Chapter 35
LANEY
W ell, this is a good morning I can get used to.
The second Sterling had laid eyes on me, it was like everything else had disappeared. His focus had been solely on me and it was intoxicating.
Especially because it had been like I was able to see a switch trip. One second, he’d been all business, and the next, a smoldering hunger crept into his eyes and underneath it, something softer. Something that had looked a lot like he was actually happy to see me.
His hand slid into my loose, messed-up hair, warm and large as he held me against him. Ha, like I’m even considering pulling away right now.
The other hand kept my hip in a firm grip, his fingers flexing like he was itching to slide them under the fabric and fighting to keep them still. Desire rushed through me like an out of control freight train, instantly turning my core to liquid heat and my blood to molten lava.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, surprised by how natural all this felt. For a minute there after I’d woken up, I’d been afraid this would be an awkward morning-after. Part of me had worried that he would regret having complicated things with sex when his original plans had been clear cut.
Sure, he’d joked about trying for a baby the traditional way back in Malibu when we’d first discussed his proposal, but I doubted he’d actually meant it back then. Things were different now, but I just hadn’t been sure what to expect.
This, however, was exceeding even my wildest expectations. No way would I ever have been able to dream that it would be this easy, like we’d been waking up together, insatiable for each other, for years.
Pushing my fingers into his hair, I kissed him back like he was the center of my universe, which he really kind of was becoming. With that thought in mind, I decided to be bold. This was the man I’d married, for heaven’s sake.
In the past, I hadn’t been particularly forward sexually with my boyfriends, but this wasn’t that.
Whether or not we ended up staying married, right then, that was what we were, and so far, we’d been incredibly compatible physically.
I’d be damned if I didn’t at least try to see how far I could push him.
Besides, I was already aching for him to touch me and I wanted him to know that. I wanted him to know how much I wanted him. With my hand not in his hair, I wrapped my fingers around his on my hip and pushed them down.
Sterling groaned into my mouth, immediately following my lead and letting his fingertips slide in a whisper-soft touch along my thigh.
My skin tingled in his wake, all my nerve endings on fire.
My knees were spread apart to accommodate his hips between them, but even so, I could feel how wet I was getting.
It might’ve been embarrassing if it wasn’t so exhilarating. As his hand reached the apex of my thighs, he let out a low hiss and broke our kiss, but only to murmur against my lips. “You’re not wearing panties.”
My teeth sank into my lower lip and I shook my head, not even trying to fight the blush on my cheeks. “We’re newlyweds. I figured it was about time we got to the part where underwear was optional.”
To my surprise, he smirked and reached for my hand, guiding it to the waistband of his light sweats and letting me slide it underneath.
I sucked in a breath when I realized he wasn’t wearing underwear either—and he was as hard as stone, his skin velvety soft and hot as the backs of my fingers brushed against his shaft.
“Great minds think alike,” he murmured in a sexy, throaty voice that made my insides clench. “I’ve just made an executive decision, though.”
“You have?” I looked into those blue eyes that were blazing with so much heat now that I had the sudden urge to just shove his pants down and scoot forward a little bit, but I forced myself to stay still. My heart was pounding in my ears, my body on high alert. “What’s that?”
“No more panties while we’re here,” he said before finally bringing his hands all the way up and cupping his fingers over my slick folds. “This is mine. I’m going to need easy access until I remember how to control myself around you.”
A soft moan caught in my throat, but I knew he’d heard it anyway. Plus, even if he’d missed it, I was sure he hadn’t missed the flood of heat that had probably pooled against his hand at the words. “Does that mean you’ve forgotten how to control yourself now?”
“Fuck yes.” His lips crashed into mine and he stroked a fingertip across my swollen clit at the same time, sending me adrift in a sea of sensation that made me grab onto his hair as an anchor.
He groaned when I tightened my grip and I rocked my hips in response, not even caring that I was skirting the edge between bold and downright brazen right then.
Sterling’s tongue swept into my mouth as his fingers slid between my folds, stroking me with the exact rhythm and pressure that would send me careening into a spectacular orgasm if he kept it up too long.
Suddenly remembering that my hand was still resting in his waistband, I kissed him back and slid my palm along his shaft, wrapping my fingers around him in a tight grip.
His hips started rocking in these small movements that told me he might not even be aware of what he was doing and knowing that he was as powerless against all this as I was made me spread my legs even farther.
I shifted forward to the edge of the counter, finally releasing his hair and his cock to shove his pants down. “Now, Sterling.”
I mumbled the words between kisses, but he’d definitely heard me. A low groan came out of him as he stepped forward and wrapped his own fist around himself. He guided his tip to my entrance before taking my hip in another firm grip with one hand and winding the other into my hair.
Our kiss deepened. I wound my legs around his hips to urge him forward, and when he moved, I cried out into his mouth. My fingers curled around his shoulders and I held on to him when he started thrusting, rubbing every blissful spot inside in ways that made sparks fly behind my eyes.
“Shit, Laney,” he hissed between wet kisses that were getting a little sloppier as we lost ourselves in each other. “Fuck, this…”
He trailed off, but he didn’t need to finish his sentence. I already knew what he wanted to say. This was amazing. Magical. Fucking serendipity.
Bracing a palm behind my back, I leaned my weight on it and moved my hips in time with his.
The orgasm I’d been chasing finally crashed into me when I opened my eyes to find him looking at me.
Sterling Westwood was always hot, but like this, with his lips parted and his eyelids at half-mast, his brow furrowed in that near agonizing concentration and his gaze locked on mine like I was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen, he was freaking devastating.
“Sterling, I—” Before I could even get the words out, the climax stole them and every other bit of vocabulary I knew right out of my brain. I squeezed my eyes shut involuntarily, riding out the waves of intense pleasure, and I felt him find his own release deep inside.
Afterward, still catching my breath and trying not to smile like an idiot, I looked up at him again, his head dropped back and his eyes closed.
Right then, I was having serious trouble believing how far we’d come.
But there we were—at a point where I felt like I could tell him anything without having to worry about his reaction.
“I think I’m in serious danger of falling for my husband,” I admitted quietly between pants. “Please tell me that’s not a bad thing?”
He laughed, the sound low and warm. He opened his eyes and brought them back to mine. “It’s good, Laney. It’s so, so good.”
Leaning in, he kissed me again, softer this time, like we had all the time in the world to explore this thing between us together—and we did. We had nowhere to go and nothing to do but spend the day together.
I smiled, brushed my fingers through his hair, and pretended I wasn’t terrified of what we’d both essentially just admitted was brewing between us. “Can we be lazy today? I don’t really want to go anywhere.”
He let out a content sigh and brought his forehead to mine. “We can be lazy for the rest of our lives if that’s what you want. Frankly, I don’t really want to go anywhere ever again.”
I chuckled, but the truth was that I agreed. Everything felt so right, so perfect here, that I never wanted to leave.
We took a shower together and made breakfast after, carrying it all out to the terrace where I sat cross-legged on the deck in nothing but one of his shirts. I ate my pancakes in the sun while Sterling sipped coffee beside me.
He had a faraway look in his eyes and a smile on his face as he dreamed out loud. “One day, we could bring our kids here. Every weekend if we can swing it, but definitely every holiday. Can you imagine the family Christmases we could have here?”
“Kids? As in, plural?” I chuckled. “Since when are we having more than one?”
“Since today”
“I’m onboard.” I didn’t even have to think about it.
The last twenty-four hours had changed a lot of things for me and we were just daydreaming for now.
As I looked out at the vineyard and the bright blue sky though, I seriously hoped these dreams would come true.
“I can totally imagine raising as many kids as we end up having here. This place is amazing.”
“It’s magic,” he said. “I’ve never really thought about it before, but now that I am, I’d like them to grow up coming here. Chasing each other around the vines. Getting sunburned and drunk on grape juice.”
“That sounds great, except for the getting sunburned part. We’ll be stocking up on the SPF one hundred stuff when the first baby is born.” I laughed, tilting my head to look at him. “Is this your favorite place?”
He didn’t hesitate. “It’s always been one of them. There are a few others that make the top of my list, like Italy, but I’ll retire here one day. We’ll sit in the sun with wine, old and cranky, while our kids fight over the inheritance.”
I nearly choked on my last bite. “You’re ridiculous.”
He grinned and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him like we’d been doing this for years.
The thing was, it didn’t feel like a fantasy anymore. It felt real. Lived in. Like we were already halfway there. Like just maybe, this is actually going to work.
And suddenly, a year sounded like an impossibly short time.
I stretched and set my empty plate aside before standing up and kissing the top of his head.
“I left my phone charging inside. I’m just going to check it in case there’s something from my dad, but count me in for all of the above.
I’ll happily become a cranky, drunken old person with you if we get to keep the view. ”
“Don’t disappear,” he said lazily. “I’m still deciding if I’m going to kidnap you for the week.”
“Kidnap away. I might even handcuff you to the radiator to make sure we can stay.”
“Oh, you want to be the kidnapper, then?” He chuckled and pursed his lips, obviously pretending to think it over. “You know, I’ve never considered that I might be the kidnappee rather than the kidnapper, but I could be alright with that.”
I smiled to myself as I walked inside. The house was still cool inside from the night, the stone and wood warm under my feet in the places where the sun was streaming through the tall windows.
My phone was right where I’d left it on the kitchen counter.
I unlocked it absently, my head still in the clouds, but what awaited me brought me crashing back down to earth and shattered every ounce of peace and relaxation I’d been feeling.
I had more notifications than I’d probably ever had, texts, missed calls, and social media flooding my screen.
Dozens of them. On every platform. From so many different people. Friends. Customers. Acquaintances.
My chest went tight, my breath suddenly in short supply. I clicked on the most recent text and my stomach dropped clean through the floor. I felt the color drain from my face. I stared at the screen, the words sinking in like lead.
This was just one message. Only one image of the many I’d been sent, but the threat it presented was unmistakable.
“Laney?”
I turned slowly, feeling like I’d just taken a dozen jabs to the head by a champion boxer. Sterling had come inside and he was wiping his hands with a dish towel, frowning like he instantly knew something was wrong. He saw my face, probably realizing that I couldn’t breathe.
“What is it?” he asked, immediately striding over to me. “Laney, what happened?”
I couldn’t speak. My fingers moved on their own, holding the phone out to him, and he took it from me. He looked down at the screen, his eyes scanning the message, and within micro-seconds, the air around us shifted, quickly becoming thick and sharp.
His jaw locked, his knuckles whitening around the phone, and just like that, the magic of the morning vanished. Something dark had caught up to our little bubble of us-ness —and I had absolutely no idea what came next.