“No.” His eyes smolder as he gazes at me. “Try three months.”
His words send heat searing through me and I drop my head back onto the bed with a moan. He slides his hands under my butt, angling my hips up. I feel the scratch of his beard on my inner thigh as he lowers his mouth onto me, then his tongue sweeps over the throbbing, wet heat between my legs.
“Oh, oh God,” I groan, and he immediately stops.
I glance down to see amusement dancing in his eyes. “We have to be quiet, with Henry here.”
“Shit.” I cringe. “Sorry. You can stop if you want—”
“Fuck no,” he growls, then he buries his face between my legs again.
My hands drop to his head, pushing into his hair, holding him right where I want him. And he’s happy to comply. He slides his tongue over me greedily, working his fingers into me as he does, and it only takes a few minutes until I’m a panting, heaving mess, arching against his mouth and trying not to scream the roof off.
His grin stretches from ear to ear as he pushes to his feet and drops his pants. He takes his hard length in his hand and strokes, chuckling as I try to gather myself together on the bed. I watch him roll on a condom, feeling the familiar ache to have him inside me again.
He climbs on top of me, pinning my hands above my head and capturing my mouth. His tongue strokes roughly over mine as he nudges my legs apart. When he pushes inside me I gasp in delight, my hands flying down to him, my nails digging into his back as I suppress a moan.
It’s not long before I’m writhing beneath him, pulling him deeper into me, and the moan I managed to contain earlier escapes from my lips. He has no choice but to put a hand over my mouth as he watches me with hooded eyes, and it’s the hottest thing. A few moments later it’s his turn to keep quiet, and I take in the pleasure on his beautiful face as his body tenses and releases, shuddering against me.
Afterward, we lie in bed gazing at each other in the soft lamplight. I run a hand over his cheek, my body still aching to feel him as if I’ll never get enough.
“So how was your day, anyway?” Michael asks, and I laugh.
“Shouldn’t you ask me thatbeforeyou take my clothes off?”
He flashes me a grin. “I couldn’t help myself.”
“Me either,” I say, leaning in and stealing a kiss. “Um, my day was okay. I slept most of it. Then Mum called.” I swallow nervously. “And then, er, I got an email telling me I got the column.”
His eyebrows lift, then his lips tip into a smile. “Wow, Alex, that’s… Congratulations.” His smile slides away as he drags his teeth across his bottom lip, an uneasy silence settling over us. “So what are you going to do?”
“Well...” I hesitate, wondering if I should mention Mel’s threats from the hospital. Eventually, I sigh. “Mel told me last night that if I don’t stop seeing you, she’s going to tell them I’m not single.”
His brow furrows but he says nothing, and there’s a twinge of annoyance in my gut.
“That’s it? I thought you might be a bit more shocked that she threatened me.”
He gives a hollow laugh. “Not at all. That’s Melanie.”
Huh. That’s notquitewhat I was expecting. “You don’t feel the need to, I don’t know, defend me or tell her to back off?”
“I—” He grimaces. “I try not to piss her off. It’s not worth going back to court and putting Henry through all that again.”
I open my mouth to protest, remembering how reluctant he was to speak up to her last night. But I force myself to stay quiet. I don’t want to argue with him about that now.
“Well, anyway,” I mumble. “I might not have a choice about the column, thanks to her.”
Michael strokes his beard. “Maybe it’s for the best? You don’t want to write about that stuff anyway, right?”
I pull the sheets up to my armpits and smooth them down over me, trying to ignore the irritation crawling under my skin. “Well… I don’t want to lose the chance to be a featured writer on Bliss Edition.”
“But you can’t write a column about being single if you’re not, right? And I don’t want you to be.” His mouth slants into a smile and he reaches for my hand, lacing his fingers through mine.
“I don’t want to be, either,” I say, giving his hand a squeeze.
“Exactly. I think you should forget about the column and focus on your romance novel. I read it and I think it’s great.”
“You read all of it?”
