Page 144 of Give & Take

Raphael picks me up and carries me over to that single chair in the empty room. He sits me on top of him and holds me there, arms wrapped around my waist while I tip my head back onto his shoulder.

We turn lazily around the room in that broken, wobbly chair.

“Which books will we order first?” I ask.

“Every single Duke book, obviously.”

“Obviously.”

“You’ll need a whole motorcycle wall for Chris.”

I told him Chris has lately only read romances that involve bikes. If it has two wheels and smut, Chris’ll read it.

“Fred likes those too,” I say.

“The police chief?”

“She’s got a thing for criminals, I guess.”

Raph howls at this. We talk about what days to holdbook club. How old the girls will have to be to go into the shop.

All things we shouldn’t be talking about in such confirmed terms. Yet I know the empty store we’re in is going to be the start of my new future. I know it as completely as I know the man holding me is the only person I’ll ever feel like this for.

So why can’t I tell him? Why can I feel the brush of his stubble against my cheek, the plane of his chest supporting my back, the brush of his fingers over my beating heart, and open my mouth only for the words I so desperately want to say to get stuck?

It’s there, this restraint, like a stubborn piece of armor I can’t figure out how to slough off. But I stop trying to figure it out. I focus on the sensation of him under me. I let our breaths sync and his hands lace through mine on my hips. I focus on every place our bodies touch; every cell charged and ready.

Because this—this we know how to do with no reservations.

I drag our joined hands up my side, pressing our hands to my breast.

Raph grits out a sound behind me.

“Lana,” he whispers.

I bring his fingers up, curling them under the strap of my dress.

“Yes?” I ask, arching, skin tingling like its doused in fireflies where he skates his fingers over me.

“I missed you so fucking much.” He kisses the back ofmy shoulder.

“How much?” I ask, needing the words like sustenance.

“I checked the flight schedules every day. Timed when I’d have to leave for the last one so I’d have the option to come home to you for as long as I could.”

I melt into his love like water in sand.

Then I grind my ass into him, eliciting a warning growl as I hit where I’m aiming. My pussy surges at the sound.

“I… got tested while I was in California,” he says into my shoulder. “I’m always safe, but I wanted to make sure.”

He kisses my back; a little series of them, in a chain from one side to the other. “I told the guy in the lab coat this would be the last time I’d be stepping into his clinic.”

“You what?”

He pulls down the other strap, kissing the opposite shoulder. “He thought I was unhappy with their services. But I told him it was because I’d found the only woman I wanted to fuck for the rest of my life.”

“You didn’t say that!”

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