I’m the luckiest guy here.
She’s turning all the heads but I’m the one she’s chosen.
“Hey,” she says, taking the seat across from me.
I can only stare dumbly for a moment.
“You look gorgeous,” I finally say. “Can I keep you?”
I add a smile to my words, so she’ll think I’m joking, but I’m also kind of not.
She laughs. “I’m all yours, Anders. And thank you. I wasn’t sure about the dress because it’s not quite dress season here, hence the boots.” She sticks her leg out, showing off her combat boots. “But I was so fucking sick of my clothes, you have no idea. I think I might just leave half of them behind at the hotel, maybe the housekeeper will want them. I bought so much stuff, found the best little store with all these cool Norwegian brands. At least I think they’re Norwegian brands.”
I can’t help but smile at her, hanging off her every word. “Good. You deserve it. I can’t imagine having to live out of a backpack for so long.”
She gives me a dry look. “Oh whatever, you’re a dude. A fisherdude! You probably wear the same damn thing every day when you’re out at sea.”
I give her a look that says, guilty.
“Anyway,” she says, “it kind of feels like my life has found a new chapter, you know? So I might as well dress appropriately.”
And what chapter is that? I want to ask. Is it a chapter that I’m in? Am I a part of this new narrative?
But fear has tempered my boldness. I’m afraid to ask certain things in the event that it will scare her off for good. I know we should both be free with each other right now, that I have nothing to lose, and yet…yet it feels like I could lose everything.
Like I said.
I’m screwed.
“So, should we get something to eat here?” she asks, her slender fingers pulling the menu toward her. For a moment I picture a diamond ring on her left hand, a ring that I would have given her. I imagine us in the future, here, living this life together, trying to make the best of it, make it work. Would it be so unfair to ask her to stay with me? To have her be with me…
Have her…love me?
Can I give her the life she wants, the one in which she finds herself, where she finds a home and stability and the family she’s always been yearning for?
Will she let me try?
The feeling has so much elation behind it that it feels like a bird about to take flight and soar above the seas, and with a heavy, sinking feeling in my heart, I know that it’s asking too much. Asking her to stay with me here in Norway, to be with me, would only stifle her life. We’re both young, but in some ways she’s so much younger. I’ve already settled down, in the same deep ruts that I’ll die in. She has her whole future ahead of hers. To ask her to stay with me is to deprive her of that. I’ve already fucked her life up once before, I won’t do it again.
“Klipfisk pizza?” Shay asks, glancing up at me from the menu. I give her a wary smile. “That can’t be good, can it? Fuck, I’m tempted to order it. That, and a whole bunch of that elderberry cider I had the other day.”
She bites her lip and suddenly I don’t give a fuck about cider or pizza or anything else.
All I care about is her.
Being with her as much as I can, while I can.
I get to my feet and reach for her hand. “Come here,” I say gruffly.
Then I lead her across the bar, not caring if anyone is watching us go to the restrooms together.
Once inside the bathroom, I lock the door, making sure it’s secure, and then I attack Shay, fire burning through my veins until my skin feels too hot and there’s only one way to get relief.
My hands grab hold of her sweet face, fingers digging into her jaw, while I move with urgency, driving her backward toward the tiled wall until she’s pressed up against it. My mouth covers her mouth, lips ravenous, tongue thrusting against hers. Fucking her good. She whimpers into my mouth and I feel the vibrations shoot down my spine, straight to my cock, which is already rock hard.
It whips me up until I’m something wild, savage, feverish, my dick is growing impossibly stiff and trying to break through the fly of my jeans, begging for release, for relief. I reach down and pull up the hem of her pretty little dress until it’s bunched at her hips then I slide my hands under her ass and lift her up so that her legs are wrapped around me, holding me tight.
“Anders,” she says through a throaty gasp, and I can’t help but grin at her, remembering how she used to be so game for anything, including fucking in a public pool. She can protest all she wants, but I know she’s still that same adventurous girl.
I also know that I can’t keep my fucking hands off of her even if I tried.
Suddenly, I spin her around and carefully place her on the edge of the sink, testing its weight for a moment, pulling away from her eager mouth.
“What are you…?” she begins, her lips wet and wanting, but from the devious look I’m giving her, her question is quickly answered.
I place my palms at her thighs, spreading them in front of me while she reaches forward with one
