Page 57 of Knockout (Whiskey Dolls 2)

She let out a light chuckle, leaning into my touch for a second before straightening up. “It’s hard, you know? I want to give him good advice, but all I could think while I was talking to him was how I wanted to hunt down every single person who’d made him feel like he was less than incredible and run them over with my car.”

A bark of laughter worked its way up my throat. “Jesus, it really is dangerous that you and Gram have become so close.”

She gave me a playful push before shifting her attention to the pad on the table. “Are you all done?” she asked, eagerness dancing in those gray eyes. “Can I see what you came up with?”

I nudged the pad in her direction, waiting quietly as she flipped it open to the page I’d just been working on. I studied her face, gaging her reaction closely as she looked at the rough sketch I’d made of what I imagined the garden could look like.

“Wow,” she breathed seconds later. “Jude, this is...it’s stunning.”

I leaned in, bracing my elbows on my knees as my gut twisted into uncomfortable knots. “Then why are you frowning?”

“It’s just...” She let out a breath, her face pinched with worry as she chewed on her bottom lip. “The idea you came up with is breathtaking, really. I can’t for the life of me imagine this design is cheap. I mean, you have a gazebo and a koi pond, not to mention the million flower beds and separate fruit and vegetable patches. I don’t know if Hope House can afford something like this, and—why are you smiling?”

A chuckle rumbled up my throat as I sat ups straight, grabbing her by her hips to pull her closer to me. God, she felt good, and shesmelledfucking great. The need to get her out of here and back to my apartment was starting to gnaw at me. “Because that’s nothing you or Tessa or anyone here needs to worry about. See, I know the owner of the landscaping company is dating a really hot Hope House volunteer, and I bet he’d be willing to offer a really big discount.”

The worry melted away from her features in the blink of an eye, her expression growing playful. “Oh? And just how big of a discount is this woman worth?”

“I’m pretty sure he’s willing to do the work for free. I mean, it’s for a really good cause, right?”

She pulled in a choppy breath, her eyelids going half-mast as she leaned forward. “It is. These kids deserve the best.”

“Agreed. So this project is on the house. Trust me, my guys are going to be all over building this for these kids. I promise.”

She dropped her head and closed the rest of the distance between us, resting her forehead against my chest. “You’re a pretty awesome guy, Jude Kingsley. I wasn’t expecting that.”

And I wasn’t expecting to start falling hard and fast for my downstairs neighbor I’d spent months hating, but there we were.

25

Jude

Layla’s soft, warm body shifted against mine in her sleep. The silky curve of her lush, naked ass pushed back into my groin, making my dick even harder than it already had been after waking up with her in my arms.

In the three days that had passed since we solidified this thing between us, there hadn’t been a night that we didn’t share a bed, and in those three days, there hadn’t been a morning I hadn’t woken up with an erection hard enough to drive nails. We were new, hardly even in the honeymoon phase since we’d agreed to take things slow, but my need for her was downright insatiable. Like a man who’d been trapped in the desert for a year, I wasn’t sure my thirst for her would ever be quenched.

And instead of freaking me out like I’d expected, I was surprisingly fine with that. In fact, I actually really fucking liked it.

But it wasn’t just her body I craved. That want I felt deep down in the pit of my stomach only grew stronger, more unrelenting with each passing day, especially after seeing her in her element at Hope House. How she’d been with those kids, it was awe-inspiring. She was a safe place for each and every one of them. The respect they had for her shined through every time they looked at her. And she’d earned that; it hadn’t been freely given. She’d proven herself to those children and earned not only their respect but their love. That was clear.

That was what she did to me. She got off on ceding control to me in the bedroom just as much as I got off on having it, but she didn’t give it freely. Not even close. She made me work for it, fight for it. She made meearnthat privilege. And when the moment finally came, when she looked up into my eyes, silently telling me I’d won that round and could have her any way I wanted, it made me feel ten feet tall, like I could conquer the goddamn world.

She let out a slow exhale just then, pulling me from my musings as I gently drew my fingers across her skin, from her neck to her shoulder and down her arm. She felt like the smoothest, most delicate silk, and that wasn’t just on her arm, she felt like thateverywhere.

Shoving my elbow into the pillow to prop myself up, I leaned in closer, brushing her hair away from her face and shoulder, so I could see her profile, unobstructed. Her face was soft with sleep, her cheeks pink. Her long, dark eyelashes fluttered against the very top of her cheekbones. Her mouth was slightly pursed, the gentlest chuffs coming from her parted lips. Christ, she really was the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on.

Bending forward even more, I dragged the tip of my nose along the cord at the side of Layla’s throat, inhaling deeply so I could fill my lungs with her sweet floral scent. She always smelled like jasmine and vanilla.

“Did you just sniff me?” she asked in a low voice, sleep making it just a bit huskier,sexier, as those full, supple lips tipped up into a smile, her expression teasing and playful, even though she was still mostly asleep.

“Maybe,” I said, a grin that matched hers pulling at my lips.

“And you’ve been staring for at least five minutes now. You get that’s super creepy, right?”

“Then I carry that mantle proudly,” I rasped, dragging my lips across her neck in the same line I’d just traced with my nose. “If it means I get to do this every morning.”

Layla let out a delicious moan and rolled to her back with a quiet, throaty chuckle, her eyes still closed as I slid on top of her. “Every morning, huh?” she asked, spreading her thighs to accommodate my hips.

Grabbing behind her left knee, I hitched it up and wrapped it around my back. “Yep. Every morning.” I shifted my hips just then, rubbing the underside of my cock through her folds to find she was already wet and ready for me.

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