by M. J. O'Shea
“I’ve just learned to deal with the immortality. And the vampires. I think time travel would be taking it over the top.” He smiled.
“Just… think about it. Please. That’s all I can ask.”
Avery nodded. “I’ll think about it.” He took a deep breath. “And I love you too.”
AVERY had never ridden in a private jet. Once, he’d been able to upgrade to first class when he’d flown to Boston for a lecture, but that was nothing compared to this. Needless to say, he really liked it. They settled in their seats with champagne and a blanket. It was quiet, perfect. Avery almost didn’t know what to think of the lack of babies crying and people trying to shove luggage into overhead bins.
“I could get used to this,” Avery muttered. “It’s nothing like getting elbowed by the six-foot linebacker types who always manage to sit next to me on regular flights.”
Tyson chuckled. “I guess I’d be that guy if we were on a normal plane.”
“But we’re not. How long is this flight?”
“About ten hours, but then we still have to get home from Atlanta. You can take a nap on this flight.”
Tyson had been so warm, so attentive. It was like since he’d made his decision that Avery was what he wanted the most that he’d changed somehow. It was something else Avery could get used to. He was worried that he’d get moody, distant Tyson back sometime in the future, but for now?
“Hey.”
“Mmm-hmm?”
“So you know how I said I had to think about what we were going to be?” Avery said.
“Yeah.” Tyson looked nervous.
“So—” Avery was cut off by the first officer announcing that the flight was about to take off. He buckled his seat belt and gave Tyson a look that said the conversation could be continued as soon as all the safety info and usual stuff was over.
By the time the plane was in the air on the way to Atlanta, he’d gotten himself all nervous. What if he’d been reading Tyson the wrong way? What if that wasn’t what he wanted? He remembered how Tyson had been with Clara in the past, and how he didn’t want anything to do with her. He could be the same. But then he remembered Macy telling him one time that he’d never know if he could be really happy if he never gave himself the chance to try. If he never tried, well, he’d never know, would he? He took a long deep breath and turned to Tyson.
“Okay. So I decided. At least I decided for me. Then you can tell me what you want.”
Tyson nodded.
“I want to be with you. This you for sure, not the hesitant, distant you from before. I want this Tyson.”
“I think I can do that.” Tyson smiled tentatively.
“Good. But it comes with a problem, and you know what that is.”
“I’m not aging.”
“Yes. I don’t even want to suggest it.”
“Hey. Maybe another day, okay?” Tyson said.
Avery frowned. He wasn’t going to jump into Tyson’s life completely. He was just… asking. He’d always wanted to know everything about a situation. He’d meant what he said about not wanting the Tyson who ran away from them and buried himself in his other world.
Tyson lifted his chin and pecked him on the lips. “What are you thinking?” he asked softly.
“You’re pulling away from me again. I was just asking a question.”
“I’m not,” Tyson said. “We’re on a plane. And we do have things to talk about when we’re back at my house.” There was only them and the flight crew, but the flight crew had ears, he supposed. Avery could wait.
“Like how this will work for us with all your… stuff.”
“Yeah. I want it to work too, in case I wasn’t clear enough. It’s probably going to be hard for me to not revert to old habits, but I don’t want to. I’m going to try not to. I want to be with you.”
“That’s the best I can ask for right now.”
Tyson reached over and laced their fingers together. “It’s not, but we’ll talk about it more at my house. Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay.”
Epilogue
May…
“WHAT are your plans for the summer, Professor Cook?” Tyson asked with a teasing grin.
Avery turned his face so the air stirred by the ceiling fan hit his sweaty forehead. “Go somewhere less hot than here. Antarctica?” Avery had long since given up on getting used to Louisiana summers.
Tyson rolled over and sprawled across Avery.
“Ugh, get off me. You’re hot!”
“Thanks, babe.” He peppered kisses all over Avery’s face. “You want to go somewhere cooler? I have a cabin in the Alps. There’s obviously no skiing, but it would be beautiful this time of year. Lots of fresh air. I wouldn’t mind a few weeks there.”
That sounded like absolute heaven. “When can we leave?”
Tyson chuckled. “Not before Macy’s birthday. She’d kill us. So would Donovan.”
Nobody was more surprised than Avery that Macy and Donovan were still seeing each other. Neither one of them had made any mention of things being serious, but it had been months. Speaking of….
“I had a few tours at my house yesterday. The agent said she thinks two of them are ready to make an offer.”
Avery would miss his old street, but it wasn’t exactly far. He’d already promised to visit Etta for tea as often as possible.
“Good. I like the idea of you only being here.”
Avery hadn’t spent a night at his cottage since February.
“There’s something else… my birthday.”
“Didn’t you like your gift?” Tyson had given Avery the Basquiat painting. Signed it over to him, wrapped it up, then laughed when Avery hung it right back up where it had been. He was still overwhelmed by its existence, much less the fact that it was his.
“It was incredible and you know it. I’m just… older.”
Tyson smiled. “Are we ready to have this talk?”
It had almost come up a few times, but Avery had remembered the plane and how much Tyson hadn’t seemed to want to talk about it, and he’d swallowed his questions.
“I think I am.”
“I am too. Ask. I’ll answer.”
“Is there enough? Is there enough for me to be like you?”
Tyson nodded. A huge grin grew on his face. “There’s more than enough.”
“Is that something you’d want? I mean, you and Clara, that ended and you hated her. I’ve never had much of a family. I don’t want to outlive everyone I know and then have you get tired of me. I saw how you looked at her.”
“No.” Tyson leaned over and cupped Avery’s face. “It’s not like that. Clara and I, we were always just convenience. We knew each other, we were approximately the same age when we stopped aging, and I cared for her in a general sort of way. It was…. There’s no other word for it than convenience.”
Avery grinned. “What? You’re telling me I haven’t been convenient for you?”
“Well, I was looking for an excuse to visit Rome again. It had been far too long.” His grin softened, and he took Avery’s hand. “No, you’ve never been a convenience for me. You were like a lightning bolt that came through and shook everything I thought I wanted. It was the opposite of convenient, but I can’t imagine myself going back to how it was before I met you. Or after we stopped talking. Honestly, Avery, after the past few months… if you don’t want to drink the tea, I’m going to stop. I want to have a life with you, whatever that looks like.”
“I’m not going to ask you to do that.” Just the thought of Tyson aging, dying, because of him. It was unthinkable.
“Then will you take a chance on us? Give up some of life’s—” He sighed. “—greatest pleasures to be with me?”
Avery remembered Macy’s urging, felt the lightning bolt in his own belly that Tyson caused, and thought that he might be able to do it.
“Yes… I’ll take a chance on you. I can do it. I have to do it.”
Tyson made a quiet whooping noise and squeeze
d Avery’s hand. “I can’t even tell you how happy I am right now.”
“I am too.” He’d been so happy, for months. They’d had a few rough spots, but who didn’t? Most of the time, Avery couldn’t stop smiling long enough to get through his everyday life.
“When do you want to start?”
Avery shrugged. “Tomorrow? I mean, why wait?”
He got a lusty kiss for that. “Tomorrow it is,” Tyson answered.
“I’m excited to see the future with you. I really am.”
Tyson cupped his hands around Avery’s face and gave him a long, serious kiss. “I’m excited enough for tomorrow. We’ll get to the future eventually.”
“There’s got to be one rule, though.”
“What?”
“We’re getting beignets every single Thanksgiving.”
M.J. O’SHEA has never met a music festival, paintbrush, or flower crown she can stay away from. She loves rainstorms and a perfect cup of tea, beach days, music, bright colors, and more than anything a cozy evening with a really great book.
She is from the Pacific Northwest. While she lives there still and loves it, M.J. has the heart of a wanderer. So she puts all her dreams of far-off places and extraordinary people in her books.
Except for every once in a while when she does what all travelers have to do on occasion… come home.
Email: [email protected]
Website: mjoshea.com
Twitter: @MjOsheaSeattle
By M.J. O’Shea
DREAMSPUN BEYOND
#17 – Kiss Me Forever
DREAMSPUN DESIRES
#1 – The Millionaire Upstairs
#9 – Duke in Hiding
#16 – Marriage of Inconvenience
#27 – The Worst Best Man
#45 – Game Point
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Coming in May 2018
Dreamspun Beyond #19
Forged in Fire by Ari McKay
BLURB
Dreamspun Beyond #20
Nudging Fate by E.J. Russell
Not exactly a match made in Valhalla.
Half-norn event planner Anders Skuldsson is under strict orders from Asgard not to meddle with Fate. But with Enchanted Occasions’ latest booking—a competition for the hand of Faerie’s one true prince—crashing around his ears, it’s really difficult to toe that particular line. But if Andy pretends to be a contender for the prince…. It’s only temporary, so Odin can’t blame him. Right?
Conall of Odstone’s half-brother, Prince Reyner, was supposed to choose a mate before being crowned and wed. But the idiot left Con to impersonate him. Again.
When Con meets Andy, his anger turns to desire… and despair. Even if Andy forgives him for his imposture, how could someone eligible for a prince’s hand settle for the court outcast? And the double-deception isn’t their only obstacle. Unless Andy makes the right choice, their fates could be sealed by…well… Fate.
Coming Soon to
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Kiss Me Forever
© 2018 M.J. O’Shea.
Cover Art
© 2018 Aaron Anderson.
[email protected]
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64080-442-5
Mass Market Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64108-044-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017915872
Digital published April 2018
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
