Sweet as Honey (Aster Valley 2)

Sam’s face turned stormy. “And what would his motivation be?”

Dirk tried to reassure us. “Property owners usually have several reasons to set their own property on fire, but insurance fraud is one of the most common. Regardless, it’s standard procedure to investigate the owner, as I’m sure you can imagine. We need this information for our reports. It doesn’t make you a suspect for us to ask these questions.”

Gail turned to Sam with her pencil poised over her notebook. “And you? Where did you go when you left Mr. Sweet?”

“I drove back to Rockley Lodge where I’m staying with friends.” He gave them the address of the property.

Gail continued. “So you had to drive through town? Did you notice anything at the shop?”

Sam shook his head. “No. I didn’t even think to look. I was lost in thought. Sorry.”

She made a hum of disapproval as if she didn’t believe him or she found him irresponsible. For some reason it made me want to laugh, as if he should have been paying close attention to a particular storefront on a midnight drive through town.

“Is that all?” I asked.

“For now,” Dirk said, standing up. “Hopefully you’ll be around if we have more questions.”

“Of course. I live here. Where would I go now that I have a laundry list of extra work that needs to be done?”

I stood up and led them to the front door before closing and locking it behind them and letting out a deep breath.

“Do you want me to get out of your hair?”

I turned around to see Sam standing in the kitchen doorway, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“Not only no, but heck no,” I said. “I was hoping we could get back in bed.”

Sam’s grin was slow and devastating. “I like the way you think, Mr. Sweet.”

I let go of the rest of the residual stress from talking to the fire investigators and led the man to my bedroom. I had high hopes and big plans. There was going to be naked skin and questing tongues, hard dicks and happy trails. There was going to be a textbook full of new experiences for me in bed with the sexiest man I’d ever met.

Ten seconds after I slid between the cool sheets, I fell dead asleep.

I woke up sometime later to a large erection nudging my ass. Sam’s mouth was trailing kisses along the back of my neck, and his hands had found their way under my shirt. One spread wide over my lower belly, and the other softly brushed one of my nipples.

I let out a long groan of approval without thinking, and it was answered by Sam’s low chuckle.

His hands—and my body’s response to his touch—made me feel powerful. Sexual. I pressed my hips back against his erection.

“You feel so fucking good,” Sam murmured behind my ear.

“That’s an accurate statement,” I teased, noticing my voice was rough from sleep. “Can’t remember the last time I felt this good.”

He turned me onto my back and propped himself above me. “What can I do to make you feel even better?”

“Take off your clothes. Take off my clothes. Kiss me.”

Within moments we were naked and rolling around the bed, kissing like the end of the world was coming. Sam’s hands were everywhere—grabbing my ass, brushing my hair out of the way, gripping my chin to kiss me deeper. I humped against him desperately, too far gone to even feel self-conscious about it.

I wanted him. And feeling the evidence of his own desire made me dizzy with excitement. I’d never felt this way before. It was energizing and empowering, about as far away from scary and intimidating as one could get. I’d never in a million years expected I’d feel comfortable in bed with someone like Sam Rigby. His serious, stoic face and his wide, muscular shoulders were a combination that usually rang warning bells.

But not this time.

This time I wanted more. So much more.

I wrapped my legs around his hips and arched up into him. I wanted to come, and I wanted to bring him with me.

“You have lube, baby?” he murmured against my mouth.

My stomach jittered with nerves. “Mmhm. In here.” I gestured to the drawer next to the bed, forgetting that the drawer with the lube also had a zillion toys in it. A wide swath of afternoon sunlight lit the side table up like a beacon.

As soon as Sam opened the drawer, I gasped and lurched for it to try and hide what was inside. Sam’s arms came around me to keep me from dive-bombing the bedside table.

“Easy, easy. What’s… oh. Ohhh. What have we here?” Sam’s voice held amusement, and it was enough for me to drop my head and squeeze my eyes closed in embarrassment.

“Can we just… pretend you didn’t see that?”