He didn’t say another word until they were in the elevator, so when he did speak, it startled her. She’d been thinking, Just a few more hours and I can tell the rest. Just a few more hours and I’ll have kept my word. “What happened to the San Basso guy?”
“What? Oh.” She frowned. For once, she didn’t give a shit about the hit. “He’s gone. He—he saw you left the kitchen a mess and left town.” Her joke fell flat with an almost audible thud.
“Yeah, he’s gone.” Rake wasn’t surprised. Why wasn’t he surprised? Was it a test? Did she pass? “I checked, you know.”
Her reply was cautious. “Okay.” She was so glad they were moving away from her complicity (though she would later realize he’d never left the topic), she didn’t think to question what he was asking, or why.
“I know why you did what you did, and maybe it was even a good thing.” He shook his head. “But you shouldn’t have done it.”
“How do you even—”
Ding! Never had an elevator chime been more annoying. He popped out and made straight for their
(yes, their, it was theirs)
room. Once inside, she went straight for the room service menu to make good on her word, but he put a hand on her wrist to stop her. “Will you come to bed with me?”
“Do you want bruschetta or— What?”
“I really, really need to have sex with you,” he said patiently, like it was an everyday feeling, like she shouldn’t be amazed. “Can we?”
She could only gape and thought she must look ridiculous with her big eyes staring and her big mouth hanging open. Every time she thought the conversation couldn’t get more surreal, he topped it. “I didn’t—I never thought you’d want to. With me.”
“I never thought you’d want to. With me.” He was looking at her with a steady gaze; those baby blues never wavered. “I hoped, but … I didn’t have the courage to ask until now.”
“You know I’ve been up to—to bad things, and that I’m partially responsible for—for things.…” The mess you’re in. The mess I’m in. The mess you didn’t deserve. The mess I did deserve. “And you still want to?”
“Oh, God, yes.” The cool reserve slipped and she saw his desire, which fed her own repressed hunger. “Since Friday.”
“But today is— Oh. You’re teasing.”
He smiled. “Maybe a little. I mean, I don’t know for sure that it’s Friday, but I’ll take your word.”
“You shouldn’t,” she said earnestly. “About anything. Not anymore. Maybe not ever. Maybe my word is shit, and I’ve been fooling myself. Maybe building a life around keeping promises and making things fair is juvenile and stupid.”
“Hey, hey.” He stepped a little closer and she closed her eyes; he smelled like Venice: complex and rich and wonderful. “Maybe you’re just scrupulously, pathologically fair.” His thumb was gently stroking along her pulse point, and when she opened her eyes, she saw his smile wasn’t wavering.
She took a breath, and slowly let it out. She wanted. Oh, how she wanted. But. “Please not yet,” she begged. “Wait twenty-four hours, wait just a little bit longer and after you hear—if you still want me—” Ha! She was clearly swimming in the realm of the inconceivable. “—then I’d—I’d love to go to bed with you. Mine or that awful hide-a-bed you’ve been sentenced to.”
“No” was the gentle response. “It’s now or never, Delaney. We’re almost done is the thing. This is our one chance, I think. And it’s not an ultimatum. I want you—badly. But I’ll jump into traffic before pushing you into sex. I just—I want you. So much. Even if it’s only for a little while. Even if it’s maybe a lie. I want you until we have to go back to our lives.”
She saw his point, and it made sense. Whether he was punished for another week or a decade, eventually he’d want to get the hell away—he likely wanted to get the hell away now—and he’d put as much distance as he could between them. Eventually he’d go back to what was his and she’d go back to what was hers, and one of them would have had a narrow escape, and the other would have to live the rest of their life knowing they destroyed their own happiness for pride.
She knew, just like he did. No question: This was their only chance. She’d have to live on the memories; she’d have to make that enough.
“Yes,” she said, and reached for him.