Late morning sunlight filtered through the curtains. I’d already gotten up, gone for a quick run on the beach, showered, and finally checked a few work emails, but I was back in bed now, the sheets pulled up to my waist. Georgie was still asleep, facing me, with a few wispy strands of light brown hair curled around her chin. The rest was splayed out on the pillow behind her. Her expression was peaceful and serene, and I smiled and softly stroked the hair off her face. She stirred and rolled onto her back, then promptly began to snore not-so-peacefully.

I chuckled softly and kept looking at her, part of me still in shock that she was actually here. After all this time, I finally had her exactly where I wanted her. In my bed, in my life, in my heart.

A woman had never gotten under my skin like this, especially one so nutty and awkward, but Georgie had been worming her way into my affections from the minute I met her. She didn’t even know it until I explicitly told her. She obviously had no idea about the effect she had on men, which was a damn shame, because someone like her should know how wonderful they were. If Georgie did, maybe she’d have had the confidence to let someone into her life sooner. But I suppose that didn’t really matter anymore. What mattered was I had her now, and I was going to tell her every day how great she was… if she let me.

I had a feeling she would.

I could see it in her eyes when she came back to my suite last night to let me know how the Tripp prank wound up. Something had changed in her. It was probably barely perceptible to most other people, but I knew her by now—her expressions, her moods, her body language. It was different. The way she looked at me was different too. I no longer saw even a hint of distrust or cynicism in her eyes when she gazed up at me. All I saw was lust and need. She didn’t even have to say it out loud. I knew she was ready for me, ready to admit there was something here.

She stirred next to me again. This time, she woke up. “Morning,” she said with a yawn, bleary eyes slowly opening. “What time is it?”

I glanced at the clock on my bedside table. “Ten past eleven.”

“God, I slept in so late.” She stretched her arms over her head and yawned again.

I smiled. “Well, we were up till after three.”

Georgie’s cheeks turned slightly pink at the reminder of what we’d done last night. All the weeks of tension had crashed down on us the second my lips touched hers, putting us over boiling point. We needed to get it out of our systems somehow, and so we’d lost ourselves in each other’s bodies for hours, exploring, tasting, feeling.

It wasn’t just sex, either. It was so much more than that. She brought something out in me that went beyond physical attraction. Something that would scare most guys who hadn’t wanted to settle down with just one woman before.

It didn’t scare me. Not one bit.

“Sorry for keeping you up so late,” Georgie said. From the sparkle in her eyes, I could tell she wasn’t even remotely sorry.

I affected a stern expression. “You better be. Next time we’re going straight to bed at eight. No more of these filthy shenanigans.”

She arched a brow. “What if I wear a clown costume? You won’t be able to resist me then.”

I shook my head and chuckled. “Fuck. I was hoping you’d forgotten about that.”

She smirked. “I’ll never forget it.”

I held a hand up. “For the record, I’m not into clowns. That was an accident.”

I filled her in on what went down with my laptop being all screwy when she barged into my room on that occasion. When I was done, her eyes were twinkling and crinkled at the corners with mirth. She propped herself up on one elbow. “I knew it,” she said, a mischievous smile turning up the corners of her lips.

“You did?”

She nodded. “When I looked at the screen, I could see you had a Facebook tab open next to the clown stuff. I saw my name on it. At first I thought you were just stalking my profile for no reason, but then you told me you wanted me, and I kinda realized what probably really happened.”

“Wow. So you let me be embarrassed all this time….” I feigned an abashed sigh.

Georgie snorted. “Oh come on, it’s only been two days, and it’s good blackmail material.”

“You and your blackmail.”

“You and your clowns.”

I reached over and lightly tickled her. “You better stop, or I might just give you that spanking I owe you.”

“Maybe you should’ve done that last night when you were behind me all those times,” she said with a suggestively raised brow.

“Maybe next time I will.” I tickled her harder, and she gasped and squirmed.

“No! Stop it!” she said between giggles.

I grinned and kept going. I loved hearing her laugh. Her mother told her over dinner the other night that she sounded like a hyena with a drinking problem when she really got going, but it was like music to my ears. I loved every quirk of hers. Every silly little thing she might think of as a flaw. Someone once told me that a diamond only sparkled because of its tiny little imperfections, and Georgie sparkled more than she could possibly know in those small moments when she relaxed and truly acted like herself.

I slid down and drew her to me, wrapping my left hand around one of her wrists. She responded with sweet intensity, kissing me gently yet firmly, and my free hand roamed under the sheets and over her naked body, down over her breasts to the apex of her thighs. She let out a low, hungry moan, slipping one hand beneath the sheets as well.

She traced her fingers along my abdomen and into the dense trail of hair a few inches below, slowly teasing me. A growing flame inside me quickly turned to a raging fire, and I planted a rough kiss on her neck, pulling her even closer to me. Our bodies lined up perfectly, her heat pressed against the growing length of my cock. She was already slick with desire. I groaned, relishing the touch of her skin on my own, and she insistently pushed against me, imploring whispers tumbling from her lips.

I slid farther down the bed and lowered my head to her breasts, circling one of her stiff nipples with my tongue. Georgie moaned, and I ripped the sheets away and moved on top so I could cherish every inch of her perfect body. I slid down again, gently kissing her stomach and spreading her legs with my hands. My cock was harder than it’d ever been, aching to press inside her wet folds, but I held back. I wanted to tease her, make her beg for it.

Georgie lifted her hips as my tongue trailed over her belly. My fingers swept over her inner thighs, coming to rest right above her clit, and she gasped, arching her body more, begging me without words. With a grin, I moved a finger down, sliding it inside her wetness and working it against the ridged spot that drove her wild. After just one night, I already knew her body; knew exactly what drove her wild.

As predicted, she cried out, and goosebumps appeared all over her soft skin. I moved my hand so my thumb pressed against her clit at the same time, and her legs quivered. Just as I felt her getting close, I pulled my hand away and circled her clit with my tongue instead. She writhed beneath me as I brought her close to the edge again, legs shaking wildly.

“Please, Nate… I want you now….”

I pretended I didn’t hear her and kept exploring her pussy with my tongue, lapping at her clit and all around it, up and down her slick bare lips. When I could tell she was just about to come, every inch of her trembling like mad, I moved up and pushed myself forward, burying my cock inside her.

Georgie gasped and bucked her hips against me, nails digging into my back as she clung to me. I watched her face scrunch up with pure bliss, eyes fluttering behind closed lids. Then her features relaxed as she finally came, loud and desperate moans spilling from her lips. I kept grinding myself into her, savoring her tight pussy until I found my own release.

We jumped in the shower to clean ourselves up afterwards. I lathered Georgie up with vanilla-scented body wash, and she did the same to me.

“I hope I didn’t hurt you,” she said, gently touching her finger to a tiny red welt on my shoulder as her other hand worked away at my chest with the sponge. The mark had been left when she dug her nails into me a few minutes ago.

I glanced down at it. “You didn’t.”

The sudden look of shock on her face made me think she’d misheard me through the running water.

“It’s okay, I said it didn’t hurt,” I repeated.

She shook her head. “It’s not that. It’s just… nails. It reminded me, I’m supposed to go to a spa thing this afternoon with Libby and her bridesmaids for facials and manicures. We’re meant to meet up downstairs at twelve.”

“Shit. It was already a quarter to when we got in here.”

“Yeah. I better go.” She stepped out of the shower and began to towel off. “Sorry to leave in a rush. I completely forgot about it until now!”

I grinned and turned the shower off. “You’ve had a lot to distract you.”

She smiled back at me, raised her brows, and reached down to my cock as I joined her on the bathmat. “Yes. A lot....”

With that, she pulled her hand away, waltzed out of the bathroom and quickly slipped on last night’s clothes. Naughty little tease. She came back to me a moment later to give me a goodbye kiss, then hurried out of my suite. “See you later!”

“Yup. Have fun.”

The door closed behind her with a thud, and I sat down on the end of my bed, already missing her. My room felt empty and far too quiet without her in it.

How the hell did I survive for so long without her? I only met her three and a half weeks ago, but she’d swept in like a storm off the sea, and now the landscape of my life was forever changed. I couldn’t even remember what it was like to not know her or have her around.

There wasn’t any time for discussion last night, so we hadn’t established exactly what our status was now that we’d slept together, but I had a feeling we didn’t need to. At least I didn’t need to. I was happy to assume we were an item now, so for me, it didn’t need discussing. I knew Georgie might not see things like that, though, given her difficult history with men. She might need more reassurance.

I picked up my phone and composed a text to her. Hey, when you’re done with your sister, would you like to go out for dinner? Just the two of us.

I hit send, then sat back and waited, slowly shaking my head. How fucking weird was this? After so many easy fake dates, I was finally asking Georgie out on a real one, and it was surprisingly hard. I was nervous, and I never got nervous around women. Not until now.

I suppose things weren’t so easy now that the ball was firmly in her court. I didn’t think she’d actually say no, but hell, what if she did? I felt like a jittery teenager, anxiously waiting for a girl to accept or reject his prom proposal.

Jesus. This woman. What was she doing to me?

Georgie’s reply came through three minutes later. I breathed a sigh of relief as I read it. Sure. Can’t wait :)

I grinned. I couldn’t wait, either.