“I can promise I’ll be there to catch you. Or give you CPR. One of the two.”
Her eyes fill, and she blinks. “Are you about to tell me that you’re in love with me?”
“Jesus Christ, Billie.” I chuckle. “Fuck. Fine. Yes. Yes, baby, I’m in love with you. Let me be part of your story. Shit sure as hell ain’t perfect right now, but I’m starting to think—” I sniffle. “As long as we got each other, we can get through anything. If being with you has taught me one thing, it’s that life’s too damn hard to do on your own. It’s also too damn short to live it only half alive. So live it with me, darlin’. Pretty please.”
“With a cherry on top?”
“There’s a dirty joke in there about cherries that I’m not gonna make?—”
“Ryder Rivers, don’t youdarehold back on me. Because maybe I’m a tiny bit in love with you too.”
My chest explodes. A full-on blast that has me glancing around the room, looking for blood and pieces of bone.
“‘A tiny bit’?” It’s all I can manage to say. “Are youstillwaiting on me to grow on you?”
Billie grins, her eyes flicking to my crotch. “Oh, you’ve grown on me, all right.”
I’m profoundly shaken. In all the best ways.
“It was the mouth-to-mouth, wasn’t it?” I ask.
“You’re not supposed to deflect with humor anymore.”
“Told you, I ain’t perfect.”
“Thank God for that, because I’m not perfect either.” She pecks my lips. “I’d like to think that gives us permission to be our perfectly imperfect selves with each other.”
Smiling, I lean in and kiss her. Slip my tongue inside her mouth. “My therapist said something along those lines too.”
She pauses, eyes toggling between mine. “You’re in therapy?”
“Started recently, yeah. I wanna keep thriving the way you taught me to. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to have some help staying on track. You know, so I don’t fall back into old patterns.”
“Wow. Wow, that’s… I’m so proud of you, Ry. That might be the sexiest thing to ever come out of a man’s mouth.”
I grin. “You’re welcome.”
“I love you.” She loops her arms around my neck. “Lemme show you how much.”
I slowly suck on her bottom lip, and she digs her hands into the hair at the nape of my neck, pressing her tits against my chest.
I start to guide her shirt up the soft slopes of her belly. She holds up her arms, and I break the kiss to tug the shirt over her head. I catch a glimpse of her cute little ass in the mirror, and my dick surges.
More of that.
Dragging my lips over Billie’s neck, I gently spin her around so that her back is to my front. We meet eyes in the mirror.
“This okay?” I cup her breasts, then flatten my hands so I can circle my palms over her nipples.
She moans. Her pupils blow out, making her eyes look bottomless. Deep, dark depths for days.
I press my dick to her ass.Can’t. Come. Before she does.
She nods. “This is—it’s more than okay. I like this, Ry.” Reaching behind her, she pushes her tits into my hands again as she plays with my hair.
“You see how pretty you are?” I kiss her neck and knead her breast. I slide my other hand down her stomach and use my fingers to part her pussy.
Her leg gives out when I press my first two fingertips to her clit. She’s not wet enough for my liking, so I pinch her nipple and bite her neck and push those fingertips a little deeper.
