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“I was hoping you would.”
She walked around to his back and ran one finger through the paint. “I love the lines of your body,” she said, trailing a blue line over his shoulder blades. “The way your shoulders taper down to your waist. And God help me, your ass is a thing of beauty.”
He let out a low, throaty laugh. “Right back at you.”
She pressed her paint-covered palm onto his skin and left a handprint on his right cheek. She walked in front of him, scooped up the bright pink, and poured a pea-size amount onto her index finger. Then she leaned forward and traced the V-shaped muscle running down his hip.
She stepped back to admire her work. “That’s one of my favorite parts of you.”
“Don’t ignore the others,” he murmured.
She placed her palms flat on his abdomen, ran her hand up to his shoulders, and moved her body close to his until she pressed up against him. His pink and blues mixed with her purple, the colors transferring between their bodies.
“I’m crazy about your mouth.” She brushed a kiss over his lips. She opened her eyes, looked up into his, and recognized the desire burning bright in him. “And the pieces of you I can’t cover in pinks and blues.”
“Gorgeous, you can paint my dick magenta if it turns you on,” he said, wrapping his arms around and holding her close.
“Not that part,” she said with a laugh. “It’s the way you made me open my eyes to my own beauty. How you listen to me, never allowing the pieces of my past to cut into your desire. I fell for the man who saw me for who I am and liked what he saw.”
“I love what I’ve learned about you,” he said firmly. “And I can’t wait to discover more.”
She ran her hands up to his face, her fingertips brushing his jaw. “I love you, too.”
He leaned his forehead to hers. “I was hoping you’d say those words. Wherever we go from here, promise me, we’ll hold on to that love. With both hands. Whatever it takes.”
“Promise.” She broke away from him, picked up the blue paint bottle, and knelt on the canvas. “Now let’s make a piece we can proudly hang in our living room.”
He shook his head. “We’ll never be able to have company again. One look at it and I’ll get hard at the memory.”
“Come down here,” she said, patting the canvas. “And tell me all about your living room sex fantasies.”
“Doggie style. Straight-up missionary. You on top.” He picked up the pink. “I want it all. With you.”
Epilogue
Seven months later
Cade stared at the Great Pyrenees in the backseat with the same cold, hard, don’t-mess-with-me look he reserved for the men entering BUD/S training. But Mufasa simply opened his mouth and offered a doggie smile before shifting his focus to the cardboard box beside him.
“No, boy,” he said. “That’s not for you.”
Hell, he should have cleared his gear out of the Jeep’s trunk before he picked up the box containing a hollow chocolate strawberry. But he only had a short window—forty-eight hours—before he deployed again. And he needed to make this happen now.
“When Lucia comes out of the bar,” he explained to the dog, “I’m going to get out of the car. Don’t even think about touching the box. Don’t put your paw on it. Don’t drool on it. Got it?”
Mufasa cocked his head toward the box as if to say, This box? The one that smells like sugar and chocolate?
“I should have sent you to Natalie’s for the night.” The giant dog crossed one paw over the other and rested his head on top. And Cade softened. “Yeah, I want to spend my last few days with you, too, buddy.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the front door to Bottoms Up swing open. Lucia headed for the car, her long skirt billowing around her legs.
Every. Damn. Time. It didn’t matter if he’d been deployed for a week on a training mission or away for a few hours. If he saw her, he wanted her. Her curves, her smile, her full, sinful lips…
He needed to pull himself together. He had a plan, and it didn’t involve a quickie in the Jeep. He slid out of the driver’s side—eyeing Mufasa in the backseat—and went around to open her door.
“My sister has lost her mind,” Lucia said. She stopped in front of him, rose up on her tiptoes, and pressed a kiss to his lips.
“What happened?” he asked as she pulled away and settled into the passenger seat.
