Page 121 of Craving Francesca

“All right. Why don’t you go drool over the inside some more while I go get it?”

“Don’t you want to drool with me?” I asked, giving a little shimmy.

Gray grinned. “Baby, I’ve seen every inch of that house ten times, and I’ve been over the plans at least fifty. I don’t care if you painted the entire place puke green, if you’re there, I’m set.”

“You’re such a sap,” I teased, hopping away as he tried to swat at my ass.

I spun on my heel and skipped to the wrap-around porch, letting my hand trail up the railing as I moved up the stairs. Every detail of our house had been planned exactly how we wanted it, and even though Gray acted like he didn’t care what it looked like, he’d been right there next to me as we’d gone over the plans with Terry, one of the foremen I worked with.

Tommy mainly flipped houses but when I’d mentioned that Gray and I were looking to build, he’d immediately insisted that his company built it. All of his guys were capable of overseeing an entire build, they just rarely had the opportunity to do it.

They’d also realized pretty quickly that I was a lot more of a pain in the ass as an owner than I’d ever been as a coworker.

I let myself in the front door and inhaled the new house scent. To the left was my office. To the right was a large living room with built-in shelves and cabinets around the fireplace. Straight ahead were the stairs and the short hallway to the kitchen and dining room. When we’d started the design process, there were three things that I’d wanted, no matter what—a fireplace, a large area where we could put a big dining room table, and a sun porch. Gray’s only insistence had been that our bedroom faced east so that we could see the sunrise and the view of the valley from our bed.

I wandered through the kitchen, letting my hands drift over the counters before I let myself out onto the sun porch. Terry had looked at me like I was crazy when I’d told him I wanted it, but his guys had done an excellent job. I couldn’t wait for summer nights out there, listening to the wind blow through the trees.

“Where are you, baby?” Gray called from the front of the house.

“I’m back here,” I called, turning to face the doorway.

“I got the mattress,” he said, striding toward me, the sun coming through the front windows leaving him backlit. “You want me to bring it upstairs?”

“Would you be willing to sleep down here?” I asked.

“It’s gonna get cold as hell tonight.”

“We have plenty of blankets,” I reminded him.

“Fine with me.” He turned and disappeared again and seconds later he was lugging the mattress through the empty dining room and out onto the porch. As soon as he’d set it down, I dropped and lay on it, staring at the ceiling.

“You good?” he asked, his lips twitching.

“Our house is done,” I sang, moving my arms and legs like I was making a snow angel.

“You know what that means,” he said, kneeling down between my legs.

“No, what does that mean?”

“We’re gonna need to christen every room.”

“I think I could get on board with that.” I reach up to pull the rubber band out of his hair. “Where do you want to start?”

“How about the sun porch?” he asked against my lips.

“I like that idea.”

By the time we were both naked, the sun had drifted completely beneath the tree line, and it was getting pretty cold. The only light we had came from under the kitchen cabinets, and I wrapped my legs around Gray’s ass, trying to conserve a little body heat.

“You re-thinkin’ puttin’ a mattress on the porch?” he asked in amusement as he slid inside me.

We’d eventually given up condoms. It had been more emotional for me than I’d wanted to admit, though Gray had seen right through my bravado.

“No way,” I gasped, arching into him.

“You’re covered in goose bumps,” he murmured, running his lips up my neck.

“Those are from pleasure.”

---