Page 55 of Next to You

SPENCER: Too soon?

LUCY: Never

SPENCER: What are you wearing?

LUCY: LOL I’m dying. I’m in my favorite pink nightie with a matching thong

SPENCER: Pics?

SPENCER: For the record. I’m JK about the pics.

LUCY: Maybe you should see it in person?

I pulled back onto the road. The Honeybrook wasn’t far. I had to feel it all again. No waiting. I couldn’t go home and call her. I had to see her. Now.

SPENCER: Look out your front window, sweetheart.

LUCY: RUNNING

Grinning, I opened my door and stepped out. Her place was cute. I could see her living here, writing her books, watching TV, being adorable, and living her life...

Fuck, I hoped I would be able to be part of it. I wanted to be with her here and at my place and everywhere, all the time. I needed her.

LUCY: Wait. Confession: I am not wearing a pink nightie…

Laughing, I shoved my phone in my pocket. I didn’t give the first fuck what she was wearing. All I cared about was having her in my arms again.

She came flying out her front door with her gorgeous butterscotch waves trailing behind her in the cold evening breeze just as I slammed the door to my truck to head up her driveway.

She did not stop, so I braced my legs apart and waited for her.

“Sweetheart.”

I held out my arms and caught her as she jumped into them, wearing nothing but the hoodie she’d stolen from me and a pair of winter boots.

Upon further discovery, she hadn’t been lying about the thong. She hooked her legs around my waist, ankles digging into the small of my back as I supported her with my hands behind her thighs, right below the bare skin of her luscious ass. I felt the edge of it with my fingertips, lacy and soft, and groaned out loud.

“You’re here,” she murmured into my ear, peppering my face and neck with sweet little kisses. “I couldn’t fall asleep without you, so I wore your hoodie.”

She smelled like heaven, like lavender and vanilla. Like forever and a day. Like she was mine.

“I should have never left you.” I was breathless. It felt like I was home again with her in my arms. “If you tell me to come inside with you, Lucy, it begins. Me and you. We begin.”

She pulled back to look at me. “Do you think it would be a mistake? That this is happening too fast?”

“Fuck no, I don’t.”

She sighed, arms and legs tightening around me as she buried her face in the side of my neck. “Good. I don’t either. This feels so right. Come inside with me, Spencer.”

I walked us up the path to her front door. “Where are we headed, the couch? Or…?”

We made it inside and I kicked the door shut behind myself.

“Take me to bed, Spencer. My room is straight ahead.”

We didn’t make it to the bedroom. I had to kiss her; I couldn’t wait another second. Backing her up against the wall, I sealed my lips to hers, swallowing her sexy little moan and tangling my tongue with hers. Feeling for the first time all day that I had made the right decision.

I let her slide down the front of my body until her feet touched the floor.

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