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“And Sawyer. We went to Fia, talked to her, and that was when she laid down the law regarding how she wanted things to go at Sullivans’. Your sister... She was so young then, and having to take over with your dad being gone... Your mom didn’t really want to help with it.”
“I know.”
“But that’s how it all came together. Us just deciding to make something new. To make something that was ours. Would last.”
“That’s how I feel now.”
“I never thought I’d have kids. So there’s something...something meaningful to the fact that this thing I’ve been working on... There’s someone who can have it. I had to throw my dad out in order to take over this place. But I’m gonna give it gladly to our child.”
“That’s...that’s... Thank you.”
“Yeah. Well. You really got to quit thanking me for doing the bare minimum.”
“Nothing you’ve done is the bare minimum.”
He shrugged. Then he reached into the back of the truck and pulled out a picnic basket and a blanket. “You game?”
“Yes.”
She grabbed some of the bread and jam that she brought, and they spread the blanket out outside right on the edge of that cliff, the view stretched out before them.
She was filled with a sense of purpose then. A sense of direction. That this was theirs. And that they would grow it and share it and pass it on.
But then mostly, she was just filled with interest in the picnic basket, and the sandwiches that were inside, which were beautifully made.
They ate in silence, and she moved a little bit closer to him when she was halfway through the sandwich, then a little closer still, so that her leg touched his. And she noticed when he closed his eyes and let his head fall back at the glancing contact.
And when she did it again, he made a low sound in his throat.
“Yes?”
“Stop being a tease,” he said.
“Who said I’m teasing?”
“You are a problem.”
“So are you.”
She popped the last piece of her sandwich in her mouth, chewed and swallowed, and that was when Gus kissed her. Slow, deliberate. Nothing like the way he had devoured her last night. He was exploring her, like he had nothing better to do, his tongue sliding slowly against hers, his rough hands moving up to cup her face, stroking her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body against him as best she could while she parted her lips, allowing him to take the kiss deeper.
He acted like he had nothing better to do, and nothing else on his mind. Then he moved his hand slowly down her back, his thumbs coming around to skim the undersides of her breasts. And she ached. The slow, maddening seduction, the sensuality of it. Her nipples went tight, ached for his touch, but he didn’t give that to her. He kept on going slow, moving those hands all the way down to her hips, his thumb still stroking her as he moved across her curves. They parted for a moment, and she looked up at him, deep into those green eyes. Familiar, unfamiliar, all at once. Seeing that hunger there. And that spark that was all him.
She wanted to capture that moment. That moment when he was her protector, her lover, her friend from all these years and a stranger all at once. When he exhilarated her, made her feel like she was flying off the edge of this cliff, and made her feel comforted at the same time. Because he was everything. And this was everything. And she wished there was a way to capture it like fireflies in a jar, so that it could glow in her hands for the rest of forever. Because part of her was afraid. Afraid that she would lose it. Afraid that she would lose him. Because nothing in her life had ever stayed. Everything gold turned brown eventually and faded away. And she wanted this to last forever. Their own little world made of happiness. And every pass of his mouth over hers added another layer to that conviction, that determination. To everything they were. It didn’t erase what they’d been before, it added to it.
Because this was the same man she’d always known. He wasn’t a stranger. She was just learning something new about him.
Finally learning everything.
He pushed her back onto the blanket, his big body covering hers, and she arched, her breasts pressed against his muscular chest. She moved her hands over his shoulders, down his back, at the same time he explored her body.
And there were no angry words. There was no sense of fear. No sense that the world was crashing around them and they had to hurry and make the most of the moment or it would slip away.
It just felt...it just felt right. He felt right.
She pushed his shirt up over his head, and gloried in the sight of his muscles in the sunlight.
“Alaina,” he growled against her neck, then he bit her.
