“The bet was?—”
“That I lasted a week,” Marlow finished. “Which I did. I lastedalmosttwo. It’s not my fault it was cut short.”
“I’m sure it was much easier to occupy your time when someone was warming your bed. To me, that seems like cheating.”
“No way. I won, fair and square. Now fork over the savings account.”
“Fuck off.”
Lifting my head up from Marlow’s chest, I quickly swiped my hand under my eyes before looking at him. “You... actually want me to go home with you?”
His eyes snapped back to me, lighting up immediately. “Yes.”
How easy it was for him to be so honest. To want things and ask for them with no regard as to how painful a potential rejection might be. That was a quality I heavily admired in Marlow, one I found myself lacking most of the time.
To be wanted by someone like him... what did that mean for my future?
How easily could I start to forget about my responsibilities and allow myself to fall into his spell like I so desperately wanted to?
Back at camp, it seemed straightforward and uncomplicated to deny wanting anything outside of sex and getting off with him. I had so much to do that it gave me little time to reflect on my own feelings when they came to Marlow.
Cradling his broken body while Talos frantically called for an SOS, and now here, seeing the aftermath of his life being saved, was putting so much into perspective for me that it was getting harder and harder to ignore what was blatantly right in front of me.
IwantedMarlow in more ways than just sex.
Believing he’d died had destroyed me. My heart only shakily putting back the pieces once his lungs drew in that first gasping breath in my arms, hope blooming for the first time since I’d unclipped myself from the belay and stumbled through the brush after him.
Why chance fate when it was clearly giving me a second offering?
My granddad, Talos, my staff, the kids, they could forgive me eventually for spending the rest of the season with Marlow.
“Okay,” I breathed out.
Marlow’s grin was blinding. “Excellent. Blake, you’re going tolovemy house. I have an indoor pool.”
I tilted my head back to press my ear to his chest again, closing my eyes while the healthy thumps of his heart beat back at me.
Marlow’s alive.
CHAPTER 24
Blake
Five days later,and with another intense cornering from Silas under my belt, I was taking Marlow back home to what I could only describe as his ridiculously luxurious mansion in Ellington Heights.
Having only driven through this small town twice in my life as a kid, and being blown away both times at how opulent everything seemed, doing so as a fully grown adult was giving me much more of a flabbergasted feeling than when Marlow had told me he gave little shit’s as to how much money he’d ended up wasting on his wrong package deal.
The gated community leading up to his house, along with the hand on my thigh that squeezed every so often while Marlow hummed along to the radio, continued to toss me between nervous and pure contentment.
The car ride from the hospital was quiet but not awkward. No tension left hanging over us outside of my occasional heavy bouts of remorse.
For now, I’d focus on helping Marlow heal and push back whatever else swam inside of my brain, clogging it up from allowing happiness to creep back in. It was the least I could do after everything.
“Thisis where you live?” The words were out of my mouth the second the GPS was bringing us up the long drive. Ahead was a large, Tudor style mansion with a well-kept lawn and tastefully done curb appeal that lined along the entire front of it.
“What, you not a fan of brick?” Marlow teased.
“It’s so...” I shifted the car into park, staring through the windshield at it.
