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Luke nuzzles my neck and runs his nose down to my cleavage. “Sounds like a dream. A hot-as-fuck girl who can’t keep her hands off me. What’s not to get excited about in that scenario?”
I try not to give away, with the look on my face or the immediate tension that fills my limbs, the number of guys—my asshole ex included—who would never give me that kind of simple affection afterward.
The man pinning me to the bed senses it all the same. “Don’t even answer that question because I don’t need to spend the next hour talking myself out of going over there and sorting that piece of shit out.”
I can’t help but laugh. Luke picks me up off the bed, sets me on my feet, then herds me toward the bathroom, as if I’ve got any intention or interest in going anywhere else. Before long, we’re both soaking in divine, steaming water, with him at my back and his big palms running soap leisurely over my arms, my stomach, and my breasts.
He’s not trying to start anything, but he treats me to a constant stream of touches that make my bones dissolve with bliss.
At this point, I’m willfully ignoring the fact my heart has formed a little puddle of besotted happiness, too.
CHAPTER 16
I could die a contented man if I never have to leave this damn bathtub.
The sweetest, most gorgeous woman I’ve ever met is wrapped against my chest, and time feels like it has gone into hibernation while we’ve been soaking in here together.
“Don’t you need to go take care of the horses this morning?” Skylar plays her fingers over my forearm, sending tiny sparks swirling beneath my skin as she does so.
“Already done.”
“What? When?” She tries to tilt her head around to look at me.
“Earlier … I didn’t want to wake you.”
“Oh my god. I could have at least come and helped out, you know.”
I shake my head ruefully, quietly laughing to myself at how pouty she sounds. “Sweetheart, it’s freezing outside, and everything is buried under three feet of snow. I’ve done that routine what feels like a million times. It’s easy for me. The fact that I could climb back into bed and have you soft and warm and moaning my name … now that’s the best gift you could give me.”
Skylar makes a little noise, part protest and part embarrassment. Fuck, she’s so cute, the way she starts to squirm.
“I still can’t believe this is real.” Her voice is quiet.
How much do I tell her?
How much do I dare admit?
“Why wouldn’t it be?” My hands roam freely because there’s every chance I’m more than addicted to the way her delicate skin feels beneath my rough palms.
“I didn’t think Lucas Rhodes would ever notice someone like me.”
Fucking hell. If only this girl knew …
“I’ve always noticed you,” I speak against her hair. Sitting like this, it’s impossible to ignore the way she fits so perfectly, nestled into my chest.
“Really?”
“Look … not when you were younger, of course. Not in that kind of way back then,” I’m quick to add, while painfully aware of the fact I now have my son’s best friend naked in my bath.
She can’t help but giggle a little. “It would be way too easy to tease you about that right now.”
Pinching her thigh makes her jump and let out another laugh. The kind of sound that roams straight through my chest, breaking through years of self-imposed guards and walls that have existed there for too damn long along the way.
“Joke all you like, sweetheart, but let’s just make it abundantly clear. I never looked at you that way when you were younger. The reason I always noticed you was because Brad was able to be himself around you.”
I rest my lips against her pink hair, inhaling deep lungfuls of her scent. Shampoo and soap and sweetness that are so undeniably Skylar.
“You know, Brad came out to me when he was about twelve, I think … He asked me if I liked boys as much as I liked girls. If I ever had trouble choosing between the two. Which at the time he asked was outta left field, but we were right in the middle of grooming the horses together, so all we did was chat about it while we worked, and he was just so certain. As a parent, there wasn’t ever a doubt in my mind that he was bisexual. It’s just who Brad is. But I know not every person in the world can see past their own prejudices and bullshit. So I always worried about him. I always worried about who he was hanging out with … and yet, I always knew if the two of you were together, he would be okay.”
