Cecilia, present day

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Colin’s lips curving into a grin was just about the sexiest thing CeCe had ever witnessed.

Okay, fine. That was a lie. Even sexier was what happened next.

Namely, Colin sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her over to the bed beneath the glass roof.

Her robe landed on the floor with a soft plop, but her naked body was pressed against his bare chest so there wasn’t any room for embarrassment or insecurity. Hell, he’d had his mouth between her thighs mere minutes ago.

But this did feel a little different.

More intimate.

Especially when he set her gently on the mattress and stood beside the bed for a moment, staring down at her.

She shifted to her side, lifting a hand up to rest on his flat stomach. “I like the way you look at me,” she said quietly.

There was that grin again.

“I definitely like the look of you, lass.”

“Not that again,” she said, all drama as she flopped onto her back. “You’ll transform me into a puddle of goo at this rate, I swear, McGregor.”

“So long as you let me watch your diddies jiggle like that,” he said, his use of Scottish slang for boobs making her crack up.

“Oh, my God.” She slapped a hand over her mouth to contain her laughter. “You’re terrible.”

“And you have the most incredible breasts I’ve ever seen.”

The intensity in his eyes made her breath catch, but she just tore a condom from the strip and waved it at him. “Enough pretty words. If you truly believe that, then prove it to me.”

She didn’t need to ask twice.

In a heartbeat, he’d shed his boxer briefs and was on the bed, pulling her close and kissing her with all the pent-up passion of a man on the edge. And unlike their other time together, CeCe wasn’t a passive participant.

Nope. This time she got in on the action.

She stroked and squeezed. She petted. She kissed and licked and nipped.

Until she could barely see straight from all the longing.

“Please, Col. I need you inside me now.”

He didn’t argue, just grabbed the little plastic square from near her head, tore it open, and rolled on the condom. He paused, knees between her open legs, cock two inches from where Cecilia needed it. But when she tried to cage him with her thighs and tug him down, he resisted. Instead of sliding home—where they both desperately wanted him to be—he stopped. Waited for her eyes to find his. Colin’s warm palm cupped her face, the pad of his thumb stroking across her cheekbone. “You sure?”

Despite everything—the heat of him so close, her desire raging low and hot and desperate, the past, the present, the secrets she’d yet to reveal—she was sure.

They’d been moving toward this for eight years now.

“I’m sure.”

“You’re amazing,” he said, almost reverent as he nudged at her entrance. “I’ve dreamed about having you in a bed, making up for . . . before. Making it better. Making it everything you wished it had been.”

CeCe wrapped her arms around his shoulders and tugged him down so he was pressed tightly against her chest. “You’re all I ever wished for, Col. You’re all I’ve ever wanted.”

He filled her in one stroke, gentle but insistent as he buried himself deep.

Tears blurred her vision.

Because it felt so damned right.

Because this was the piece she’d been missing.

Because . . . Colin.

His hips flexed, drawing back and out before pressing in, deeper and a little harder.

She moaned and he repeated the movement. Then repeated it again. And again. Until the tears dried in her eyes and she was more focused on sensation than feelings.

Until she was groaning and screaming, demanding “More” and “Faster” and “Harder.”

Until she was flying over the precipice and Colin was trailing her, growling her name as he tumbled.

Until her heartbeat slowed and emotion returned and she was waiting for things to go bad.

For it to be too real for Colin.

For him to get angry and leave.

Except . . . he didn’t.

Instead, he cradled her close for long moments, brushing back her bedraggled hair, pressing a kiss to her temple.

Then, eventually, as though he were supremely reluctant to let her go for even a second, he slipped from the bed with a murmured, “Be right back.”

His footsteps echoed down the hall to the bathroom. She listened to the sounds of the taps turning on and then off before he returned with a washcloth. He cleaned her, returned the towel to the bathroom, and came back to bed.

There weren’t any words exchanged as he pulled her into his embrace and tucked the covers over them.

CeCe didn’t say anything as the sky lit up with green in a breath-stealing display, though the air caught in Colin’s lungs as frequently as it did in hers.

She didn’t speak until Colin’s breath evened out and came in slow inhalations and exhalations.

Only when he was deeply asleep did she dare to murmur the thought that was circling her brain.

“What have I done?”