Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
“So it was all real.”
“Did you think it was a dream?”
I laughed a little, turning to face him as I ran a hand back through my tangled hair. “I feel like this whole summer has been a dream.”
I smiled lazily at the sight of him beside me, propped up on one elbow, his hand on my hip and the soft light filtering in through the windows playing with the grays and blues in his eyes.
“What time is it?”
“A little after six.”
“I slept all day?”
Theo chuckled. “And all night, too.”
I balked. “It’s six in the morning?”
With that thought, I realized how bad my breath was, and how I hadn’t brushed my teeth or hair or done anything to myself since I left Theo’s room more than twenty-four hours ago now.
I covered my face. “Oh, gosh. Don’t look at me. I bet I look terrible right now.”
Theo peeled my fingers back from my face, kissing my nose before his eyes settled on mine. “You look beautiful.”
I flushed, shaking my head and trying to melt into the sheets. Theo just watched me squirm under his gaze, drawing little circles on my hip. “Hungry?”
My stomach growled in response, and Theo let out a breathy laugh through his nose, hopping out of bed long enough to bring the food tray over. He set it between us, then poured us each a cup of coffee from the carafe on the table and handed me that first.
I inhaled the rich, chocolatey scent, leaning back against the headboard. “Thank you. I feel like a princess.”
Theo smiled. “We’re almost to San Marco, should be anchoring soon. I was thinking we could go to shore.” He paused long enough to take a big bite out of a piece of bacon. “I’d like to take you shopping.”
I giggled, grabbing a piece of bacon for myself. I pointed it at him before taking a bite. “I feel like that’s more fun for you than for me.”
“Humor me,” he said on a shrug. “Besides, San Marco is beautiful. Lots of photo opportunities. And… I thought maybe…” He paused, rolling over in the giant bed until he could reach the bedside table. He opened the drawer and faced me again with a box in his hand. “You could use this.”
I took a sip of my coffee before setting it aside, taking the box from Theo’s hands. It was a simple but heavy white box wrapped with a navy blue ribbon. When I opened it, I nearly had a heart attack from shock.
“Theo…” I whispered, just staring at the beautiful camera inside the box. I was too afraid to touch it, because I knew just by the model number on top that it cost more than four times what I’d paid for the camera I already had.
“I know it’s probably going to take some getting used to,” he said hurriedly, pulling the Sony a7 IV from the box since I was too afraid to touch it. He turned it on, placing it in my shaking hands. “And I think it’s more of a landscape-focused camera, but I read that it’s stunning for street photography once you figure out the settings. Oh, I got a few lenses for it, too, and the best memory card I could find.” He frowned as he watched me tilt the camera in my hands. “Do you like it? If not, I can send it back, it’s okay if it’s not the—”
“Theo, it has sixty-one megapixels and a Bionz X image processor,” I said, as if that should have been answer enough to the question. “I don’t like it. I love it. I am floored by it. I am… dazzled by it. I am scared of it,” I added with a laugh, letting the machine rest in my lap as my eyes found his. “And I am completely blown away that you got this for me.”
Theo smirked. “Well, I know you’ll do brilliant things with it.”
He leaned in to kiss me before I could blush properly, and I abandoned the camera altogether, wrapping my arms around his neck and holding him to me.
Once again I found it felt like a dream having Theo in my grasp. It was both foreign and the most natural thing I’d ever done, to have my lips pressed to his, to have his body flush against my own.
Something niggled at my gut, like a warning or a reminder, but it was so faint I ignored it in favor of the sensations that flooded me when Theo kissed me the way he did.
He groaned when my tongue swept inside his mouth, hot and eager, and I arched into the touch as a humming vibration spiraled down my spine.
“Eat breakfast and then get dressed,” Theo said, breaking the kiss with a stiff inhale. “Before I keep you in this room all day, instead.”