge. “Take a few days off and let’s just stay here. We don’t have to go to Minnesota.”
I clamped my teeth together. “I have to get back to the lab.”
He growled and flopped his head back onto his pillow. “Surely someone can cover for you.”
And this,thiswas exactly why I wasn’t dating him, or anyone else. No one could understand the importance of my work. “Colt, you can’t just do exactly what Guy did with Kitty and expect us to work like they did. We can’t have a magical few days where we realize how good we are together and then one of us gives up everything.”
“They didn’t give up everything,” he argued. “They compromised.”
I sat up, pulling the covers to hide my breasts. “I can’t compromise, Colton. It’s the same problem we had before. I need to focus on school. My school takes a lot longer than yours did.”
