“Would you like something to drink?” he asks.
“No.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Yes.”
He turns to look at me for the first time since we’ve walked in. “What sounds good?”
“You.”
My single word confession has him dropping all pretenses as he stalks toward me. “You have me, baby.”
“You naked.” I amend my earlier request.
“I’m barely holding on right now, Aurora. I’m trying to be a gentleman and not take you here on the counter.”
“I’d like that. Please and thank you,” I say sweetly. He laughs, a deep rumbling sound from his chest. He takes a step back, just out of my reach. “You’re going the wrong way,” I tell him.
“Naked.” He points at me. “I need you naked.”
“What about you?”
He rips his T-shirt over his head, and with speed I wasn’t sure anyone was capable of, he’s stripping out of his jeans and kicks them to the side. He stands there, arms held out beside him, his body on display. “I’m all yours, Rory. Now tell me, baby, what are you going to do with me?”
Following his lead, I start pulling off clothes, letting them fall into a pile on his kitchen floor. When I’m fully naked, I hold my arms out just as he did and toss his words back at him. “I’m all yours, Grant. Now tell me, baby, what are you going to do with me?”
He lunges for me, and I squeal with both surprise and laughter as he tosses me over his shoulder and carries me to the island. The granite is cold on my bare skin, but I barely have time to notice before he’s fusing his mouth to mine. His kisses steal the breath from my lungs. He pulls back, his chest heaving, and rests his forehead against mine. “I don’t have a condom down here.”
I let the words hang between us as I consider what it means. What it is he’s asking. “I’m clean. I’ve been tested every six months since… him. I didn’t trust him, so….” I shrug.
“There’s been no one but you for over a year, and I’m clean. I promise you. I would never do anything to put you in danger.”
I run my hand over the butterfly tattoo on his chest. “I don’t want anything between us. I’m on the pill. We’re protected.”
“The pill isn’t always 100 percent.”
I nod. “I know.”
“You’re willing to take that chance with me?”
“I do owe you a lifetime of kisses.”
“Damn right you do.” He kiss me hard. Reaching between us, he grips his cock and aligns himself at my entrance. “This is going to be fast, beautiful. Just the thought of sliding inside you bare, with your pussy gripping my cock, has me ready to blow.”
“Good. Because you’ve been driving me crazy with need since we got in your car.”
He smiles. “Hold onto me.”
I do as he says, sliding my hand behind his neck. He pushes in deep, causing me to hold on tighter, burying my face in his neck.
“You okay?”
“Never better. Take what you need, Grant. I’m not fragile. I’m not going to break. I need this just as bad as you do.”
He nods and pulls out, slamming back in. His hands grip my thighs, keeping me in place as he brings us both to the edge of pleasure. “So… good,” he says, his voice tight. “We’re never going back,” he says, pumping into me. “Never going to be anything between us ever again.”
“Yes,” I say. I’m agreeing with him, but also telling him that I want more. I need more. Over and over again, he pumps into me at a rapid pace, and even though I don’t want it to end, I can feel my body start to tingle, and I know I’m falling. My moans, as my orgasm races through me, would give a porn star a run for her money.
“Fuck!” Grant yells as his body stills, and he empties himself inside me. “You’re trying to kill me.”
I smile into his neck. “I love you.”
“I love you too. Let’s get you cleaned up and in bed, where I can worship you as you deserve.”
He gets no complaint from me as he lifts me into his arms and carries me upstairs. “I say we lock ourselves inside until tomorrow night.”
“Done.” He kisses my temple.
Grant makes good on his promise. We shower, and he worships my body. As I drift off to sleep sometime in the early morning hours, fully sated, I can’t help but wonder if I can talk him into this every weekend.
Epilogue Grant
Grant
This will be the first year since the lake was built on our parents’ property that we don’t spend the Fourth of July on the water. That was the plan until Aurora broke the news that she and Aspen were meeting her parents in Gatlinburg for a weekend getaway. Her parents went to North Carolina to the beach for the week and are driving home. They want to see their daughters, and I can’t spend that much time away from her. So I rallied the troops. My parents own a cabin in the Smokey Mountains. It’s huge, with ten bedrooms and twelve bathrooms. I invited her parents to stay with us: us meaning me, my four brothers, my sisters-in-law, my nephew, and Mom and Dad. We take six rooms, Aspen takes another, her parents take another, and I still don’t know if Aurora will be lying next to me each night. I’ll respect her wishes about whatever she decides to do, but I want her with me. Always.
“You ready for this?” Dad asks, helping me unload the back of my SUV.
“Yes.”
“Confident as always.” He laughs.
“I love her.”
“I know you do.”
“It’s time.” I don’t have to elaborate for him to know what I’m talking about.
A slow smile crosses his face. “You finally ready to admit the love of a good woman is magic?”
“Yep.”
He clamps a hand on my shoulder. “Never forget it. Treat her and your love like the special gift that it is.”
“What’s going on over here? Is this some kind of meeting of the minds?” Conrad asks.
“Nah, Dad and I were just talking about magic.”
“Ugh,” Conrad sighs dramatically. “He got to you too. Dad, you’re turning my brothers into love-sick fools.” He points at our father. “You keep yourself and that voodoo love stuff away from Marsh and me. We’re sowing our wild oats.”
“The magic finds you, son. It’s not something I can curse you with. Besides, it’s not a curse.” He glances over at my mom. “It’s a blessing.”
Owen and Layla pull up in their loaded-down SUV. I make a beeline for the back door and lift Carter and his baby seat out. “Hey, buddy,” I say to my smiling nephew.
“Hand him over,” Conrad says, trying to reach for the baby seat.
“Nope. Get your own.”
“Not when I have this little man to spoil.”
A car coming up the driveway catches my attention. My entire family is already here, including Aurora and Aspen. With Owen and Layla the last to arrive, I know this is her parents. I pull my phone out of my pocket to call Aurora and let her know they’re here, but the slamming of the screen door and the pounding of feet across the deck and down the steps tells me that she already knows. I watch with a smile as the sisters greet their parents. It’s been way too long since they’ve seen them. I wonder what it would take to get them to move to Nashville. Carter coos as Conrad steals him away from me.