Page 123 of Scotch on the Rocks

She drew back. “You heard what I said to Fiona?”

“Aye.” I pressed my forehead to hers. “There is no other shoe, Juniper. This is it. Through every awful moment I’ve been waiting for you, I’ve loved you, and I’ll continue to love you through whatever comes next.”

She crawled up my chest, her hair tickling my cheeks as she kissed me. The touch was achingly tender, still I felt it like a caress between my legs. “I love you too.”

I didn’t expect the words to feel like such a blow. Could a moment be so exquisite it almost felt horrific in its magnitude? My eyes screwed shut, tears needling the backs of my eyelids.

That was her lips’ next destination, kissing beneath each eye, then tracing the line of my beard from nose to cheek.

“I love you.”

That time I moaned. And when her teeth bit my earlobe, I jerked. “Sweetheart …” My eyes flew open, seeing only the top of my head as her mouth blazed a line from my jaw to my throat. “Juniper, it feels wrong to have a hard-on right now.”

Her eyes flicked up, full of amusement. “Oh?” She opened the top button of my shirt. I didn’t even try to stop her as my head fell back.

“I always pictured …ah.” Her mouth closed around my nipple. “I pictured the moment you said you loved me to be a little more romantic.” I should have taken her out to a fancy restaurant. Bought her flowers. The whole big thing.

She paused, her lips a hair’s breadth from my quivering stomach. “What’s unromantic about your cock in my mouth?”

“Christ.” Now that she mentioned it, I couldn’t think of anything more romantic than coming apart under her then holding her down while she did the same.

With a wicked grin, her lips continued their torture all the way to my waistband where she paused, grabbed my hand and pressed a sweet kiss to it.

“I’m sorry about that night in Glasgow.” I blew out a breath, taken aback by the sudden turn in conversation. “I

think that was the night I finally started to move on … I was scared as hell. I’m still sorry I used you in that way.”

“Fuck. I would have let you use me, Juniper. I kicked myself for years after, but I wanted a real shot with you, and that wasn’t the way.”

“That was then,” she said after a heartbeat.

“And now?”

“Now … I want to treat you how you deserve to be treated.”

“And how’s that?”

“Like mine.” Her hand moved up, pressing over my heart as it raced for her. “Deep down, I think you’ve always felt like mine.”

“Always,” I agreed.

Hers.

I laced our fingers together, taking a heartbeat to acknowledge the perfection of the moment before I tumbled into the next one. “Harpy, I’ve changed my mind about the bed.” Before she could blink, I swooped up from the sheets, tossing her giggling body over my shoulder and slapping that gorgeous arse. “We should christen the new shower first.”

It wasn’t until we were beneath the spray, both of our hands pressing the tile while I thrust inside her that she spoke again. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

I immediately stilled. “The position? This might be the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“Not the position …” She wiggled her hips, urging me to keep moving. My hand sank between her legs, finding the tattoo from memory alone.Lucky.“This. Us,” she continued and my hips snapped to a stop. “Don’t stop!”

“Fuck, you just told me to.”

She moaned, taking matters into her own hands and swivelling her hips in little thrusts I couldn’t help but fucking stare at. “All I’m saying is perhaps we should set some ground rules.”

Should I have expected anything else?“Such as?”

“We don’t start being nice to each other.”

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