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He gently lifts my shirt over my head and gazes at me with a different kind of reverence than I’ve seen before. Like I’m completely new to him today. “Beautiful,” he says, shaking his head. “How did I get so goddamn lucky?”

“Back atcha, Stetson Sweetie.” I don’t even know if my words make sense. My brain feels scrambled the second his tongue slides across my collarbone. My head falls back against a balled-up work shirt Luke made into a pillow, and I recline on the hay bale like a princess.

Another lingering kiss has my toes curling and my hands fisting in Luke’s hair. Our tongues tangle, and I push up the edge of Luke’s Henley. He lifts his face from mine only long enough to yank the shirt off by the back of the collar and throw it on the floor. In the lazy beams of sunlight and cool air in the barn, I feel like we’re in a movie, painted by perfect brush strokes.

Our bodies move against each other slowly, each of us taking our time to let long kisses unfold into longer ones.

Maybe Luke’s intensity comes from feeling raw and vulnerable after letting Scout leave with Elizabeth, or maybe it’s feelings he has for me. I’m not sure I care which.

I want him.

“Darlin’,” he growls, coming up from another forever kiss for a breath of air. “When you’re not here, I can’t stop thinking about you.” He kisses me so deeply that my insides clench, and I feel weightless. “And when I’m with you, I can’t get enough.”

For the first time with any guy, I feel the same way.

“I-I feel the same.” I’m not sure I should admit how much I’m falling for him. He pulls back and goes completely still. His eyes blink, and his swollen lips are parted. I’ve never seen anyone more beautiful than this man.

He nods. “What a fucking relief.”

He kisses my cheek, my neck, my throat. I writhe on the hay bale as he works his way over each breast, down my abdomen, across my hip bones, planting kisses that turn me liquid. I barely have the wherewithal to do anything besides moan and sigh in contentment, and he seems to like that just fine.

I feel a flicker of fear because this was never supposed to turn into something real. But I push the thought away right now and let myself feel what I feel. The warmth of him. The weight of him. His need, which rivals my own.

I reach for his face and cup his cheeks as he kisses my stomach. His eyes flick up, but I can barely focus on his face. Mine are so hazy with lust that I merely blink in his direction. He smiles.

“Let me,” he says. I can’t string words together to ask what he wants me to let him do, so I nod, and he pushes off my shorts. He moves lower, parting my legs with his hands.

“You are so fucking gorgeous.” His breath feathers against the sensitive skin of my inner thighs. His fingers trace down to find me wet and so ready for him. “And you taste like dessert.”

His tongue finds my center, and he nearly sends me over the edge with one sweet swipe over my swollen clit. I moan in greedy encouragement. “My god…”

Because he is nothing if not godly.

Sliding two fingers inside me, he keeps working me with his tongue. I keep gasping, lacking any other vocabulary or attempts at logic.

“Come for me, darlin’.” I nod. Ready, willing.

And damn if he’s not able. With the next sweep of his tongue, I feel the rise that takes me airborne until a crash of pleasure rocks me. I keep coming, even when Luke sits up, his fingers still inside me, and slips out of his jeans. I want to comment on this master move, but I have no words, so I let my head fall back again while I hear the tear of a condom wrapper and then feel the glorious size of him fill me up.

Our bodies fit together seamlessly. He knows which sensitive spots drive me wild, and his kisses leave nothing behind.

And I know how to make him groan with need until he’s on the edge of letting go. And how to push him past that edge.

So we careen together, gasping, shouting…laughing…kissing…easing into each other’s arms. Again and again. If this isn’t what it feels like to love another person, I don’t know what is.

CHAPTER 26

Luke

“I should go,” she murmurs against my chest after we wake up from an unintended nap in the barn. It could be my exhaustion after stressing about having Elizabeth take Scout for the day or the aftermath of the best sex of my life, but I just slept better than I have in years.

I pull Callie’s naked body tighter against my chest and nuzzle her neck until I hear the sigh that gives me life. Like if I hold on tightly, it will be enough to make her want to stay.

I don’t know if she says it because she wants to bolt from me or if it’s become a habit. She doesn’t spend the night because she doesn’t want to send Scout confusing messages about her place in our lives. I appreciate her concern, but I can’t help wondering if it’s more about her than him.

Not something I’m prepared to get into now. All I know is that I don’t want her to move.

“No,” I growl, wrapping her more tightly in my arms. “Stay tonight.”