Without another word, I rip open my fly and tug down my jeans and boxers until the fabric is tucked under my balls, revealing every swollen, aching inch of my cock. A second later, I’ve got a condom from the bedside table rolled into place and I’m back on top of Laura, pushing inside her sweet, hot, perfectly addictive pussy.

She cries out as I shove deep—a sound of bliss and relief that echoes through my chest as I begin to take her, gliding in and out with long, languid strokes that summon more sexy cries from the back of her throat.

Her cries echo the way I feel every time I get balls deep in this woman—blissed out, yes, because nothing has felt this good in longer than I can remember—but also relieved. Profoundly comforted, brought in from the cold I hadn’t realized was giving me hypothermia until Laura came along and breathed warmth into my frozen world.

But now, as I take her again, marveling at the perfect way her body grips mine, the pleasure is more than skin deep.

Yes, she is beautiful and sexy as hell, and as she comes, her fingernails digging into my ass, pulling me so deep the root of my cock feels like it’s going to be squeezed in half, she makes me so wild I lose all control. But this isn’t just about riding her hard and fast or coming so powerfully I see stars.

It’s about the way my chest aches as I collapse on top of her, the way my heart thumps harder as she kisses my cheek and says, “So good, Brendan. It’s so, so good.”

“Incredible.” I kiss her temple, eyes sliding closed as I send out a silent prayer that I can pull this off. That I can be the man I’ve been this afternoon all the time, and that the damaged, scarred, not-sure-I’ll-ever-move-on me is a thing of the past.

I don’t want to be that person anymore. I want to be the man I am with Laura, right here, right now. A man who remembers how to laugh, tease, and give a woman pleasure without ruining it by turning to look back into the dark.

“Now can I feed you?” I prop up on my forearms but don’t pull away just yet. I like softening inside her while her fingertips skim up and down my back, enjoy feeling closer to her with every second that my body is intimately entwined with hers.

She nods drowsily. “Yes, but I’m coming with you. Otherwise, you won’t bring back enough food.”

“I’ll bring back enough. Just tell me what you want.”

She shakes her head. “No, you won’t. I can eat an insane amount when I’m really hungry. Justin has a hard time keeping up with me, if that gives you any idea.” She blinks and the focused quality returns to her gaze. “I still can’t believe you thought I was secretly in love with Jus. That’s literally the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s not that crazy.” I roll over until she’s on top, with her legs on either side of my thighs, granting me access to her phenomenal ass, which I cup in my hands, squeezing the firm muscle. “You two are very close. It’s not normal for a man and a woman to be that close and just be friends.”

Laura snorts softly and repeats, “Literally the craziest.”

“Yeah? What about moles that have tentacles sticking out of the front of their faces?”

She wrinkles her nose. “Crazy, but not the craziest.”

“Girl chickens changing into boy chickens.”

“Also crazy, but they don’t actually turn into boys, they just start presenting male traits. Which means they might grow a wattle and crow a lot, but they’re never going to be able to make a chicken a mama.” She grins. “Chloe told me that story, too, but I wasn’t buying it, so we looked it up. I demand scientific data to verify the stuff she sees on YouTube.”

I squeeze her ass again. “Smart and sexy. Two of the things I really like about you.”

“Prepare to add ‘can take down an obscene number of spare ribs’ to the list.”

I nod. “I will. I enjoy a woman with an appetite.”

She grins. “Food and sex?”

“Food, sex, work…” My hands glide up her hips to circle her waist. “It’s sexy that you love your job. Passion is sexy.”

“If I wasn’t passionate about it, I would stop doing it.” Her hands come to rest over mine. “Life’s too short to waste it doing things you don’t care about. Care deeply about, preferably.”

“Agreed.” My gaze drifts to her mouth. “Agreed so much I would like to kiss you again, but then we might never get out of this room.”

“Also agreed.” Her eyes dance as she rolls her hips in a slow circle. “But maybe getting out of the room is overrated.”

I flex my ass, pushing my thickening cock deeper into her heat. “I wish I could feel you bare,” I say, loving the way her gaze darkens as she rocks forward, taking me deeper. “I would love to feel how wet you are. Wet and getting wetter when I make you come again.”

“We don’t have to use a condom.” She pauses, her teeth digging into her bottom lip. “I’m clean, and birth control is covered.”

“I’m clean, too. You’re the only person I’ve been with in years.” I marvel again that it feels so right, so perfect and easy to be making love to her. To be making memories and orgasms and with every passing second, making it easier to believe that this is going to work.

We’re going to work. Me and this stunning woman straddling my body with an ease that makes it clear she belongs there.

“Then, let’s take it off,” she says, softly.

“Lift your hips.” I urge her up with my hands at her waist. The moment my cock slides free, I make quick work of the condom and then position myself at her entrance, groaning as she slowly sinks down again, taking me in, inch by glorious inch.

“Oh, yes.” She sighs and her head falls back, making her hard nipples tilt up, silently begging for me to come say hello.

“Lean over, baby.” The words are rough with desire and the certainty that I’m never going to get enough of her. “I want your tits in my mouth. I want to suck your nipples while you come on my cock.”

She obeys, bracing her hands on either side of my face as I cup her gorgeous breasts, guiding both of her nipples to my mouth so I can lick and tease them at the same time.

“God, Brendan.” Her fingers fist in my hair, holding on tight as we begin to rock faster, straining closer to each other as her pussy throbs around my cock and the smell of her floods my head like a drug. “I’ve never felt like this. It’s never felt like this.”

“So damned sweet…” I drag my teeth over her nipple.

Her gasp as I soothe the sting away with my tongue is enough to make my already aching balls feel like lead weights dragging between my legs. I’ve already come three times, but I’m desperate to lose myself inside her again, to come with nothing between us, to fill her with the evidence of the way she makes me hunger and need and lose all fucking control.

“More.” I grip her hips, drawing her closer on my next thrust. “More, Laura. Don’t hold back. Take what you need, beautiful.”

She moans as I bite her other nipple before sucking it into my mouth with deep, rhythmic pulls. “It feels like I’m going to break. Like the next time I’m going to break.”

“You’re not going to break,” I promise. “You’re going to come. So hard, but so good.” A choked sound escapes my lips as she braces her hands on my chest and rocks into me harder, faster, until her breasts are bobbing on her chest and her features twist as hunger creeps closer to fulfillment. “Yes, like that, Laura. God, you feel so good. I love feeling you wet and hot all over me.”

“Yes, yes, yes,” she chants, her eyes squeezing shut as her rhythm grows fast, frantic, urgent.

“Open your eyes,” I say, fighting to hold on until she comes. “Open your eyes. Let me see you. Let me see…”

Her lashes lift, revealing a pained, pleasured, raw, vulnerable Laura I’ve never seen before. And she is heart-stopping. So beautiful and brave, shameless and sexy that as she cries out, her body locking tight around me, I have no choice but to tumble over with her.

I come with my gaze locked to hers, and in that moment things pass between us that are bigger and truer than anything that’s come before. Even in those days on the beach, when we stayed awake until midnight whispering in the dark, we never got this close. I was too busy holding back, knowing there was no way a relationship could work when she had unresolved feelings for Justin.

But there are no feelings for Justin. There never were.

I’m the one she wants. I can see it in her eyes as she leans down to kiss me, her tongue dancing with mine as the last waves of pleasure ebb away, leaving us washed clean and closer than we were before.

And just like that, I know this is going to happen fast, the way it did the first time I met The One.

“I’m going to fall for you, Freckles,” I confess, my lips moving against hers. “I think I’m halfway there, so if that’s not what you want, we should—”

“Shh.” She brings her finger to my lips, silencing me as she continues to kiss a sweet trail from my jaw down to my neck.

“That’s it?” I ask a moment later. “Shh?”

“Shh, and don’t be ridiculous. I’m obviously crazy about you. Why else would I agree to be your fake girlfriend, even though you totally stomped on my heart last summer.”

“I didn’t mean to stomp on your heart.” I cup her face in my hands, applying gentle pressure until she lifts her head and meets my gaze. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” She pauses, that vulnerable look creeping into her eyes. “Just don’t do it again.”

“I won’t,” I promise. “I only want to make you feel good things.”

“Well, you’re off to a cracking good start,” she says with a wink. “Now we should go eat before I turn cannibal and gnaw off a chunk of your bicep.”

I lift a suggestive brow. “I don’t mind a little biting now and then.”

“So I’ve noticed.” Her lips curve. “And I’m definitely going to return the nibbling favor, baby. But first food. Lots of food.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I hop out of bed. The sooner I get my girl fed, the sooner I’ll be back between the sheets, discovering where she likes to bite. And maybe hearing her call me ‘baby’ again, which was nice.

Really nice…

Almost as nice as the way her ass wiggles as she shimmies her underwear up her thighs…

As if sensing my attention, she glances over her shoulder, eyes narrowing. “Don’t even think about it, dude. Seriously. Food now. Food good. Food make belly happy.”

I laugh. “You’re funny when you’re hungry.”

“I’m stupid when I’m hungry.” She slips her sweater on, a smile on her face as her mussed hair pops through the tight neck. “Come on, sexy. I want to eat bad food with you.”

I hum appreciatively as she slips into my arms for a hug on her way to fetch her jeans. I press a kiss to the top of her head, silently giving thanks for the chance to be with someone who feels so perfect in my arms.