She was standing in front of the stove, something so mundane and still she took my breath away. The only words I had to express at this moment were, oh shit. 

She was just staring at me. “Happy Birthday, ewwwee look nice.”

“Very funny. Remind me never to piss you off. If you can think of this and get deputies and dispatch involved for my birthday, I’d hate to see what that mind of yours can conjure up when you’re mad.”

“Well, your sister helped.”

“I think that the two of you are not a good combination.”

“Really? That’s what Ariel and Leo said. But I think we have so much in common.” Sophie batted her eyelashes, feigning innocence.

I walked over to her. “What smells so good?”

“So, does that mean you like Greek food?”

“I love eating Greek.” I waited for the moment until she caught my double entendre then a soft pink tinted her cheeks. “The food is good, too.”

“Good, that’s about all I know how to cook.” 

“Let me go change, I’ll be right back. Do you need any help first?”

“No. Go change.”

After getting out of my bulky uniform and securing my sidearm, I headed back to the kitchen and struggled not to go over to her and ram myself deep inside her. She was leaning down, and her perfectly round ass was sticking up in the air and pointing toward me. I let out a soft groan. I was dying to sink inside her. Fuck dinner, I wanted to go straight to dessert.

“Did you hear me?”

I jerked at her words.

“What?”

“I asked if you’d grab us some drinks. What were you thinking about?”

Sinking to my knees, I lifted her dress and looked up. “I was just thinking how much I wanted to be with you or on you or in you, but right now I’d settle for a quick taste of you.”

I craved her. I smiled when my hands slid the rest of the way up her legs and I was met with nothing but silky-smooth skin. She wasn’t wearing any panties. I cradled her ass cheeks in my hands and pulled her close so I could nuzzle her pussy and give a quick swipe with my tongue, just a tease to get our night started.

“You’re only going to lick?” Her pout was adorable, but I licked her again, and a whimper escaped her mouth. I smiled, happy fucking birthday to me.

Forcing myself away from her, I distracted myself with getting us drinks and setting them on the table, which Sophie had set with candles and fine china. “Both of these from my sister?” I pointed at two gifts.

“The bag is, the box is from me.”

“Soph, you didn’t have to get me anything. Dinner is plenty.”

“Oh stop. Let’s eat, and then you can open gifts.”

Sophie carefully placed chops and potatoes on each plate with green beans and carried them to the table. Holding out her chair, I scooted her in before taking my seat. 

It only took one bite of the lamb chop for me to be in love with her cooking. “You’re a great cook.”

“As if I had any other choice. I’m Greek; they throw us in the kitchen as soon as we can stand.”

“Besides inflating a giant sheep and getting it into the station, what else did you do today?”

“Believe it or not, the sheep ordeal took a big chunk of the day. Oh, and I went to the grocery store. I didn’t do a cake.”

“I have another idea for dessert.” My cock was rock hard just thinking about it.

“I made dessert, just not a cake.” Sophie stood and went to the kitchen, returning with bowls of powdered sugar, cinnamon, and squeeze tubes of honey, chocolate, and caramel syrups. 

Picking up the chocolate sauce, I eyed it mischievously. “Now we’re talking, this is exactly what I was thinking of for dessert.”

“Oh, you were thinking that you wanted loukoumades as well?”

“Louka what?”

“They’re small fried donuts. I figured that you could dip them in whatever you wanted.”

“No, I was thinking of drizzling that syrup somewhere else and licking it up.”

“My plan was that . . .” She shifted in her seat, clearly liking the idea as much as I had. “While we eat dessert, you can open your gifts.” She slid a box over to me. “Something about this made me think of you.”

Removing the cream ribbon with the brown Bloomingdales logo, I unwrapped the box and slid out another box. Amourage. I had no clue what that was. Lifting the lid, I realized it was cologne with a bottle of after shave and shower soap.

“I can’t explain it, but when I smelled this, a memory of you leaning over my car filled my head. It just reminded me so much of you. I liked it.”

Lifting the lid, I sprayed a small amount into the cap and inhaled. It smelled like something I would wear. But it was from Sophie, so it just became my favorite cologne. Reaching for her hand, I tugged her and pulled her out of her chair and over to me. Lightly squeezing her hips, I separated my legs and pulled her in so I could rest my cheek against her flat stomach. 

When she wrapped her arms around me and leaned over, resting her head on top of mine, I knew that I had to have her for the rest of my life. “Thank you.” Then I turned her and pulled her down onto my lap, asking, “Do you remember your birthday?”

“Yes.” She smiled and held her arm out to show me the charm bracelet. Sliding it around her wrist, I stopped when I saw the familiar crest shape of the charm I’d had made for her. 

“You still have it.”

“Yep, never took it off. It’s been soldered back on a few times, but yeah, still have it. I think it was my way of keeping a part of you when I knew that I had to let you go.”

“Life is full of would have, should have, and could have, but I wish that you would have . . .” I stopped that line of talk when she started to laugh. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. Go on.”

“No. Not until you tell me.” Shoving my hand under her skirt, I squeezed her knee, and she let out a squeal. “Ticklish? I’ll just have to tickle it out of you.”

“Okay, okay, okay. But you can’t tell a soul.”

“Cross my heart.”

“When you said ‘would’ve, could’ve, should’ve’, it reminded me of the other night when all of you got those text messages. It was the name of the game we were playing. I was the one who came up with letting everyone text whomever they wanted from someone else’s phone. Vivian got my phone, by the way.”

“We’d figured out you all must have switched phones. If Vivian texted me, who did you text?”

“I grabbed Leo’s phone so I texted Ian. It wigged me out a little bit that I was texting my cousin, but I got over it. After all, it was for the greater good and all that.”

“What do you mean?” I hadn’t seen Ian’s messages, but if they were anything like mine. . . I was sure they were interesting. 

“Leo has had a crush on Ian since we were little. He doesn’t know it. But I think that the two of them would be great. They’re both so smart, they like mechanical things, and they both have this brooding side to them.”

“First, don’t get into the matchmaking business, please. Invite Ian more often and give him and Leo a chance, but don’t force it. And second, I think on girls’ night out, we just need to assume all fucked-up shit that happens in Central Florida is a culmination of the seven of you.”

Her laugh set me on fire and every nerve in me was pulsing, my cock was dying to come out, and I still had to open my sister’s gift and help Soph clean the kitchen before I could get her upstairs. “Have any clue what’s in the bag?” I was wary, it was from my sister after all.

“No.” Sophie pulled in her bottom lip, obviously having the same apprehension.

Carefully pulling the edges apart to rip the tape, I opened it and removed the wadded up tissue paper and froze. Holy. Shit. Stella.

“Where exactly did you get that sheep from?” I raised a brow in question.

Sophie’s face turned red.

“Were you with Stella when you bought it?”

“No. No. No. She had a basket full of stuff that she was buying. Ariel, Leo, and she were filling it. No.” Sophie stood and ripped the bag from my hands and peered in. “I’m going to kill her. Them. I’m going to kill them. Carter, I’m so embarrassed.”

Letting out a chortle at the sight of Sophie’s embarrassment, I couldn’t contain my smile. “Don’t be, it’s funny. They pulled one over on you. Welcome to my world.” Dumping the contents of the bag onto the table, I looked at the items the girls had thought important to give me. “Edible body dust, hmm. Warming lubricant, I wonder if that’s for your pleasure or mine?” Sophie smacked my hand. “Cock rocks, not sure I like the sound of this, let me read, hold on.” She made a grab for them, and I shooed her hand away. “Ooh, yeah. We’re definitely taking these upstairs. Silk rope? Handcuffs? We could do some role playing with these things.” I finished tossing all the stuff back in the bag as Sophie blushed scarlet. 

“Sit. Let me put the food away and then we can do . . . whatever.” Sophie stacked the plates and took them to the kitchen.

“I can help.”

“No. It’s your birthday.”

“I want to get to the ‘whatever’ part faster.” Together we had the table cleared, the food wrapped and stored, and the dishes loaded in about ten minutes. 

“Want some wine?” Sophie grabbed a bottle from the fridge and set it on the counter before reaching to grab two glasses. 

“Sure, where’s your corkscrew?”

“Right there.” She pointed to a black tube plugged into a socket. “Electric. I like my wine.”

“Hmm, nice to know. Now, what were you saying about getting to whatever?”