She breathes my name between kisses, and I swallow a deep growl as she scratches her nails down my back, my muscles contracting from her touch.
Her tongue licks mine with scorching heat before she bites my lower lip and sucks it into her mouth. I slide my hand from the back of her head, down her spine, to her side, and brush my thumb over the curve of her side boob. Her nipples pebble with desire through the thin cotton separating us, her warmth pressed into me.
I kiss her possessively, showing her what I struggle to explain with words.
My cock strains against my boxers, precum soaking the fabric even more. This woman is undoing me, wrecking me for anyone else.
The whooshing sound of a door opening is what I hear next, then my brother’s voice, “Morning, loser, I thought you were going home last night?”
Cole.
Sapphire and I stop kissing immediately, and she tucks herself into my neck, sounding out of breath, allowing me to eyeball my brother over her shoulder with a look that tells him to get out.
Startled by Sapphire’s presence, as if in slow motion, Cole then says, “Mom’s… asking… what… you… want… for… breakfast… Shit,” he adds. “Sorry.” He sounds mildly apologetic.
“Will you, please, in the nicest possible way, kindly fuck off, Cole? I’m busy.” My chest rises and falls as Sapphire snorts into my shoulder.
“I can see that,” he replies with a wicked grin, unfazed.
“And yet, you’re still standing there,” I point out.
He waves me off. “You kids have fun.” He goes to close the door. “At least someone is getting some. God, that’s so fucking depressing,” he mutters on a sigh, sounding melancholy. “Mom wants you down for breakfast in thirty minutes.”
“How did she know I was here?” I shout out.
“She knows everything,” he calls back.
She’s like a three-eyed raven.
I feel a little embarrassed. I’ve never had a girl stay overnight at my parents’ house because we weren’t allowed to. That was one of Mom’s rules that we always followed. Even at thirty-seven, I worry I might get in trouble. She might punish me by making me try eggplant again. I hated it when I was ten, and I hate it even more now. Just thinking of the texture makes bile rise at the back of my throat.
“Sapphire is a vegetarian,” I call after him, letting him know to tell Mom.
“Okay.” Cole ends our conversation, his voice drifting down the stairs, then I hear mumbles of voices below us in the kitchen, Cole laughing with Mom. Idiots.
Sapphire untucks herself from my neck and nervously laughs. “I’ll never be able to look your brother in the eye again. This is very unprofessional of me, and I feel like a teenager getting caught making out with a boy under the bleachers.”
“I wish I’d met you when I was in my teens.” How things could have been so different.
That makes her blush, blotching her cheeks with pink.
“I think our paths have crossed just at the right time, Eli.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. It’s what fate intended.”
I don’t believe in fate, or luck; in my opinion, we make our own luck and fate, but I keep that to myself. The moment is too precious to ruin.
I nod and kiss her briefly before informing her, “My mother is expecting us for breakfast.”
“Is your whole family here?”
“I don’t know.” That’s the truth. Nathan and Arianna spent the night in the honeymoon treehouse, and Cole stayed here, but I’m not sure about Max. Also, my dad isn’t here, which leaves us feeling incomplete. I keep that to myself too. I’m still not used to him not being around for Sunday breakfasts. “Are you nervous?” I ask, pushing thoughts of my father’s absence aside. Sapphire is usually so confident, and I’ve only seen her doubt herself a couple of times.
“We’re stepping into new territory. From business to a wedding guest to kissing each other.”
“Like an actual couple.” It’s cute how nervous she sounds. “You hit it off with my family yesterday and they all think you’re lovely.” That’s exactly what she is: lovely. “And who cares that we are crossing the line between business and pleasure?” We don’t have anything in our contracts that says we can’t date contractors once they’ve won the contract. Before the deal is signed—yes, so there is no nepotism involved, but not after. That suits me just fine, because now I’ve had a taste of her, everything that’s been holding me back has vanished. All I can think about are her little whimpers this morning. They’re enough to make me want to burn down the world for her.