Page 68 of The Summer Plans

“Oh my God.” She drops her head to my chest, refusing to look at me and I can’t help but chuckle.

“Would you like it if you woke up with my head between your thighs every morning for the rest of this trip?”

She giggles against me, tracing a finger along my pec. “Don’t tease me with a good time.”

“I’m not teasing.”

Her head tilts up, eyes searching mine.

“I would be happy to make that a reality.” I kiss her forehead. “Is that what you were dreaming about on your birthday?”

“That was so embarrassing.”

“It’s not embarrassing. What’s embarrassing was the massive erection I had to hide once I left the bedroom that morning.”

She chuckles against me.

“Tell me about the dream. Do you have it often?”

She nods, revealing nothing.

“How will I make it come true if I don’t know how it plays out?”

Keeping her head burrowed against me she finally speaks. “It usually starts with you bringing me breakfast, and then we roll around in bed.”

“I need more specifics than that.”

“Please don’t make me say it out loud. It’s so embarrassing.” She squirms against me.

I slide a hand along her cheek, tilting her head up to look at me. “There’s nothing embarrassing about voicing your desires or fantasies. And I want every deliciously dirty detail in that head of yours so I can make them all reality.”

“Okay, but I can’t look at you while I’m talking about this…” She drops her head to my chest. “Sometimes you go down on me, but my dreams never accurately captured how that felt, so I’m starting to think the real thing is better than anything my dreams conjured up.”

I can’t help the dopey grin on my face at her admission. “What else?”

“Sometimes I would go down on you. But it always ends with us doing it.”

“Details, Summer. I want all the details.”

She sighs, bringing a palm up to cover her face as she speaks through her hand. “My favorite one is when I wake up and you’re… down there already.” She pauses. “I’m not good at this.”

“At what?” I pull her hands away from her face.

“At talking about this stuff.”

“What stuff?” It feels good to tease her like this, it feels like our old dynamic.

She shoves at my chest. “The dirty talk. I feel like I’ve played this role all my life.”

“What kind of role?” I lift an eyebrow.

“Not that kind,” she huffs, taking a moment to collect her thoughts before continuing. “When I worked in the corporate world, I played the role of the helpful, dutiful secretary. Then I met Todd, and he wanted me to be his meek little trophy wife.”

It’s a Herculean effort not to growl at her words, but I refrain.

“It only got worse when I became a mom. I wanted to have kids so badly that when we finally adopted the twins, I felt bad complaining about anything, thinking I should just be grateful I even had kids to complain about. And Todd was absolutely no help. He was always yelling and swearing, and it really upset Logan. So I try to be careful about what I say in front of the kids. Even my mom friends tease me about policing language with them, but it’s hard to turn it off even when the kids aren’t around. Somewhere over the years, I became so consumed with doing things for others that I stopped advocating for myself.”

“The Summer I knew did what she wanted. She spoke her mind. And the Summer I know now doesn’t take shit from anyone, not even me. She’s fierce and loyal, and so fucking strong.”