July (Calendar Girl #7)

“Sweetheart. You, me…it’s paradise. From here on out, no matter where you go, what you have to do for the rest of the year, this paradise will be waiting for you with open arms.”


Paradise. Wes did not lie. Our time together, the month we had, the followup in Chicago, all the calls, texts, and then some were all part of the bundle. A place I was able to go where I could be me, live life, be happy.

“And rule four?” The words came out in breathless veneration. This was it, the ultimate question. Over six months ago, we stood, just like this, and he set the rules in stone. Rule number four was never fall in love. My heart was in my throat. I arched like a cat, his hands squeezed and caressed each nip with a reverence I hadn’t felt in too long. Still, he didn’t answer. Worry, panic, and longing built within my soul and I spun around and clutched him around the neck, fingers tugging on his hair, forcing his face down to mine. His eyes were so green, I gasped at the sheer beauty and grace that was Weston Channing.

An adoring smile filled his features, and I held tight. “Fuck rule four. I broke that rule six months ago when I fell in love with you.”

Tears filled my eyes, so much so that he was blurry. I swallowed reflexively around the knot in my throat. “Wes, I…”

“I know, sweetheart. Something changed in you. From my visit in March, to our calls, texts, the shit with Gi—“ I placed a finger over his pouty lips I wanted to gobble up and burn with repeated tugs and blistering kisses; the last thing I wanted to hear from that sexy-as-fuck mouth was her name spoken here and now, when I was about to confess my love for him.

“Not now, not when it’s you and me.” My voice shook.

He nodded. “Tell me what I want to hear, Mia. What I need to hear. I deserve it.” His voice demanded nothing but honesty.

Want. Need. Deserve.

And he did. All of those things were true and finally, after six months of waffling, trying to deny it, wanting to deny it, I let it all go. For the first time in my life I was going to take something for me. Something good, kind, and all mine.

My paradise.

Looking into his bottomless green eyes, running my fingers through the dirty blond layers of his just-fucked hair, and stroking my lips along his stubbled jaw, I leaned close enough so that no matter how quietly I said it, he’d hear it.

“I love you, Wes.”

His arms tightened painfully around my mostly naked form as he let the declaration sink in. I could feel the tension pumping off him in powerful bursts of energy. “Not going to let you go this time,” his words came out harsh, though I knew the gruffness was driven by the intense feeling behind them.

“I love you,” I kissed his cheek, and his arms loosened a bit.

“I love you,” I kissed his eyebrows, and he sighed.

“I love you.” I kissed his lips, and he opened.



Within seconds, my back hit the bed and his body hovered over mine. “You love me?” He needed me to admit it, eye-to-eye, heart-to-heart.

“I do.”

His entire face broke out into an earth-shattering, gorgeous smile. “I’m going to love you so hard, sweetheart. After tonight baby, you might not be able to walk.”

I grinned and squealed as he ripped my panties off and latched onto a nipple. Once he had me squirming and panting, almost coming from his ministrations to my breast he kissed his way down my body.

“Open up those long legs, baby. Spread them wide. I’m about to taste paradise.”

I complied, opening my thighs, revealing everything to him. My love, my body—proving in that moment that it was all his for the taking.

His eyes gleamed, and he ran his fingers through my sex. “So slippery. I love how you respond to me. How your body reacts, making it easy for me to take you. First though, I need a sip of your honey. I’ve been dreaming about putting my mouth on you, sucking you dry and starting all over again. Grip the sheets, sweetheart, because I’m fucking parched.”

“Filthy bastard,” I said before he spread me wide, opened the petals of my sex with his thumbs and laid his mouth over me. He made a sound that was a cross between a groan and a moan, and then his tongue sank deep. So fucking deep. His hands wrapped around my ass, and he tilted my hips up to his face going all in. I howled, holding fast to the sheets and let him take me there. I think it took two and a half seconds and I was coming all over his face. He made carnal noises like an animal feasting before he sat up, licked his lips and wiped his mouth on his forearm. He centered his cock and pushed in, ramming to the root.

I jolted, my body strung as tight as a drum from the first orgasm and on its way to another. “Jesus, Wes. You’ll be my end,” I said breathlessly, losing cognitive ability as he thrust in and out. I wrapped my legs around his hips.

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