"Tell Annette we can't wait to meet her and we already adore her," she continued. "I hope you're eating fresh vegetables and keeping your checkbook balanced."
"As always," I said, shrugging my shirt over my shoulders. "Stay out of trouble."
"Why should I start now?" she replied with a hoot.
"My mom wants to meet you,"I said as we lazed in bed, our breath still ragged and the sheets tangled around our feet. I rolled to the side and planted a kiss on Annette's shoulder. "She wants to come up with my dad for a weekend next month."
She reached back from where she lay on her side, her palm grazing my leg. "We're meeting the parents?"
Focused on tasting the entirety of her shoulder, I brushed her wavy hair out of my way and kissed my way around. "If you want," I replied, as noncommittal as possible.
I was catching feelings.
It wasn't a new thing. I'd been catching them right from the start. But those feelings were bigger now, heavier. They blew right past attraction and lust and orbited around love.
Love. I was falling inlovewith this woman.
"I wouldn't mind," Annette answered as she trailed her nails down the length of my thigh. It felt amazing, like a million tiny tingles rushing out in the wake left by her touch. "What did you tell them? About me? I guess I'm assuming you told them anything at all. Maybe you didn't. That's also fine."
I dragged my teeth over the ball of her shoulder, nipping her skin just enough to draw a squeak from her lips. "I told my mother that I met someone," I said simply. "Is that all right?"
"Yes, of course," she replied. "I hope it's not a problem but I haven't said anything to my family. We have a wonky relationship. I don't offer too many details. They find everything I do problematic anyway so I try to keep my distance. It's easier on everyone that way."
My brain was still rattled from the last orgasm, but my cock didn't care. Nope, it was basking in the glory of Annette's fingers on my thigh—so close but also so far—and throbbing to life. With each pass of her nails, my body slipped into the old rhythm of rocking toward her softness, her heat. Soon I was stiff again, my cock hurting for the relief only she could offer.
"Not a problem at all," I said through a grunt. "There's plenty of time. I'm not going anywhere."
It didn't make sense that someone as devoted and generous as Annette would have a strained family life. I should've asked for details on her family situation but couldn't see through this thick fog of want. Should've pushed her to explain how a family could sustain itself with a principal member keeping her distance and rationing news of her life. Instead, I set it aside with a mental vow to revisit it later.
"Good," she murmured, her palm sliding over my ass cheek. "I like you right here."
I looped my arm beneath her, flattening my hand on her belly.Oh, fuck.I wanted to have her just like this, our bodies side by side and the sweat barely dried from our last round. I wanted to watch my cock shuttling into her and then dragging back, her inner muscles clinging to me as I retreated. I wanted to watch her tits bounce and sway as I thrust into her and feel the vibrations of her moans and pleas. And then I wanted to wrap my arms around her spent body and fall asleep with her.
"I want you," I said, my words spoken to her skin. "Now. Just like this."
I felt her nod before I heard her response. "I'm never making those kouign-amann cakes, am I?"
"Maybe not tonight." I pulled her leg back to rest on top of mine. "But there's always tomorrow."
I ran my fingers over her cleft, groaning at the rush of wet waiting for me. Her nails dug into my ass cheek, clawing as I circled her clit. "It's been five tomorrows," she murmured. "But I'm not complaining."
She urged me closer, her nails scratching over my backside like the strike of a match. My cock twitched against the small of her back. My skin was pulled tight over my shaft, swollen and needy from root to tip.
"Come here, Jackson," she said, patting my thigh. "Come fuck me."
Canting my hips, I drove into her with one rough thrust. This angle was glorious. It was enough to bring those three little words to the tip of my tongue and I was only able to choke them back when I closed my teeth around her skin, marking her just the same.
"Just like that," she said, her words snapping out with each thrust.
I locked both arms around her torso, holding her close and still as I pounded into her. The minute she sensed my control over her body, a flood of hot, slippery arousal washed over my cock. She wanted me to play rough and possessive but she wanted me to cherish her while I did it.
"Yeah? This is what you need, Annie?" I dragged my palm up her belly and cupped her breast, plumping it, circling her nipple.
Her answer came in the form of a purr, her body shuddering under my grasp. Her inner walls fluttered around me like the wings of a thousand butterflies and it took every last shred of strength to hold back my orgasm another second. That was all I needed, one fucking second to pump into her before I let go.
"I need you," she whispered. "You're all I need. All I want."
Her words hit a trigger inside me, a place distant and primal. I pushed into her one last time, already brainless and on my way to boneless as the first spurts blasted out of me. Goddamn, I never wanted to leave this bed. The world could burn down around us and I'd stay here, buried in Annette. I didn't want the world to burn down but I was damn interested in staying here with my woman.
