“Because you know how it is to be like me. You have to be responsible. I appreciate you being honest with me about that.”
“Well, I’m pissed off. Because…”
“I get it. You can make an appointment and get all your testing done, and then we can discuss it.”
“Okay.”
He never had unprotected sex. Because everything he did was one-night-stand-oriented, so he never went without a condom. But if the two of them were going to do this for a while, then he would love to be in her without a barrier. Just the idea of it made him hard. Made him a little bit mad that they couldn’t just take the risk too.
But he understood exactly where she was coming from. She had been lied to, and if there was one lie, there might be more.
“I think… untangling what hurts the most about all this is so hard. And I really shouldn’t be talking about him while I’m in bed with you.”
“Why not? We met at this point in your life, Marlowe, there’s no denying that. There’s no erasing this. So, I’m part of it. Believe me, I’m not worried about being compared to him.”
She laughed, her face still buried in his chest. “Well, you don’t have to worry about it. Because you’re definitely the best I’veever had.”
“Oh, I know,” he said, grabbing her by the shoulders and flattening her into the mattress, looming over her. “Because you wouldn’t have risked this much for sex that was only the average. And I know I’m not the only one who feels this.”
“No,” she said. “You’re not.”
“Well, that’s damn good. Do we need a plan?”
“We need condoms.”
“I mean, for how we’re going to do this.”
“I guess we just do it until we don’t.”
“Seems reasonable.”
“Here works, as long as we’re careful. When we’re sneaking around while there are guests, it might be a little bit more challenging.”
“Well, you don’t have to be here all the time. We can definitely use my place too.”
Of course, that would mean rooting out his siblings sometimes, but that was possible. They weren’t around all the time. And hell, there was nothing wrong with spending a little bit of time with everybody. That intense feeling inside of him that had bloomed while they were kissing tonight grew again.
He would like to have her at more family dinners. He liked her sitting next to him.
Well. Maybe just because she was a really good manager. Because she was part of the team. That was it. He had thought of that before. That it felt like she ought to be there when they were doing their toast, because she was an integral part of this resort team. Was helping make it what it was.
So are Laney and Cara, but you don’t feel like you have to have them at things.
He ignored that.
“I like that.”
“Me too. And I’m glad we got that out of the way. Because we’re about to be really busy.”
“True,” she said. “It’s all just about to get started.”
Chapter Seventeen
Marlowe experienced a moment of total euphoria when she checked in her first guest. No other place she’d ever worked had mattered this much to her. She knew that it was a combination of things.
This resort being brand new, that it was the start of this new chapter of her life.
And that it mattered so much to Cody. Which she really understood now. This was proof to him that he was good enough. It was something he had felt like he deserved, something his father had been initially intent on denying him.
