I take my sweet time with Valentine because I can’t force myself to rush this.

I can’t force myself to fuck her like I’d fuck any of the other nameless, faceless women I’ve been with in moments of desperation. Angie consumed most of my time once I got back from Afghanistan, but before that, it was just a series of one-night stands.

I’ve got nothing against the hot fuck. I could have spent hours with her in the Short Stack. But something about the way she looks right now, her hair still damp from my shower, makes my chest ache.

I want to see Valentine like this every day. Every day in the fall, every day in the winter, every day in the spring. One summer with her isn’t enough.

My head swims with how fucking perfect she is, how her skin is so creamy and smooth, how her curves are so delicious that I want to lick every inch of her.

Instead, I settle for spots that I hope will drive her wild.

I start at her collarbone, swirling my tongue along those ridges there, and get a low sound of appreciation from her throat. Then I work my way down. When my tongue meets her nipples, the moan gets a little louder, a little more involved.

“I like the sound of that,” I murmur into her ear. Valentine curls against me, her body pressing against mine in a way that makes my chest feel strange and tight, before spreading herself out again on the comforter.

“I like the sound of you,” she says.

“Are you flirting with me?”

“No,” she says, opening her eyes to grin at me. “I don’t have to do that. We have an agreement.”

It’s true—it’s fucking true that we agreed on the length of this little fling—but hearing about it right now sends a bolt of pain through my heart. It takes me by surprise. Valentine is instantly worried. 

“What did I say?”

No. I am not going to let the truth derail the pleasure I’ve been waiting to give her since... since the moment I saw her, at least. If I’m being honest. 

I give her my biggest, most roguish grin, and her face immediately echoes it back. “I just remembered something boring I have to do later.”

“What’s that?”

“Not fuck you.”

She throws her arms around my neck then, pulling me down to her and kissing me fiercely. It’s like fireworks, a thousand sparklers running through my nerves, and we move effortlessly into another mode. The too-hot mode. The fuck-me-now mode. And I fucking love it.

I love her.

The thought comes to me without warning, and it’s so stupid that I almost laugh out loud. If I weren’t consumed with spreading Valentine’s legs, running my hands down her thighs, teasing her with my fingertips hovering just outside her most sensitive space, I’d do it. Love her? No. 

But I could. I could love this woman, this sweet, awkward, spitfire of a woman who was only afraid of me for a split second when we met. Who doesn’t see me as a dad drowning in the weight of the fucked-up past. I could love her.

Shit. I could love her.

Then the part of my brain that’s interested in dwelling on some are-we-or-aren’t-we bullshit shuts down, and I’m lost in her.

* * *

I make her come with just my fingers, even as she tries to put me first. Do I want to let her get on her knees at the foot of the bed and take me into her mouth? Yes. Hell yes. But for once in my life, I’m more interested in making sure she is satisfied beyond belief.

For once this summer, there’s nobody bursting through the door, no random foods to catch her off guard, and no sausage deliveries, for God’s sake.

I learn that Valentine likes to have her clit rubbed in a very specific way, and she likes to have it done often. The first time I make the circles with my fingertips the perfect size her whole body tenses, and then relaxes, and she sucks in a huge breath.

“This,” I whisper in her ear, making those circles in just the right rhythm. She’s almost straddling me, her face pressed close to mine, her legs held apart by my hips. Valentine trembles against me, gritting her teeth.

“What?”

“This is what’s so hot it’ll burn your mouth.”

“My mouth—” she can hardly string the words together. “Is fine.” Then another moan escapes her on the tail end of a breath.

“You’re so close.”

“I’m so close,” she breathes into my ear. There are a million stars bursting in my chest. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so right in my life, here in the lamplight with Valentine, on my bed, behind not one but two locked doors. 

Now I just need to make her come.

She’s right on the edge, and she buries her face into my shoulder like it’s too much to let it show.

Oh, no. I’m not having that.

“Look at me,” I whisper, and she pushes up so that our eyes meet, her red hair tousled. She bites her lip.

“This seems... like a recipe... for disaster.”

“It seems like a recipe for an orgasm. Speaking of...”

She shoots me a glare that makes me laugh, makes my cock pulse between us. “Don’t fool around, Ryder.”

“Fool around? I’d never.”

I tease the head of my cock against her opening, my hand working between us. I can see her starting to blink, starting to get overtaken by the wave of pleasure, but she’s fighting hard to maintain eye contact. It’s brave as hell. I thought it was cute, all the shit that kept happening, lighthearted as fuck, but for Valentine, those things must have been mortifying. Yet here she is, showing me all of her without flinching at all. 

Her mouth opens just slightly as I push into her entrance, still teasing her. Spots of color come to her already-pink cheeks. “Ryder...” The word is half warning, half plea.

I work another inch into her tight, wet opening, and she rocks her hips back against me. I won’t give her anymore. Not until...

I pick up the pace with my fingers, just a bit, just a bit, and Valentine’s entire body reacts, her hands clenching on my chest.

“Oh...” she breathes, and then she’s over the edge, hips moving out of control, slamming back. At the peak of her orgasm, I thrust into her, all the way, taking up every inch.

I almost explode inside her right then and there. That’s how good it feels. Oh, my God, so fucking good.

It wouldn’t matter if the entire fire department burst in right now. I wouldn’t even miss a beat.

Valentine starts rocking with a new rhythm, and I let it take me away.

I might never come back.