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“You’re staring and not saying anything.”
“I told you. I’m taking in all those details I missed last time.”
I lifted my hand and brushed my thumb over her nipple, getting a thrill when it tightened beneath my touch. “Did you know you have a freckle right here?” My finger drifted over the small brown dot
“I don’t usually look at myself.”
“Why not?”
She blinked, her blue eyes locking on mine. “I’m confident with clothes on because I can create illusions, but when there’s nothing there, it’s easier to see all the things I wish I could fix.”
I took her hand and pulled her through the hallway and up the stairs.
“What are you doing?” she asked as she hurried behind me. “I thought we were about to have sex.”
“We are, but I want to do something first. Plus, I need condoms. Unless you want the potential of another one of me running around.”
She stopped, bit her lip. “I wouldn’t be opposed to it.”
I had never wanted kids. It’d never even been a thought in my mind, but as soon as that confession left her mouth, my entire vision for the future changed. I wanted all of it with Lainey. Marriage, kids, big family get togethers and knowing my night would end with Lainey in my arms.
“You okay?” Lainey asked.
I shook my head, fully aware I had stopped. “Never better.” I guided her into my room and paused in front of my full-length mirror.
“Oh no,” she said and turned away.
I kissed her cheek, then lifted her chin and kissed her lips. “You’re beautiful, and I need you to trust me.”
She told me she had lost trust in me, and I would spend the rest of my life rebuilding what I had lost. I inhaled, waiting for her to decide. She could grab her clothes and walk out of my life, but if we were going to do this, I needed her to see what I saw. To understand that everything I needed was right here in front of me in a five-foot-three package. That there was no one else in this world who could ever tempt me more than her.
Time slowed, and my heart picked up speed. I could have destroyed it all in the matter of one bad decision, but then Lanes nodded, and she turned in my embrace, facing the mirror. I wrapped my arms around her neck, leaned down, and kissed her shoulder. “You have a freckle here, too,” I said. I kissed along the nape of her neck toward her bicep. “And a scar here that you got when you fell off—”
“My bike,” she finished for me.
“Landed sideways on a rock and nearly scraped your skin off.”
“You left me with Shelly, and you and Austin ran home and got your grandpa.”
I continued my trail to her hand and lifted it, running my thumb over her pointer. “You still have a scar here from when you were dicing strawberries and got distracted.”
“By you,” she exclaimed.
“All I did was walk into your kitchen.”
“I wasn’t expecting you. You scared me.”
“I don’t think I scared you. I think you saw me and momentarily forgot where you were.”
She poked my side, and I jumped out of the way. “Shut up.”
I kissed her throat. “Your laugh is and will always be my favorite sound.” I cupped her breasts, lifting them as they overflowed from my hands. “The first time you wore a pushup bra, I nearly choked on my lemonade. You walked into the barn at the vineyard, and it took everything in my power not stare. It was my first summer home from college. I jerked off to you that night.”
She elbowed me. “You did not.”
“I did. You might think I’ve never noticed you before, but I did. I ignored it, pushed it down deep, because you were Lanes, my little sister’s best friend. It was almost as if I was protecting you from the animal I was turning into.”
She twisted into me, cupping my jaw and swiping her thumb along my stubble. “You were never an animal. At least I never saw you that way.”
