Page 52 of The Inevitable Us

I graze her lips with my own, only wanting to make her feel better. “I never thought I’d hear you say that,” she says in the darkened room.

“I never thought for one moment, once I realized you were mine, that it would be any other way,” I confessed.

“When?” she asks. “You fought it until I was in Knoxville….”

“After the woods. I knew then that we just…were meant to be. I’d almost lost you. Didn’t want to risk that happening again. So I started my business so I could take care of us and got everything worked out so we could be here, thinking you wanted to be in Knoxville. I figured it would be easier for us here. Our own space. It was all so new to me.

“I’ve never told another woman ‘I love you’,” I confess.

She draws little patterns on my pecs with her fingers. “Would we have ended up together if we were still in Nashville?” she asks.

“Yes,” I answered curtly. “We just wouldn’t have had any chance of privacy. I’d still have left your father’s employ, and we’d just be at my apartment instead of the ranch to sleep.”

She tosses and turns for another ten minutes before I pull her to sleep on my chest, bury my nose in her hair, and softly tell her, “We’d be together no matter what, Rosalie. If we lived in different states or even countries. Even if I’d never gone to work for Ethan. No matter what, we’d have found our way to one another.”

Threedayslater,BabyGirl is on her tablet at the kitchen table, having just made supper for us.

When I walk past the screen, I see Tessa’s face tense and worried.

I try to give them some space but stand near Rosalie to comfort her since they’recommunicating loudlyagain.

Tessa sees my hand go to Rosalie’s back to rub her shoulder with my palm to comfort her.

Tessa’s face goes blank on the tablet screen. “Hello, Sawyer,” she says in greeting.

“Hello, Tessa. How are you?” I ask her, leaning in slightly so she can see my face. “I’ll go make you a plate, Baby Girl. I’ll talk to you later.” I walk away, stalling for a few minutes to give them a little time to finish talking before bringing a plate of food to Rosalie.

There is some maternal nagging and some frustrated huffs, but the sounds from the speakers are love.

Chapter twenty-six

Sawyer

Theancientstairsofthe cottage creek at one in the morning and then I hear the sound of Rosalie shuffling into the kitchen.

I normally always keep the office door closed, not wanting the others to feel they can enter that space on the off chance Rosalie comes home unexpectedly. But Ranger had come to the door and scratched, asking to be let out. I’d left the office door cracked for a few minutes for him to wander in and out since Rushton isn’t in the building, nor is he expected back any time soon.

Taylee is nocturnal these days, and Rushton is in the main house overseeing some preparations for our trip. I’m supposed to be plotting out security logistics. Instead, I’m watching Rosalie lean over the granite counter, wiping it down. Her lace white panties are poking out from underneath the tank top she wore to bed as she cleans, the shorts conspicuously missing. I feel an erection grow as I watch her pert breasts press against the cool granite. I wonder if it made her nipples hard.

I lean back in the chair to get a better view as she cleans and see her entire ass exposed to me when she crouches down to wipe off the cabinet, making slow, deliberate movements.

After rearranging my now painfully hard dick, I glance at Rosalie and then to the back door thinking for a moment before I check the camera feed to find Rushton happily occupied elsewhere by Taylee.

I lock the interior door behind myself and walk up quietly behind Rosalie. She has her earbuds in, listening to music while she cleans, making it even easier to sneak up on her. She feels me walking up behind her. She looks up, startled. “Need a bottle of water?” she asks.

“Nope. Need you, Baby Girl,” I murmur into her hair after coming up behind her. Wrapping my hands around her waist, I move my hands up to her breasts and find the nipples already pebbled at my touch.

“Why are you up?” I ask before moving her hair away from her neck and running my nose down its length, taking in her scent.

“Can’t sleep. Thought I’d deep clean the kitchen to wear myself out,” she says with a frustrated sigh before pressing her body into mine. I love it when she does that. Our bodies fit perfectly together.

I move my hand to her right ass cheek, encircling it with my hand. “You were putting on quite a show again, Rosalie. Saw the open door, did you?”

Her body freezes.Ha, busted. Little tease.

“You’re lucky we’re alone, Rosalie,” I threaten again as my hands go up her tank top and cup both breasts, massaging them. I start to lick and suck on the crook of her neck, pressing my erection into her ass. At the thought of Rushton seeing her like this, I suck harder, marking her as mine.

“I heard Rushton leave,” she confesses, panting.

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