When he closes the distance, I press a hand against his solid chest. Wishing I could focus on seeing it bare soon, but knowing I’ve got to get something off mine. I lift my eyes to his. “I slipped up.”
He freezes. “What do you mean?”
“I told Cole we’d see him next Sunday for his visit.”
“And?”
I cock my head. “He had toremindme we’re getting married next Sunday.”
He grins and snakes his fingers around my neck, his thumbs sweeping my jaw gently. “You need to relax.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, my stress levels heightening. “I’m going to ruin this for you.”
He lowers my hand. “Then stop talking, Sunset,” he murmurs against my lips in that gravelly tone. Then kisses them tenderly. “By the way, I’m sorry about the photo with Laurie.”
I laugh.
“What’s funny?”
“You were one breath away from falling off that chair and crackin’ your head open.”
He chuckles, but there’s little humor. Instead, he pokes my stomach. “Liked you stickin’ up for me tonight.”
I’m about to blow it off with a comment about blondes, but it catches in my throat when I see how serious he is. And nervous. “He’s got nothing on you, Dallas. And I’m prepared to tell anyone who questions it that I was being harassed on that stage and you jumped to my defense.”
He sucks in deep. “I hate this.” He runs a hand down his face. “The lies, the fights, putting Ellie in the middle of it all. I just want to give her a good life. I want a chance to be her daddy. To raise her. To make up for lost time. Last thing I want to do is take someone else away from her.”
I cup his face. “We won’t. If he doesn’t drop this, we’ll do everything we can to win and then reason with him. Show him that it doesn’t have to be this way.”
He watches me like he’s not sure about any of it anymore.
“Dallas, all you’re doing is getting the rights you and Ellie deserved, the oneshepromised you from the very beginning.”
He nods, a slow resolve. “You’ll help me make things right when this is all over?”
I smile up at him. “Unless you’re kicking me out.”
He growls low, hand sliding back into my hair. “Good. Now where the hell were we before all this?” He dips his head, kissing my jaw.
I’m already melting from the heat of his body when Dallas hikes me up onto the island. The skirt of my dress bunches around my thighs as he spreads my legs apart and steps between them.
I gasp and he’s barely touched me—which means I’m in trouble. I’m even more aware of this fact when he brings his hands to my bare thighs and gently squeezes as he works his way up. Stopping when he reaches the warm inner part between my legs.
I toss my head back with a shudder. “Don’t be a tease, Dallas.”
He responds with a throaty chuckle as he brings his hands back to my face, brushing my lips with his. “It’s only a tease if I don’t follow through.” He presses a kiss against my neck and works his way down. “I’m not teasing anyone tonight.”
I tug on his shirt. “We’re done with rules, right?”
“Damn right,” he rasps, then reaches back and peels the shirt over his head and tosses it to me.
I drop it beside me on the counter, and he inches me forward. I yelp, then exhale a laugh as my hands dig into his hair, still damp from his shower, then stroke his sexy stubble. “This beard turns me on.”
His brows knit like he thought I might have said something else. “You like it?”
I nod, flustering.
A slow grin spreads over his face as he watches me. “Then lie back, Sunset. So you can feel it between your thighs.”
