He listens.
He thrusts and retreats. My body burns, and I explode around him.
He picks up the pace, moving faster, breaking the kiss to throw his head back and pound into me. Harder. Deeper.
His cock jerks. He groans my name and presses in even deeper, holding himself there as he strains inside me.
Gathering me against his chest, he turns us and pulls the covers over us both.
And he holds me, kissing me lightly and stroking my back as our breathing evens out.
“We have to do that again,” I whisper, long minutes later.
His laugh rings out, loud and long. “Yeah.”
I grin up at him, and he grins back. “Will you tell me about your tattoos?”
He kisses me. “Just as soon as I finished telling you that I love you. I might have forgotten to tell you before on account of how turned on I was.”
“I know that,” I say, taking his hand and pressing his palm against my heart. “I feel it here whenever you look at me.”
“Good,” he says, looking pleased.
He gathers me against his chest and tells me about his tattoos. Every single one is a symbol and a memory of all the people he loved and lost from his birth family and the family he found in the army.
He doesn’t get through all of them before one light touch turns into a kiss, which turns into another, and we’re too distracted to talk.
We nap, shower together, make love yet again, and then he slips out in just his boxers to get food for both of us. As we eat, I tell him about my family, and he tells me about his.
And he never stops looking at me as if every dream he ever had just came true.
I look at him, feeling the same way.
The next morning, wanting a fresh change of clothes, I head down the stairs to my bedroom in one of the smaller living rooms.
Vonn said I could borrow clothes from him, or he could get something for me to wear, but if we don’t show our faces soon, Makhi, Nash, and Nance will worry.
I should really move to my bedroom upstairs, since Makhi and Nance only set up the downstairs bedroom for me when I sprained my ankle and could barely walk.
A familiar figure in a maid's uniform crouches beside my bed.
I pause in my bedroom doorway, frowning. “Lydia. What are you doing?”
She jumps and spins around, flashing me a fake smile as she straightens and smooths down the front of her skirt. “Nance asked me to empty your trash. I’ll leave you to it.”
I open my mouth to tell her I don’t have trash, but she ducks around me and takes off, through the entryway and out the front door.
Suspicious and uneasy, I scan my room. My bedside table is open a couple of inches, instantly catching my eye.
Lydia would have no reason to open it if she were here to empty my trash. The trash can is beside the door, and it was empty before I left to go on a ride with Makhi because Nance had already emptied it.
When I pull the drawer open the rest of the way, I suck in a breath when I spot a silver bracelet that is definitelynotmine.
She did it.
Lydia hid the necklace in my room before, and she was back to hide something else that would make Makhi, Nash, and Vonn think I was stealing from them.
With the bracelet, I hurry after her and bounce into Makhi, who catches me with a, “What’s the rush?”
