Page 81 of Castleton Hearts Boxed Set

“Sexy sundaes,” she said, putting whipped cream on hers.

“What makes them sexy?” I asked.

“They’re sexy because I’m having them with you and you’re sexy.”

My face went red, and I almost dropped the sundae dish.

“You’re so cute,” Esme said, putting down her bowl. “I could just eat you up.”

She put her hands on my waist and helped me hop up on the counter, leaning in to kiss me.

“You ate me this morning.”

“Mmmm, please remind me,” she said, nipping at my lower lip.

The ice cream was forgotten as we kissed. Esme was much sweeter anyway.

“Now it’s my turn to have you for dessert,” I said, pushing her back toward the bedroom.

“Oh is it?” she asked, giving me a coy smile.

“Yes.”

* * *

“I thinkwe left the ice cream on the counter,” Esme said a while later after I’d made her come twice.

“Oh well,” I said. “The sacrifice was worth it.”

Esme sat up and listened. “It’s too quiet.”

Oh no.

She bolted out of bed and ran into the kitchen to find Stormy attempting to get to the ice cream container. Thankfully, she hadn’t been able to reach it, because I didn’t think ice cream was good for dogs.

“Oops,” I said, putting the ice cream in the trash.

“No harm done. We just need to be more careful. At least she didn’t go for the brownies, or we would be off to the emergency vet right now.”

Stormy looked at both of us with wide, innocent eyes.

“I’m not buying it,” Esme said to Stormy.

“We should probably clean up anyway,” I said, and we put our robes on before going back to deal with the mess and making sure the rest of the house didn’t have anything else that Stormy could get into. The house was already Potato-proof, but it never hurt to make sure.

“We still have brownies,” I said, so we brought those to the couch and cuddled while watching a few episodes of an old show from the 90s.

Everything was almost perfect. I had the girl I was falling in love with in my arms, the most amazing girl that I couldn’t even believe had looked at me, let alone gotten naked and shared so much with me. My cat had a playmate, my bills were paid, and my mom wasn’t contacting me to fix a crisis.

If it weren’t for the Wyatt bullshit, my world would be ideal.

But if I hadn’t decided to get back at Wyatt, would I have even approached Esme? I didn’t know the answer to that question, and I didn’t like that I didn’t know.

* * *

“I’m soglad your ex made me bring you that drink,” Esme said later as we lay in bed together. Neither of us wanted to go to sleep. I couldn’t stop running my hands through her hair.

“Can you not remind me of him?” I asked. “Sorry, that was harsh. But I don’t want to think about him.”

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