A long, drawn out taste here.
A gentle caressing nudge there.
Each touch offering a new wave of bliss.
He cradled her face with his palm, and a soft whimper fell from her lips. There was power in his kiss. A force that made Viv feel strong and weak all at once. Every move invited her response, like a dance. One Viv wished would never end.
Yet all too soon, the moving cab came to a screeching halt. The doors creaked open. And Duke let out a sigh against her lips. She felt him smile then.
“It’s time,” he said, taking hold of her hand. He lifted it ceremoniously and helped her exit the cab. Sure, her feet were on solid ground, but her head was caught in the dream state of that incredible kiss.
Duke gave her hand a squeeze as he lifted his brows. “You ready to fly through a rainforest?”
Chapter 16
Viv pressed pause on the audio recording and typed out a few more lines in her article. It was often that, during her assignments, she’d wake up before her alarm, anxious to get to work.
She allowed herself to muse on her subjects outside of her set work hours. New insight would often strike at random times, as if her mind was continually working to put pieces of a puzzle together. Why they didthisor how they could feelthat.
With Duke, it was all the more. He was occupying more parts of her mind than she should allow—not that she minded much.
They’d been in Costa Rica now for five full days. Today, they would fly home. A bit of sadness seeped in as she tipped her face to the sun. From her balcony, she’d come to appreciate the calls of distant howler monkeys, the low-pitched squawks of the macaw, and the rustle of the breeze in the trees. Each was charming on its own, but together, they reminded Viv of Duke now too. The animals from his first shoot. And the breeze from their first kiss in the storm. Well, first kiss within the decade.
Duke had kept all of his promises to her. He’d taken her on two incredible zip lines, the wine tasting and vineyard tour, and he’d arranged for her to cuddle with a long-armed sloth.
He’d even been caught arranging a special dinner for Irene and Sebastian at the house, something she only discovered when overhearing a conversation with a caterer. He went on to explain the elaborate table setting, how he hadn’t wanted to hurt their feelings, and how he sensed Irene and Sebastian would appreciate a special evening together.
It all seemed to point to the core of who he really was—a genuinely good man. Someone who sought to see the best in others. It went all the way back to his school years. Some kids were popular despite being hated by a large population of their class. That’s not the way Duke was. Duke became popular because he connected with people, no matter how different they seemed to be.
It had to be what made falling for him again so easy. Falling for him despite the fact that she’d been hurt by him. Despite the fact that things might not go so smoothly once they got back to LA. And despite the fact that—as kind and incredible as Duke might be—he might not want the same things she did.
It was that small list of possibilities that kept Viv grounded, if not guarded too. Sure, she and Duke had the kind of chemistry most people dreamt of. They laughed together, had fun together, and admired one another too.
It felt good to be seen. Heard. Adored. And Duke did seem to adore her. Here in Costa Rica, it’d been easy to jump into things with both feet. They had all the time in the world and nothing to pull them apart. But now that they were headed back to LA, Viv couldn’t help but fear everything would change.
Similar thoughts cycled through Viv’s mind as she packed up her things, said her goodbyes to Sebastian and Irene and, after a water taxi ride to the airport, stepped onto the jet with Duke by her side.
If she were honest, Viv sensed that Duke was having similar reservations. During the taxi drive, he’d taken her hand, rubbed his thumb along it as they headed to the airport, but remained nearly as quiet as she had, cracking an occasional joke before drifting into his silent thoughts once more.
Did he regret getting so close to her during the trip? Was he finally starting to think about how much his life would change if he hooked up with a single mother of eight-year-old twins?
“Penny for your thoughts,” Duke said, breaking into her musings.
Viv pulled her gaze off the sight out the window and turned to him. “Did you get your stuff done?” He’d said he had a few calls to make as they took off. A half an hour had passed since then.
Duke nodded. “Yes.” He held her gaze for a blink, then pointed to the seat beside her. “Mind if I join you?”
Viv gave the seat a pat. “Not at all.” Ifawkwardcould be squeezed into a sixty-second segment, these sixty seconds would do just fine.
He was dressed in a suit again—well, minus the jacket—and his sleeves were rolled up at the wrists. It seemed to say, without really saying it at all, that he had more business to take care of once they got back. As if he was already looking for a way out of this, whateverthiswas.
Scents of his heavenly cologne wafted over her as Duke sank into the sofa beside her. He closed his eyes then, leaned his head back, and let out a big sigh.
A mean ache prodded at her chest as she looked at the handsome features of his face. She wanted to reach out, trace the tip of her finger along the bridge of his nose, the sculpted shape of his lips. The furrow along his brow.
Another hot sting tore at her heart as Viv felt herself preparing to let go of him. As if she could snatch up the time they’d spent, the memories they’d made, and the feelings she’d let herself feel, and toss them off the plane by the fistful, leaving it all behind in Costa Rica.
Her heart pounded out of rhythm as she considered speaking up. Prolonging the inevitable would only cause more pain.
