Overlooked(2)(79)

“I hope you’re telling them you won’t be back anytime soon.” She’d better not rush off on me.

“I’m telling them I’ve gone shopping at the mall. They won’t expect me back soon.”

“Say you’ve gone with your friends.”

“I don’t do much with my friends anymore. Not since that night.”

“Fuck, seriously?” Am I that hated just because I’m a carny?

“We’re still friends, just not as close. They didn’t support me when I said I was going to find you. All they did was try to stop me.”

I lean back into the booth and look up at the ceiling, Papa Smurf’s words rattling through my head, ‘You’ll find out the hard way that you’re from a different world than her, and the outside world don’t approve of us.’

Maybe no one in her life approves of me, but she does, and that’s all that matters.

Emily sets her phone on the table and says, “What are we going to do?”

“I’m getting real tired of having this table between us. Let’s go check into my motel.”

We get back in her car, and I direct her to the Motel 6. It’s forty bucks a night, and that’s going to add up fast. I don’t want to blow my savings on it. I’m going to have to find another solution.

Sliding the key into the lock, I open the door. The overpowering smell of Lysol hits me, but at least it’s clean. Other than that, it’s your standard two double beds and ugly pictures on the wall motel room.

“Are you finally going to show me the rest of your tattoos?” Emily asks with her killer smile as she goes through the doorway.

It’s all I’ve been thinking about all these months.

“Wait here, I need a quick shower.”

“Okay,” she says, shrugging.

I have expected her to ask to join me, but then I realize this is Emily, the good girl. Who’s still a virgin.

Stepping into the hot flow, I stand still while I let the water wash over me. After three days of hitchhiking in big-rigs, I could stand here all day. But I don’t want to keep her waiting. After ripping the paper off a tiny bar of soap, I thoroughly clean myself and shut off the water.

My clean clothes are in my backpack, which is still in the bedroom area. With only a towel tied around my waist, I leave the bathroom.

Emily is sitting back on the bed, looking at her phone. Good, I’m glad she’s relaxed and not perched on the edge of the bed or something.

When she notices I’ve come back in the room, she looks up. Not very far up, her eyes seem to be stuck on my abs. When I take a step in her direction, her eyes move down to my legs. I realize she’s seeing the tattoos on my lower legs for the first time, and stay still while she examines them. My dick is twitching under the heat of her gaze, the towel shows each little movement.

This wasn’t my plan. I didn’t bring her here expecting anything from her. I just want her. The last thing I want is for her to feel pressured.

The TV remote is on the desk behind me, and I turn and grab it. Turning the tv on, I flip through the channels until I find MTV. Coldplay is playing, which is perfect even if they are old.

“Do you have any more under that towel?” she asks.

Am I going to show her the rest under my towel?

“You’ll find out,” I say, turning to face her. “Now come over here and kiss me.” I stay where I am but hold out my hand, beckoning her.

Emily flies off the bed and into my arms. Exactly the way I’ve been imagining all these nights alone in my bed.

Holding her close to me, I inhale her rose scent and let it soothe the frustration of the time we spent apart.

I kiss her silky hair and down along her cheek. Tilting her head to mine, my mouth connects with her soft lips. Emily gasps and submits to my touch. My tongue probes her mouth, and before long her own tongue is twirling with mine.

All these nights I’ve been thinking how I can make her first time special for her, and now I finally get to. Shit, I almost forgot to show her something.

I pull my lips away from hers and say, “Hold on, Goldie, I did something I want to show you.”

Her brow furrows in puzzlement as I move away from her and to my backpack. I rifle through the papers, my passport, and birth certificate until I find the piece of paper I’m looking for and pull it out of the bag. I step back to Emily and place it in her hand.

“What’s this?” she asks, confused.

“It’s a test I did to show you I don’t have any STDs or anything.”

“This is from October.”

“That’s after the last time I was with anyone. The last time I was with you. Now I know you, I could never look at another woman.”