“Will you just think about it?” he asked. “It could be, like, a goal for us—to tell our families about our relationship and introduce them to each other. After you came here, I could go back to Corey with you and meet your father and sisters.”
Her promise to herself to tell her father about her job in Hatteras after Kyrstin’s wedding had already been broken. She couldn’t even risk telling her father about her job, for fear he’d make her quit, destroying the ease with which she saw Erik every night. But the hope in Erik’s eyes made it impossible for her to say no, though she felt certain she would be unable to do as he requested. It would take years for her to prepare her father for the reality of Erik Rexford in her life. And even after years, he still wouldn’t like it.
“I’ll think about it,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder.
“That’s better than nothin’, I guess,” he said, putting his arm around her.
“Hey,” she said, hoping to lift his mood. “I had an idea for next Sunday!”
“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.”