Waking up with Masyn covering my left side—her thigh between my legs and her breasts pressed to my ribs—was like experiencing sunshine for the first time. The entire world looked different when the alarm went off. Her sleepy eyes recognized where she was, and a lazy grin lifted her lips.

“Mornin’, sweetheart.” I kissed her forehead and tried to adjust my body so my erection wasn’t firmly pressed against her thigh.

“Hmm.” She wiggled to stay as close as she had been when we woke up. “Good morning.” Her lips were like heaven when she teased my chest with peppered affection.

As much as I didn’t want to get up, we both had to be at work in an hour. “If you hurry, we can still do omelets before work.”

She moved her hand down my side and trailed her thumb over my abdomen. “We should call in.” If she thought she could entice me to stay in bed, it wouldn’t take much, but I knew she’d regret it.

“You and I both know that neither one of us is going to call in, and certainly not at the same time. Navigating this in town is already going to be difficult; we don’t need to throw blood in the water to attract the sharks.” My fingertips found the bare skin between her tank top and shorts and traced patterns on her side.

I’d love nothing more than to stay right where I was for the rest of the day and explore Masyn’s body. And I planned to do that very thing, just not before work. Nevertheless, I had to remind myself we had all the time in the world. Just because we’d finally admitted how we felt didn’t mean we had to race to the altar tomorrow. Although, if I thought I could convince her to, I would just to make sure no one else ever stood a chance at having her.

“I want to lie here for a little while longer.”

“So, no breakfast?”

“I’ll claim my omelet another morning. And don’t think I’ve forgotten you owe me a foot rub, too.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

Masyn’s hand roamed my torso, and her fingers dipped below the waistband of my shorts. I loved that she wasn’t daring enough to reach in and take what she was so clearly interested in. She was shy, and I had no idea she was so affectionate—she certainly hadn’t been touchy-feely with the guys I’d seen her date.

“Hey, Masyn?”

“Yeah?” Her voice was deeper than usual in the morning, and the vibration of that one word on my chest made my cock stir. She giggled when it jumped, but she didn’t say anything.

“Why did you and Tommy Morton break up?”

“That’s a blast from the past.”

“I know, humor me.”

“You already know the answer. He cheated on me with Melinda Beece.”

“What about Devin Callen or Kyle Perkins?”

Her fingers stopped moving, and she arched her back, twisting to see me. The grimace marring her features indicated her confusion.

“Or Larson Camp and Greg Davis?”

“I only went out with each of them a few times. I don’t think I would have even said we broke up. We just didn’t go out again.”

“But was there a reason?”

“It sounds like you already think you know, so why don’t you tell me, and I’ll confirm or deny.”

I flipped her over onto her back and settled between her legs with my hands tucked under her shoulders. My weight was on my elbows to keep from crushing her while allowing me to see her face. “Was it because of me?”

Laughter rolled through her and shook my chest. “You’re full of yourself, Lee.” She tried to push me off, but I refused to budge.

“So it wasn’t because you spent the night here?”

It was a good thing her eyes wouldn’t permanently stick in the back of her head like we’d been warned as kids. “Beau needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.”

I rolled again, taking her with me, so she rested on my chest. “Or maybe you should learn to open yours.” Kissing her today was like the first time yesterday. I hoped that never changed and that the electricity between us stayed this strong. I’d never experienced it with anyone else and never wanted to again.

“Come on, we’ve got to get moving.” I smacked her ass with a final peck on the lips. “We can lie around after work.”

She sat on the edge of the mattress and turned to me. “We don’t have to hang out with Peyton and Beau this afternoon?” Masyn acted like spending time with our best friend was a chore.

“Not if you don’t want to. Peyton’s leaving tomorrow, so we’ll have all weekend to see Beau before he goes back to Atlanta on Sunday.”

I climbed from bed and rummaged through my drawer in search of a white T-shirt to put on under my uniform. When I turned around and pulled it over my head, Masyn hadn’t moved. Her hands were in her lap, tugging on her fingers and picking at her nails. Her teeth worried the corner of her bottom lip, and she stared at the floor. I hated seeing her vulnerable and unhappy when she was typically vibrant and strong.

Kneeling in front of her, I ducked down to see her face. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

“None of this seems real. I’m worried you’re going to wake up and realize how inexperienced I am and be bored with me, and I don’t think I can handle that.”

“I can’t convince you of anything else by telling you what you want to hear. You’re going to have to trust me and give us time.” I kissed her cheek and pulled her up by her hand. “I promise, I didn’t wait six years to tell you that I love you just to go racing off in a week or a month or even a year.”

“Lee, I’ve never had a boyfriend.”

“Good, we can navigate this together—’cause Lord knows, I’ve never had a girlfriend. Now go get dressed while I make our lunches.”

“Don’t forget coffee,” she hollered down the hall after me.

* * *

If I’d thought being injured and having to work the docks made for the slowest day possible, being injured and having to work the docks while dreaming about spending an afternoon alone with Masyn curled up in my bed was far worse.

I was impressed with her ability to keep things about us quiet while we were at the shop. She hadn’t gotten all bent out of shape when I didn’t kiss her goodbye. She didn’t try to hold my hand at lunch where we’d be forced to answer questions. And she hadn’t acted any differently than she had since the day we’d started at Farley’s. Outside of my house, Masyn was the same girl she’d always been—and I loved it, except, where she’d only entered my thoughts occasionally before, she plagued them now. I swear, I counted every second that ticked by on my watch, making the day infinitely longer.

I had to stop myself from sprinting to the time clock at the end of the shift. But not even the group of men gathered near the breakroom could stop the grin that took over my cheeks when I saw Masyn coming from the other side of the shop. She’d released her hair from the knot she typically wore at work, and she’d unbuttoned her uniform shirt to expose the thin, white, cotton T-shirt she had on underneath. The pants did nothing for her and didn’t showcase her ass or hips, much less her legs, but I knew what was hiding beneath the fabric and couldn’t wait to take it off.

I didn’t care how long it took to get to sex, I wanted to explore every inch of her skin, and I longed for her to do the same with me. I was desperate to know her entire body like I knew the back of my hand.

“What the hell you grinning about, Carter?” Farley was always a pain in my ass.

“Taking top pay for a machinist while checking in trucks.”

Masyn tried to suppress her giggle, and she strolled past us without saying a word.

“Porter?” Farley made no distinction between her and the other guys in the shop. She worked in a man’s world, and he treated her like one.

She slid her card through the reader and turned around. “Yeah?”

“I need you to work over tomorrow afternoon. Line three’s parts aren’t meeting spec, and I need you to rework the codes to fix it. Shouldn’t take you more than an hour or two.”

Frequently, Masyn was thrilled with overtime, and even though she just agreed to stay late, I could tell she wasn’t happy about it. That was the downside of being the best programmer a machine shop had. She was their go-to when issues cropped up.

“Not looking forward to staying late tomorrow?” I asked her as soon as we were in the truck and behind closed doors.

She responded with a sideways glare and the flick of a button to change the radio. I’d gotten lucky before work and listened to the morning show on the country station. I wasn’t so lucky this afternoon. The only reason I got away with it on the way to work was because no music played, and she thought the hosts were funny.

I took her hand and kissed the top. “It’s only a couple of hours. It won’t be bad. Then you can come over and hang out with Beau and me. Just think…now you have an excuse not to say goodbye to Peyton.”

She raised her brows and cocked her head with a shrug. “You’ve got a good point. I just hate that he pulls that crap on a Friday afternoon.”

“Would you rather have stayed today?”

“I wouldn’t have stayed today.”

Masyn was fairly laid-back ninety-nine percent of the time. That one percent where she got riled up always made me laugh—and stand back. I was flattered that she anticipated seeing me as much as I did her.

A few blocks from the house, Masyn started bouncing in the seat next to me.

“What are you doing?”

“I have to pee.”

“Why didn’t you go at the shop?”

“I’m the only female in the place. Do you have any idea how gross those toilets are for those of us who have to sit to urinate?”

I didn’t even have the truck stopped before she unbuckled her seatbelt. I threw it into park, and she bolted out of the door and went flying toward the house. Finding the deadbolt locked, she continued her dance on the porch.

I leaped from the truck and crossed the driveway. “Where are your keys?” I asked her, trying to stifle my amusement.

“At my house, where my car is parked. Just open the door.”

She pushed past me the second I turned the lock. I shut the door and moved into the kitchen to dump off the two lunchboxes and rinse out the Tupperware inside of them. It was all terribly domestic, and every step made me grin.

I grabbed an apple from the basket and leaned against the counter, waiting for her to return. I needed to shower, but washing my hair with one hand took more effort than I wanted to put forth—especially if I could convince her to do it with me…or for me.

By the time she came back, I was tossing my core into the trash. She’d shed her uniform shirt and the belt she always wore, and her feet were bare. And if I wasn’t mistaken, she no longer had on a bra under that almost-translucent shirt. Masyn stepped between my feet and pressed her waist to my growing erection, tilted her head up, and I met her with a kiss. It was as natural as the sun rising and setting. Everything with her made sense.

Her delicate hands, still covered in grease and crap from the shop, lifted the hem of my shirt. A chill ran up my spine when her fingers touched my skin, and there was no hiding the excitement between my legs when she tugged my shirt over my head. I had to help her a little because of the height difference, but it was still hot.

I was hypnotized by the sight of her tongue when she licked her lips and stared up at me with her brown eyes sparkling. And it dawned on me what I saw reflected back at me. It wasn’t just love. There was lust sprinkled in there, too. “I need to shower to get the grime off.”

“Me too.”

I didn’t have to ask, or even suggest. Masyn laced her fingers through mine and led me down the hall in a seductive dance to the master bathroom. While she turned on the water, I sat on the toilet to take my work boots off and then my pants. It was considerably harder to get them off without much use of my right thumb, but having Masyn as a sideshow made it worth the trouble. She shimmied out of hers, leaving herself in nothing other than a T-shirt and panties.

I pulled her across my lap and hugged her loosely. “You know we don’t have to do anything, right?”

“Are you telling me you don’t want to?” Expecting me to reject her, her expression changed and the corners of her mouth turned down just a hair.

“No. I’m telling you I don’t expect it. We can take this at your pace.”

“Lee, you’ve gotten your itches scratched by every girl in town for years. No one has scratched any of my itches except me. Trust me when I say, I’m beyond ready, and I’m tired of waiting.”

I tried like hell not to stare when she finally eased out of my embrace and took off her shirt. It had teased me ever since we left the shop. My jaw hung slack when she let her panties hit the floor. But I remained quiet and watched the erotic show. I knew she would be stunning; I just had no idea she’d take my breath away. I still sat on the toilet lid, and her chest was at the perfect height for me to take one of her tight, pink nipples into my mouth.

My eyes drifted shut when my tongue swirled around her peak, and my good hand squeezed her firm ass while I lavished her breasts with attention. She didn’t flinch or shy away, she arched her back into my embrace. I parted my lids when her head fell back. Masyn held herself in the most erotic pose I’d ever witnessed, and my dick stood at attention, desperate to be inside her. I tried to maintain contact when I got to my feet, but I lost the battle when her fingers slipped into the waistband of my boxers, whipped them down, and dropped them to the floor. Without thought, I stepped out of my underwear, kicking it next to hers.

She held my gaze when she took me into her hand and stroked with the confidence of an experienced lover. Masyn didn’t gawk, although she definitely appeared pleased with the package before her when she coaxed me across the room and we stepped under the steamy water.

The shower didn’t prove to be the sexy rendezvous that movies—well, porn—made it out to be. The twelve-inch difference in our heights made any type of contact difficult, and nothing lined up correctly, especially trying to do anything left-handed. She laughed at my awkwardness more than once, and somehow, that took the fear of being naked with her out of the picture. Not one time in the past had I ever worried about what a girl thought when I took off my shirt or when she felt my cock for the first time, yet with Masyn, I felt like a virgin trying to find my way. The difference was the nervous anticipation wasn’t negative, it was thrilling. And even through the mishaps and failed attempts at any type of physical intimacy, it felt as natural as her approach in the kitchen.

I slipped and nearly busted my ass trying to keep my hand out of the water. Masyn managed to keep me from falling, but we gave up on the shower and got out. I assumed we’d get dressed and watch a movie or order dinner. My dick had long since gone soft between the near-fatal accident and the cold air blasting me before I got a towel wrapped around my waist. I’d been so busy trying to conceal how drastic the change in temperature could be on parts of my anatomy, that I missed her drying off. And I certainly hadn’t witnessed her slink to my bed where she wanted to resume the party for two.

It was still unmade from being in it with her this morning, and the blankets were strewn to the right and gathered at the bottom. She’d stretched out on her side, and every lean inch of her drew my attention. I didn’t know where to start memorizing her details. The blinds were partially closed, making the room dusky, although certainly not dark. There was still plenty of light for me to spend as much time as I saw fit making sure to lavish every bit of her body with attention. Even still, I’d yet to move from the spot I’d been standing in to make it happen.

My hesitation was apparent, even to me. It had been years since I’d had sex, and Masyn was a virgin. She was offering me a gift that I needed to make sure she was ready to give. I couldn’t return it, and if she regretted giving me her virginity, my ego wouldn’t survive her remorse, and neither would my heart.

She crooked her finger at me. I dropped the towel that covered my arousal and joined her on the mattress. Once we started, it would only take one kiss to fuel the fire that burned inside us both. I tangled my fingers in her hair, gave it a gentle squeeze, and then slowly let them drift to her slender neck. Holding her close to me, our tongues spoke a language our hearts had refused to translate for so many years.

As much as I wanted to feel her heated flesh against every naked inch of my own, I tried to put a little space between us. Her thigh hung lazily over my hip. We lay face-to-face, so close our breaths mingled, and I could see her eyes dilate even just slightly. Each time the head of my dick touched her hot, slick center, I pulled back to keep things at a pace she could handle. Yet every time I moved away, she flexed her leg muscles to bring me back.

“Masyn…” I tipped my forehead to hers, breathless. My heart hammered in my chest, my cock ached between my legs, and I wanted nothing more than to sink inside the only girl I’d ever loved and claim the one thing she’d saved for me. It wasn’t even about sex; it was knowing that she surrendered to me the way I did her.

“Lee, I’ve waited my entire life to do this with you.”

“It’s going to hurt.” I didn’t have any experience taking a girl’s virginity. Cynthia Green had given hers up long before she met me. But I’d spent enough time listening to guys brag about how badly they’d slayed some girl, ripping away her hymen, to know that Masyn’s first time around wouldn’t be pleasant. Causing her pain was the last thing I wanted to do.

A laugh rolled through her chest, and her eyes glittered with happiness. She cupped my cheeks as I hovered over her, now nestled between her thighs and dipping into her moisture. “Just because I haven’t had sex with a guy doesn’t mean there’s still a barrier there.”

My brow furrowed while I tried to figure out what she meant. And then it occurred to me, and I was almost as uninterested in how Masyn pleasured herself as I was thinking about another guy touching her. As selfish as it was, I wanted to believe nothing had ever breached her wall before me. It didn’t matter if it was rubber or real, although the latter was far worse. Nevertheless, knowing I wouldn’t cause her pain eased my anxiety enough to let the stress leave my body. Or most of it.

When I still didn’t move, she watched my face, waiting. “What’s wrong?”

Here was the part where I had to admit the only other thing Masyn didn’t know about me. I wasn’t ashamed; I was worried I wouldn’t be able to please her. No man wanted to admit he wouldn’t be able to satisfy his woman before he erupted prematurely.

I dropped my forehead to her chest and closed my eyes. When I dug my fingers into my scalp, she asked the same question again. “I’m nervous.”

She lifted my chin. “Why?” Hurt lingered in her expression, and I refused to allow her to think I didn’t want this.

My Adam’s apple bobbed and scratched the inside of my throat when I swallowed. “It’s been a really long time, so I’m afraid I’m not going to last long.” It was the truth, just not all of it.

I could tell by her long silence that she knew I had more to say but I just wasn’t coming out with it.

“I haven’t done this since tenth grade.” I closed my eyes, not wanting to see the disbelief on her face. The pulse on either side of my neck beat painfully, nearly choking me with suspense.

More time dragged by.

She finally shifted beneath me. “What?” Her laughter mimicked the nervousness that clawed at my insides. “Look at me, Lee.”

I opened my eyes to see Masyn Porter staring at me in awe, maybe wonder, and definitely love. “What about all those girls at Sadler’s?”

“Never had sex with any of them.” Oral sex didn’t count; she knew about that. And she knew what I was talking about without me getting graphic.

“None?”

I clenched my jaw and shook my head. “Not one.” And then I waited. I’d only thought the previous spell of silence was the longest I’d ever endured. This one seemed to span days instead of the mere minutes that actually passed.

“Thank you,” she said with her lips on mine.

Confused by her acceptance and lack of interrogation, I asked, “For what?”

“Waiting for me,” she whispered. Masyn didn’t question me, she didn’t doubt me, she simply acknowledged the gesture for what it was.

That was all I needed to go forward.

Neither of us moved our eyes away from the other as I slowly slid into her heat. It took her some time to adjust to my size, and regardless of what she said, it was obvious this wasn’t the same as any toy she’d played with. When she finally relaxed, our hips began to rock together, and eventually, we found a rhythm. Our rhythm.

The push.

The pull.

The heat.

The passion.

And then the explosion.

It wasn’t wild, it wasn’t crazy, it wasn’t anything like my fantasies of her had been.

It was perfect and better than I could have imagined, even with all its flaws.

I’d finally laid claim to the girl who stole my heart.

Lying next to her, both of us still naked on top of the blankets, she looked over at me as her smile lit up the otherwise dim room. “We might have a problem.” The gleam in her eyes indicated it wasn’t something I needed to be concerned over.

“Yeah, what’s that?”

Masyn rolled onto her side and propped her head on her hand with her elbow in the mattress. “We have a lot of years to make up for. And I liked that far more than I probably should after one try.”

This was a side of Masyn I couldn’t wait to explore. “You think that’s a problem, huh?” I leaned in to kiss her, loving the taste of her lips and having the freedom to take them anytime I wanted to. It was like I’d been held captive for years, and having Masyn was not just getting parole, but a full pardon.

“It could certainly pr—”

“Lee! You here?” Before I could respond, the bedroom door flew open, and Beau stood frozen in the opening.

Masyn scrambled to get under the covers and hide, and I saw red.

“Dude, don’t you knock?” I hollered, still fully exposed.

Peyton appeared over Beau’s shoulder, and her smile quickly faded and then she disappeared.

“I did. You didn’t answer. Your truck was parked out front, so I assumed you were asleep.”

I plucked a pillow from behind my head and lobbed it as his melon-sized noggin. “Get the fuck out.”

He dodged the grenade and quickly closed the door, where he continued to talk from the other side. “I see you two managed to work things out.” It was hard to be mad at someone who was so clearly happy I’d finally gotten laid. “We’ll be in the living room when you’re done.”

I listened to his steps retreat down the hall as I turned the lamp on, and then I lifted the comforter to find Masyn every shade of red imaginable. “Guess we don’t have to worry about how we’re going to tell Beau.” Teasing her made me grin, or maybe it was the incredible orgasm I’d just received, courtesy of her soft pussy. Either way, she got the credit.

She snatched at the blanket and yanked it back over her. “He saw everything, Lee.”

I crawled under the comforter and uncovered our heads. “I’m just thankful I saw it first.”

Her hand snaked out to grab another pillow to hit me with. “You better be glad I love you.”

With an arm slung over her hip, I pulled her body flush with mine. “Sweetheart, you have no idea.”