“You don’t have any obligation—”
“But I might like to meet him.” His claim sliced through the middle of me, stilling the words on my tongue, and the only thing I could do was give him a trembling bob of my head that was spinning with so many things it’d become a blur of dread.
Would he want to become a part of Kayden’s life?
Try to get custody?
Change everything that we knew?
And would it be better for Kayden if he did?
Was I being selfish by wanting to protect what we had, this life that we’d built? Selfish because this was Kayden’s father and he had a right, even if I didn’t want him to have it?
God, I was getting ahead of myself, but I didn’t know how to stop the spiral.
Trey stood and dug a five out of his wallet for the tea he hadn’t even taken a sip of.
“That’s not necessary.” It was hoarse.
He shrugged a shoulder as he studied me. “Thanks for being honest with me. I didn’t know what I was going to find when I came in here. Good to know you’re just as sweet as you were that night.”
Disquiet gusted, and I couldn’t say anything else as he ambled out. The second he disappeared, I turned, raced into my office, and slammed the door shut.
I covered my mouth with my hand, but it wasn’t enough to silence the cry that erupted.
FORTY-ONE
RYDER
It was after nine by the time I pulled my bike up in front of my mother’s old house. My childhood home. Warm lights glowed from the windows, and a comfort hit me like none other. Eagerness and anticipation bubbled in my blood, thinking about Dakota waiting inside.
I couldn’t wait to get to her.
I’d had a couple actual legitimate meetings, and the joy and pride I found in my work thudded through me in a beat of satisfaction, while the rest of me had wanted to say fuck it all and get to her as fast as I could. Bummed that Kayden would already be down for the night but also excited that meant I had Dakota to myself.
I figured if I felt this way every day of my life, then things weren’t going to turn out so bad.
I hurried up the walkway and put my key in the lock, calling out, “Honey, I’m home,” as I opened the door.
Then the tease was replaced with a loud groan when I was hit with the smells that permeated the walls.
Sugar and vanilla and coconut, a doughy heaven that glided through the room and had my nose in the air following the scent.
And my heart got all fucked up again when I hit the doorway to the kitchen and found Dakota at the counter frosting some kind of giant cookies.
Brown hair twisted up in a messy knot and wearing a black baggy sweatshirt with the neck cut out that draped off one shoulder.
Matching sleep shorts.
Her legs and feet bare.
Her plump lips shiny and those cinnamon eyes glinting when she looked at me where I hovered at the archway.
My mouth watered, and it wasn’t just from the cookies she was baking.
“What are you doing in here?” It was a rumble of greed.
The faintest smile hitched at the edge of her mouth, though it was leaden with something that tugged at my spirit. That place that wanted to forever protect her from anything or anyone that would threaten to do her harm.
“What does it look like I’m doing? Baking.”
Any glimpse of dejection evaporated when she lifted the knife and licked the white frosting from the tip.
My dick jumped in my jeans, and I strolled in, so casual, while the house quivered around us.
Like it was subject to the same gravity.
The awareness that spun, whirring and whipping up a storm of need that cracked in the air.
A frisson that flickered and leapt with each step that I took.
I edged up behind her, slipped my arms around her waist, and pressed my lips to the exposed skin at her neck. “The way it makes me feel to find you in my kitchen like this.”
Goosebumps lifted in the spot where I mumbled the words.
“And what does it make you feel like?” Her question was raspy.
I tightened my hold, my lips riding up her neck in the barest kiss until I was murmuring in her ear, “Like I just stumbled into paradise. Heaven. Except it’s more than that, Dakota. It’s like I’m coming home for the first time after I’ve been missing for an eternity.”
A soft gasp whispered from her mouth, and she leaned into my hold.
“That’s what you are, Cookie. Home. You’ve always been my safe place. The place my heart was called to. The only place I wanted to be. Sitting in that tree with you.”
She let go of the smallest whimper as she admitted, “I never could wait to get out there to find you.”
Pressing my nose into her hair, I inhaled. “It’s like you always knew I was there. Enticing me with those treats and hypnotizing me with this body.”
“I loved the sound you would make when you took your first bite. The way your eyes would close like you were savoring the best thing you’d ever tasted.”
Shifting around in my arms, she picked up a cookie and brought it to my mouth.
I kept my eyes on hers as I took a bite, but then they were rolling back in my head as the flavors hit my tongue. Sugar and vanilla. White chocolate and coconut. And I was sure I was looking so much the same as I did then because I moaned, overcome with the taste.
Then I opened my eyes to find hers locked on my mouth.
“Ecstasy,” I told her. “Like I was getting a taste of what I really wanted, all while thinking I would forever be craving you.”
She lifted the cookie to my mouth again, and I chewed while she whispered, “And now that you have me, I hope you never get your fill.”
“Never, Cookie. I could never get enough of you.”
Energy crackled, so intense it lifted the hairs on my arms, my guts a tangle of want as I pinned her back to the counter. I propped myself up with one hand and leaned in close. I pushed my other hand between her legs so I could cup her center over her sleep shorts.
Dakota gasped, and her thighs trembled.
“Are you still soaked for me?”
Her nod was erratic, and she curled her fingers into my shirt, gripping it for support, her knees nearly buckling as I pressed my hand harder against her heat.
“You told me to be ready for you,” she breathed.
“Thought I was going to lose my mind thinking about getting home, but it gave me plenty of time to dream up what I want to do to you.”
I sent her a smirk as I dipped my fingers into the bowl of frosting then pressed them deep into her mouth.
She moaned around my fingers, the reverberation riding up my arm and taking hold of every cell in my body.
Each of them coming alive.
“Suck, sweet girl.”
She did, those eyes big and bright but with a challenge in them that sent lust scattering through my being. “Is that what you think? That I’m sweet? Because I’m going to need you not to be gentle with me tonight. Not when I need you in a way I’ve never needed you before.”
FORTY-TWO
DAKOTA
I wondered if I even knew what I was asking for with the way those gunmetal eyes both dimmed in possession and flashed in a lightning bolt of lust.
The only thing I knew was I needed to feel him.
Feel him everywhere.
Taking me.
Owning me.
I needed to be stripped bare, pared down to the place that was only Ryder and me. Desperate hands and frantic bodies. Where he’d strip me of the new weight that now rested on my shoulders.
I just needed…this.
A distraction.
A reprieve.
A moment to remind me that everything would be okay. We were going to make it through this. We had each other.
Only a surprised yelp got free when he suddenly leaned down and tossed me over his shoulder.
“Ryder,” I rasped, fingers scraping into his back, half terrified I was going to fall and the other mortified that he thought he could carry me like this. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Carrying my woman to my bed, where she belongs.”