“Chris . . .”
“I just . . .” He takes my face in his hands as he stares down at me. Our bodies are so close I can feel his erection as it grows up against my stomach.
“We can’t,” I murmur.
“Why not?”
“Because I value what we have.”
“It won’t change a thing.”
“It will change everything.”
He stares at me, his chest rising and falling in the darkness. “Why?”
“Because I will end up with a broken heart, and you will end up feeling like shit about it.”
He stares at me, and I know that he knows that I’m right.
“You don’t want something permanent, and I don’t want something casual.” I smile up at him as I cup his face in my hand. “But that’s okay . . .” I pull him into a hug. “I like what we have already.”
“Blue balls?”
I giggle. “Go find someone else to take care of your balls.”
“Or I could just drown you for knocking me back.” He grabs for me, and I squeal as I try to get away from him. He picks me up and throws me high into the air again. “Come and get her, sharks,” he yells. “Teach her a lesson.”
I laugh out loud as I cough and splutter.
He swims to me and takes my hands in his as we stand facing each other. “Promise me something,” he says.
“Okay.”
“In ten years, on this day, no matter where we are in the world, no matter who we are married to, we will meet on this beach at this time and take a swim together in the dark.”
My eyes well with tears, because damn it, that’s romantic for a goodbye.
“I promise.”
He pulls me into a hug, and we stand in the water in each other’s arms.
Regretful but grateful for the honesty between us.
I smile as a thought comes to me. “My husband won’t like you, though.”
He laughs out loud and throws me into the air again. “That’s ’cause I’m going to steal you off him.”
Chapter 10
We walk up the stairs to our hostel in Barcelona. “I fucking love that place,” Bodie sighs.
“Me too,” everyone chimes in. San Sebastián was incredible. We had the time of our lives, but now we’re back to reality. Well, not really. We are still backpacking in Spain, but what I mean is we’ve returned to work over the weekend before we take off again on Monday.
It’s Friday night, and once again, we are heading out. The party is never ending: always somewhere to go and something to see.
We go back to our room and get ready for the night and go down to the bar to see Eduardo.
“Hey.” Christopher smiles.
“Hi there,” says Basil.
“Hello, Mr. Basil, Mr. Christo.” Eddie smiles excitedly. “I did good.”
I slide into my chair. “Hello.”
“Hello, Hazen.”
I smile at his inability to say my name. So freaking cute.
“I got you all jobs.” He smiles proudly.
“You did?” Christopher laughs. “I knew you would.”
Someone stands at the other end of the bar, and he takes off down there to serve them. We watch him drift in and out of languages as he serves different people.