She didn't know how she would take that. On one hand, she couldn't expect him to want anything more than a summer fling with her, they were both on vacation, and they lived on opposite sides of the country. On the other, it was the best sex she'd ever had; she was still basking in the afterglow of the ecstasy having him inside her had given her.
She cared for him; she didn't want to hear the words this would end within the next three weeks, that he already knew she wasn't the one. He wasn't into one-night stands but three weeks together wouldn't be considered a one-night stand. And that was if he even intended to continue seeing her after this. There'd been no promises between them; there were no guarantees. Emma shook her head to clear it of her rambling thoughts before she became a bumbling, clingy mess who drove him out the door right now.
"We didn't use protection," she muttered.
He almost laughed out loud but managed to stifle it before he upset her. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell her no diseases could survive in his system. "I've been tested, I'm clean," he assured her instead.
"I'm on the pill, but we still should have used something more." She'd considered going off it after Tristan, but it helped with her acne, so she'd chose to stay on it.
He nuzzled the side of her neck and kissed her. "It's okay, Emma."
"Ethan—"
"It's too late to worry about it now, we got carried away, but we will deal with it if the time comes."
She leaned back to look apprehensively at him again, but he kissed her nose before she could offer further protest. Though it was the last thing he wanted to do, he lifted her up and reluctantly pulled himself from her. He placed her on her feet and helped adjust the straps on her dress. Clasping her cheeks in his hands, he tilted her face up and kissed her.
"Why don't you get out of these wet clothes," he suggested. "Where are the towels?"
"There's some in the hall closet; I'll get them."
"I'll grab them, clean up out here, and join you in a few minutes." She looked as if she was going to say more, but he turned her toward the hall. "Go on," he urged.
She glanced back at him as she stopped outside her bedroom door, but he waved her onward. She hesitated before slipping through the doorway to her room. Ethan pulled his jeans up and buttoned them before grabbing the towels from the closet and using them to wipe up the water. He grabbed her ruined panties from the floor and hurried down to the room she'd disappeared into.
She was already lying in bed; she watched him as he entered the room. Her damp hair spread out around her, the white t-shirt she wore was baggy on her small frame and made her appear extremely vulnerable. The thought he would enjoy seeing her like this forever hit him, and he stopped to savor the sight of her.
"There's a towel on the chair for you," she informed him.
He stripped out of his wet clothes and toweled off before crawling into bed beside her.
"Ethan, what does this mean?" She hated asking the question, hated the desperation she felt by saying the words, but she couldn't go to sleep tonight without at least some sort of resolution.
"I don't know," he admitted.
"You said with the other girls you told them in the beginning—"
"You're not like them, Emma. This isn't like those other times. I don't know what any of this means, not yet, but nothing that has happened between us is anything like what I've experienced with any other woman. I wouldn't be here right now if it were, I would have already walked out of here and gone home."
Emma couldn't help but smile as her finger slid over his chest and entwined in the curly hairs running across the top of it. She wasn't expecting forever, but at least he wasn't telling her there was no hope for them. The chances of this lasting past the end of the month were slim, but she would take those chances if they could have the next three weeks together. She stifled a yawn as she rested her head on his chest.
Taking her into his arms, he held her close against him as he breathed in her scent. Yes, he could spend every night like this, he decided as she relaxed against him. He was aware the thought and the certainty following it could spell doom for them both.
Chapter Nine
Emma's eyes were sluggish to open the next morning as sleep clung to her. The powerful body pressed against her back swept away the last dregs of sleep. The rhythmic sound of his breathing caused a smile to curve her mouth before she rolled over to look at him. He was stunning in the early morning sunshine filtering through the blinds. His arm was thrown over his head; his black hair was in disarray as it curled around his forehead and cheeks. Her heart melted at the sight of him and memories of what they had shared flooded her.
She'd never experienced anything like what she experienced with him last night. Sex with Tristan was pleasant, but she'd never really understood what the big deal about sex was. She'd never lost such complete control of herself with him, never known such a feeling of rightness and reckless abandon before. She'd thought she'd had an orgasm before, but she was wrong. The time she'd spent with Ethan was far shorter than her time with Tristan, yet she'd given herself more freely to
