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But eventually, my muscles start to tremble with exhaustion, and I shift our positions so I can collapse beside her on the bed. She immediately hikes her leg over my hip and pulls herself as close as possible.

I let out a content exhale as my hand goes to her thigh, my thumb tracing soothing circles on her skin. “I can’t believe I forgot to spank you,” I sigh. “All the times it came up today, and it still slipped my mind. Unacceptable.”

She giggles and shifts deeper into my embrace. She’s essentially kissing my chest now, she’s so close.

“What can I say, I’m distracting,” she says, grinning.

I snort, the breath making Charli’s bangs flutter on her forehead. “That you definitely are,” I agree.

“Don’t worry,” she murmurs, this time pressing a real kiss to my chest, “you’ll have plenty of opportunities to try again.”

My throat bobs on a swallow, Charli’s words registering.

I really fucking hope so.

Because for the first time in a long time, I finally have something I want to hold on to.

THIRTY-ONE

CHARLI

When we wake up the next morning, it’s with an unspoken agreement that Lucas is going to spend another day not working. The whole day, we don’t do anything exciting, we just lounge on the couch, binge movies, and eat way too much junk food.

Case in point.

“I can’t,” Lucas groans, clutching his stomach. “Charli, I swear to God, if I eat one more sour candy my stomach acids are going to eat my insides.”

I quirk an eyebrow and pop the warhead into my mouth. “You are so dramatic.” But my eyes still twitch when the sour hits my taste buds.

“I’m ordering dinner for us,” he declares as he rolls off the couch. “We need actual sustenance.”

I grin. “Speak for yourself. I think this might be your thirty-three-year-old body showing its age.”

He stops tapping away on his phone long enough to wink at me. “If I remember correctly, your body was the one that tapped out last night.”

My cheeks warm at the memory of last night. After our heated first session, Lucas made it his personal mission to drag as many orgasms from my body as possible. I had to tap out.

“Yeah, well, I’m just barely not a virgin anymore,” I mumble. “You gotta give me a minute to get used to things.”

That earns me a grin—and a look that promises more orgasms.

He turns back to his phone and taps away for another minute, then turns the notification sound on and tosses the phone on the kitchen counter. Before I realize his plan, he’s dive bombing onto the couch.

I yelp as he lands on top of me. “What the hell, Lucas. You just crushed all the chocolate.”

“Don’t care,” he says. But his voice is muffled because his arms are wrapped around my waist and his face is pressed into my stomach.

Sighing, I adjust to a more comfortable position. With my back to the armrest and Lucas now taking up the space between my legs, my hands naturally rest on his back. Without thinking, I start to massage his shoulders.

“Oh God,” he groans into my skin. “Yeah, do that.”

I shake my head, but I’m smiling. I knead his muscles for a few minutes, frowning when he has more knots than I expected.

“Would you say this is an accurate representation of how stressed you are?” I ask, my face scrunching in concentration as I work at one knot in particular.

“Probably. Ow.”

“Well, if you didn’t work a thousand hours a week, you might not have a knot the size of Rhode Island on your shoulders. Jesus Christ, Lucas.”