Page 74 of After All

“I wish like hell I could pick you up and carry you into my bedroom.”

Yeah, she wished like hell he could do that too. “Well, the good stuff happensafterwe get to the bedroom,” she told him. “I assume you can handle everything once we’re there?”

His eyes darkened and he leaned in, his mouth nearly on hers. “I promise you, if I tell you to get on and ride me, you won’t know if it’s because my leg is hurting or because I just really want to see you on top, playing with your nipples and making yourself come on my cock.”

Peyton felt her panties begin to melt. But she concentrated on what he’d said—before the nipples and cock stuff. “Is your leg hurting?”

“I’m barely aware I have a leg.”

“Do you think this will hurt it?”

“I think that I don’t care and I promise that you won’t either.”

She blew out a short breath. “Scott—”

“Peyton, I fucking love that you’re all into taking care of me,” he said, shutting her up. “But here is how you can take care of me right now—take off your clothes, get on my bed, put your arms over your head, and don’t hold back one moan, request, demand or ‘oh my God, Scott, you’re the best I’ve ever had’. Got it?”

She swallowed hard. “Leg? What leg?”

“That’s my girl.”

Peyton felt her heart squeeze at that and gave him one last hard kiss. “Let’s do this thing.” Then she leaned back and pulled her shirt off over her head.

He gave a pained half laugh, half groan. “In the house, Trouble. Strip downin the house.”

She grinned. “Right. Okay.”

He stepped back and she slipped around him, heading for the door. She looked back when she didn’t feel or hear him right behind her. He was on his way across the lawn to his car.

“Come on, Big Shot.” She reached behind and unclasped her bra as she climbed the front steps of his porch.

“Gotta grab my cuffs.”

Peyton felt her body go soft. Handcuffed to his bed. Yes, please. And she wasn’t really the type to let someone take over like that. But Scott? Oh, yeah, no question. He’d used them on her on St. Patrick’s Day too, and that had been the hottest experience of her life. Now on his bed? With him able to do so much more than he could on the hood of his car in the dark? Peyton practically ran to the bedroom, praying that his leg wouldn’t keep him from some of the things she really hoped he’d do.

Chapter Eleven

Scott paused at his car, braced a hand on the hood and took a deep breath. Peyton was going to kill him. The moment he got her completely naked, in his bed, handcuffed to his headboard, it was very likely that his head—or his heart—was going to explode. So he needed a second.

He’d never felt lust like this before, but he knew why. Because it wasn’t just lust. He was falling for her.Hadfallen for her. Hard and deep.

And yeah, it was the freaking sticky notes that had sealed the deal. He’d liked her for a long time, he’d wanted her for what seemed like forever, he knew things about her that he suspected she didn’t even know about herself. But he hadn’t admitted that he was in love with her.

Until he saw the sticky note that saidnever a dill moment with youon the jar of dill pickles in his fridge. How was he supposed tonotlove a girl who would leave him a very bad pickle pun?

And then she was cleaning out his gutters? After letting him do the same at her house for years? Because she knew that he needed todothings for her. She’d been taking care of him, by letting him take care of her.

Scott scrubbed a hand over his face. And she was now going to let him handcuff her to his bed. Because yeah, he fuckingneededthat. He needed her completely into this, making this choice, trusting him, and knowing that he would take care of her.

Yeah,somethingwas going to explode.

He grabbed his cuffs out of his car, gripping them tightly as he started up the walk to the porch. He was feeling a hell of a lot better, stronger, had less pain, and was getting antsy to get out of his house. But getting out or going to work were not the first things he intended to do with his renewed strength.

His heart was pounding as he approached his bedroom door. He’d never been this jacked up for sex. The buildup here had been long and intense, but he didn’t remember being thisreadyfor someone.

Then he stepped through his bedroom door. And it was completely perfect.

Peyton was lying in the middle of his bed, bare naked, her hands already clutching the wooden slats above the pillows. Her clothes were strewn over the floor. She hadn’t even pulled the comforter down. And her going all in, all at once, was so typical that he felt his heart expand, almost painfully, and his grin stretch his mouth, even as his cock pulsed and ached.

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