After a deep, lingering kiss broken up by some heavy breathing, I flopped onto the bed beside her. I weakly pulled a few strands of her hair out of my mouth then dealt with the condom, tossing it into the trash can next to the bed.

It took another minute to catch our breaths. At least that’s what I told myself was the reason neither of us said anything. We turned to each other at the same time, then spoke simultaneously. “I’m sorry.”

Before she could say anything else untrue, I said, “You don’t need to be sorry, Lane. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

She pressed up on her hands and looked down at me. “Maybe the way you did could’ve been better, but you were right to bring it up. I don’t want us to keep things from each other.”

I sighed. “Okay, then if we’re really coming clean, I should probably tell you that you look weird with beard-burn on your cheeks.” I rubbed the stubble on my chin that had caused it. “Cute but weird. Does it hurt?”

I saw a flicker of a smile. Then an eye roll. Then a bigger smile.

“Not as much as when it’s on the inside of my thighs. Maybe you need to shave more often.”

“I’m getting you a thigh spreader for your birthday—problem solved.” I smiled. “Actually, this bed would look great with wrist and ankle straps, don’t you think?”

“So we’re good?”

I shook my head. “Frozen yogurt is good. Sleeping in is good. You are…incredible. So, even taking off a few points for when we add me to the combo, I’d say that still leaves us around fantastic.” Not quite the right word, but it would do. “But as much as I hate to admit it, we should probably…talk more.”

“We’ll have plenty of time to talk on the airplane.” Her eyelids fell, dropping like a kid trying not to fall asleep in class. She must have been exhausted.

I glanced at the alarm clock, then back at her. Oh shit, I had to get moving. Since Hayden had taken Andi on a trip around Asia to distract her before their wedding, he’d made me promise to do something for him before Lane and I left the states. I’d forgotten to do it yesterday, and it needed to be done.

I sighed, gave Lane one last quickish kiss, and hauled my sorry ass out of bed. Lane mumbled when she felt the mattress move.

Normally, to do our part for the environment, we showered together. I wasn't sure how much water it actually saved since we usually got distracted and took way longer to finish than if we’d been solo.

In my defense, I was never allowed to have bath toys as a child. Renee complained that they splashed water everywhere and it would ruin the floor. So Lane was helping me work through those horrible memories of bath time by letting me play with her.

When I came out, my disappointment over Lane not joining me was overcome by the sight of her still lying in bed like a sexually sated and unconscious snow angel. Before she could ruin the image by drooling, I quickly threw some clothes on and gave her a light kiss on her forehead.

"Be back as soon as I can."

"Wait," she said groggily, propping up on her elbows. "Where are you going? It's still early."

"I promised Hayden I'd run by their house to check something out before we left."

"Don’t be late."

"Yes, ma'am." The car would pick us up to take us to the airport in two hours. No way would my errand take that long.

---

An hour and fifteen minutes later, I was still wandering around Hayden and Andi's house with my mouth hanging open. The contractor Hayden hired had turned the house where Andi grew up into a home where they could grow old.

Sean, the contractor, gave me a tour of the bathrooms, the kitchen, and the living room. Only thing left to check was the completely new addition to the house—the master suite.

Sean pointed to the remote he'd given me at the beginning of the tour. "Now, if you press the button that says Master—"

"A submissive woman will magically appear to cater to my every whim?" I joked.

"No," he said, scratching his metrosexual facial hair. He didn't share my sense of humor. Or anyone's sense of humor, for that matter. Being trendy prevented it, I think. "Pressing the button notifies the system which room you want to control."

"Yeah. Control in the bedroom is definitely key. Don’t want to be a two-minute man, am I right?"

He ignored me. "Just press the button."

I did.

"Now, hit the big light button. That one." Wow. He should have been a kindergarten teacher—without his help, who knew which button I would've thought was big and said Light on it. "Now, like in every other room, the system will be biometrically set to only recognize Hayden’s and Andi's vocal registers. Everyone else will have to use the controller. They can program it when they get back."

“Right.”

He acted like I was supposed to be impressed by all of this. As if I’ve never watched the SYFY channel or seen Minority Report.

I pushed the music button—it was a medium-sized button with the word Music on it—then pretended to press a bunch of others just to mess with him.

"Quick! Where's the knob to change the station?" I needed something to save me from the smooth new age jazz or whatever filled my ears. “Do people actually have sex to this music?”

"There are over 1,500 different satellite stations available." He tried to take the remote from me. Then grudgingly pointed to an arrow pointing to the right that I would’ve eventually figured out on my own.

"Of course there are." I sighed. "That it?"

Of course it wasn't. There were buttons and voice controls to dim the lights, control the alarm clock, change the room temperature, and adjust the heat of the mattress. Maybe it could even read you a story or jack you off before bed. Unfortunately my time to dwell was long over.

"Got it. Looks great. I'll inform my brother." Shit, I’d forgotten to take the video I'd promised Hayden I would shoot. I checked the clock on my phone and saw a message from Lane:

‘Where are you??? We leave in thirty minutes!’

Oh shit. "I gotta go, Sean. Like, ten minutes ago. But I need you to take a quick video tour of the place and email it to me so I can show Hayden when I see him."

"If you'd told me earlier, I could've taught you how to use the house monitoring app."

"Sean, the last thing I want on my phone is a way to see what’s happening in my brother's bedroom." Thankfully Andi was a computer genius. She would set up additional, unhackable security as soon as the surprise was unveiled to her. "Just a short video of the place will do. Thanks." I ran for the door, wondering if I would be able to get out of here without the remote. "And, Sean? Seriously, you do awesome work, man. It's amazing."

Huh. Guess I was wrong. He did know how to smile. Then he looked down at the remote, pressed a button, and the front door opened all by itself.

"I bow to your skills, man."

As I sped home, I thought about how lucky my brother was. Or maybe it wasn't luck. That asshat had worked his hat off to get what he had, and every day since, he put in the effort to keep it. Finding a woman who'd taught him it was okay to want things he’d never dreamed he’d have was his due for putting up with everybody else’s family shit for so long.

I adored Andi. She accepted my brother as he was and, just by being herself, had made him even better. No two people were more deserving. And this surprise he'd planned for her—turning the home she already loved into something they'd love even more—couldn't have been a more perfect symbol of their relationship.

Fuck. Was that what I should do for Lane? Give her the proposal, wedding, and future that symbolized our relationship? Not sure if that made me more or less nervous.

What we had was perfect most of the time because it was easy, intense, and full of laughs. Actually, I could use the same description for our sex life.

Nah, proposing during sex was probably a big no-no. And, sadly, she'd never go for having sex during our wedding. At least our future would be filled with a lot of it.

A future that was easy, intense, full of laughs, and almost as much sex. Yep, that sounded perfect.