Page 46 of Sex, Lies, and Margarita Mixes

She shrugs. “Like if we met today. Here. Like strangers.”

I think about it.

Then, I smile. “I’d walk up, hand you a cupcake, and say, ‘You look like you ruin lives, give life altering blow jobs, and can make a decent lasagna. Where have you been all my life? Marry me.’”

She snorts. “Bold.” Her eyes rake over me and she licks her lips. “So, basically same thing as before.”

I grunt, “Yup. With you, I don’t do casual. I knew that from the millisecond we met.”

Her eyes soften, “No, you do forever.”

With Roxy… hell yes, I do.

I knew the second those dark eyes flashed at me from across the lawn and those red lips twisted up into that sexy smirk of hers that she’s always directed at me that I was a goner.

Hopping off the counter, she wraps her arms around my waist and kisses my chin.

I pour the rest of the batter into the pan and slide it into the oven with her still holding on. Grabbing her ass, I lean down, kissing her on the mouth while looking into her eyes. “I love you.” She doesn’t say it back, but she squeezes my waist harder.

She loves me.

This is domesticity, and with my Roxy, it’s deadly.

Nothing has ever made me fall harder than Roxy West in my t-shirt and short shorts with no panties wrapped around me like a memory while the smell of banana bread baking in the oven fills the kitchen.

“I never want to face anything alone again,” she whispers.

I stop and look her in her dark, sexy eyes.

“You never will.”

She doesn’t cry.

She just believes me.

Like I’ve finally earned that kind of faith. Or maybe she just finally believes it. And for a man like me? That’s everything.

The banana bread comes out of the oven.

She eats half the loaf, and we fall asleep on the couch. Her legs are across mine and her hand is resting on my heart. The list of everything I’d burn for her sits unspoken on my tongue.

I would burn it all.

Every lie. Every doubt. Every ex.

If it means she keeps waking up like this.

Next to me. Safe. Loved. Home.

CHAPTER 7

A LITTLE BIT MARRIED, A LOT BIT NAKED

ROXY

* * *

It’s officially the last day of the retreat and we’re also officially “that couple” now.

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