Page 76 of The Apple Tree

Every smile.

Every time he called me “beautiful.”

Every kiss that made my toes curl.

When he guided me onto my stomach, I rested my cheek against the mattress and whispered, “You built me a hut.”

Kyle lifted my hips a fraction and entered me from behind.

He planted his hands next to mine by my head and kissed my shoulder. “I built you a hut. You make me want to do all kinds of crazy things.”

I bit my lip as my body tingled and tensed, preparing with each thrust for another wave of pleasure.

“Don’t stop making me want to do crazy things,” he said with his breaths chasing one another, each one a little more ragged. “You make everything so fucking good.” His hand snaked under my chest, claiming my breast as the bed swayed with a few creaks every time he pistoned his hips against me, his rhythm becoming more erratic.

Then he stilled. “Eve …” His hand drifted lower between my legs, and he rubbed me until I orgasmed. He jerked his hips a few more times like my pleasure became his again.

Ilovedsex with Kyle.

But I also loved my parents and Jesus, and I needed those things not to be mutually exclusive.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

TINA TURNER, “WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT”

Kyle

“I didn’t builda hut so you’d have sex with me,” I said with one arm behind my head and Eve tucked under my other arm.

“Now you tell me,” she said, drawing random patterns on my chest with her delicate fingers.

I chuckled because her humor landed with me.

I was a twenty-eight-year-old father with a naked woman in my bed—who had a curfew. The math didn’t add up, but emotions rarely did because there were no rules or formulas, and everything was a variable.

I liked Eve—a lot—and had since the day we met. One plus one equaled a hundred. Everything felt magnified with her. Perhaps we were chemistry more than math.

“Are you going to tell Erin?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Jeez, at least try to lie to me.”

She sat up, leaned to the side to turn on the lamp, and held the sheet to her chest. “Do you have chips? They don’t have to beRuffles, but that would be a bonus. I had DQ for dinner with a sundae, and now I’m craving something salty.”

I wasn’t done with her, not even close, so I tugged at the sheet. She tried to keep hold of it, but I won. Dear god, did I ever win. Her perky nipples poked through her long, messy hair. She looked like a goddess. My hand traced the soft curve of her hip, up the side of her body to her breast, and I brushed the pad of my thumb over her nipple.

Her cheeks pinked as her lips curled into a tiny grin. My gaze flitted between her nipple and her deep brown eyes, drinking in every ounce of her sexy vulnerability.

She cleared her throat as if my affection was too much to handle. “If you want to look at naked women,” she leaned over me and pulled aPlayboymagazine out from under my mattress, “there are plenty in these pages.” She lay beside me and opened the magazine.

“Stop.” I laughed, throwing an arm over my face.

“Do you prefer blondes or brunettes?” she asked, flipping through the pages. “And thereisa correct answer to this question.”

I groaned. “I’m burning all of those magazines first thing tomorrow.”

“Before church? God will like that. Or you can wait for my dad to invite you to the bonfire he’ll have with all those branches and my hut's remains. He often needs a little paper to get it started anyway. Kill two birds with one stone.”

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