She stepped closer to the bed. “Flowers and chocolate?” The impish expression that crossed her features made me want to tackle her to the bed. “I thought you said I wasn’t that kind of girl.”
Hunching my shoulders, I shoved my hands in my pockets. “Guess you’re a little bit that kind of girl.” I grinned.
“You got me a present?” Her brow furrowed. “I thought we agreed we weren’t buying each other anything.”
“I didn’t break the agreement. You’ll see.” Gesturing to the gift, I said, “Open it.”
Sitting on the edge of the bed, she picked up the slim, square package, running her fingers over the paper as though she’d never received a present before—which made no sense considering how well-off her family was. Slowly, she slipped a fingernail beneath the tape and carefully unstuck it. My family tore into presents like buzz saws, so watching Piper unwrap my gift at such a glacial pace was excruciating torture.
At last she had every piece of tape unstuck, but then she just sat there, staring at the paper covering the frame.
Clearing my throat, I said, “It won’t bite.”
She huffed out an embarrassed laugh and tugged the paper off to reveal the portrait I’d drawn of her. I’d captured one of my favorite expressions—Piper in a playful mood right before her stunning violet eyes turned to smoke. She lay on her side holding her head in her hand. The portrait revealed a bare shoulder and her upper arm reaching out to me, an intimate moment we’d shared more than once, and one I wanted to share with her when we were old and gray.
“Oh, Wyatt,” she breathed. Shining eyes caught mine. “Is this truly how you see me?”
Sitting beside her, I stared at the side of the face I saw every night in my dreams as she returned her gaze to the drawing. “I don’t have the skill to draw you the way I truly see you. Your kind of beauty can only be rendered by the masters.”
“You’re a master,” she whispered. Hugging the drawing to her chest, she smiled a wobbly smile. “I will cherish this always.”
I couldn’t stand it any longer. Trailing a finger along her jaw, I said, “I’ll cherish you. Always.”
Somehow the presents found their way to the nightstand before we undressed each other. Unlike our usual rush to get naked, we took our sweet time, peeling layer after layer from each other’s bodies, revealing a shoulder, a bicep, the swell of a breast, the top of a thigh—each of which needed a kiss. By the time both of us were standing naked beside the bed, our bodies were on fire. Still, we moved slowly, our eyes locked as we gave each other long, sweeping caresses.
When at last I pushed her gently onto the bed and covered her body with my own, both of us were on the verge of orgasm. Yet our coming together remained unhurried, easy, and more intense than anything I’d ever experienced in my life. By the time I needed to pick up the pace, both of us were sweating, our hips moving in sync, our breaths sawing in and out, and still our eyes remained locked. As the climax barreled down my spine, I couldn’t stop myself from letting her see the emotions I’d held for her since the night we met.
She screamed my name, bucking and writhing beneath me as her pussy gripped me in a vise I wanted to hold me forever.
“Wyatt! Wyatt! Oh, Wyatt!” echoed off the walls of my room.
“Piper. Love.” I collapsed on top of her, my face buried in her neck as my heart tried to race out of my chest.
A while later when I could be relatively sure my arms would support me again, I pushed up off her chest only to be dragged back down again as she wrapped her arms and legs around me, holding me on top of and inside of her.
A laugh huffed from my throat. “Babe, I’m squishing you.”
“Do. Not. Move,” she said on sips of air. “I’m not ready yet.”
The aftershocks pulsing around my cock emphasized her words, but still I tucked my elbows close to her sides and leveraged some of my weight off her chest.
“Wyatt,” she whispered when I finally rolled onto my back, taking her with me to sprawl across my chest. “It was only supposed to be a one-night stand. I never saw you coming.”
In the heart-shaped glow of the fairy lights, I smiled against her hair and drew lazy patterns on the silky skin of her shoulder. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m crazy about you, too.”
“Johnson and Fitz are hosting a pre-spring break party tonight. You going?” Finn asked as we headed out the door for morning lift.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Try not to sound so excited about it,” Finn chuckled.
In the month since Valentine’s Day, Piper and I hadn’t spent a single night without each other—until the past two. She’d lined up a paid internship at a museum in Denver over spring break and needed to pull a couple of all-nighters to finish up her research so she could show up more than prepared. I swear, that girl’s work ethic kicked the shit out of any national championship team.
Honestly, I wasn’t looking forward to going to a party without her, but she reminded me it was important to bond with my teammates, especially during the off season, so I’d better make an appearance at least. She had me that whipped that if she told me to jump off a cliff, I’d beg to know which one.
Grinning at myself, I tossed my duffel into the back seat of my truck and fired it up. Finn climbed into the passenger seat with a cartoonish eye roll and we headed to practice.
“That girl owns you,” he said.
