by AJ Matthews
Her legs fell apart in a fluid motion, and he wasted no time lifting her ass off the table to pull her underwear off. A salad plate fell to the floor, but he didn't fucking care. All that mattered was sinking into her.
Tugging his boxers down, he stepped between her spread legs and captured her mouth with his, and let his tongue ravage her mouth the way he'd intended to do to her whole body. Guiding himself to her, he groaned when she helped lead him to her entrance.
Everything was a blur of panted breaths and sounds of pleasure until his release broke over him, drawing a grunt and a jerk of his hips. He wasn't certain if she'd finished, but when he opened his eyes, she was looking up at him, a lazy look of contentment shining from her gaze.
He couldn’t help but chuckle as he slid from her body and helped her off the table. “Something tells me, that me turning into a caveman at dinner was not what you’d expected of the evening.”
She flushed as if suddenly realizing what they'd done and dropped to the ground to pick up the salad bowl that had miraculously not shattered into a hundred pieces – or even five pieces.
"I'm fairly positive I initiated a chunk of that.”
He chuckled. “And that is just one of the many reasons why I love you. You’re not afraid of taking what you want.”
Pushing back a section of her hair she gestured for them to sit. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”
Laughing, he picked up her underwear and pulled his slacks back up. "Let me get clean, and I'll be out to join you."
“Sorry, not sorry, I can’t wait.”
She went to the oven and opened it, releasing a heavenly scent of roasted chicken. His mouth watered and he couldn't think of anything save for the way it felt watching her in the kitchen – like the way a woman would look in her husband's kitchen. Though it was chauvinistic, he couldn't fucking cook anything, and he knew she could.
With only two weeks left, he realized they’d have to make the most of every minute, no matter how much work or packing he had to do. Time was ticking down and everything hinged on their final getaway – their annual camping trip – going perfectly.
Chapter Six
Leslie sighed, staring down at the phone. She was waiting for Kenner to cancel. That was what he'd done the past two weeks. One cancellation after the next. His busy schedule for his father had never bothered her before, but pairing his fancy dinners with his schoolwork was draining even her understanding.
For the last two summers, they'd gone camping as a goodbye to summer. With less than twenty minutes before they were supposed to leave, he'd canceled. His father had set up a meeting with the Dean, and even she couldn't begrudge him the chance to start college off with a bang. It was hard, but going without him had done her good. She didn't need to sit at home waiting for him – there would be enough of that over the next four years until they could possibly be together in the same state, maybe even the same city. One last outing with her friends from the last three years of her life had seemed like a fitting goodbye to summer. There had been more alcohol than she'd consumed at any party ever, but it hadn't robbed her of any memories of the hiking, fishing and overall laying around that they had done.
The afternoon was slowly fading into night, and everyone had gone home. Kenner had texted her early that morning begging her to wait there for him. It had been stupid not to ask them to wait for her, but she didn’t, and all that waited with her now was an empty stretch of campground and mountain air.
Leslie had waited, but that didn’t mean she was expecting him to show today. This is what life will be like. A series of will he or won’t he call. Sighing, she dropped into the scraggly grass patch beneath her and looked out into nature. You can’t do this.
The thought rushed over her like a roaring waterfall and tears fell down her cheeks. She loved Kenner, and the idea of her life without him was miserable. Yet, after a taste of the sporadic interactions and multiple cancellations in the past week, she knew she couldn't handle it for four years.
As shudders wracked through her, she felt her life as it was slipping away. There wouldn’t be a her and Kenner, even if he did show up. That part of her life had no place in college, she had dreams to fulfill and waiting around for her boyfriend wasn’t one of them.
She barked out a harsh laugh when the realization hit her that they’d come full circle. They’d tried to hold onto something that was better left in the past, and life had made certain it won in the end.
Gravel crunching pulled her from her thoughts and drew her attention to the ratty old pickup truck driving ever closer. The green beat-up vehicle was the same one Kenner drove every time they went off the beaten path, and the familiar site was merely a bitter pill of everything that would no longer be.
“Hey there, stranger.” He said, striding up to her in faded Levi’s and a ridiculous button down shirt.
Her breath caught in her throat for the second time that summer.
"Sorry, I'm so late. But, I think the Dean likes me."
She smiled, but her lip wavered as she tried to hold everything together. “Hi,” she walked over and hugged him, letting the comfort of his embrace wash away her fear, even if she was loosing this forever.
“Let’s go on a hike.” He was as enthusiastic as she’d ever heard him.
“Kenner -”
“Come on, I’ve already missed the fun. I want to watch the sun go down like we always do. If I have to say goodbye tomorrow to head out to Stanford, I want this tradition.” He held out his hand, “Humor me.”
Her heart was cracking with every word, but if she was honest with herself, she needed these last precious moments too. So, she slipped her hand in his and followed his lead up to the trail.”
“How was it?” he asked with a smile.
"It would have been better with you, but it was fun as always. I'm going to miss it, but we all promised to make it a yearly thing until that year comes when we don't come back home any longer."
The sun grew stronger as they walked higher and it began to set.
“I’m not certain if that’s awesome or depressing.”
She let out a strangled laugh. “I’m not sure I want to grow up any longer.”
He stopped walking and spun her to face him. “I was going to wait to talk to you until we reached the top, but I can’t wait any longer, and I can’t have you not wanting to grow up a second more.”
Letting go of her hand, he dug in his pocket and dropped to a knee, producing a small velvet box in one hand.
Her heart pounded like a caged bird as realization set in.
“I know we’re young. I know we’ve got the whole world against us, but I don’t care about that. We’ll build an empire – the lawyer and the director,” he flipped the box open to reveal a sparkling antique ring. “Marry me, not now, but after college, when we’re ready.”
Her throat tightened, and she wheezed as she struggled to breathe, never mind answer. Tears built up in her eyes, blurring the magnificent sunset.
“Kenner,” she finally breathed out.
“Leslie, this is our future. Together.”
It was as if someone pounded a hammer onto her back and forced the words out. “I don’t want to be together.”
He froze, the box dropping into the dust at their feet. “What?”
“You’ve been so busy, you haven’t even noticed how much you’ve been missing. You canceled eleven times and were so tired you weren’t even present at the last half. I love you, but I can’t spend the next four years of my life wondering if you’ll cancel for something more important.”
“There is nothing more important.”
“If that were true you would have been here all summer. I love you, Kenner, but I can’t do this.” She looked away from him, unwilling to let him see the tears cascading like a rushing river down her face.
Her heart shattered and fell to pieces around her.
“Alright then,” Kenner whispered behind her and shut the box. “I love
you, but I won’t spend the next four years wondering if you’re going to want more than I have to give.”
She heard the sound of his footsteps in the dirt.
“Goodbye.”
The warm breeze caressed Leslie’s face, leading her to believe it was Kenner’s hand. Turning to look behind her one last time she saw his back to her as he walked the other way – away from their past.
Cool tears slipped down her cheeks, but she didn’t force herself to remove them. Instead, she turned to look back out over the cliffs, into the sunset. The sun was setting on the final day of summer, on the final day of one of the best chapters of her life, and she was just going to have to be okay with that.
Everything began, and so, everything ended. Every romance has a last summer, hers and Kenner’s had just run it’s course.
Epilogue
Six years later
Smiling, she swiped her credit card through the card reader, not even remotely shocked that the chip reader still didn't work everywhere.
“That’ll be right out Miss Klien,” the barista said passing her a receipt and the usual sunny smile.
Leslie came to the small coffee shop every day before racing through the crowds to make certain she made it to the theater where she PA'd at. It wasn't a director's gig, but it allowed her to live in Brooklyn with only one roommate and a shot at directing one day. Not her original dream, but she was living, and she didn't mind a small delay in her career.
Her cell phone rang from the depths of her purse, and she glowered as she dropped into the nearest table and dropped her bag on the counter. It was unzipped – it was always unzipped – and she plunged her hand into the oversized tote, feeling blindly for the phone in hopes of fishing it out before the call rang. A normal person would have looked inside the bag, Leslie knew she never found it that way and kept her gaze looking through the mural on the coffee shop window.
Just as her fingers closed around the edge of her phone she gasped at the person that walked by, hands in their pocket and eyes glued to a phone.
It's not. That's impossible, ridiculous even. Leslie chided herself and remained where she stood . . . for the next three seconds. Bolting, she knocked her foot into a table as she slammed her hands onto the door handle and shoved the glass door outward, and spilled out onto the sidewalk.
A sea of people crowded her vision despite her tall height. She could scarcely make out the blue blazer she'd seen moments ago, but she could, and Leslie didn't hesitate to shove her way through the crowd. Grunts and a curse followed her, but she didn't care. Dodging a briefcase, narrowly stepping over a Yorkie and just after she was almost taken out by a rouge elbow she was close enough to tell that it was indeed him.
After all these years.
“Kenner!” she shouted, praying that his name was loud enough to be heard over the swarm of walkers and cars moving slowly by. “Kenner!”
There, just three people ahead of her, someone turned. Eyes the color of caramel searched through the crowd before landing on her. Shock was written across his face, but it quickly shifted to surprise as he began his own path to her.
She stopped following after him and ignored the shoulder that checked her and the hand that shoved her as she stood in the middle of the busy sidewalk. None of it mattered because the person she never thought she’d see again was less than a foot away.
When he stopped in front of her, the world seemed to stop. The buzz of New York City faded away until there was nothing but the sound of her heart beating rapidly in her chest. He’d aged well, his boyish hotness transforming far too well into handsome good looks. His blond hair was more of a buzz cut now, but she thought it suited him. She'd always loved the squareness of his jaw and the faint stubble growing on it was far more appealing than she could have ever imagined.
“You’re in New York.” The words tumbled out, a statement, not a question, but foolish just the same.
Kenner’s lip quirked up into a smile she hadn’t seen in over five years because she never had found him on any social media and had avoided him during holidays back in Texas. Her heart fluttered, the exact way it did in the more than occasional dream she had of meeting him again.
"Yea, it's been about a month now." He shifted his briefcase into his other hand. "Got a job at a great law firm." He looked away for a moment as if debating if he should stay or go. "I didn't know you were still here."
“Never left,” she said with a shrug, hating that her gaze slid down to his hand to see if she could ask the next question. “Are you . . .” the sentence trailed off. She couldn’t bring herself to ask him to see her. Not after she’d insisted they say goodbye when he’d proposed.
“I’m late, but now that I know you’re here,” he paused, staring into her eyes the way he had the very first time he had told her he loved her. “Are you seeing anyone?”
“No,” she laughed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ve missed you, Kenner. I can’t believe you’re here.”
“I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I’ve hoped to see you since I got here. Dinner tonight. Say yes.”
“Yes,” the word tumbled out without a lick of hesitation.
He grinned then, suddenly seeming very much like the boy she’d last seen in the sunset by a car.
“I’m looking forward to getting to know you again, Leslie.” He tugged a pen out of his suit’s inner pocket. “Never thought I’d be writing my number down for anyone, let alone you.”
She chuckled and held perfectly still as the ballpoint pen rolled over her palm.
“Call me when you get a chance. I’ll set it all up. But I really am going to be late.” Kenner leaned forward, as if he was going to kiss her, but stopped and turned. With a wave, he disappeared back into the crowd.
“Will you look at that,” she said as her lips curved into a smile. “Not every summer is the last summer after all.”
About the Author
Lexi Ostrow has been in love with the written word since second grade when her librarian started a writing club. Born in sunny southern California she's spent time in various places across the country and is so excited to be settled in New Orleans for as long as the Coast Guard will let them be there. Mom to a far-too-adorable newborn, and a menagerie of pets, she couldn't think of a better place to spin fantastical worlds.
Lexi has been a writer ever since the second grade in some form or another. Getting her degree in creative writing and her master's in journalism she couldn't wait to get a chance to put her fantasies down on paper. From paranormal romance to thriller there isn't a genre she doesn't love to spend her time reading or writing. With her BA in creative writing from UCR and her MA in multi-media Journalism from Emerson College, she's ready to take on the literary world one novel at a time.
Reading and writing are her first loves, but her passion for shopping, love for yummy food and her love for all her many pets are not far behind. Lexi is an enthusiastic Whovian and DC Comic Show lover who isn't afraid to talk someone's ear off about them. She hopes to one day help other readers fall in love with writing as she did.
Connect with me:
LexiOstrow
Copyright © 2017 by Stephanie Queen
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Acknowledgments
With gratitude to the Name That Character contest winners, Jean Patton and Sharolynne Barth—thank you for your assistance and support. Most of all, thank you for naming the mysterious jewel thief in Beachcomber Heat, Angelique Dubois.
Praise for Stephanie Queen’s Books
The Throwbacks
“Boston comes vividly alive in the first of Queen’s Scotland Yard Exchange Program series. Grace is an engaging heroine with charm, humor and sass. Resplendent in rich detail, laugh-out-lo
ud moments, a fast-paced plot and spellbinding characters, The Throwbacks is a stellar not-to-be-missed standout!”
—Romantic Times Book Review
Playing the Game
“Reading Queen is an absolutely scrumptious experience. Readers will fall in love, get heated, laugh and have an energizing adventure. The story has sublime settings, smooth writing that melds into a well-developed plot and characters who come alive like Pop Rocks and carbonated beverages.”
—Romantic Times Book Review
“If you’re a fan of fast paced contemporaries, Playing The Game delivers one heck of a story”
—Storm Goddess Book Reviews
“A refreshing and fun romance story that swept my off my feet.”
—I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read
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Chapter One
Dane watched Shana reach back with both hands and lift the heavy mane of hair off her neck, arching her breasts forward, exposing the glistening pale column of her neck. Her head was thrown back, supported by her long bare arms gleaming with a film of perspiration. He stared and held himself as still as a mountain—with an effort. He wished they were anywhere else on the planet besides Captain Colin Lynch’s office at State Police Headquarters on Martha’s Vineyard.
Cap—the name his inner circle gave him—cleared his throat. Dane turned to him.
