“Tonight’s going to be really busy, baby,” I told Rosie, praying it would be true. It was our grand re-opening at the bakery. Rosie and I had moved in with Reid a couple months ago and were happy with more space, but my mother was enjoying the penthouse condo in the new development. I had missed the bakery and its smells but found that it was the smells of the bakery that brought back memories of my father more than anything else. When I looked around at the new space, I could practically feel him next to me, smiling. “And we’re going to need you to help. You have a very special job that nobody else can do.”

“What is it?” Rosie asked, her eyes lighting up with excitement. She loved when I gave her something to do at the bakery. She would go about the task all day, pretending she was working alongside me, practicing her adorable version of customer service with a big grin on her face.

“We’re going to have treats for everyone tonight, and I’d like you to pass them out,” I said to her. “Do you think you could do that for me? Mommy will be right here if you get scared.”

“I can do that!” she said, clasping her hands together. I chuckled at her, handing her a basket full of goodie bags that were filled with cookies and mini scones, free samples for the customers tonight.

“Do what?” Reid asked, coming out from the back and wiping his hands on his apron. I grinned at him. Seeing my billionaire boyfriend with flour all over him, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, was so sexy and charming. He came over to me and Rosie and gave me a soft kiss on the lips.

“Mommy says I can pass out treats,” Rosie said proudly, beaming and holding the basket up for Reid’s inspection.

“That’s a big job.” He sounded impressed.

“I’m a big girl, I can do it.”

He laughed, reaching forward to ruffle her hair. She wrapped her arms around his leg and looked up at his face adoringly. It had been six months since I’d gotten together with Reid, and Rosie had been fond of him immediately, always wanting to sit next to him at dinner and talking on and on to him every time she got the chance. For Reid’s part, he was perfect—I had been admittedly nervous before about how he would get along with my daughter, but it seemed to be effortless for him to relate to her.

I smiled when I watched them together, my heart feeling light and happy. Reid grinned at me and hugged Rosie tight, lifting her up and spinning her around in circles, which made her breathless with laughter. When he put her down, she ran upstairs to tell my mom about her new job for tonight, leaving Reid and I alone in the bakery. He wrapped his arms around my waist immediately, pulling my body against his.

“Sloane,” he said, nuzzling my neck with his nose, kissing me softly there in a way that always affected me the same way—with heat and longing. “You look so good in that dress tonight.”

“Thank you.” I took his face and pulled it to mine in a kiss. He kissed me deeply, slipping his tongue into my mouth to taste me as he held me in his arms. I didn’t even notice the noise on the stairs before my mother cleared her throat.

“We’ve got about ten minutes.”

“Okay,” I said, breaking apart from Reid. I looked up at my mother sheepishly, but she smiled and shook her head.

“You two. I can’t believe you’re not married already.”

I blushed, looking away from her. Marriage wasn’t something I’d talked about with Reid, and I was afraid of how he felt about it. He said he loved me and I believed him, but something told me he wasn’t exactly the type to settle down in that way.

“Mom.”

“I know, I know,” she said, putting her hands up. “None of my business.”

“It’s not,” I agreed. She shot me a look before calling for Rosie to come downstairs. Reid filled the display cases while my mother brewed a pot of coffee. I felt nervous, my heart fluttering in my chest. I saw people standing outside on the other side of the window, more people than I had seen in here at once since my father had passed. Five minutes before it was time to open, Reid appeared from the back carrying three glasses of champagne. He handed one each to my mother and I, then offered his glass forward for a toast.

“To Sloane,” he said, looking over to me. “You did this. We love you.”

My mother’s approving look confirmed the sentiment, as she nodded in agreement.

“Thank you, guys,” I said, truly grateful for their words, for what they’d done for me. We drank down the champagne, and then it was time to open. I took a deep breath and walked toward the door, pushing it open and smiling as people lined up to get in. I looked over at Reid, and he gave me an encouraging nod.

“Rosie,” I called to her. She skipped out from the back, holding her basket. I gestured for her to start handing the bags out, and she did, chattering happily to each customer as she went.

“There are a lot of people here,” I said as I went around the counter. The place was full, almost to capacity, with no free tables left. People were left standing, but nobody seemed to mind. Reid went around and passed out coffee to everyone, dazzling them all as he did everyone else. I watched as he was approached by the local hairdresser, a woman named Margot who had a flirty smile on her face. She put her hand on his arm, and I saw him smile at her, though it wasn’t the look he gave me every time we touched. He glanced over his shoulder at me, and I raised an eyebrow, watching as he shrugged and turned his attention back to her. I crossed the room, taking his other arm gently in mine and wrapping it around my waist, stepping subtly into the conversation with a bright smile for Margot. She pulled back immediately.

“Who is this?” she asked, looking a little flustered.

“This is my boyfriend, Reid.”

“Reid,” she repeated. “Nice to meet you.”

“You as well,” he said politely.

“Reid,” I said, “can I see you in the kitchen?”

He nodded, excused himself from Margot, and followed me into the kitchen. I told my mom that we would be five minutes, and she rolled her eyes at me. I pulled Reid into the pantry, a mischievous grin on his face. He pulled the door shut behind him, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, taking his mouth in a hot kiss. He pulled back with a crooked smile.

“Feeling a little jealous, baby?” he asked in a low voice. “A little territorial?”

“Shut up.” I kissed him again, though I couldn’t help but smile. He held my body against his and slipped his hands under my skirt, gripping my bare hips with his hands. It had been his desire tonight that I not wear panties; the thought of me walking around without anything under my skirt turned him on all night. I was more than happy to oblige his requests—it made it even hotter when he finally got to touch me at night after we’d put Rosie to bed.

He ran his hands over my ass, up my dress to my lower back. The feeling of him caressing my skin made my thighs rub together under my dress.

“We can’t do this right now,” I said, gasping and pulling back from him. He kept his hands on my body though and pulled me to him once more, kissing me again with a soft growl.

“You are a terrible tease.”

“I know.” I licked my lips, kissing him one more time. “Rosie’s staying the night with my mom tonight.”

“Good.” He leaned his face down to bury it in my neck, tasting my skin. “Are you going to keep teasing me until then?”

“Maybe.”

He shook his head with a small laugh as I pulled away from him and left the pantry. We went back out to the bakery to see a line forming in front of my mother, who was pouring the free coffee. She gave me an annoyed look over her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” I said sheepishly, moving quickly to grab a pot from the holder. I made my way around the room, apologizing for the wait. Nobody was annoyed or irritated at all, and I was given compliments about the renovations to the place left and right.

The rest of the night went by quickly with customers coming and going steadily until we closed. During the next couple of hours, I did my best to toy with Reid when no one was looking. I knew that even flashing him a certain smile would make him react in a certain way that would be hard to hide. He would be frustrated by the end of the night, filled with pent-up desire. It would make for a hot night, and I could be as loud as I wanted to without fear of waking up Rosie.

By the time we locked up, my mother had gone upstairs with Rosie, leaving Reid and I alone. We started to clean up together, occasionally brushing past each other on purpose, with light touches and a spark that was growing hotter and hotter, threatening to burst into flame. I was sweeping under the table when he met my eye and held it, then took my jaw in his hand to tilt my face to his.

“The things I’m going to do to you tonight,” he said, giving me a wicked smile. “You have no idea.”

The thought made me shiver. I wondered what he had in mind for me this time. We were rarely without Rosie, but when we were, he did his best to take advantage of the fact that he could make me come without having to cover my mouth with his hand.

“We can finish this up if you let go of me.” I grinned at him. “And go home.”

He pulled my face to his for another long kiss, pulling my skirt over my waist. He took my hips in his hands and pushed me backward so that I was sitting on the table.

“Reid, we can’t do this here,” I said, though I was laughing as he pulled my dress up and pushed my thighs apart. He glanced up at the stairs.

“You can be quiet, baby. I know you can.”

At that point, I wasn’t going to be able to fight it. He had already knelt between my legs and was pressing soft kisses to the outside of my pussy lips, his breath warm against them. After a moment of teasing, feather-light brushes of his lips, he finally slipped his tongue between my folds, dipping it into my pussy to gather moisture before spreading it up and down and in circles around my clit.

“We have to make this quick,” I panted as he began to suck on my clit, lashing at it with his tongue. He spread my legs even farther, draping them over his shoulders to pull me closer to the edge of the table. He was eating my pussy ravenously, knowing just how to make me come within a few minutes. Sometimes he did it for me in the mornings before I left for work, just so I would have some relief as well as something to fantasize about and remember throughout the day.

“I love eating your pussy, Sloane.” He gave one slow lick from the bottom of my pussy to the top. “Love it when you come in my mouth. Will you do that for me?”

I nodded, afraid that if I opened my mouth I would moan as he went back to work with his mouth, licking and sucking my folds, teasing my clit with his tongue. I felt myself coming and clamped my hand over my mouth as I cried out, my eyes on the stairs as I muffled the sounds of my moans. Reid kept his mouth moving as he rode out my orgasm, then pulled away with a grin on his face and took my mouth in a kiss. I was still hot and needy despite the fact that I’d come, desperate for something more from him. I didn’t think about where we were or what we should or shouldn’t do as I started to take off his belt. He stopped me with a soft laugh, taking my hands in his.

“You can do whatever you want with me when we get home,” he said. “We have to clean this place up.”

I chewed my lip, sliding off the table and picking up the broom. We finished cleaning quickly and left shortly after, turning off the lights and locking up the bakery behind us. We got home as quickly as we could, and it seemed like he’d barely stopped the car before we were both out and against each other. Even before we got to the front door, our mouths were moving hungrily together as he moved us gently in that direction. I had to let him go so that he could get the door open, but the moment we got inside, I wrapped myself around him again, so eager to touch him that it hurt.

He pushed my coat from my shoulders and then took my dress off, slowly unzipping the back before pulling it down. Every brush of his skin along my spine teased me. I was naked in front of him in the entryway, and he led me into the living room instead of his bedroom, bending me forward over the couch arm. I looked over my shoulder at him, raising my eyebrow, and he smacked me on the ass hard with his right hand. I instinctively tried to squirm away from him, but he held me still, hitting me again on the other side. For some reason, the slight sting was making me squirm, and I rubbed my clit against the arm of the couch to get some relief from the frantic frustration I was feeling between my hips.

“Oh, you like that?”

His voice sounded amused. I felt embarrassed and tried to stop my squirming, but I couldn’t help it, especially when he started swatting me again and again. I moaned, my body humping pitifully against the couch. He reached between my legs, lifting my hips up slightly and beginning to stroke my pussy with his free hand while he spanked me.

“Do you know what this is for?” he asked me in a silky, dangerous voice.

“For teasing you.”

“Right. Very good,” he said. He slapped my ass again, hard enough that I knew it would glow red with his handprint. It stung more and more as he went, but the way he was rubbing my clit with his fingers made it impossible to protest. The combination of pleasure and pain was so powerful that I found it hard to even moan. I could only make little mewling noises like a kitten, my breath catching in my throat as I tried to grind against his hand. He pulled away so abruptly, just when I was on the edge of coming all over his fingers. I felt him shift behind me as he undressed, and then he aimed his cock against my slit, rubbing the head of it up and down, brushing it over my swollen clit. He pushed in about an inch but pulled away, then two inches and did it again. The next time he pushed inside of me, I tried to move back against him to take him deeper, but he pulled back to avoid my movements, pulling out of me completely.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Teasing you.” His lips were curled into a sly grin as he did it again, holding my hips still with his hands so that I couldn’t buck back this time. He would always go in two, sometimes three inches at a time before pulling away, never filling me up like I needed him to.

“Fuck you,” I said finally, feeling so desperate and needy that I was overwhelmed with it.

“Is that what you want? You want me to fuck you?”

“Yes.” My voice was shaky. “Please.”

He slid into me then, very slowly, stopping when he got to that spot again. But he pushed in this time, deeper and deeper until he was buried inside me, completely pressed to the back of my pussy. He began to grind against it with slow jerks of his hips, staying inside of me, simply pressing back and forth against me so he could take a moment to savor the feeling of being surrounded by my warmth. He was still holding my hips still, and I was at the mercy of his strokes, unable to move or prompt him to take me harder. He was making it so that the only way he would do it is if I begged for him to do it.

He pulled all the way out of me and smacked my ass again. I moaned pathetically, feeling empty and overheated. He slid inside me again but this time it was with full force. He began to pound into me from behind, doing it exactly the way I liked it, using my body the way he had learned made me come the hardest. Then he slowed down, back to his original pace. I whimpered his name in a soft wail of frustration.

“Let go of my hips,” I begged, trying to buck against him to increase his speed, get him to do what he had been doing before he slowed down.

“Ask me nicely.”

“Please.” I glared at him over my shoulder. He spanked my ass one more time and let go of my hips, his body standing still as he let me throw myself back against him. I was riding backward against his cock with a reckless desire that made my hips feel as if they were moving of their own accord, speeding up while his hands caressed my ass. He began to move then, and it was perfect—his hips moved forward in time with mine, pushing him deep. The rhythm made me collapse so that my face was pressed to the couch, and I writhed underneath him. He slipped his hand under my hips and rubbed my clit, immediately making me come for him, gushing and dripping onto the couch below.

He continued to pound me until I came again as he erupted deep inside of me. When we were finished, he pulled out and flipped me around, pushing me back onto the couch so that he could lie on top of me, his warm body comfortable against my naked skin.

“I love you,” he said, stroking my cheek tenderly with his fingers. “I’m so proud of you, Sloane.”

“Thank you, baby.” I smiled for him, touching his lips with mine. He kissed me deeply.

“Are you worn out?”

I shook my head. “No. We’re just getting started.”

“I like your thinking,” he said with a grin. He got off me and led me up to our bedroom, where we curled up together and quietly enjoyed a moment of intimacy. When things heated up, we made love again before we fell asleep wrapped around each other.

Epilogue: Reid

I woke up in the morning nervous, though I took comfort in the feeling of Sloane’s head on my chest, her leg draped over my waist. I looked down at her face to see that it was peaceful and sweet; she was smiling in her sleep. I stroked her hair from her face, trying not to wake her, but she stirred anyway and blinked at me with her big brown eyes.

“Hi.”

“Hi, baby,” I said, kissing her lips when she lifted her head. It was a soft kiss, but it grew deeper as Sloane tasted my mouth, teasing my tongue with her own. She flipped herself over on top of me so that she was straddling my hips, and I laughed, amused that she was so eager to get started the moment she woke up. I would have happily spent the morning in bed with her, but her mother and Rosie were waiting for us downstairs. Sloane didn’t know I’d made plans for us today, and hadn’t expected the company.

I kissed her, pulling her off me reluctantly and sitting up in bed.

“We have things to do today.”

“Like what? All I have to do is pick up Rosie. Mom’s going to work at the bakery today.”

“It’s a surprise,” I told her. She gave me a small frown, a pout on her lips. I sucked her bottom lip between mine; that look on her face made me lament inviting her family over so early. I would have killed in that moment to have time to touch her, taste her, and make her come so that she could start the morning relaxed and happy. But we didn’t have time for that. I glanced at the clock to see that it was already later than I thought it was.

“I’m going downstairs,” I said. “You go ahead and take a shower.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

I kissed her one more time and slid off the bed, then got dressed for the day as she disappeared into the bathroom. I left the bedroom and went downstairs to see Rosie and Margaret in the kitchen. Margaret was at the stove making breakfast, something I hadn’t expected her to do. She looked over her shoulder at me and smiled as I came down the stairs. Rosie ran to me and grabbed my leg, and I walked with her clinging to me, making her giggle on the way into the kitchen.

“Good morning, Margaret.”

“Good morning,” she said. “This is almost done.”

“Thank you for doing that.” I ran my hand through my hair. “We woke up a little late.”

She gave me a knowing look. “I bet. Are you ready for today?”

I took a deep, nervous breath. Though I was fairly certain I knew how the day was going to turn out, a part of me doubted myself, as if I was reading too much into the love I’d seen in Sloane’s eyes whenever she looked at me.

“I’m ready, yeah.”

“I’m ready too!” said Rosie. I put my fingers to my lips, smiling at her.

“Remember, you can’t say anything, okay?”

She nodded solemnly. “I promise I won’t.”

“Good girl,” I said, patting her head. It was a few minutes later when Sloane came down the stairs, a look of surprise on her face when Rosie ran up to her and hugged her.

“Hi, Mommy.”

“Hi, baby,” Sloane said, picking Rosie up and holding the little girl on her hip as if she was still a baby. “What are you guys doing here?”

“It’s a surprise,” Rosie said, putting her fingers to her lips. Sloane raised her eyebrows and looked at me, then crossed the room to her mom. Breakfast was ready within a few minutes, and we all sat down to eat.

“So can I get a hint as to what’s going on?” Sloane asked.

I shook my head and gave her a playful grin, one that she returned by rolling her eyes. We talked through breakfast, but nobody mentioned a word about the day’s plans, something that seemed to drive Sloane visibly crazy. Especially since Rosie was having the time of her life keeping a secret, giggling and covering her mouth with her hand, casting glances at her mom from time to time.

By the time we got outside, the limo sat parked in front of the house. It was the same one I had used the first time I’d taken Sloane on a date, the first time I’d gotten to taste and touch her. I opened the door and Rosie climbed in first, bouncing with excitement as her mother followed. Sloane sat beside me, and Margaret and Rosie sat across from us.

“This is driving me crazy,” Sloane said.

“We’re almost there,” I told her, bringing her hands to my lips. She turned her face to kiss me just long enough for Margaret to clear her throat. I pulled away from Sloane’s face, giving Margaret an apologetic look.

The limo rolled to a stop, and the driver rolled down the partition to announce that we’d arrived. When we got out of the car, a look of recognition passed over Sloane’s face.

“This is where we had our first date.”

“I remembered you liked it,” I said. She looked at me with a smile on her pretty lips, one that lit up her whole face and made her radiate beauty.

“I loved it.”

“Let’s go upstairs,” I said, and Margaret and Rosie came with us into the building, then up the elevator to the roof. I used my key to get access, unlocking the door and stepping out onto the roof of the high-rise building where I’d danced with Sloane that first night. The rooftop was filled with people—regular customers from the bakery, Joy, friends of mine who had met Sloane and taken to her personality much the same as I had. Sloane could get along with anyone and was well liked; there were dozens of people there, all the people who loved her, loved the bakery and the two of us together.

“What is this?” Sloane asked, her eyes wide. I looked over at Rosie and gave her a little nod, and she skipped over to us and handed me the small green velvet box that Margaret had been holding for us. I knelt down in front of Sloane, holding her eye, gazing at her lovely face as it changed from confusion to a sweet, tender love.

“Marry me, Sloane.”

She took the box from my hands, opening it slowly. Her mouth dropped open as she pulled out the ring. Her eyes welled up with tears that she immediately blotted away, smiling at me and nodding.

“Yes,” she said, and I swept her up in my arms, twirling her in a circle as I kissed her sweet mouth. The people around us clapped and cheered, and Rosie wrapped her arms around my legs. I put Sloane down and picked the little girl up, spinning her in a circle, too. I looked at Sloane, and she was smiling at me brightly, looking at me for all the world like she had never loved anything more.

“I love you,” I said as people swarmed in to congratulate us.

“I love you, too,” she told me with a grin on her face before she was pulled aside by a few of our friends.

We spent the rest of the afternoon celebrating, and that night Margaret took Rosie one more night so that Sloane and I could be alone. I took her home, and we didn’t make love at first, but lay facing each other, a smile playing on her lips.

“Is this real?” she asked.

“If you want it to be.”

“I do,” she said softly, kissing my lips.

“Then it is.”

I rolled her on top of me, giving in to passion, and we spent the rest of the night wrapped up inside of each other, celebrating our love and our future.

THE END