"But." I swing my legs off the bed and cross to her in two strides, my palms settling on her waist. "You're not sleeping in here tonight."
"Is that so?"
"Mmmmhmmmm." I bend and kiss the curve of her neck, just below her ear, and the small hum she makes vibrates against my lips. "You're spending the night in my room, in my bed, where you belong."
"Your grandmother is downstairs."
"I told you, she's on the other side of the house, behind a closed door. I guarantee she's already asleep with a book on her lap." I pull back and hold her gaze. "Come with me, Sunshine."
Her pupils are blown wide, and the flush of her skin has deepened from light pink to deep rose. She traces the line of my jaw with one fingertip, a slow, deliberate gesture that sends a tremor through me.
I scoop her up and carry her across the hall and through my bedroom door, kicking it closed behind us.
My room is larger than hers, with wide windows that catch the moonlight and a king bed that I have never been more grateful for. I set her on the edge of the mattress, and the towel loosens at the motion, slipping down to reveal the slope of hershoulders and the swell of her breasts. She catches the fabric but doesn't pull it back up, and the challenge in her eyes makes my blood run hot.
"You said you wanted to thank me properly," I remind her, my finger tracing over her soft shoulder.
"I did say that." I shiver as her touch traces over my chest, her attention tracking down my stomach. My body tenses as she pushes my pants over my hips.
She takes me in her hand, her grip sure and her eyes locked on mine. Then she lowers her mouth, and the wet heat nearly buckles my knees. Her tongue traces the length of me, her right hand working in tandem with her mouth. The sight of her, damp-haired and flushed, kneeling beside my bed with the towel pooled around her waist, nearly unravels me. She takes my cock deeper, her rhythm building, reading every shift in my breathing and adjusting until my fingers tangle in her hair.
"Sunny." Her name comes out raw. "Stop. I need you."
She releases me with a final stroke that makes my entire body shudder and looks up, and the satisfaction on her face is devastating. I lift her gently to her feet and then push her back onto the bed, and the sight of her laid bare against my sheets stops my heart for a full second.
I kiss my way down her body, taking my time at each place that makes her breath catch. Her collarbone. The hollow between her breasts. The soft skin below her navel where her stomach contracts under my mouth. When I settle between her thighs and press my mouth against her, the sound she makes fills the room, and my tongue finds the rhythm that makes her hips buck. She comes with my name on her lips and her fingers twisted in my hair, her thighs clenching around my head.
I work my way up, and her mouth meets mine with a hunger that tells me she wants more. When I squeeze inside her, we both go still, the fullness and the heat stealing every thoughtfrom my head. She wraps her legs around me, her heels pressing into the small of my back, and we find our rhythm in the space between one breath and the next.
The pace builds slowly, each thrust deeper and more deliberate, and her nails rake down my shoulders in a way that blurs the line between pleasure and pain until neither exists without the other.
She presses a hand to my chest, easing me back just enough that I slip out of her. Before I can speak, she rolls onto her knees, her ass in the air, and shoots me a look over her shoulder. It empties every thought from my head.
I slide into her and find the angle that makes her gasp and arch against me. She grips the sheets and her breath comes in sharp, broken sounds that drive me to move faster, harder. I reach around and find the spot between her thighs that makes her cry out, and the way she pushes back, rolling her hips to meet every thrust, unravels the last thread of my control.
She comes apart first, her body clenching in waves that drag me over the edge with her. I bury myself deep and press my mouth to the back of her neck, my palm curving around her breast as we both try to remember how to breathe. After a long moment, we collapse to our sides.
We lie tangled together, her head on my shoulder and my arm wrapped around her, the sheets twisted around our legs. The windows are dark, and the only light comes from the bedside lamp that casts its golden glow across the mattress and catches the still-damp strands of her hair.
Sunny traces a lazy circle on my collarbone with one fingertip. "My life has changed so much in such a short time," she murmurs, her voice carrying the particular softness that only surfaces when every wall is down.
"Not long ago, I was wondering if everything I’d poured myself into was going to disappear. Up until then, I had beencompletely at peace with my life. I didn't need anything else." She pauses. "I believed it, too."
"And now?"
"Now I have an ownership stake in the place I love, a wine cave about to be carved into a hillside, and a man who sends me duck photos at sunrise." She lifts her head and looks at me, and her expression is bright and unguarded. "I don't recognize my life anymore, Charlie. And I wouldn't change a single thing about that."
"Not a single thing?"
"Not one." She settles back against my shoulder. "You stopped on a highway to help a woman who told you to get lost. And it was the best thing that could have happened to me."
I chuckle at the memory. "You fought me for at least ten minutes, Sunshine."
"I did." Her laugh is quiet and fond. "And you just smiled at me like my stubbornness was the most charming thing you'd ever seen."
"It was."
"I was furious."
