Page 76 of Bittersweet

“Yeah.”

“Tell me you’ll stay another night?” he whispers, leaning up on his forearms and brushing the hair back from my face. “I’ll cook for you. I’ll do anything, but I need you to stay with us, with me. I need youtonight.”

I smile, loving the way he can be open and honest with me now. Vulnerable. “I’llstay.”

“Youwill?”

“As long as you want me, I’llstay.”

Elio’s eyes light up like it’s Christmas morning. He kisses my lips. It isn’t erotic, or even really romantic. It’s as if he needs to kiss me, like he’ll die without feeling his mouth on mine. “Come on. Your pancakes are gettingcold.”

Pancakes. Elio. Awesome, awesome sex. It's too much. "I loveyou."

Hestills.

Shit. I said it too soon. Oh God. I’m going to have to find a new barista, and I just got this oneback.

"You . . . loveme?"

Be brave, Romy. Just tell him. "Yes."

"I love you too," he growls, then tugs me off the bed. “So fuckingmuch.”

I hold the sheet close, but it gets ripped away by his hands and shortly after, my nipple is in his mouth. He rolls his tongue around the taut flesh. He groans as he devours me, and my insides tighten. Elio’s fingers slide over my body and dip between my thighs to stroke my clit. My legs shake, and between his earlier rocking, his lips on my breasts, and his fingers with their merciless teasing, I’m close to coming. Tooclose.

God, we can’t do this with his daughter just downstairs, and the door wide open. “Wait, wait, stop. We can’t do this here. Not with Cocoawake.”

“Fuck.” He pulls away with an aggravated sigh. “God, I can’t keep my hands offyou.”

“Well, you have to. At least for another . . .” I let my words trail off as I try to clear the fog from my head. “When do four-year-olds go tobed?”

His responding grin is perfection. “Early.”

“Well, until then, you and I will both need to bepatient.”

“I think we’ve been patientenough.”

I laugh. “No, we’ve beenidiotic.”

“That’s true.” He nods in agreement. “Okay, you gotta get dressed. I can’t keep looking at you naked just a few feet from my bed and not do something aboutthat.”

“You have a shirt I couldborrow?”

He crosses the room, pulls an oversized white T-shirt and a pair of cotton boxers from the wardrobe, and tosses them at me. My panties are still downstairs, so I slip into Elio’s clothes. Two months ago, I never would have fit. I grab a fistful of the soft cotton and bring it to my nose. God, even his clean clothes smell amazing. I know I’ll need actual clothing at some point, but for breakfast with Coco and Elio, it shouldsuffice.

Elio lets out another exaggerated huff and shakes his head. I push him, so he’ll get moving out the door. “I didn’t know what to say to Coco this morning. I don’t want this to be weird for her, or for her to think I’m trying to replace hermom.”

“Well, to be honest, you wouldn’t have to work very hard to accomplishthat.”

I stare quizzically at him, almost afraid to ask my next question for fear it will make things between Elio and me more complicated. “Do you see heroften?”

“No. She ran out on me when Coco was just a week old. I found out my brother had been fucking my pregnant wife while living in myhouse.”

“Oh my God, Elio. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know until lastnight.”

“It’s okay. We’re better off without them both,” he says. “That's why I didn't make a move on you earlier. Coco and I . . . our situation is complicated. Dating me will be complicated. It'll mean making sacrifices. It'll mean knowing my daughter comesfirst."

I nod in earnest. “I understand, and I would never hurt Coco. I know she needs to comefirst.”

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