Don't Speak (A Modern Fairytale, #5)(50)
“What’s next Sunday?” he asked.
Her cheeks flared with heat. She’d just assumed they’d do something together next Sunday, as they had last week. Oh, shoot. Had she presumed too much?
“Well, I’m free for the day after brunch again,” she said softly.
“And you’re askin’ me out on a date?”
She took a deep breath. That sounded so forward. Is that what she was doing? Yes. Yes, it was.
My goodness, she thought, how much I’ve changed in a handful of weeks, asking a man out on a date. It’s something she wouldn’t have dreamed of doing before meeting Erik.
“Our rules,” he murmured softly, as if somehow knowing she needed a little encouragement.
“Yes,” she said, grateful for the semidarkness, which hid her red cheeks. “Yes, I am asking you out on a date, Erik Rexford.”
He chuckled happily, raising her hand to his lips and kissing the back of it. “I accept! What did you have in mind?”
With a heart lighter than air, she told him about the haunted lighthouse of Currituck Beach, the fishing pier up in Duck, the wild horses in Corolla, and a play called The Lost Colony over on Roanoke Island. She’d researched these previously unknown attractions on the computer at King Triton after Erik’s Wednesday visit, she told him proudly, and he kissed her tenderly for her ingenuity and bravery.
“That’s dates for every Sunday until the end of the summer,” he said, grinning down at her. “I really might start to think you’re into me, Laire Cornish.”
“Oh, I am,” she said softly, winding her arms around his neck and pulling his lips down to hers. “I am completely into you, Erik Rexford.”
Chapter 12
The problem with a handful of stolen Sundays, Erik learned, was that they went way too quickly.
By August ninth, he had spent almost every summer night at the Pamlico House and every Sunday sweeping Laire away to another Outer Banks destination.
They managed to find places to park in the dark where they could reach for each other with ever-increasing hunger, and once or twice, when Utopia Manor was empty, she had joined him there for a few hours too. His fingers had touched every peak and valley of her gorgeous body at this point, and somewhere along the way, she’d mustered up the courage to touch him back—her fingers tentative as they brushed against the tip of his cock, the gesture all the more erotic because of her inexperience and his sharp desire.
They still hadn’t been completely naked together, and Erik had no hopes for sex, but he loved her desperately, and being with her was worth it, no matter how blue his balls were when they said good-bye at the end of the night.
But the unfortunate and unavoidable reality was that summer was winding down, which meant that his time with Laire was coming to a close. And no matter how often he asked her about joining his family for Thanksgiving, she demurred every time with a “maybe” or an “I’ll think about it.”
He began to understand that having her visit him at Duke was never going to happen, and when he received his courses over e-mail, he realized that coming down to the Banks with any regularity was going to be almost impossible. Besides his aggressive senior-year course load, he had been given a starting position with the Devils, an honor that he couldn’t turn down but that would mean weekend practices and Saturday games up and down the East Coast.
If she wouldn’t commit to Thanksgiving, he didn’t know with any certainty when he would see her again. But if they could just get over that hurdle together and commit to sharing their relationship with their families, he hoped the Cornishes would accept him and that she’d be able to come and see him when she wanted to, e-mail without fear of getting caught. Hell, he’d buy her a cell phone and a set up a hot spot so they could call and text too. He’d do whatever he had to, to keep her in his life. Maybe their families wouldn’t be happy about the relationship initially, but at least it wouldn’t be a secret anymore. When he was feeling especially hopeful, Erik even imagined their parents being so understanding that maybe Laire could spend the entirety of Christmas break with him in Raleigh. He had several thousand dollars saved up in his bank account from birthday and Christmas gifts—he could even buy her a used car so she could come and go as she pleased.
They just had to choose to make their relationship a priority and agree on the way to share it with their friends and families. And as far as Erik was concerned, Thanksgiving was not only ideal, but the first possible opportunity once their time this summer was over.
He refused to think in terms of saying good-bye to her or ending their relationship in any way. For starters, he couldn’t bear it—the thought of her with someone else made him physically ill—but also, Erik Rexford wasn’t a quitter. He believed in the strength of the feelings they shared. He believed they could go the distance—marriage, children, forever—if they could just hold on to one another. And he couldn’t imagine ever loving or trusting another woman the way he did Laire. Everything about her was genuine, and he wanted—no, he needed—her in his life to give it perspective and meaning and foundation.
So when his parents decided to drive Hillary back to the Asheville Christian School together on August tenth, tomorrow, leaving Utopia Manor empty for two whole days, he also knew it was his last major chance to convince her of his plans for them before he returned to school the following weekend. He had to get her to agree to spend some real time with him so he could sell her on Thanksgiving once and for all.