Grayson

Three months later

“BABY, WILL YOU just relax? You’re starting to drive me crazy.”

Lola stood from where she’d been hunched over, dusting the bookshelves for the millionth time that day, and gave me a look that said she was trying to set me on fire with her eyes.

“You could help, you know,” she harrumphed, propping her hands on her luscious hips. “It is your house, after all.”

“Ah, ah, ah,” I tsked, standing from the sectional and setting my beer bottle down on the side table before closing the space between us. “It’s our house now, baby.” I took her hips in my hands and pulled her against me. The feel of her tits pressing into my chest caused my dick to stir.

“Silly me. How could I forget,” she breathed, burrowing closer. Her light-brown eyes darkened with want as the dust cloth fell from her hand and her fingers came up the trace my abs beneath my T-shirt. We couldn’t get enough of each other. Since we’d started our cohabitation, we’d spent every single free second we had tearing each other’s clothes off. It was fucking bliss.

Despite her reservations, it had taken me no time at all to win her mother over. Moms loved me, after all. Then it took approximately a week after the gala to convince her to move in with me. Which, in hindsight, worked out perfectly, since her mother and Maury had hit it off so well they’d run off to Vegas and eloped. Her mom was living in Lola’s old apartment with her new husband.

Now Lola’s stuff mingled with mine, creating a warm, comfortable feel in a house that had once been devoid of personality. She breathed life into the place — she breathed life into me. She’d done what I’d always hoped for and turned my house into a home.

“I know something that’ll relieve some of your stress,” I growled, nuzzling the crook of her neck and biting at her tantalizing skin.

She let out a low hum that made my cock stand at full attention. “That sounds — wait… no.” She gave me a hard shove that sent me back a step. “Stop trying to distract me with your sexy body! We’ve got too much to do and everyone will be here in—” She looked at the clock hanging on the living room wall and her eyes went wide. “—three hours!”

“Baby.” I hunched down and caught her eyes. “Calm down, okay? The house is spotless. You’ve been cleaning it for the past two days. There’s literally nothing left to clean. You’re cleaning cleanness. You need to relax. It’s not like we don’t already know each other’s families.”

Her face fell into a sexy little pout. Jesus, even her pout got me hard. “I know, I’m sorry. I’m just nervous. This is the first time our families are meeting. And your people are so great and mine are kind of nuts, and I’m scared it’s going to go wrong.”

“Everyone’s going to get along great. You’ll see.”

Her frown didn’t lessen as her fingers toyed with the cotton of my shirt. “You say that now, but don’t come crying to me when a West Side Story-style brawl breaks out in your living room. My mother’s certifiable, and Nana’s squirrely. I don’t trust her with that cane.”

I laughed and leaned in planting a kiss on her lips. “Sometimes your imagination frightens me.”

“As it should.” She nodded seriously. “But I’m being real here. What if something happens and my brother punches you again? It could totally happen.”

“He’s not going to punch me,” I assured her. “Besides, I’m his boss now, so he’s too busy trying to make a good impression to even think about punching me.”

“This is true,” she muttered to my shirt.

That was just another of the many changes that had occurred in the past few months. After the showdown between me and their father at the gala, Dominic had decided it was time to cut the last of the strings that held him to an unhealthy relationship, quitting his job with his father. He’d pulled up his roots and moved from New York to Seattle, officially becoming an employee of Bandwidth Communications a month back, much to Sophia’s detriment.

There had been a lot of adjustment on everyone’s part, but everything seemed to be going well, and life was moving at its regularly set pace no matter what. And for the first time ever, Lola and I were hosting a dinner at our house — catered, of course, since my girl couldn’t cook for shit — so our families could finally meet. I’d never felt so happy in my life. I just needed to get my woman to loosen up and get onboard the happy train with me.

“Do you love me?” I asked, leaning down and nipping her bottom lip.

“Yes,” she sighed dreamily, tilting her head back so I knew she wanted my attention on her neck. I was glad to give her whatever she wanted, placing open-mouth kisses along her throat to her collarbone. “Do you love me?”

“Baby, I think I’ve loved you since the minute you shot me down in line at Starbucks. You were just slow on the uptake.”

She giggled and leaned in even closer. “It was the dress,” she teased.

“Oh, it was definitely the dress,” I agreed, my voice dipping low. “That dress is burned into my fucking brain. But it was also the woman in that dress.”

She stood on her tiptoes, her lips sliding along mine as she spoke. “My man is so getting lucky tonight.”

And just like that… life got even better.

The End