“How could anyone resist your delicious pussy?” I falter. “Consider my flabbers gasted because how in the hell am I going to do anything ever again without thinking about how fucking good you taste?”
A bright red bloom spreads across her chest and onto her face.
“I could get used to seeing you like this,” I say, voice low and teasing.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve you,” she whispers, eyes full of sincerity.
“You deserve the world.” I lean in, letting my forehead brush hers, my arms encasing her like a shield. “And I’ll spend every day making sure you get all the good that’s meant for you.”
Her lips twitch into a soft, lazy smile as she relaxes against me. I hold her closer, trailing tender kisses all over her brow.
Chapter twenty
Daphne
Ididn’trealizeitcould be like this.
I’m snuggled against the front of my ripped, fur-covered lover, and I nuzzle my face against the softness of his chest hair. Andri wants to make me happy, to please me in ways that I didn’t think were possible. He sighs, and his arms pull me closer as he sniffs the top of my head, pulling in a big whiff of my scent.
“Why do you do that?” I whisper into his pecs. “You seem to smell me an awful lot.”
He shifts in the bed, pushing me away slightly and tucking his chin so that he can see me better.
“Is the reason that you smell amazing not enough?” He looks down at me with those sleepy hooded lids before sniffing my head again, this time with gusto.
“I don’t even wear perfume—and I’ve just been using the free unscented hotel soap.” I laugh, batting him away. “I just smell like…me.”
“That’s my favorite smell.” Andri’s grin cracks wide.
I lift my forearm to my nose and take a whiff. I smell the same as I always do, maybe even a little sweatier given our recent activities.
“I mean, if you say so.” I give up, tucking my arm back underneath his.
He pulls the down comforter up to my chin, and I know it’s for my benefit only, seeing as he wears practically nothing on the slopes.
“Are you ever too hot?” I ask, honestly curious.
“I mean, I hope you think I’m always sexy,” he jokes.
I roll my eyes. “You know that’s not what I meant!”
“I know… I guess I just adjust to temperatures better than most. I prefer the cold, if that’s what you're asking, it feels the most natural for me.”
I frown, now wondering if I’ve caused him some kind of discomfort by having to be near my heat-seeking self all the time. He catches on quickly, though.
“But not nearly as natural as I feel being around you.” He pauses, looking down at me with adoration. “Can I ask you something?”
I nod.
“What do you wantthis”—he gestures broadly at us both, flicking his fingers through the space like he’s trying to define something invisible—“to be?”
Every muscle in my body tenses. The handsome and kind snowman’s question shouldn’t terrify me, but it does. Andri is amazing—steady, kind, with a quiet humor that sneaks up on me when I least expect it. I’m having so much fun with him…and yes, if I let myself picture it, Icouldsee a future with him. But somehow, the idea of putting a label on this fragile, perfect thing between us is setting off every alarm bell in my body.
Gerald never asked what I wanted, he rushed me into the engagement. Swept me up in some grand gesture, like myengagement ring was some prize that white trash like me was lucky to earn. Yet at the time I was ecstatic, so sure that I was safe and I’d finally found my home.
So sure that I mattered to him.
I didn’t know that forever came with conditions. That his version of forever included another woman’s lipstick on his collar and my silent complicity.
