Page 67 of Savage Beauty

I’m in deep with this one. It’s clear as day. Because instead of coaxing her awake, I’m lying beside her, luxuriating in her soft skin and powdery scent. My arm’s asleep with a million tiny needles pricking it, but I refuse to move because she’s sleeping comfortably. My nose is buried in her silky hair, and I just want to stay like this forever.

So, yeah. In deep. I’ve had girlfriends before, and I recognize the signs.

Her eyelashes flutter and her nose crinkles. Those long legs straighten and stretch. The movement caresses my needy dick.

I’d like to wake up like this every single day. Yet another sign.

Christ. Knox worried about me making it awkward for Sloane on his so-called family holidays. What about for me? For the rest of my life, when I see her gorgeous, lean legs, I’ll remember how they feel pressed against me in bed. I’ll remember how tight her pussy is. How she has to stretch to take all of me, and how fucking good it feels when she does.

If I were to run into her in the future with some punk brainiac on her arm, I’d be the one stumbling over myself. Bashing down the desire to strangle any fuckwad with her. It’s not a good thought. But it’s definitely in the realm of realistic because I can be one jealous bastard. Jealousy isn’t an emotion I enjoy. The insecurity that drives it isn’t a good look, and it’s one I do my best to avoid.

Her hips undulate slowly, and the movement feels glorious.

“Do you always wake up like this?” I hear the smile in her words as I nibble her earlobe and my hand wanders along her torso to cup her breast and tease her responsive nipple.

“With you, I’d say chances are good that’s a yes.”

“I’m sore.” She says it softly and with great thought.

“So am I.” I press a kiss to the back of her head and on the side of her throat. “And I need to go for a run. We’ve got a lot to get done?—”

She twists on the bed, but that’s not what stops me. It’s her fingers wrapped around me. Her firm grip makes it hard to swallow. Hard to think.

And then her mouth. Holy fuck.

I roll onto my back and scoop up as much of her hair as I can, moving it out of her way, both out of care for her and as a totally selfish fucking measure because I want to watch.

She cups my balls and massages them as her hot mouth moves up and down my shaft, alternating circling her tongue around my tip and licking me up and down. Blood leaves my brain when she takes me wholly in her mouth. She can’t take all of me, but what she can’t take, she keeps in a firm, studied grip. And when I say studied, I mean it’s like she’s watching my every reaction, learning what I like, what I don’t, and adjusting as she goes.

“Babe. That’s incredible. You’d better… I’m gonna…” I tug on her hair, warning her. She doubles down, taking me deeper, and that’s it. Game over. It’s all she wrote.

I’m spasming in her mouth, hips gently thrusting, draining every bit of yet another mind-blowing release.

She swallows some, but I continue, and there’s a milky white mess all over my abdomen. I pull her up to me, intent on giving her a thankful, sloppy kiss, but she pushes away, wiping at her messy mouth.

“That’s kind of gross,” she says. Her nose wrinkles, and then she’s gone.

“Sorry about that.” I did kind of warn her.

I watch her naked, gorgeous backside plod into the bathroom. I should get up and clean myself, but I’m too light-headed. Too out of breath. Too overcome.

I hear the toilet flush, then the sink, and force my legs over the bed. When she exits, I point at the bed.

“Get back in that bed.”

“Aren’t you up?” she asks as I place a hand on the bathroom doorknob.

“I will be.” I nod in agreement. “But after that, I want some morning minutes with you. Just holding you before the day begins.” I pause and wait. Her gaze is on the floor. “Sloane, can you give me that? Five minutes. Fresh breath. A start to the day holding each other?”

“You were…” Her skin’s flushed, and maybe she’s a little perturbed, but she waves a hand at me and says, “Go. Five minutes.”

After taking care of all the things—cleaning myself, brushing my teeth and taking a whiz—I return, naked, to the bed. She has a sheet pulled up to her armpits, and she’s lying back on a pillow, watching the television. It’s on mute, but it’s a news station, the BBC, I think, and there’s a scroll along the bottom of the screen that she’s reading. It’s an announcement about a new drug being approved by the FDA.

I climb in beside her and pull her to me.

“We’re going to have a busy day today.” Yes, it’s stating the obvious, but we’ve got to pass the awkward to get back into a cuddly groove somehow. “Erik said you’re going to D.C.?” She nods, curling into me, and I know this is what we need. A little more time. “What’s in D.C.?”

“Langley. I lived in D.C. briefly. I’ll stay with a friend. Handle some things. Once your team clears it, I’ll reach out to Origins and explain what happened so I can get my job back. Or, if you’re right and they’re somehow involved, I’ll look for a new job.”

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