Page 63 of Shifting Sands

“That’s it. Let me see you come apart, baby,” he beckons as our eyes lock.

That’s all it takes. I explode around his fingers as his name is wrenched from my lips.

He continues to lap at me tenderly until the trembling subsides and I pant to catch my breath.

After the shudders calm, he releases his hold and stands. Then he lifts my limp body into his arms, and I rest my head against his sweat-slick chest as he carries me to bed.

Brew

“Apenny for your thoughts?” she whispers as her finger traces over my tattoo.

We’re lying here. The sun threatening to rise outside the window. Both completely sated after a whirlwind of a night.

“You said something the other night about the ship already sailing. What did you mean by that?” I ask.

Her brow furrows. “When did I say that?”

“The night we met. After … you know—when you were falling asleep. We were talking about life. And you joked about looking for a baby daddy, then said the ship had probably already sailed.”

“I did?”

I reach out and take a few pieces of her hair and twirl the silky strands around my finger. “Yeah.”

She watches, and then her eyes meet mine. She shrugs. “I was delirious. Someone had just put me into an orgasm-induced coma. Who knows what I was babbling on about?”

“Orgasm-induced coma?”

She raises two fingers. “Two in the span of twenty minutes. And that was after dancing and a late night at the bar.”

“Do you want kids?” I ask, bringing us back to the conversation she’s trying to deflect.

She sighs. “I did.”

“Did, not do?”

She rolls to the side and tilts her head to rest back against the pillow. Staring up at the ceiling instead of looking at me, she answers, “I’m thirty-seven years old. Time is running out.”

“You’re not some old cow, ready to be put out to pasture. You’re a vibrant, sexy, beautifulyoungwoman. Your best years are ahead of you, not behind. Besides, didn’t you say your friends were having babies? Aren’t you guys close to the same age?”

“Yes, Isley and her husband have two, but their babies are toddlers now. Taeli has been trying to get pregnant since she and Graham got married, but it hasn’t happened yet. Ansley is undergoing fertility treatments because baby number two isn’t coming as easily as baby number one did. She’s a year younger than I am and already married. I’m still single. By the time I meet the right person, date for a reasonable amount of time, get engaged, married, and then start trying for babies, my eggs will be fossilized.”

“Fossilized?” I chuckle.

She nudges my side. “Don’t laugh at me.”

I bend down and kiss her shoulder. “Sorry. I get it. I’ll be forty this year, and I’m still living the bachelor life.”

“It’s different for guys. You have all the time in the world. You can find some young little filly and have a football team in your sixties if you want to. It’s not fair.”

“A young filly and a football team, huh? Sounds like a gold-digger situation to me. She’ll dump me and bleed me dry for the rest of my life.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she’ll be after all that money in your tip jar instead of your sweet Southern manners, rather impressive bedroom skills, and beautiful bone structure,” she teases.

I quirk a brow. “Impressive bedroom skills?”

“Eh, they’re above average,” she taunts.

I lean in and nip at her earlobe. “I guess I’m going to have to aim for three tonight.”

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