Page 140 of Seduction Under the Southern Stars
“No.”
She thinks about that while she traces a finger over one of my tattoos. She looks slightly sulky.
“What’s the matter?” I ask.
She doesn’t look up. “Nothing.”
“There obviously is. Come on, you can tell me anything.”
“Not this.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Out with it, Bell.”
She huffs a sigh. “I’m jealous, and I don’t want to be.”
“Jealous of whom?”
“The other women you’ve been with.”
I’m genuinely puzzled, because they all feel so far away it’s like they’re another person’s memories. “Why?”
“Because it feels as if they’ve touched my property, and I know that’s not fair, and I don’t want you to tell me off.”
I don’t say anything, and eventually she lifts her gaze to mine.
“You’re smiling,” she observes.
“I know.”
“You’re not going to tell me off?”
“Maybe. I can include a spank or two if you want me to.”
“Linc!”
“What?”
“Oh my God.”
I lift her so she’s lying on top of me, stretched out. “I’m yours,” I tell her honestly. “I always have been, and I always will be.”
Her brows draw together. She looks into my eyes as if she’s running a polygraph examination in my brain and examining the results, looking for the blips in the reading that will indicate a lie. She won’t find any. I’m telling the truth. No matter what happens between us in the future, my heart has belonged to this girl ever since she shared her first Twix with me, all those years ago.
I slide my hand into her hair and pull her head down, and we exchange a long, lingering kiss.
When I finally let her go, I say, “You look tired. You want to go to sleep now?”
“Mmm.” She rests her head on my shoulder. “Can I sleep like this?”
“If you like.”
She kisses my neck. “You smell nice.”
I smile. She’s warm and soft on top of me, and she sighs as I draw my fingers down her back, from her shoulder blades down either side of her spine to the plump muscles of her ass, then up either side of her waist and ribs to the top, where I start all over again.
