We stay in bed all afternoon, shamelessly making the queen bed squeak until I take a quick break after round three to tighten the frame’s loose screws.

“How did you do that?” Laura’s eyes widen as I give the mattress an experimental shake, proving it was the frame and not the springs complaining of our vigorous activity.

“Universal tool.” I hold up my slim, but exquisitely functional pocketknife with bonus goodies. “Never leave home without it. I like to know tools are close at hand. Just in case.”

Her lips quirk. “That’s very manly of you.”

“A man is not a man unless he knows how to use and care for his tools.”

She hums beneath her breath. “You do very good work with your tools, sir. Excellent work, in fact. I have no complaints.”

“Good.” I crawl back onto the mattress, stalking the very beautiful, very sexy, very naked prey waiting for me under the covers. “I aim to please. But there’s something you should know about me, Freckles.”

“What’s that?” she asks, eyes glittering.

“I have a hard time walking away from a job until I know it’s been done thoroughly. So, I have a serious question…”

Her grin becomes a giggle as I brace my hands on the headboard on either side of her flushed face. “Yes?”

“Have you been done thoroughly, Miss Collins?” I ask, my nose brushing against hers as I speak. “Or do you require more satisfaction?”

“That’s a hard question.” Her breath catches as I tug at the sheet, drawing it down until the crisp cotton slides over her nipples.

“Not yet, but it’s getting there.” I claim her mouth for a slow, sultry kiss as I cup her breast, teasing her tight nipple between my fingers.

She reaches down, rubbing my thickening cock through the boxers I threw on to fix the bed, because there is nothing romantic about the rear view of a naked man bending over, and I would like for Laura to keep thinking romantic thoughts about me for the foreseeable future.

“It is getting there,” she murmurs against my lips. “But sadly, I didn’t intend to be punny. It really is a hard question. I’m torn between my need to pounce you one more time and my need to get food before I collapse from starvation, ensuring I can pounce you four or five more times before we pass out.”

“Seven or eight times,” I insist, kissing my way down her throat and over the curve of her bare shoulder. “Nine if we stay up until midnight.” I reach her breast and circle her nipple with my tongue, teasing around the place where pale flesh becomes pink, sensitized skin and deliberately avoiding the tight tip straining toward my mouth. “I’m an old man who loves his ten o’clock bedtime, but I’m feeling inspired to burn the midnight oil.”

“You’re not old.” She shifts beneath me, arching closer to my mouth. “Oh, yes, please, more…”

“There will definitely be more.” I circle her nipple again, getting closer to where I know she wants me before I pause, lips hovering over her taut flesh. “But first to feed the beauty before she becomes a beast.”

I roll off the bed and reach for my jeans, grinning at the outraged sound Laura makes behind me.

“I’m not going to become a beast!” She tosses a pillow that sails over my head, landing with a soft plop on the carpet. “Now get back here and finish what you started.”

“No can do, sweetheart,” I say, stepping into my jeans. “I’ve seen you hungry. It’s not pretty.”

She huffs. “Not all of us are gifted with steady, reliable blood sugar levels in the absence of regular food intake.”

“And not all of us throw foam fingers at the pizza guy when he delivers pepperoni instead of cheese.”

“Pepperoni is too salty, and not what we ordered. Plus he was an hour late, and all ten pizzas were cold. He’s lucky it was a foam finger and not my stapler.” She pins me with a glare that sends my semi surging into a full-blown erection, making me wish I dared to take a picture of her like this, with the covers pooled around her waist, her hair drifting around her shoulders so that her nipples play peek-a-boo between the auburn strands.

She’s a goddess, and I’m still not sure how I got lucky enough to convince her to give me another chance, but I’m determined not to fuck it up.

Especially not with something as ridiculous as forgetting to feed her.

“And that’s why I’m going to go kill the wooly mammoth and drag it back to our cave.” I hold her gaze as I button my jeans, already eager for the moment when this dressing business will be going in the opposite direction again. “So what’s your pleasure, sexy? Pizza from the restaurant under the stairs, something from the bar, or should I hit the buffet and bring you a to-go box filled with a little of everything?”

She scans me up and down as her tongue slips out to sweep seductively over her full bottom lip.

“Laura?” I prod after a moment. “Food preferences?”

“Um, right.” She blinks faster, a smile that’s both guilty and cute as hell curving her lips as her gaze climbs from my chest to my face. “Sorry, I was thinking about how good you look in just jeans. Why do you ever wear a shirt? It’s really a sin to cover all that up, Daniels.”

“Well, sometimes I get cold,” I say, with a laugh. “And game time would be awkward half-dressed. I doubt the competition would take me seriously.”

“No way.” She shakes her head, sending her silky hair drifting back and forth across her nipples, making my cock throb behind my zipper. “The competition would take one look at the manliness and head back to the locker room in defeat, feeling sad and wishing they had bigger, bulgier man-boobs.”

“‘Pectoral muscles’ would also work.”

“But that wouldn’t make you smile.” She sits back, bending her uninjured knee, granting me a peek of the auburn curls between her legs. “And I enjoy making you smile.”

“I enjoy that you don’t shave that patch of red.” I bite my bottom lip, fighting to keep from pushing her back onto the mattress and getting my face between her legs all over again. “It’s sexy as fuck.”

Her lips pucker. “Well, thank you. But I usually get waxed on a regular basis. I just haven’t had time the past few weeks. I’ve been babysitting for this sexy guy I know. But I’ve got an appointment next Tuesday I’ll be able to keep.”

“Cancel it.” I curse beneath my breath as she slowly parts her legs. “Cancel it first thing tomorrow morning. I like your pussy the way it is. Just like this.”

“Are you sure?” Her thighs spread wider, threatening to give me a minor heart attack as she reveals every inch of her beautiful cunt. She is so perfectly pink and wet, her red curls damp and beckoning me closer, that I have no idea how I’m going to resist taking her again. Now. With my jeans shoved down around my knees because I’m so desperate to be inside her I can’t spare the time to take them all the way off again.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” I say, jaw tight. “Now I need you to be honest with me, Freckles. Are you going to pass out or start throwing things if I put off grabbing food until after I’ve fucked you again? If so, you need to shut those pretty legs right now.”

Holding my gaze, Laura spreads her thighs even wider. “I’m going to be fine, Brendan. Come back to bed.”