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Contentedly naked, I lounged on the bed that evening, fingers absently curling in my hair as the other hand traced the long lines of Broderick’s bare chest. I’d never thought story time would be erotic, but Broderick’s low timbre tracing words more prose than pulpit certainly did it. Sure, it didn’t help that the room smelled like sweat and sex, or that sensation was just returning to my fingertips. We’d squeezed in a quickie back in the room between the gym and my meetings, but there was nothing like getting to take my time with this man. Luxuriating in the feel of his skin on mine, his breath hot against my neck as our bodies did the talking.
With the chapter finished, he slid the bookmark into place, set the book aside and rolled over to smile at me, although I immediately missed the feel of his head resting on my belly.
“You look awfully sleepy for a woman with a date in forty minutes.”
“You look awfully tempting for a man with plans in the city,” I countered, running my nails over the pronounced vein in his forearm where he’d brought his hand to my bare waist.
“Insatiable creature.”
“Guilty as charged.” The gentle caress of his fingers over my body made my eyes flutter closed. Melting into his touch, I said, “You feel too good.”
“Don’t fall asleep, baby. I only have three nights with you, and we can sleep when we’re dead. Gotta take advantage of a city where nobody knows our names.” He bobbed his head, a sheepish grin curving his full lips as he evaluated. “Well, where only three people know our names.”
My chuckle turned into a pained groan when he pulled his fingers from my skin. “Mm-mm,” I protested, shaking my head. Shimmying down the bed, I relished in each inch of warm, naked Broderick against my body. I scooted until I could bury myself in his chest. His laugh rumbled through my ribs as he wrapped those long arms around my body, nuzzling his face against the top of my head. I wiggled my nose when the fine smattering of his chest hair tickled it and then turned my face to cuddle tighter against him. It shouldn’t be legal for a man to feel so good. “I could stay here forever, and it wouldn’t be enough time.”
Goosebumps pebbled my skin when he began to gently scratch up and down my back. “I know, baby. But I gotta enjoy showing you off while I can. And I think you’re going to like it.”
“Why do you have to be so sweet when you’re a pain in my ass?”
He chuckled darkly before giving me a little squeeze. “Come on.”
“Mmmm,” I croaked.
“Pants.”
“Overrated.”
“Dress, then? Something I can flip up over that ass the moment we’re alone again tonight?”
I peeled one intrigued eye open, soaking up the warmth of his smirk as he leaned up on his forearm. “Why, Mr. Allen, are you insinuating a public romp?”
“It’s on the bucket list,” he said, his nonchalance betrayed by the way he was watching me for a reaction. “The idea of bending you over in some bathroom or pinning you up against the wall and making you come with my hand over your mouth so you can’t scream… Fuck, I’d never forget it.”
Smirking, I teased, “Mr. Ethics risking public indecency? I never thought the day would come.”
“There are a lot of things I want to do with you that wouldn’t occur otherwise.”
“Like?” I whispered, my curiosity getting the better of me.
“Like… the white picket fence, golden retriever, matching jogging suit thing.”
Throat thick, I wet my lips. Broderick Allen wanted to build the American dream with me? “Two-point-five kids?”
“I’d prefer rounding up to a solid three.”
Nerves had me battling my smile, my previously brash display of my birthday suit suddenly immensely vulnerable. The picture of three little Brodericks running through the sunlight-filled living room of my dream house played through my vision. Squeals of laughter reverberating off a vaulted ceiling as their daddy and I sipped on tea and watched the fog roll in over the coast. Fighting the twitch in my cheeks, I asked, “You want a family?”
“Someday, yeah. Don’t you?”
“I don’t know,” I answered, a bit too honestly. He didn’t retract, still stroking steady lines across my back. “I mean, yes. Maybe. If the timing was right. Not a big one, but a couple of kids sounds nice. I just… With my career taking me everywhere, and hitting my thirties, I kinda figured my chance at that Norman Rockwell painting vanished.”
“If anyone can paint their future, it’s you, Pix.”
Something about his certainty brought my fingers to his face, gently following the broad planes of his cheeks. His eyes slid shut as I rounded the line of his brow. I wanted to commit every inch—every breath with him—to memory. “Maybe not.”
“I know it’s old fashioned, but I always thought if I had a son, I’d name him after my dad.”
I smiled at that, before catching the hope swelling in my chest and rolling my bottom lip between my teeth. “I always thought the same thing about mine.”
