The morning sun warms my face, and my head is resting on something soft, but my hip aches and the rest of my bones are feeling creakier than usual. I open my eyes, squinting up at the ceiling. It’s covered in flowers and way too close to my head, and for a long moment I have no idea where I am.

Then, in a blink, my synapses fire and memories come rushing in.

Memories of Rafe on top of me, me on top of Rafe, Rafe pinning my hands to the couch cushions as he drove into me from behind, making me come so hard I’m pretty sure I blacked out for a few minutes.

Or a few hours…

I don’t remember what happened between collapsing post-fifth-or-tenth-orgasm and this morning, but apparently, we never made it out of the blanket fort, a fact that has my bones cursing me for sleeping on a hardwood floor covered only by a thinly padded quilt. Even more tragically, I’m alone, without the sexy man I was planning to wake with a good-morning blowjob.

I sit up, searching the fort for my clothes, intending to get dressed and go looking for my loaner toothbrush, Rafe, and coffee—in that order—but there’s no sign of my shorts or shirt.

Or my panties…

“What the…” I pop the edge of my thumb into my mouth, nibbling as I try to remember where I started getting naked last night.

Before my sleep-deprived gray matter can pull up the necessary files, however, a deep voice sounds from the other side of the room.

“I put your clothes in the washer,” Rafe says. “They should be ready to go into the dryer soon. I figured you would enjoy having something clean to wear.”

“Are you a mind reader?” I start to wrap the sheet around myself, toga style, but stop when I hear footsteps headed my way.

“I am.” A shadow falls across the sunny blankets and a moment later Rafe pulls the “door” to our fort aside. He’s wearing nothing but boxer briefs and a smile, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never been as excited to see a mostly naked man in my life.

“You’re not dressed,” I say, grin stretching wider.

“You approve?” He crawls into the fort on his hands and knees, stalking me slowly, seductively, like the easy prey I am.

“I do. I like you better naked.” I giggle as he crawls on top of me with a growl, but cover my mouth with my hand before his lips get any closer to mine. “Wait, I need to brush my teeth.”

“No, you don’t,” he says, nuzzling his face into my neck.

“Yes, I do,” I insist, moaning as he tugs the sheet lower, cupping my breast in his hand. “I have firm opinions about oral hygiene,” I add, voice muffled by my fingers.

“I have firm opinions about fucking you. Right now.” Rafe jerks the sheet from between us and settles between my legs, rocking the evidence of those convictions against my clit, swiftly eroding all my morning-breath beliefs.

“Two minutes. I’ll be right back before you know I’m gone,” I mutter weakly, but he’s already shoving his boxer briefs down his thighs and teasing my entrance with his thickness, the head of his cock so hot I can’t bear to wait another second.

I need that heat inside me, making me burn the way no one ever has before. So I spread my legs wider and lift my hips, silently welcoming him in.

“Fuck, Carrie.” Rafe groans as he sinks into where I’m already wet and oh-so-ready, simply from spending a few moments in his erotically charged presence.

“Yes.” I dig my fingers into the thick muscles of his ass, pulling him closer, deeper, until he fills me completely. “Oh, yes, right there.”

“God, Trouble, you feel so good.” He pulls out and glides back in again, stroking between my legs as I rock into him, matching his pace. “I dreamt about this all night. About how perfect you are. How you were made for me to fuck you.”

“So that’s my destiny?” I ask, already breathless. “I wondered if I had one.”

“You do. And this is it.” His hands slide beneath my bottom, pulling me closer at the end of his next thrust, sending a shockwave of bliss coursing through me as his body grinds against my clit. “Just like this.”

“Oh yes, like that.” I cling to his shoulders, my pulse racing faster. “Just like that. Don’t stop, please, don’t stop.”

“I’m not going to stop,” he promises, fingers threading through mine, pinning my right hand to the floor above my head. “Not until you come for me. I need to feel you come on my cock, Caroline. I want your pussy dripping before I come inside you.”

I arch closer, relishing the way the crisp hairs on his chest brush my sensitized nipples as I climb closer, closer… “I love it when you come in me,” I breathe. “I love watching you lose control.”

Rafe groans, the need in the sound making my blood pressure spike even before he begins driving deeper, harder, the hand beneath my ass keeping my pelvis tilted so that every stroke gives my clit exactly what she needs. What I need. What I’m so desperate for even after having this man half a dozen times last night.

God, I don’t know if I’m ever going to get enough of him.

It’s a scary thought, but I’m too far gone to be afraid of anything. I’m so close, the tension fisting low in my body twisting tighter, tighter, until the pressure reaches critical mass.

I come with the force of a star being devoured by its own gravity as Rafe calls out my name, making more of those sexy animal sounds that assure me he’s falling right along with me. Falling, flying, shattering into a million particles of stardust that sparkle away into the darkness of space, reflecting light wherever they go.

I wrap my arms tight around him as we continue to rock together, bodies slick and hot, riding the wave until we’re both limp and wasted, lying boneless on the floor.

But unfortunately not literally boneless, or my tailbone wouldn’t be aching like someone’s been using it as a punching bag.

“I truly loved being pinned beneath you, Slick, but I need to get up,” I whisper, pressing a kiss to his neck as I skim my fingers up and down the valley of his spine. “Before my tailbone breaks in half on this hard-ass floor.”

“Shit. Sorry.” Rafe shifts, lifting his body off of mine, sadly taking his cock with him as he moves.

I hate to feel it go, but I take comfort in knowing I’m going to make friends with it again very soon. Rafe and I are averaging about every hour and a half at this point, a pace that is completely unsustainable, but which I intend to enjoy for as long as it lasts.

He stretches out beside me, brushing my tangled hair from my forehead with a guilty grin. “You okay? I didn’t mean to break you.”

“You didn’t, I’m fine.” I stretch, wincing as I discover more aches and pains. “But I think if fucking you really were my one true purpose, my body wouldn’t be as sore as it is right now.”

“Not true.” Rafe shakes his head as he reaches for his discarded boxers. “We just need to get your body on something soft as well as under something hard. From now on, we’re fucking in my bed.”

I arch a brow. “Doesn’t that violate the blanket fort of silence terms of service?”

“This entire apartment is now annexed into the fort, and we’re not leaving it for twenty-four hours. It’s my last day of staycation, and I intend to make the most of it by keeping you out of your clothes as much as possible.”

“You’re off to an excellent start,” I say, with a smile. “And that sounds perfect.”

“Good.” He rubs his hands together, a devilish grin on his face that makes me laugh. “I’ve already put in an order for groceries so we won’t have to worry about going out for food. They’re going to be delivered in about an hour, which gives us just enough time for me to give you a tailbone rub in the shower. If we hurry.”

“An hour-long tailbone rub?” I shift onto my knees and wrap the sheet around me, tucking it into place above my breasts. “That’s a generous offer.”

“I’m a generous man.” He leans in, kissing my cheek before whispering in my ear, “But I confess I’m planning to rub other parts of you while we’re in there.”

“Oh, I would hope so.” I loop my arms around his neck, tilting my head back as he kisses his way down my throat. “All the parts, please.”

“Every inch,” he promises.

And he does, every single centimeter, proving he’s a man of his word.

As I come for the second time this morning, with Rafe’s body hot against my back and the cool tile pressed to my front and steamy water filling the air, I wish I could bottle these memories. I want to distill each one into a perfume I can spritz on for special occasions, mold them into bath bombs I can soak in for hours when I’m back in Berkeley feeling lonely and wondering if I’ll ever be this effortlessly connected to another person again.

But memories are slippery creatures. The harder we try to pin them down, bottle them up, carve them into stone, the faster they slide through our fingers.

So I give up on committing every second to memory and let myself get lost in Rafe and all the extraordinary things he makes me feel. This moment may be lost to me someday, but for now, it and this incredible man are all mine.