Page 36 of The Christmas List

“On your knees, honey.”

She immediately complies, flipping onto her stomach as I rise to my knees behind her, palms curving around her hips and hauling her perfect, heart-shaped ass in the air.

Her cheek’s pressed against the mattress as she waits to be fucked, and it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.

Unable to help myself, I bend, lowering my mouth to her pussy and sliding my tongue through her, giving attention to her clit until her hips push back against my face.

I stand straight and once again grab her hip with one hand, and with the other, I feed my cock back inside of her, slamming home.

“Oh my God,” she cries out.

As I pound into her, my hips snap in rough, deep strokes that have my balls tightening in desperation to empty inside of her. Arousal pools at the base of my spine, and I know I’m not going to last much longer.

It’s impossible when she’s squeezing my cock so tightly.

“I’m close,” I warn, my voice a low grunt. “Need you to come with me, honey.”

My eyes fall shut, and my head drops back against my shoulders as I fuck her, each thrust deeper than the last.

I reach around and use my thumb to strum her clit in quick, hard circles that have her tightening around me, that sweet littlepussy starting to clamp down on me. “That’s it. Are you going to come for me like a good girl?”

My girl loves to be praised, and I know it because the second I whisper those words, her entire body pulls taut, and she trembles as her orgasm courses through her.

She cries out my name, the best sound in the fucking world, and with one more deep thrust, I erupt inside of her, filling her with my cum in thick lashes until my balls are empty and my chest is heaving.

Josie collapses against the mattress, and I withdraw, my eyes zeroing in on the trail of cum that slips out of her, a surge of possessiveness moving through me.

I stand from the bed and move to the bathroom, grabbing a washcloth from the cabinet and running it under hot water before padding back to my bedroom.

The corners of her lips rise sleepily where she’s on her side.

“Let me take care of you, honey,” I murmur as I open her thighs and drag the warm cloth between her legs.

Once I’m finished, I toss it into the hamper and lie down beside her, dragging her pliant body into my arms. I press my lips to the top of her head and drink in the feel of having her in my arms, sated and sleepy.

Part of me can’t even believe that she’s here right now, and the other part?

Knows I’m never going to let her go.

I’ve always beenan early riser.

Most days, I’m up with the sun, out working on the ranch far before most of the town is even awake. There’s always something to be done, and I prefer to get up early when it’s quiet and still. But this morning… pulling myself out of bed was next to impossible with Josie’s warm body draped over my chest, the morning sun starting to crest over the horizon and bathing her creamy skin in its warm morning rays.

I couldn’t stop staring at the woman in my arms. The woman of my dreams. The woman I want to wake up with for all of the sleepy, quiet mornings I’ll have in this house. Or another if that’s what she wanted.

I’d build it with my bare fucking hands if that’s what she needed from me. I’d give Josie Pearce anything. Including my last name, the second she’ll let me.

I just have to give her time to get there. To let down her guard and give me the chance to prove to her that there’s nothing I want more than this simple, beautiful life with her and Lucy.

California never felt like home to me. It was too big and loud and full of energy, even in the middle of the night. Deep down, buried beneath the exhaustion and hope of trying to give Lucy the best life I could, I knew that Strawberry Hollow was where we were meant to be.

So it’s not surprising that we ended up here. In the place that would always be home.

In the place where I left a piece of my heart behind with Josie.

And now, I just want to make it my home again, with Josie and my daughter.

I could spend hours lying here and watching Josie sleep, drinking in every inch of her, desperate to commit all the little details to memory. The delicate slope of her nose and the constellation of freckles scattered along her cheeks, the slight upturn of her top lip. The tiny scar that mars her cheekbonefrom when she fell when we were kids, trying to climb the same tree her brothers and I did.

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