Джей Крауновер - Built

“Just admit that neither one of us is single at the moment, Say. That’s all I want to hear.”

She gave a breathy little sigh and closed her eyes. “Neither one of us is single, Zeb.”

It was a small victory, but one I would gladly take, and since I was gaining ground I figured I would go for the gusto. “And since neither one of us is single and neither one of us is fucking anyone else, how about we work something out so that I don’t have to buy stock in Trojan?”

That startled a laugh out of her and I wanted to pound on my chest in primitive pride. She cuddled back into me and her hair slithered all around me in an erotic caress that had my dick tightening up and twitching underneath her.

“I have an IUD, so we’re good.” She said it so offhandedly, so blasé like she hadn’t just given me the keys to the only kingdom I wanted to get inside without a suit of armor for protection.

Her declaration made me and my impatient cock very happy. I slipped my hands all the way under the covers and between her legs. She jolted a little and peered up at me curiously as I dipped my fingers inside her soft opening. She wasn’t protesting, but she wasn’t spreading her legs to let me in any farther either.

“Really?” She sounded dumbfounded. I had been all over her for hours, but she just gave me the green light to go in bare and that was like dropping a lit match into a puddle of kerosene.

I rolled her under me for the second time that night and rubbed my aching dick between her plump folds until I felt them start to warm up and her body start to react to the gentle ministrations.

“You just told me I could have you raw, uncovered, and you didn’t think that meant I was going in? I told you, Say . . . I want inside and I want to leave parts of myself there so you can’t shake me loose.”

Her mouth rounded in a little “oh” and her hands curled around my arms as I sank into her heat and let her burn all along me. It was sweet as heaven and hot as hell. It was everything and more. It was a place that was all mine and that I was never going to let anyone else anywhere near.

I started to move, slower, more deliberate than I usually did when I was inside of her. I wanted to savor every drag, every pull of flesh against flesh. I wanted to memorize every squeeze, every tiny tremble of pleasure. I wanted to remember every pulse and throb as I retreated and invaded over and over again. I wanted to leave a mark and I wanted to leave with marks of my own, our straining bodies imprinted on one another and linked in intimate ways no one else could see.

This wasn’t me fucking her or her fucking me, this was making love. This was coming together. This was the kind of sex that made lovers fall in love. This was the kind of sex that neither one of us was going to be able to live without once we tasted how intense and profound it could be.

I came before she did this time . . . I mean, give a guy a break. I was inside her with nothing between us, she felt like she was made just for me, and I had ridden her hard and merciless before this bout of lazy lovemaking. She whimpered when I filled her in a hot rush and I watched as she turned her head to the side and squeezed her eyes shut. There was a lot of emotion welling up there and I knew it was easier for her to hide from it than to face it.

I grabbed her chin in my hand and forced her to look at me as I rocked into her one last time with a languid glide of my hips. “Sayer . . .” Just her name. That was all it took. Her name spoken like it was everything to me because it was. She broke apart under me in rippling waves.

I knew she was going to be spent both physically and emotionally after she came down from her orgasm, so I wrapped her in my arms and turned to the side so that her back was to my front and I was surrounding her.

I kissed her on the back of the head and muttered a soft “thank you.” What else was there to say? What she had given me felt like a gift.

She breathed out and my heart kicked hard when she gently put her hand over the top of mine where it was possessively curled around one of her breasts.

“Tell Hyde, Zeb. You’re going to be an amazing father and he deserves every minute of that.”

We were both quiet after that and eventually I felt her go lax and knew she was asleep. All I could think while I held her was that there was no falling in love with this woman, there was only being in love with her. She had owned me from the very start; now I just needed her to take possession and keep me forever.

“YOU ARE SUCH a coward.” I threw a handful of the little pellets I bought Hyde to feed the giraffes with at Beryl and laughed when she smacked my arm in retaliation. Fall was rushing headlong into the colder winter weather, so I had a heavy canvas coat on over my shirt and barely felt the blow.

“I’m not the one with the secret boyfriend that’s too afraid to introduce him to the family.” I watched as Joss took Hyde’s hand and practically dragged him across the walkway toward where the wolf enclosure was. It wasn’t the first time my niece had been to the big city zoo in the center of City Park, but it was Hyde’s. His little face was alight with wonder and he couldn’t seem to take it all in as Joss delighted in showing him all her favorite animals. Both the kids were bundled up, and even though he was five years younger than her, Hyde was almost as tall as my energetic niece. He really did take right after me.

Beryl snorted and tapped her fingers on the white Starbucks cup she clutched in her hands. “Wes actually really wants to meet you and Mom. He sort of gave me an ultimatum the other day.”

I lifted an eyebrow at her and chuckled as Hyde pressed his nose against the glass so he could get a better look at the animals. Everything he did tugged at my heart and made me even more anxious about what his reaction was going to be when I told him the truth.

“What kind of ultimatum?”

“He told me that he wasn’t going to be a dirty secret anymore, that if he was going to be part of my life, he deserved the chance to know the other people that love me as much as he did. I sort of freaked out and told him it was over.”

I sighed and cut her a sideways look. “You didn’t really?”

She nodded and looked up at me. “I did.” She sniffed a little and I reached out to put an arm around her shoulders.

“I’m sorry. I know you liked him.”

She laughed and shook her head.

“I love him. I was going to call and tell him that I made a mistake and ask him to forgive me when Mom called and said she couldn’t wait for brunch on Sunday and that she was so excited to finally meet Wes. The stubborn bastard called her and ratted me out and outmaneuvered me. He worked around all my fears and got himself exactly where he wanted to be.”

I had to admire the man’s persistence. “Well, I can’t wait to meet him, then.”

She nudged me in the ribs with her elbow. “It’s the same Sunday you’re bringing Hyde to meet Mom, so hopefully she’ll be distracted by his adorable face and not embarrass me too much.”

I wiggled my eyebrows at her. “Don’t worry, sis, I can embarrass you enough for the both of us.” My mother had been chomping at the bit to get her hands on the little guy, but I still wasn’t a hundred percent sure how to describe all the new adults that were going to be a part of his life to him. I kind of wanted to wait until he knew I was his dad before I broke the news that he also had a grandma who was dying to smother him in love and affection. Holding her off while I made sure Hyde was ready had been a Herculean feat.

This time her nudge almost knocked me over, so I let her go and she pointed toward the kids with her cup.

“He loves you already. He’ll be fine when you tell him. You didn’t need to call me and Joss in for backup, though I’m so happy we finally got to meet him. Joss is obsessed with having a cousin now. If you don’t tell him he’s ours forever, she will. You know my kid and her mouth.”