Page 127 of Sterling Stone

“If I take your bed, where will you sleep?” I tease, smoothing my hand down his pressed uniform, gaze catching on that shining star over his chest.

“Right next to you.” He tugs my hips and pulls me closer, giving me another meaningful kiss.

If a man kissed me enough to curl my toes, I’d cling a little bit.

No need to chase. I didn’t need to go anywhere. He was right here in my hands.

I hold on tighter.

“Think about it?” Stone says, eventually pulling back before we’re arrested for indecent exposure or behavior or whatever someone wants to call the town sheriff doing to me on a public sidewalk in the early afternoon.

“For now, maybe, I can bring some stuff to your place? Use your dining room table to spread out my pens and paints and do some sketching?” Trudy’s home doesn’t offer the wide space I need to start the creative process. I’ve used plenty of public spaces before, but Stone’s dining room table feels most fitting.

I’ll also need wall measurements and then my iPad with the scaling software and⁠—

“Take whatever room you want.” Stone interrupts. my mind already spiraling. “Come over later?”

“I’ll be there.”

I can’t wait.

42

[Stone]

Later, Taxi lies across my chest while I wind her curls around my finger and watch them spring back into place. For her part, she runs her fingers through the thick patch of hair on my chest.

She was rather excited when she entered my house, her art supplies in two overstuffed bags. And nothing made me happier than watching her spread everything out on my dining room table. Paints and brushes. Colored pencils. A large roll of paper.

Then we ended up in my bedroom.

But despite what we just did, how we joined together, Taxi feels like she’s drifting away from me.

“What’s on your mind?” While I want all Taxi’s truths, my biggest fear is that she still wants to leave. Even giving her Frederick’s wall as a commission would only prolong her visit. There isn’t a guarantee she’ll permanently stay.

“I’m thinking about Jolene again.” Taxi shifts, craning her head back against my bicep, so she can look up at me. “Sorry. Not very romantic to think about my sister after what we just did.”

I quietly chuckle and continue winding and unwinding her hair around my finger. “You can think whatever thoughts you want, darlin’.”

While I wish she was thinking about me, her sister’s presence weighs heavily on her mind. And I’m not certain the words I offered earlier as wisdom were necessarily wise.

I have my own failures with siblings, and don’t feel like I’m fully qualified to give her advice on how to handle hers.

“I’m still so angry about her showing up out of the blue, acting like she’s been overly concerned about Trudy when she couldn’t be bothered to get here sooner. And all this time she’s been God knows where. Plus, she’s acting like she has a medical degree by association because she works for a world-renowned organization that helps others.” Taxi snorts, and unknowingly pulls one of my chest hairs.

“I don’t want to begrudge her concern for others, if it was genuine, I just . . . I don’t know what I just.”

I smile and press a kiss to her pinched brows. “Like you said earlier, families are complicated. I know about being the worst sibling.”

I chuckle, but honestly, Taxi talking about Jolene earlier, sensing she thinks she’s somehow failed her younger siblings, has me thinking about Sebastian.

Taxi blinks. “You? Never. You’re like the poster child for the perfect eldest brother.”

I snort. “But I’m not.” I clear my throat. “I’ve had my moments.”

“Name one.”

With a heavy inhale, I blow out a breath and tuck my other arm behind my head.