A chilled bottle of craft beer is plonked down in front of me.I don’t take my eyes off Theron as I run my hand down the beaded frostiness of the bottle.After taking a small lick of the foam spilling out of the top of the neck, I wrap my mouth around the rim and take my first sip.
Lifting my eyebrow, I shrug.“You coming?”
That’s all the invite he needs.We get up and walk out together.When I feel his firm hand pressing the small of my back, I know I made the right decision.
And I don’t feel at all hunted, because Theron let me do all the hunting this time around.
I take him by the hand and lead him over to the bed.
“If you lie at a diagonal, you will fit.And I got the two extra pillows out of the trunk.”
Theron isn’t the kind of man to bear a grudge.He’s accepted that I have made up my mind to move on.I like that.
“You’ve thought of everything, you li’l sweetheart.”Shrugging out of his leather jacket, Theron throws it on the chair by the dresser.“I suppose this is as good a way of saying goodbye as any other.”
He sounds nonchalant when he says it, but the small frown line between his amber eyes tells me something different.But he has no idea why I’m doing this.
“Full disclosure, Theron.I loved that thing we did outdoors in the forest.It might be the best sex I ever had.Who am I kidding?It was the best sex ever.But the only reason I was okay with it was because I thought you wouldn’t mind if I—we—were temporary.”
Hooking up the back of his t-shirt, he pulls it over his head and then stands there, checking me out with his thumbs hooked into the top of his jeans.He must have been riding all day because he’s wearing leather chaps over them.
The way he looks is like a fantasy.But even without the Stetson pulled down low over his eyes, Theron is immensely fuckable.
For one golden moment, I lose sight of what it is I wanted to say, I am so transfixed by the way he leans on one leg, checking me out like a hungry wolf gazing at a bunny rabbit.His perfect proportions—the thick trapezius muscles sloping down to join his wide shoulders, and the way his iliac tendons slant down in a rigid V-shape before disappearing under the top of his denims—make my mind go blank.
Theron interrupts my daydream.
“I would have to be blind not to see that you don’t wanna be pinned down after what happened to you during your first year in college, Aila.”
Using his feet, Theron kicks off his boots.Sitting on the end of the bed, he then pulls off his socks.I wait for some kind of body odor to hit my nostrils, but all I can smell is the clean fabric and dusty road.
Should I tell Theron that I’m doing this for him?And for my mom, too.How can I explain that my moving on is best for everyone?
Pushing the straps of my dress down, I kneel behind him, pressing my bare breasts against his back.He is stony cold, the same temperature as the beer I was drinking at the bar.Such a wonderful sensation on this warm summer night.My nipples pucker with the mix of the chill with the thrill.
Kissing his shoulder, I inhale the faint scent from his skin before licking him.
“I know it was you who saved me outside Harry’s, Theron.That alone makes it hard for me to say goodbye.But believe me, it’s for the best.”
He’s hard and strong and very, very fast.I know the new friend I made in La Pas that night was the one to make Belt Buckle disappear.And then he left me money to cover the bill.I know it was Theron.Call it female intuition.
Sliding my arm around his neck, I pull him back.Upside down, we look at each other.
“You leaving could never be for the best, Aila.I don’t care what you believe.”
Moments later we are naked, our bodies slotted together like a stairway to heaven.He lets me imprint his face and body onto my memory, because that is all I will take with me after I get on the ferry.
Cupping his hands on each side of my face, Theron kisses me deeply.“I would do it all over again, sweetheart, if I had the chance.”
“I can be quite the handful.”
That makes him smile.“And more than a handful is a waste.”
The breath catches in my throat as his mouth moves down.
ChapterSixteen
Theron
