Page 90 of After All

Scott felt his eyebrows slam together. “No.”

“Yes.” She lifted her chin. “You can be my ICE, but clogged gutters and hangnails are not emergencies.”

“Fine,” he blew out a breath. “But stay and…not need mehere.”

She shook her head. “I need to spend some time alone.”

“No you don’t. It’s—”

“We’ve done the two weeks,” she interrupted. “We said we’d do this thing where I try to seduce you and you show me what a real relationship is like for two weeks.”

He gritted his teeth. They had said that. “You don’t have to leave.”

“I do. We made an agreement. Now we need to see where we want to go next.”

“I know exactly where I want to go next,” he practically growled. “I want you. Here. With me. For good.”

Her expression softened for a moment, and he could see in her eyes that she wanted to give in. But she stiffened her spine and said, “We’ll talk when you get back.”

Fuck.

He would always do two things—whatever made Peyton happy and whatever he said he would do. They had said two weeks. That had been the testing period. So he had to let her go. At least temporarily.

That need to do something coiled tighter in his gut. He wanted to keep her here, to make her stay, to bind her to him somehow. What if she realized she reallydidn’tneed him? What if there were no more emergencies? What if there was nothing for him to save her from? Wouldshewanthimthen?

“What if I don’t go?” he asked stubbornly. “You move back to your place and we take some time to think about what we want. But I stay here while we do it?”

“Those girls need you, Scott. I know it kills you a little that you can’t save them all in one fell swoop, but every single one you do save is worth it.”

His heart squeezed. Dammit.

“And as a girl who you’ve fixed a lot of things for, let me tell you, seeing you come through the door, all big and bad and determined to right every wrong, is something those girls deserve to see.”

Love and need and desire pulsed through him with her words. She believed in his work. She could help him see the good in the midst of the horrible crap. And shehadto be here when he got home. She had to be. Coming home to her was what would hold him together for the next few weeks.

He reached out and circled her wrist with his fingers, pulling her close, just needing tofeelher. She stepped between his knees and reached up and ran her hand over his hair, like he so often did to her.

It was that action that broke the final wall that was holding back the completely, almost irrationally, possessive part of him that needed to make herhisbefore he left.

He came to his feet, grasped her hips and lifted her up onto the table in one fluid movement. He stripped her T-shirt over her head and lowered his mouth to take hers in a hot, deep kiss.

As his tongue stroked firmly, possessively along hers, he undid her bra, tossing it to the floor, and cupped her breasts, plucking and teasing the nipples until she was moaning into his mouth and wiggling on the tabletop.

He released her lips only so he could say firmly, “Take your pants off.”

“What are you doing?” she asked, as he reached past her to set her computer on the chair and tossing his bills and paperwork to the floor. “I thought we were kind of breaking up.”

The fuck if they were. “I’m ruining you for your vibrator too,” he told her. He kissed her again, laying her back on the table. He hooked his thumbs in the waistband of her leggings, pulling them and her panties down her legs and dropping them on the floor.

With her totally naked and laid out on the table, he straightened and reached for the bottle of maple syrup they hadn’t put away that morning.

Her eyes widened as he popped the lid. His gaze locked on hers, he tipped the bottle, drizzling the amber liquid over her stomach and then lower. She gasped as the syrup slid between her legs. Scott set the bottle to the side, parted her knees, and lowered his head, licking and sucking. She came before he’d even gotten it all lapped up, but he kept going, and after her second orgasm, finally pulled her ass to the edge of the table.

He dug a condom from his pocket and lowered his fly. He handed the foil packet to her. Without a word, she tore it open and reached for him. He gritted his teeth as she stroked him a few times before rolling the protection on.

“Even if this is all you ever need me for again,” he said. “Iwillgive you this. Whenever you want it. Over and over. As often as you’ll let me.”

“Scott.” But that was all she said as he slid deep a moment later.

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