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* * *
Ryan lugged the last of Ellie’s gifts into the house and placed them under the tree. As usual, “Santa” had overindulged the girl, but Cassie loved seeing the joy on her daughter’s face on Christmas morning. She also loved this view of Ryan crouching under the tree as he placed a baby doll in its highchair by Ellie’s tiny kitchen. His worn jeans hugged his ass as if molded just for him.
“You enjoying yourself?”
Cassie jumped. He hadn’t even turned as he questioned her.
“Are… Oh… Yeah,” she finally replied. Per last night’s discussion, she no longer needed to hide when she ogled Ryan’s backside.
He rose to his full height, then faced her. His front side also gave her much to ogle. This time openly.
Her thoughts and feelings about the conversation they’d had in her parents’ boathouse the night before were still scrambled, but she already knew honesty felt better than fighting her feelings ever had. Maybe, in the end, Ryan would break her heart, but at least she wouldn’t be left wondering “what if.” The possibility of heartbreak kept circling in her head, then she’d catch Ryan appraising her from dark, hooded eyes, and a calmer, happier voice assured her he’d never hurt her.
Taking his drink from beside his stocking on the mantle, he gave her a mischievous wink. Cassie’s stomach fluttered with anticipation. Tonight, they would sleep under the same roof for the first time since the night they’d spent in the hotel room. On the surface, the sleepover wasn’t unusual. Since Ellie’s birth, Ryan had spent every Christmas Eve at her house, either in the guestroom or sometimes just crashing on the couch. But tonight, she hoped for something closer.
Ryan dropped onto the couch, then patted the spot beside him. The last time she’d innocently sat on the couch with him, she’d awoken mid-orgasm. Had that unconscious hookup set their relationship on this new course?
“You’re thinking too hard. Takes all the fun out of… well, pretty much everything,” he warned.
Valid point. She crossed the room, then sank onto the couch beside him. Ryan wasted no time slipping his free arm around her and pulling her close. Resting against him had always felt nice, but tonight, the once innocent cuddling was charged with an underlying sensuality.No. Every touch they’d ever shared had been laced with sensuality. Tonight the affection was tinted withexpectation.
Slipping an arm across his hard abdomen, she tilted her head to peer up at him. “What do you think about sleeping in my bed tonight?”
Beneath her arm, his stomach tightened. Immediately heat filled her cheeks. Maybe Ryan didn’t want to share a bed with her, not in her house while their daughter slept down the hall.
She started to backtrack. “I mean if you don’t —”
Suddenly she found herself on her back, staring up at Ryan’s strained face. “Of course I want to. I told you, that’s what I want every night. I thought you’d be worried about Ellie.”
Biting her lip, she nodded. She did worry what Ellie would think if she saw Ryan sleeping in her bed. At first, she’d been afraid seeing her father and mother together would give Ellie a false sense of hope. Now, she didn’t think that hope was all that false. “I think it might be something she should get used to.”
The grin that split his face in response sent warmth pooling in her stomach and slowly sliding between her thighs. With the grin melting into a smirk, Ryan took her mouth, coaxing her lips apart with his tongue. She turned liquid beneath him, her entire body his to mold as he saw fit.
When she thought she might combust without him inside her, he pulled away. “Unless you want to reenact the last time we were on this couch, I think it’s time we head to bed.”
A knot of anticipation formed in her stomach. The moment of truth stretched in front of her. Taking a deep breath, she nudged him away, then slipped from beneath him. She grinned back at him. “Race you.”
* * *
Ryan lounged on Cassie’s bed, watching as she prepared for sleep. Only he didn’t plan on her getting much sleep, at least not right away.
As she finished braiding her long dark hair, she caught his eye in the mirror. “What?”
Shaking his head, he couldn’t hold back the grin that split his face. “I’ve been in this room so many times, but I never thought I’d ever spend the night here.”
When she stood from the vanity, the light from the open bathroom door showed through the thin material of her nightgown. All Ryan’s blood surged to his groin as he took in the supple curves revealed under the white cotton.
She sashayed toward the bed. “So you’re telling me, when you moved this bed in here for me, you never thought about having sex with me in it?”
“Oh, I thought about it,” he assured her. “I can’t count the ways I imagined taking you in this bed. I just never expected you’d ever let me.”
Hitching her gown up to expose her bare thighs, she crawled onto the bed, not stopping until she knelt between his spread legs. “Did any of them start like this?”
Only all of them.
She ran her hand up his thighs, stopping to palm his erection. His body shuddered with pleasure and his dick pulsed. He dropped his head back onto the pillow.
She chuckled, a sound he’d never associated with sex before. Yet, coming from between her pouty lips, the sound tightened his balls.
