“Where are we going?” Sloane asked, wrapping her arms around herself. She was trembling from the cold, and I had the strong urge to wrap my arms around her to make her warm again. But I had the feeling she wouldn’t let me. I had gotten to touch her once, to stroke her cheek, and if tonight didn’t work out I would have to be happy that at least I had gotten to feel her skin one more time.

“To my car. I thought we’d talk in there. Unless you want to go to my house.”

“No.” The word came out quickly. Too quickly, as if she was talking to herself as much as me. “The car is fine.”

“Okay.” We walked down the block in silence for a few minutes. I opened the passenger side door for her, and she shot me a look before sitting down, grabbing the handle and closing it behind herself before I could do it for her. I couldn’t help but grin—in spite of myself, there was something sexy and charming about her anger. She was so small, yet she had so much fire in her. It was one of the things I loved about her most, one of the things that had made it impossible to stay away.

I got into the car and turned in my seat to look at her. She had her arms crossed over her chest, looking at me with reluctance, as if afraid of what I would say.

“I bought the bakery,” I said to her. She stared at me for a long moment, saying nothing. Her eyes were intense and almost disconcerting, studying my face intently.

“That’s not news, Reid. You bought it, and in a few months it will be gone forever, replaced by luxury condos.”

“Well, not exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

“As part of the deal, I negotiated that on the first floor of the condos was a new bakery and that the nicest of the condos in the building would be reserved for the owner of the bakery. I’m hoping you’ll agree to be that owner.”

“Why?” she finally asked.

“Because every time I went by there, I thought of you. You belong there. Because I can’t let you go. I can’t give you up. I had to fight my investment partners on it, but I’d rather lose my business than lose you. Will you take the new bakery? Will you say yes?”

Her lips parted as if she was going to speak, but nothing came out of her mouth. I reached across her then, my body close to hers when I opened the glove compartment in front of her.

“I know it’s not the same bakery as your dad built, but maybe it could be an even better version. Maybe it would make your dad happy to look down and see you running the hottest new bakery in the city.”

“Reid,” she said. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll give me another chance,” I told her, trying to keep the pleading out of my voice. I didn’t want to beg for her love, but I knew that if I didn’t try to get her back I would spend the rest of my life regretting it.

“You lied to me. Deliberately misled me. I can’t just let that go.”

“I swear I didn’t know the bakery was yours.” I dared to reach forward and take her arms, unfolding them and taking both of her hands into mine. I brought them to my lips, turning them over to softly kiss the insides of her delicate wrists. Of everything I wanted to do to her, this is what I wanted to do the most. Just to kiss the most sensitive parts of her, to cover her body with my lips. Fucking Sloane, making love to her, was an experience that I wanted over and over again, but I would settle now just to savor the brush of my lips over her skin. She didn’t pull her hands away, but she stared at my face.

“Are you serious about this?” she asked softly. Her eyes were no longer cold and hard, but soft with hope and wonder. And something else, too, something that looked a lot like my feelings reflected back at me.

“I love you, Sloane,” I said. “I love everything about you.”

She sighed, closing her eyes, her lips parted. I took the chance to lean forward then and take her mouth in a soft kiss, one that she responded to by sucking my bottom lip between her own. She kissed me again, tasting my mouth with her tongue, wrapping her hand in my hair and holding me close to her. I teased her tongue with mine, leaning in as close as I could, wanting more from her as soon as she’d touched me.

“Let’s go back to my place.” I hoped with everything I had in me that she would agree. I had yet to make love to Sloane while she was happy. Both times, the anger had turned to lust, and I didn’t want it to be that way again.

She bit her lip and nodded, pulling back and putting her seat belt on. There was a smile on her face that filled me with light and love. I hurried back to my house as quickly as I could. We pulled up and it felt almost like a race to get to the front door and get inside. I lifted her small frame into my arms, and she giggled as I carried her up the stairs to my room, where I put her down gently on her feet.

“I love that smile,” I said when I looked at her face. She blushed again, her face the sweetest shade of pink, and I had to take her mouth with mine. I started to undress her, taking her sweater off first, then reaching around to unhook her bra and free her breasts. I took her pants off, too, pushing them down over her hips so that she was only wearing panties. I had never seen her bare before, never seen her full beautiful body at once. I cupped her small breasts in my hands, surrounding them entirely, squeezing them gently and caressing her nipples with my fingertips. It seemed to drive her crazy, drive her wild with lust. Her legs were rubbing together, and when I looked down I could see that the tops of her thighs were glistening wet, soaked from the juices of her pussy.

I kissed her again, pulling her over to the bed and on top of me. She undressed me while she straddled my hips, lifting herself only to pull my pants down so that my cock was sticking straight up and ready for her, long and thick and throbbing. She wrapped it in her hand, stroking it, gazing down at it with a curious look on her face that drove me absolutely crazy. She looked sweet and soft, so beautiful and perfect that I felt my heart pound even harder than it had the first time she’d touched me. She stroked my length up and down with her hand, then lowered her face down and nuzzled my thigh with her nose, kissing it gently before moving her mouth to my cock. She kissed the head of it softly, looking up at me, and I couldn’t look away from her face as she wrapped her lips around just the head, sucking on it gently.

“Jesus,” I breathed, lifting my hips slightly so that I pushed deeper into her mouth. She applied more pressure, her tongue flicking over the tip at the most sensitive point in my body. She lowered her face, taking more of me into her mouth, sucking firmly as she went. Her mouth was tight and wet and warm, so good that I squirmed beneath her. She wrapped her hand around the base of my cock where her mouth couldn’t reach and stroked me up and down there while she sucked. I was breathing heavily, too close to coming. I reluctantly lifted her face and pulled her up over me so that her hips were against mine once more. She lowered her pussy onto my cock, not allowing me to enter her, but simply allowing my length to part her lower lips and rub up and down her slit. She kept lifting her hips and taking me about an inch inside her before pulling away again.

Eventually I gave in, put my hands on her hips, and tugged her down so that I was buried completely inside her. She moaned when I touched the back of her pussy, lifting my hips up and down against hers. I forced her to hold still and simply fucked her from below, arching my body against her so that my upward thrusts could hit the sweet spot within her. She moaned again and I let go of her hips, wanting to watch her ride me. She started by moving her hips slowly, her eyes closed, taking me all the way into her pussy over and over in decadent strokes of her hips that would allow her to savor the feeling of having me inside her.

“I want you to use me,” I told her softly. She opened her eyes and looked at me with that look of wonder on her face again.

“Use my cock, angel. Make yourself come for me.”

“Okay,” she breathed, and I could tell my words had affected her because her hip movements became more frantic and less measured. Sometimes she would speed up, taking me hard inside her, and other times she would just let me grind against the back of her pussy while she whimpered into my mouth. I kept my hips still, allowing her to do as she wanted with me. It was a hard thing to do—all I wanted was to meet her movements, but I could tell she was enjoying taking control.

“You’re doing so good, Sloane,” I said to her. “You ride my cock so fucking good.”

“I think I’m going to come,” she said, the words barely coming out of her before they turned into a loud moan. It was then that I started moving my hips with hers, meeting her downward strokes with my upward thrusting. I came before her, unable to hold back any longer. I filled her completely with my seed before pulling out of her, immediately flipping her over to eat her pussy, licking her swollen clit until she cried out and shook with pleasure. I climbed back over her and rolled over, pulling her body on top of mine so she could lie on my chest.

“Did you mean it, what you said before?” she asked, her eyes on mine.

“That I love you?”

She nodded.

“Yes,” I told her, tilting my face up to kiss her. “And I should have realized it before. I think I’ve loved you since that first date.”

“I love you,” she said, nuzzling my jaw. “I missed you.”

I kissed her again. “I missed you, too.”

“I better call my mom. She might be worried.”

“Okay.”

I watched as she got out of bed, her naked body disappearing into the bathroom with her phone. I heard her voice on the other end as she explained the situation, then came out of the bathroom once more.

“Um,” she said, biting her lip shyly. “She said I could stay the night.”

“Sloane,” I said, grinning at her. “Come here.”

She smiled and came to me, allowing me to pleasure her again before we both fell asleep.