Page 99 of Free to Fall

I turn to stone in his arms. Did he just say? Does he mean?

At my stillness, he pulls back and his eyes dilate when they search mine. “I didn’t mean to freak you out. I thought you knew?”

“That you loved me?”

He nods.

“No.”

“They’re my feelings, Laura. You shouldn’t feel pressured ...”

Slapping my hand across his mouth, my heart is trembling when I admit, “I love you too. I just thought it was too soon.”

He shoves my hand away and gives me a relatively chaste kiss. “Nothing is too soon if it’s right. Now, that will have to hold you over until tonight.”

He spins me around and pats my ass. I give a quick check to see if Bailey’s watching. She’s instead coloring. Crooking my finger at him, I murmur, “I can’t wait.”

After making certain the sauce isn’t ruined, I let my mind dream of a life doing just this—loving Liam and Bailey. That’s when I make my decision. My father can be pissed at me from now until eternity, but he has less than three days.

I refuse to lie to the man I love, and that’s what it feels like at this point. Especially when I hear laughter echoing in the kitchen of the house I consider my home because of the people in it.

Chapter

Fifty-Four

Spearing them both with speculative glances, I reach down to press a kiss to Bailey’s cheek. What I didn’t realize is with how close Laura’s standing next to her, my face would be within inches of her long, bare legs.

Legs I spent hours memorizing with my lips, worshiping with flicks of my tongue.

Before I reached heaven at the juncture between them just the night before.

Christ. If I inhale deeply enough, I can pick up the rich scent, reminding me of that very moment over the sweet scent of my daughter’s skin. Now that we’ve been together for some time, I can differentiate between the two. The scent of Laura brings up memories of heat filled nights exploring her body, knowing what to do to make her moan and tremble in my arms.

It’s not enough.

A month has gone by and I know how I feel.

I’m head over heels in love with her.

Jerking to a standing position, I find myself irrationally infuriated by the fact that I seem to be the only one affected. Perhaps it’s just the persistent proximity between us that has me noticing her sheen of sable curls that cascade down her back. Or the way her sea-colored eyes focus exclusively on the person she’s speaking with. How the dimple in her cheek pops out when she’s happy or excited by something—as she is right now.

What I sure as fuck shouldn’t be remembering when she’s around Bailey is how the slim, muscular shape of her thighs feel wrapped around my waist as I sink my cock inside of her. What it feels like to grip the curve of her hip, her tight ass, or to mold her high rounded breasts in my palms as I push inside of her tight pussy. When her internal muscles contract all along my length.

What it sounds like when her breath hitches right before her body spasms as she comes.

I groan, causing her head to snap around. There’s a flush on her cheeks that belays her disinterest. All I want to do is make up some excuse to drag her inside, pin her against a wall behind a locked door and find out if we’re as good together vertically as we are horizontally.

Just then, my phone rings. Slipping it from my pocket, I feel the blood drain from my cock by someone who can kill a hard-on worse than my daughter—Laura’s father. For fuck’s sake, I need my little brain to catch up with my big one. The only problem is I’m not certain which one is calling the shots anymore.

She’s my boss’s daughter, my daughter’s nanny, and neither of those things seem to matter anymore. All that matters is ensuring she knows she’s mine.

Gesturing to the phone, I answer, “Hey, Caleb. What’s up?”

Laura rolls her eyes before letting them drift downward. She snickers at my obvious problem. My shaft throbs, that’s for damn sure. I’d be apt to tell her how I want to take care of this problem if not for the fact I know I have very precocious eyes watching.

And apparently listening. I focus on Caleb’s words. “Listen, I need you to come to the Norwalk office tomorrow. Is that going to be a problem?”

“No. Not at all, since I have Laura here to watch Bailey.”

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