“No hurry.”
I couldn’t leave the house without touching her one more time, without taking a bit of sweetness with me to help me remember all the things I wanted to make come true for her. So, I made my way over to the stove and backed her up against the counter. Her eyes widened, darting over my shoulder to where her dad sat. I simply lifted her chin and covered her mouth with mine.
I didn’t take it far, not with the audience we had. I didn’t thrust my tongue between those delightful lips and say good morning the way I would have if she’d still been in my bed when I woke, but I also didn’t deliver just a peck.
It wasn’t until her dad cleared his throat that I eased back. But I was inordinately pleased with the flush that coated her cheeks and even more satisfied knowing that blush would grow darker once she read the messages I’d left her.
I winked and said, “Check your texts.”
When Vader tried to join me at the back door, I ordered him to stay, and he looked like I’d shot him in the chest. I rubbed his ears and said, “Protect. Vader, stay. Protect.”
He sat on his haunches and looked back at Maisey, her dad, and the kitten attempting to crawl up a stool, and I was certain he nodded at me.
Regardless of the darkness hovering around us, I was smiling as I walked out the door. Because having Maisey in my bed last night, seeing her in the kitchen in that sexy silk robe, and leaving with the taste of her etched on my lips, had made this one of the best mornings I could remember having in years. And I was determined to have another thousand mornings just like this, a forever after full of them.
Chapter Twenty-two
Maisey
SAVE YOUR LOVE
Performed by Great White
PRESENT DAY
HIM: What a shitty way to wake up.
HIM: I had plans for our morning, darlin’.
HIM: But now I have new plans. The next time we spend the night together, I want you in nothing but that blue robe. I want nothing on below it but warm skin so, when I push it open, all I see are those pretty pink nipples. I want to feast on them for a long while before I slide my finger inside you and watch your eyes go from sage to forest green. I want to hear you pant and beg and scream my name.
Thirty minutes later…
HER: Holy bejesus, Beckett! I read that text while sitting next to my dad at breakfast! What would I have done if he’d glanced over and seen something?!
HER: You can’t say things like that, not without warning me first so I can hide my phone.
HER: Maybe you’re taking this friends-with-benefits thing a bit too far.
Two hours later….
HIM: Hey, Maise?
HER: Yeah?
HIM: Warning…
HER: …
HIM: I also want you to wear that robe while you’re sitting on my kitchen counter. I want to spread you open, drop to my knees, and make a meal of you. I want to give you the buzz I promised the other night.
HER: I’m at work!
HIM: It might be cruel, but I like knowing you’re aching forme just as much as I’m aching for you. Four days at the station have never seemed so interminable.
HIM: And let’s be clear—we’ve never simply been friends, and this is a hell of a lot more than friends with benefits.
The sexy texts Beckett sent thefirst day of his shift were just the start of a steady stream of them that tortured me for four days.