CHAPTER TEN
GRAHAM
I woketo the sound of Rose trying to leave.
She was doing it quietly, easing out from under my arm, sliding one leg toward the edge of the bed like a woman who’d perfected the art of not disturbing sleeping animals.
I caught her wrist.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
She froze. Then turned her head, and the look on her face, somewhere between guilt and amusement, rearranged my entire morning.
“Horses,” she whispered. “It’s almost six.”
“Hank’s got it.”
“Hank doesn’t?—”
“I texted him last night. After you fell asleep.” I tugged her wrist gently. “Told him you needed the morning off.”
Rose stared at me. “You texted my ranch manager.”
“Aye.”
“From my bed.”
“From your bed.”
“While I was asleep.”
“While you were asleep.” I tugged again. “He said, and I quote, ‘About damn time.’ Then he sent a thumbs-up emoji. Hank uses emojis, Rose. That man contains multitudes.”
Her expression shifted into something unguarded and almost fragile. Like nobody had ever thought to handle the morning for her before.
“Come back to bed,” I said.
She came.
Not reluctantly. She came back like a woman who’d decided the world could wait.
She kissed me first, slow, languid, tasting of sleep and the faint salt of last night’s sweat. My hand slid into her tangled hair, cradling her head, and she hummed low against my mouth, the vibration traveling straight to my cock.
“Morning breath,” she murmured.
“Don’t care.”
“You should. It’s criminal.”
“I’ve survived worse.” I rolled her beneath me, settling between her thighs, our bodies aligning with the ease of two people who’d spent the night learning each other. “Fermented shark in Iceland. On camera. Nothing scares me anymore.”
Rose laughed, bright and unguarded, and the sound went through me like sunlight through a window I’d forgotten to close.
“You’re ridiculous,” she said, but her legs were already hooking around my hips, her heels pressing into my arse, urging me closer. I rocked against her, hard and aching, but she pressed a hand to my chest.
“Condom,” she whispered. “Drawer, remember?”
I reached, tore the packet with my teeth, rolled it on with hands that weren’t quite steady. When I pushed inside her, slow, deep, feeling every tight inch yield to me, the heat of her nearly undid me.
