Page 48 of Resilience

“Then don’t stop,” she answered.

“Are you sure? After what Hunter—”

She grabbed his hand. “No. Don’t bring him here. I’m sure I want more of us.”

“Athena ... God.”

Rather than hold her face again, Sam clasped her waist and lifted her. He pulled her onto his lap, settling her so she could wrap her legs around him. Hundreds, thousands of times, she’d had her legs around him, because he was about to throw her in the pool and she was trying to make it difficult, or because she was tired at Six Flags and he carried her piggyback, or countless other reasons he’d picked her up and she’d settled in. Never had it been sexual before.

But now all she could feel was his heat and strength. The firm span of his belly between her legs, the powerful clench of his arms around her, the feel of his hands in her hair, the hard heft that grew under her ass. And his mouth! He tasted her, explored her, revered her—every move gentle, attentive, even as it was emphatic. It was nothing like she’d ever felt before.

This was pure sex, but it was much more than that. It was love, and it was friendship. It was everything, and Athena felt woozy with it. She twined her arms around him as tightly as she could, kissed him back with the same wild boil of feelings, of truths.

She was in love with her Sam.

He finally broke away, dropping his forehead to her shoulder as he panted in her arms. Athena looked up at the sky—it was twilight, suddenly, and the first stars twinkled above their heads. Well, this early, they were planets she could see: Mars, and Jupiter, and Saturn, pushing faintly through the final dregs of daylight leaching from the heavens. This was exactly the place where her life should change. Right here, in the glen that was her father’s favorite place, and hers, where she shared the sky with him and with Sam.

She tapped Sam’s shoulder lightly, and he lifted his head and met her eyes, looking just as stunned as she felt.

Athena smiled. “I think they were right.”

His eyes shone in the blue of the coming night. He nodded.

Everything that had ever been between them was as it had always been: Complete trust. Deep love. Comfort and safety. Perfect understanding. As always.

But it was wholly different now as well.

Sam was her person. The only one in the world for her.

As she was for him.

Athena tucked her head under his chin and held on.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Before six the next morning, Sam was at the clubhouse. Monty swung his Street Bob onto the lot before Sam had the side door unlocked, so he waited and they went in together.

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