to a plan now.
“I thought it would be enough,” Curt said. “I thought I would be satisfied with just flying you out and seeing you for a few days. But all it's done is whet my appetite for more. I can’t stand the thought of you going home tomorrow, Annalise.”
“I don’t want to go either,” Annalise said quietly. “This has been… amazing, Curt. The perfect escape. I’ve had such a good time here.”
“Then stay,” Curt insisted. “My shoot is just two more weeks long, and then I’ll be back home. We can get the bungalow for two more weeks. We can change your flight.” He had his phone out already and was navigating to the airline’s website. “Let me see what they have available,” he said.
Annalise’s head spun. Was he really doing this? She didn’t fly often, but she knew how expensive last-minute plane fares could be. And add that to the cost of renting this bungalow for a further two weeks, plus the fact that he had already paid to fly her out here in the first place… she was starting to feel very expensive.
But on the other hand, wouldn’t it be amazing to spend the next two weeks in Costa Rica? She’d had an amazing time so far, but she hadn’t even left the resort. If she was here for two weeks, she would have time to really explore. She would go into town and do some shopping, find that coffee Maggie had asked for. She might even get the chance to visit Curt on the set of his movie, if the two of them could come up with a convincing enough story to explain who she was and why she was there.
“Here,” Curt said. “There’s a ticket available a week from Friday. Could you stay that long? Then you would only be flying home a few days before me. I looked for something that would let you leave on the same day as I’m leaving, but that’s all booked up. Probably because the production people are flying back. There’s only economy class.”
“Curt,” Annalise said. “I don’t mind flying economy.”
“No, I can’t ask you to do that,” Curt said.
“Of course you can!” Annalise shook her head. “Are you serious? Thousands of people fly economy every day. And you’d still be flying me home from a luxury Costa Rican vacation. It’s not like it would be a hardship.”
Curt laughed. “You’re right,” he said. “I guess I sounded really snobby, didn’t I? As if I thought we were too good for economy-class plane tickets. It’s just that I want to give you the best of everything.”
Annalise’s heart warmed. “I know,” she said. “I feel the same way. I want to give you everything too.”
He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into him, kissing her deeply, and she let her body conform to his. The feeling of want that had become so familiar to her over the past few weeks began to blossom again, and she climbed into his lap, sitting astride him, holding his face between her hands so that she could kiss him back.
His hands slid down her sides and came to rest on her hips. “I could do this forever,” he murmured against her cheek. “I could stay here in paradise, with you, loving you, forever.”
She nodded. Yes.
Words eluded her as he lifted her sundress over her hips, over her head. He leaned back for a moment so that he could admire her body, and Annalise felt herself grow lightheaded with desire. He could make her feel lit up inside just by looking at her.
“So should I get the ticket?” he murmured.
“What?” She’d lost track of what they were talking about. She had lost herself, as she so often did, in the touch of his hands and the feel of his skin on hers.
“The plane ticket,” he said. “If we’re going to exchange your seat home, we should do it quickly, before it sells out.”
“Oh,” Annalise sat back. “Oh.”
“Oh, what?”
She closed her eyes. “I want to,” she said. “I want to so bad. You have no idea.”
Curt groaned. “There’s a ‘but’ coming, isn’t there?”
She smiled slightly. “Work,” she said. “You’re not the only one with a job. I’ve got to get back to work.”
“You can’t take another week off?”
“Not on such short notice. The kids need me, Curt.”
“Get a substitute.” His hands were on her waist again, and she was very aware of the fact that she was naked.
She cursed herself silently for not wearing underwear