“I want the summer, Venus.”
Her brow pinches as she catches my eye.
“I want the summerwith you,” I clarify.“And I don’t mean just sex...Though, obviously, I want a lot of that too.”
“Obviously,” she says, her lips barely moving as she chews her food.“But why?What do you meanexactly?”
“A new experiment—you and me together as much as possible to prove or disprove the hypothesis that we belong with each other permanently.A fuck-it experiment,” I say, thinking of Dot’s colorful advice.
Her brow quirks.“A fuck-it experiment?”
“Yeah, fuck worries about the future or about heartbreak or all the what ifs.Fuck what anyone might say.Fuck holding back.Fuck it.Let’s just be together now, while we can.”
She nibbles her bottom lip.“Let’s be VenusandHenry and see where it takes us?”
“Exactly.I didn’t love you the way I should have then.I want a chance to do that now.In the end, you’ll probably leave anyway—Iknow, and I don’t care.I don’t care if it wrecks us both.I’m wrecked already.But we wanted a better end, right?We can’t have that without knowing we did all we could, knowing that wetried.This time, it’s aboutus.Not our parents, or expectations, or all the other bullshit that kept coming between us.Onlyus.We have the summer, and I’d like totry.Will you let me, Venus?”
She looks stunned and says nothing for what feels like an eternity.I expect an argument, or, worse, her running for the door.
“As you said, it feels like a game we can’t win.”
My lungs tighten.“It’s notimpossibleto win, though.Long-distance relationships can work.People do it all the time.Or you could stay.”
“Youwantme to stay?”she asks, her voice pained and disbelieving.Her father’s words stream into my head.She believeswedon’twanther.
“Venus, I don’t want you to give up the life you want for me.Butifit would make you happy to stay, yes, I want you to.I hate that I made you feel you had to leave in the first place.”
“I-um, it wasn’tyou.It was everything.”She swallows hard and pushes the food away.
“I know, but nothing should hold us back now.Fuck it.”
She smirks.“Henry Greene not worried about the future?This is unprecedented.”
“Only for you, Venus,” I say, and her grin widens.“Is that a yes to loving each other while we have the chance and letting the future take care of itself?”
“Yes, Henry.”
“Yes, you want to?Or yes, because I’m asking?”I clarify.
Her green orbs meet mine, narrowing slightly as her lips uptick in a grin.“Both… but mainly because I want to.Fuck it.”
“Good.May I lock this door?”
“Yes,” she says, looking curious.
The bolt slides into place.She keeps her eyes fixed on me as I cross the room and turn the corner of her desk.I roll her chair to face me and drop to my knees before her.
“May I touch you?”I whisper.
Her cheeks turn adorably pink, and the green in her eyes spreads with heat.“Yes.”
My fingers dance across her calves, up to her knees, and push her pretty floral skirt up her thighs.I lean down, dragging my lips across her bright yellow, burgundy, and orange sunflowers.She relaxes, spreading her legs so I can nestle between them.I massage her thighs and hips, sliding her closer to me.
“Take my glasses off,” I whisper, hands too busy to bother.She eases them from my face and sets them on the desk.
“What are we doing?”she asks, breathless and flushed.
“I’m beingthatguy, and you’re letting me.Is that okay?”
