Page 78 of One Day

“Always,” I whisper and reach back to set his glasses down before pushing my hands down his back. The thin fabric of his shirt stretches across his broad shoulders. “Off, please,” I plead, pressing my lips to the tip of his nose and then his cheek.

He lifts his arms up and a grin spreads across my face as I sink to my knees, reaching for the hem of his shirt to work the fabric up his torso and over his head. With the shirt in the pile of clothes we’ve left on the carpeted floor, my hands run down his chest and trail along the ridges of his muscles. His hands come down to run over my ribs, rubbing small circles over my skin.

“Tell me what you need, Sunny girl.” He inches closer and runs my hand down my back, guiding me to lie down. The soft carpet rubs against my skin.

“You,” I say, trailing my fingers down his chest to the elastic waistband. My fingertips dip beneath his sweats, wrapping around his thickening length and giving it a gentle stroke. “Preferably without pants,” I tell him, moving my hips forward. He rocks into me with the same eagerness, his hands moving down my thighs to pull my shorts off.

“I think that can be arranged.”

He sits up to slide out of his sweats and comes back to me almost immediately, pressing kisses to the hollow of my throat. His breath is warm against my skin, guiding himself to my entrance. I lift my hips in search of friction when he thrusts forward.

It’s never felt more right. The way his hands slide up my ribs, his palm spreading across my skin and around to my back. I lift my legs to hook around his hips, pulling him forward until he’s buried deep. Each roll hits just the right spot, and I drape my arms over his shoulders.

We’ve done this so many times at this point that it feels like he knows me better than I know myself. It’s a dance we’ve done over and over again, memorizing each other and knowing just the right way to move to get the other off, but this doesn’t feel like all the other times. It doesn’t feel fleeting in the way it has so many times before.

Sex with Walker before always had an expiration date. It has always been something I knew was going to end. It was supposed to be temporary, but nothing about this feels temporary. He is the person I want every day, at every turn and every corner.

He is my whole heart.

“Walker,” I whimper, his hips rocking forward and my shoulders brushing against the carpet.

His hand drifts over my torso, his thumb finding my clit, and it all but throws me over the edge as my shoulders press into the floor, pressing my chest into his. He groans against my skin, his hand sprawling over my stomach, damp and sweaty.

“I love you,” he says between kisses to my jaw.

Warm spreads through my bones, and my heart settles in my chest. This feeling is a warm glow hanging over my heart. I am never going to be sick of this. “Cowboy?”

He hums, turning his head to look at me. “Yeah?”

“I don’t think I want to be just friends anymore.”

His laugh fills the room as he rolls onto his back and I wish I could capture it, store it away to play on repeat every day until the end of time. “Yeah, Sunny,” he says, turning his head to look at me while resting his hand against his heaving chest. “I think we are way past friends.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

WALKER

I didn’t think waking up next to Sonya could get any better. The first time I did, I convinced myself there was no better feeling, but I hadn’t known this. Waking up next to her, knowing she’s mine. That she chooses me. That this— us—no longer has to be temporary.

She’s it. My last. The start to a forever I didn’t know was ever going to be possible, but hoped so deeply that one day, if I was lucky, she might give me the chance. The chance to prove to her that she is worth every goddamn second. I’ve never been more certain about anything in my life. The thought of her, of being with her, and letting myself have this swell of joy that fills my chest with every second I get to be around her.

My love for this girl could burn the world down.

“Has anyone ever told you it isn’t polite to stare?” Sonya murmurs, rubbing her cheek against my arm. Her eyes slowly flutter open to look at me, and all I can do is look. She’s so utterly perfect it hurts my soul. “What’s that look for?”

“What look?”

The corner of her lips lifts as she trails her fingertip over my cupid’s bow. I can’t help but grin at her. I never in a million years imagined we’d be here right now, her body pressed against mine, her hand resting over my heart. The title of best friend now means something new. She’s my partner in crime, the love of my life. The sun in my sky.

“This one,” she says, her fingertip slowly trailing up my nose and between my eyebrows before her palm rests on my jaw. When her thumb darts out, brushing along my cheek. “You kind of look like you might love me.”

“More than might,” I whisper, kissing the pad of her thumb when it brushes over my lips. “I’m a little obsessed with you, Sonya Cartelli.”

Her lips tip up. “Just a little?”

“A lot.” I press my lips to the corner of her smile and then her mouth. Her fingers sink into the hair at the nape of my neck when I roll us over, settling between her thighs. Her arms wrap around my shoulders to pull me flush to her chest. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she says against my lips, only leaning back when my phone starts ringing from her nightstand. I move to grab it, and her hands come up to my bicep, stopping me. “No, I don’t want the bubble to burst yet.”

---