“All over it,” he replied.
“We’ll be there soon.” I ended the call and shoved the phone in my back pocket. I watched as Sunny sat up, the sheets pooling around her waist and her hair spilling over her shoulders. She was naked and perfect, and leaving this room was the last thing I wanted to do. But we had to go. “Apparently there was a storm last night.”
She glanced to the window, frowning. Bright, intense sunlight knifed through the curtains. “I wonder how we missed that.”
We’d torn into another of Sunny’s favorite books, one featuring people who shared an enormous amount of hostility and were forced to spend time together at work. Strangely enough, the hostility never stopped them from fucking the stuffing out of each other.
We’d started out innocently—if sucking her clit while I had several fingers buried in her pussy could be innocent. But then, well, things got a little adventurous. She came on my tongue and I spurted all over her luscious ass, exactly as she’d requested. The shower was next and it was there was we discovered—after taking all the precautions necessary to keeping her cast dry—that Sunny was an incredible cocksucker. I’d known something of this from our first night together, but that was a blur like the middle of a marathon.
Later, we ate leftovers from the café and talked about all the places we’d been over the years. The places we wanted to go next. Somewhere in our debate of Vietnam’s best destinations, we fell into each other—and her book—all over again. I’d propped her up on a mound of pillows and slow-fucked her as she read. The people in her book liked to incorporate toys, which led me to do the only reasonable thing and learn how she liked to play with her vibrator.
That lasted through half a chapter and a long, rolling orgasm from Sunny that made me a believer in all the gods, all the higher powers. Then, that sweet, shy girl who’d told me she “didn’t like a lot of penis” climbed on top of me and sank down on my cock. She put the vibe in my hand and ordered me to make good use of it, and then she rode me like she’d never want anything else.
I let myself believe she’d never want anyone but me.
“Yeah, a real mystery.” I shook my head. I felt the lingering stretch in my abs, heard the filthy things she’d whispered in my ear. The frankly shocking things I’d whispered back. “The power’s out at Naked and—”
“Muffy is going to implode if she loses everything in the walk-in.” She sprang into action, yanking a t-shirt over her head, finger-combing her hair into a bun. She’d gotten good at doing all these things one-handed. Not that she’d accept any help. She stepped into a small pair of gauzy shorts and my heart tripped into the kind of rhythm I only felt when running uphill in a Singaporean heat wave. “How long has it been out?”
“I don’t know but Hale is working on hooking up a generator.” I ran a hand down my face because those shorts were a catastrophe. I didn’t know how I was supposed to function. I didn’t know if I couldfunction. Had I exhaled since she pulled them on? I didn’t think so. It was one endless gasp, drawing more and more air in and leaving me stretched impossibly tight.
Sunny snapped her fingers, calling, “Scout. Jem.”
The dogs clamored into the room, all lolling tongues and wagging tails as they circled Sunny. She spoke to them in commands that skated between firm and gentle, and she had no idea I was breaking down into fractional parts over the sight of her legs. As if I hadn’t camped between them for an hour last night. As if I didn’t know every inch from her ankle on up.
“And the roof,” I said, still staring at those shorts. I had to start producing complete sentences. I had tobreathe. This was what happened when someone religiously wore repurposed tablecloth skirts and then, out of the blue, switched it up with a scrap of fabric that could only be described as a modern-day loincloth.
“Eyes up here. What about the roof?” She grabbed my wrist and towed me out of the bedroom, the dogs following close behind.
I shoved a hand through my hair. “Uh, yeah.”
“Button your shirt, Beck.” She flipped open her pill dispenser and dumped the morning’s meds into her palm. She held a glass under the faucet, still staring at me. “Are we starting the day with riddles? Is that how it’s going to be? I have to guess what’s wrong with the roof? Will it end with you saying you told me so?”
She downed the pills with a gulp of water and chased it all with two heaping spoonfuls of almond butter. In the deep recesses of my mind I knew we had to go, but in a very specific sense, we needed to stay here forever. With those shorts. Or without them.
“Yeah, I’m definitely getting a lecture about responsible roofing today,” she muttered. “So exciting. Can we save it for after I secure the perishables?”
“You can’t be a brat while wearing”—I motioned to the thick expanse of thigh on display—“that. There’s a real possibility my heart’s going to stop.”
She dropped a hand to her hip, a small smile pulling at her lips while she stared at me. “Resuscitating you sounds really time-consuming and we have places to be this morning so why don’t you get your mind off my clothes by thinking about something spicy like profit and loss statements or parking lots, hmm?”
“I do not need to think about parking lots,” I snapped. “I’m just—I’m not used to seeing you in anything but long skirts.”
Sunny put my keys in my palm and led the dogs out the door. “I believe you’ve seen me in a lot less without complaint.” She looped that basket of hers around her good arm as I closed the door behind us. “And I wouldn’t suggest you experiment with telling me what to wear.”
“That is thelastthing I’m going to do, storm cloud.” I dragged my gaze over that soft, pale skin before opening the passenger door for Sunny. “I just need a minute to adjust to the idea of you walking around half naked outside the bedroom and get some blood moving to all of my extremities.”
She peered up at me, her lips pink and swollen from last night, a faint wash of red on her neck from my beard. A lock of golden hair spilled out of her bun. I twisted it around my finger as she said, “Your penis is not my problem right now. I need you to work through this without me. Adjust while you drive. We can’t afford to lose everything in that walk-in.”
Fuck, I loved this girl.
One of these days, I’d find a way to tell her.
* * *
“Okay,”I said, dropping my phone into the cupholder. “They’re sending a few guys now and the rest of the crew will be here within the hour. They’ll patch everything up.”
Sunny gave up on texting one-handed, saying, “You know, I’d keep you around without the magic minions.”
