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She sighs softly again against my bare chest, driving home my desire to keep her here tonight. She shifts so she can see my face, concern etched in the crease in her brow. “You don’t think that will confuse things?”

I assume she’s talking about Scout, who sleeps more soundly than I ever knew was humanly possible. He won’t be awake until after six in the morning, so there’s no danger of him wandering in here in the middle of the night. “I think it’ll be fine. I’m always up with the roosters and Scout, and I will feed the animals and have breakfast, so you’ll have some time to yourself.”

The lines don’t leave her face, and I wonder if I’ve done enough to convince her. So I do more to convince her, rolling her to the side and kissing her softly while my hands run the length of her torso. She moans against my mouth, and it gets me half hard on the spot. I’ve never had this kind of physical response to a woman, ready and able to fuck her over and over again as long as it seems to bring her the same pleasure it brings me.

Her sighs and sounds are the only thing I want to hear. Kissing her more deeply, I feel how she responds, matching my fervor, tangling her tongue with mine, running her hands over my back.

“Never gonna get enough of you,” I groan against her mouth, breaking the kiss to move down her throat, over her collarbone and down to one nipple. Taking it in my mouth, I suck gently, feeling it grow hard, loving how she responds to me.

I remember that day in the creek when I said sex didn’t have to mean anything. But I know now that it was a lie. It means everything, and if she’ll let me, I think that maybe I could make her happy.

Rolling Callie onto her back, I draw circles around her nipple with my tongue, begging the skin around it to pebble with goosebumps, and it does. She tilts her head back against the pillow and grips my shoulders. I make my way lower.

“God, Luke, you are so good.”

I freeze and look up at her. “I think that’s the first time you’ve used my name.”

Her eyes pop open, and her blissful expression is slightly marred, a little pissed that I’ve stopped to chat. “You want to talk about this now?”

“I wanted to point it out, is all.” I’m having too good a time for a long conversation, so I hope I haven’t opened a can of worms.

She gives me an impish grin. “Yeah, all this time, I couldn’t remember who you were, but your name finally stuck.” She giggles.

“You are such a brat.” I squeeze her hip, and she laughs harder, clearly ticklish. That wind chime sound is too good to resist, so I squeeze a little harder. She lets out a yelp, wriggling to get out from under my grip, but I settle myself between her legs, the full weight of my body over hers. “Nope, nowhere to run, honey.”

She makes a big display of acting defeated, letting her muscles go slack, and the struggle abate. I lean down and kiss her stomach as her hands come back to my shoulders. I feel her relax under me, and I start to work my way down, savoring every inch of skin, losing myself in the taste of her.

It’s why I have my guard slightly down. It’s why I don’t expect her to lift her hips and manage to flip me like a jujitsu expert. The next thing I know, I’m on my back, and Callie is straddling me with the most satisfied look on her face.

“Never underestimate a brat,” she says.

“I was about to apologize, but now all bets are off.” Except that her knees grip my hips in a way that makes me want to stay exactly where I am. She leans down and sucks so hard on my pec that it’s bound to leave a mark, and I fucking love it.

She kisses and licks her way down, and her movements mirror mine a moment before. I contemplate mirroring hers and flipping her back over, but this feels too good. I want to see what she has in mind, and a moment later, she makes it very clear.

Now she’s between my legs, gripping my cock in both hands, watching me fight to keep my eyes open and sighing when I give up the battle.

Her lips lower slowly, and she takes me in her mouth, getting me harder than I’ve ever been in my life. An ache builds deep in my groin.

She takes me deeper and hits the back of her throat. I want to come so badly, but I grit my teeth and resist. She pulls back and looks up at me with a naughty smile on her face. “You okay there, Ranch Daddy?”

That nickname does it. “Fuuuuck.”

My hips thrust upward, and she takes me in her mouth again, licking and sucking me hard until I’m spent and empty. And as much as I don’t want to admit it, I’m hers. The time when I could control this thing has come and gone.

When her car heads down my driveway, I fill the void from where she’s been all day. I have it bad. Nothing else to say about it. With the custody hearing approaching, I can only hope that she feels even a fraction of what I do. I hope that she feels open to staying here. With me. With us.

But a half hour later, Elizabeth’s car horn indicates that she has no intention of bringing him into the house, so I go out to the driveway where the car doors are open, and I see Scout sleeping with his head tilted onto the strap of his car seat.

I take in the miniature Dodgers jersey he’s wearing and the baseball mitt on his lap. Next to him sits a full bag from a toy store. “Wow, you know the way to a kid’s heart,” I say.

“We had a nice day,” she says. It guts me a little bit to hear it, but I wouldn’t have wanted Scout to have a bad day.

I’m itching to criticize her for trying to buy her way to his affection, but I opt to take the high road. I’m just glad to have Scout home safe and sound. Her day with him is over, so I focus on that. “Good to hear.”

“I took him to a specialty sporting goods store to get him some gear. And then, of course, I couldn’t resist the fun fan stuff at the stadium. Hope I didn’t step on your toes there. Were you planning on getting him an All-Star jersey?”

She knows I wasn’t. She also knows I don’t see the point of spending over a hundred bucks on a shirt he’ll outgrow in four months, but she loves the idea of doing it anyway because the money means nothing to her. “No. That’s your thing.”