“Slow,” she repeated.

“Yes. Summer, I don’t know how you feel about me. Shit, I don’t even know if you have any deeper feelings for me, but if you do, I’m willing to date, to take it slow, and we’ll see what happens. We don’t have to rush into this.”

“How could you possibly think I don’t have feelings for you?” she asked.

My chest tightened. “You do?”

“Of course I do. I… oh god, is this really happening? Are you sure?”

“Yes. Summer. I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”

“I’ve been infatuated with you since we were kids. I’ve dreamed about you. I’ve wanted you for as long as I can remember,” she whispered. “But that doesn’t mean I—”

“Do you want to give this a chance?” I asked, taking her other hand now. I lifted one and then the other to my mouth and brushed kisses across the backs of them. “Do you want to start slow and see where it goes?”

Her perfect, plush lips parted. “Yes,” she said.

Yes. What a fucking golden word.

I drew her into my arms and pressed a kiss to her lips.

Summer dragged her fingers through my hair and clutched handfuls of it, pulling gently. “Oh god,” she whispered against my lips. “Oh my god, I missed this. You have no idea.”

“Oh, I think I do.” My hands worked over her shoulders, my thumbs dragging against her skin. She wore a camisole and PJ shorts. I cupped her breasts, her nipples hard against the fabric, and I forced myself not to lose it all. “I’ve missed you,” I said. “And I love you.”

She hesitated. Maybe she wasn’t ready to say it yet. And that was fine. A time would come when she was ready, and that day would be fucking perfect.

“I love you too,” she whispered.

“Perfect.” I lifted her off the sofa and carried her through to her tiny bedroom. She had a double bed not a queen- or king-sized, and I lowered her onto it, carefully.

Her sparkling green eyes focused on me and nothing else. I was her whole world for tonight, hopefully for forever, and she was mine.

“Matt,” she said. “Matt, come here.”

I took another second to admire her—the curves of her body, the rise and fall of her chest, the press of her breasts against that shirt. I was about to worship every part of her and show her just how much I’d missed her.

I took off her PJ shorts and found her naked underneath, her pussy still neatly shaven and pink. “Jesus, there you are. Oh my god.”

Her fingers snaked down between her lips, and she parted them, flashing me a view of what I’d been missing.

I got on my knees at the edge of the bed, grabbed her by the legs, and dragged her toward me. She let out a yelp of joy or pleasure or I didn’t know what yet, but it would be the first yelp of many.

Her pussy was the temptation I’d always needed, and I bent over her and kissed her clit gently.

Summer quivered and cried out, seeking purchase with her feet.

“Hold still,” I commanded.

She barely obeyed. She couldn’t. Her body writhed. She was alive for me as she’d been in the Bahamas. Except now, we were both uninhibited. There was no need to hide or pretend.

I suckled on her clit and pressed two fingers inside her pussy, working her as hard as I dared, bringing her closer and closer to the edge. Tasting her brought me so much damn pleasure I could barely think straight.

I withdrew my fingers and tongue-fucked her, slurping up those pussy juices and spreading them over her clit then back down to her hole.

Her climax came fast, and she soared over the edge, gasping and moaning, and pummeling the bed with her fists out of sheer ecstasy.

I blew on her clit as she came down from the peak, and then I set to work again.

“Wh–what are you doing?” she asked, tugging on my hair. “I just came.”

“And now you’re going to come again. I’m going to show you how much I love you, Summer.”

“But I want you inside me.”

“Soon.”

I moved my tongue over her again, scooping and sucking, tasting, and loving every minute of it. Her responses took me to fucking paradise. Every gasp and shake brought me closer to the edge of madness.

Christ, if this carried on, I wouldn’t last two seconds once I actually got inside her.

That wouldn’t matter as much if I’d given her as many orgasms as her body could take.

I placed my entire mouth over her clit and sucked, tickling her with my tongue, but keeping the pressure of my fingers inside her.

“I’m going to come. Oh my god, I’m going to come. I’m going to come. I can’t—” Summer arched her back and cried out, grabbing for me this time. She stared at me, her eyes glazing over and her body tightening and releasing around me, over and over again.