Page 67 of Cruel Mate

“I don’t know, maybe you liked it then but regret it now?” Zander joked as he tickled Layla to within an inch of her life.

She stopped laughing then and slapped him hands away. Her serious expression caught his attention and he stopped, taking a step away. “What’s the matter?”

“Don’t say that,” Layla growled at him, her gaze darkening almost as if she wanted to smack him. “Don’t ever say that. I don’t regret anything—not anything between us, at least.”

Zander stepped forward, hooked his finger under her chin and kissed her softly before he responded, “Nor do I.”

They kissed again before Layla nuzzled into his chest and whispered, “Do you know what I do regret though?”

She wrapped her arms tightly around him and squeezed. Zander held her back and asked, “What?”

“I regret not meeting you at home,” she whispered, and Zander’s cock throbbed at the desire-filled inflection in her voice.

He lowered his hands to her buttocks and squeezed. “You’d better get your harvesting done, then, unless you want me to take you in the shed?”

Layla shivered in his arms and growled, “Don’t tempt me.”

Laughing, Zander slapped her hard on the backside. “You naughty, naughty girl. If we keep this up, we’ll have a whole brood in no time.”

Layla turned her face up to him then, her eyes twinkling as she said, “Isn’t that the plan?”

Zander glanced over at JJ and shrugged. “I guess. He is cute.”

“He gets that from his father,” Layla said, knocking his chin teasingly. Zander scoffed. He had never been called cute before.

That was just it. There were so many things he had never done before, so many things he had never experienced or imagined for himself, and yet now he could see an entirely new world opening up before him.

Layla had done that. She had changed him.

“Thank you,” he whispered, kissing his mate’s forehead.

“For calling you cute?” Layla chuckled, pulling back to look at him. Zander shook his head.

“For seeing past the asshole,” he said. Layla laughed harder at that and squeezed him around the waist again.

“You didn’t exactly make it easy,” she said, smirking, “But luckily for you, I’m stubborn.”

“You can say that again!”

“Take that back!” Layla protested, and this time it was she who tickled him.

Zander jumped at the shock of it. It had been years since anyone had tickled him like that, and he shivered, playfulness and desire pumping through his veins.

Picking Layla up into his arms and pinning her own against her sides, he carried her over to the blanket in the center of the lawn.

Luckily for them, Bonnie and Marie were lost in the jungle of Layla’s newly planted garden. He might be able to get a quickie in before anyone came looking.

He laid Layla down on the blanket and came down on top of her, kissing her hard, hoping she could sense just how much he had missed her and how much he needed her now.

She responded as she always did, with tenderness and affection, and she was just reaching for his belt buckle when JJ let out the loudest screeching laugh he ever had, making them both jump.

Together, they laughed, and JJ laughed along with them.

“I think that’s his way of saying it’s play time, Daddy,” Layla said, slipping out from beneath him. She kissed him as if to take out the sting of not getting any.

He growled against her lips, “I need you.”

Gripping his face in both her hands, she kissed him hard until his cock pressed painfully against the zipper of his jeans.

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