He pounded into her, taking every ounce of pleasure from her body as he could, all while his heart constricted in his chest. It had never been solely sex for him. Not eventhat night. He’d learned long ago that he wasn’t wired that way. He didn’t enjoy casual sex, and she was the reason.
That nightwith Stevie and Stone had opened his eyes. He’d felt something. A connection. One casual sex never gave him. He wanted that again. And yes, he wanted it with Stevie and Stone, even if they weren’t at that point yet. Maybe they never would be, and he would be forced to decide. But right here, right now, there was only one person he knew he couldn’t live without.
Her.
He pressed his mouth close to her ear. “Do you want this, Stevie?”
“Yes,” she gasped. “Yes, Nico. God, yes.”
“Do you wantme, Stevie?”
“I’vealwayswanted you,” she said with a husky moan.
“Then we owe it to ourselves to see where it goes.” He impaled her again and again, willing her to feel the connection between them. It was stronger than mere friendship, deeper than mere lust.
“I love you, Stevie. Always have.”
Stevie’s arms wreathed his head tightly as she pressed her face against his neck and cried out, the sound muffled. Her pussy clenched around him as she came. He came from the intensity of it, his cock lodged deep inside her.
Several minutes later, after they’d cleaned up and he’d returned to his office, Nico realized she hadn’t said the words back to him. In fact, she hadn’t saidanything.
Fourteen
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
Stevie’s phone chimed with another alert. Theywere coming more frequently now. Evidently, the winter storm that the weather service was predicting was increasing in intensity and would be swinging into their area by the end of the week at the latest.
Shit. She had no more time to procrastinate.
Hopping up from her desk, Stevie grabbed her coat from the hook behind the door. She shoved her arms into it and felt for the key to ensure it was still in her pocket. It was.
“Hey, Tara!” she called to the receptionist as she grabbed her phone from her desk and started toward the door. “If Nico comes in, tell him I ran to the nursery.”
Tara gave her a thumbs-up because she was on the phone.
“Oops.” Stevie smiled sheepishly, then mouthed, “Sorry.”
Holding her coat closed, she headed out into the frigid temperatures. They had no precipitation, so no sleet or snow meant no ice. Yet. Since the roads were clear, she could make the twenty-minute drive to the nearest nursery without incident. If she lived in a perfect world, they would have a plant nursery in Coyote Ridge. For as long as she could remember, that had been her plan. To open one. Only when she’d had the opportunity—thanks to her inheritance—she’d gotten cold feet. Instead, she’d gone a broader route, choosing the landscaping business because she knew it was the more resilient of the two options.
She didn’t regret a single second. With Nico as a business partner, they’d made a name for themselves. And word of mouth was spreading. Just yesterday, they’d gotten a call from a real estate developer in south Austin looking for a unique perspective and wanted them to design the landscaping for their model homes. Nico hadn’t been thrilled with the idea, but Stevie had talked him into entertaining it. After all, the goal was to eventually give Nico the ability to work solely on the design and not have to worry about the rest of it. They needed to have a steady client base for that to happen.
But right now, Stevie wasn’t worried about Nico or potential clients. She was worried about the plants in the greenhouse. The upcoming freezing temperatures were going to wreak havoc if she didn’t do something. She’d learned her lesson last year, but it had been too late because, by the time she realized the germination mats wouldn’t cut it, she’d lost most of her vegetables and the few flowers she could grow in the colder season.
This year, she was determined to do things differently. Or at least that had been the goal. Unfortunately, like last year, she’d been banking on a relatively mild winter, so this cold snap caught her unawares.
So off to the nursery she went, hoping Byron Cartwright would have what she needed.
Forty-five minutes later, she was standing in the nursery, debating the benefits of various ways to heat a greenhouse, when she heard a familiar voice.
“Holy shit, dude,” Byron said, his handsome face lighting up.
Stevie stepped to the side to see Stone approaching. His gaze briefly shifted to her before he grinned at Byron.
“Stone fuckin’ Jameson. When’d you get back?”
Stevie watched as Byron and Stone exchanged one of those back-slapping hugs that men engaged in. Only theirs wasn’t quite as platonic as she was expecting it to be. When Byron cupped the back of Stone’s neck and pulled back only enough to meet his gaze, she thought for a second they were going to kiss.
Only they didn’t.
