When I pull back, she arches up to follow, so I know my job here is done.
Laurel is confused when instead of escalating things, I move off her and settle into my spot beside her. At this point, I know it will do me more good to leave her wanting than to fuck her, even if that’s what we both want in this moment.
“What’s your favorite thing to cook for dinner?” I ask her, wrapping my arm around her abdomen and tugging her close.
“My favorite thing to cook?” she asks, pausing thoughtfully. “I don’t know, I like to cook a lot of things.”
Running my fingers along her side, I tell her, “You can cook me dinner tomorrow night.”
“Oh, can I?” she teases. “So kind of you to allow me to serve you, King Rafe.”
I crack a smile and reach down to squeeze her ass. “Damn right. You can thank me later. We went out tonight, so we’ll stay in tomorrow night, take it easy. I’ll show you the library. We’ll find a spot for your Brontë books.”
“They do need a home,” she acknowledges. “If we have a girl, what do you think of the name Charlotte?”
Adrenaline surges through me, but I manage to keep the alarm off my face. “Charlotte Morelli. That could work.”
“Charlotte Price-Morelli sounds good, too,” she says.
I hike up a disbelieving eyebrow. “You don’t seriously expect my child to have a hyphenated last name, right?”
Laurel rolls her eyes. “You’re such a brute. If it’s a boy, do we have to name him after you?”
“Nah. Middle name, maybe. We don’t have to talk about this yet.”
With a knowing little smile, she asks, “Am I making you sweat?”
“Of course not. I just proposed to you a few hours ago; you think I scare easily?”
Laurel swats the arm I have wrapped around her. “That wasn’t real; it doesn’t count. You were all hyped up thinking about me making out with a girl.”
“Oh, yes.” God, the way my blood stirred when she shocked the hell out of me at the table. “You can continue telling that story if you want to. I especially like your attention to detail.”
“It doesn’t make you feel in any way territorial to think of the woman you’re with making out with someone else? Just curious. I mulled it over, and I definitely would not be cool with it.”
“It’s another beautiful woman, not just someone else. Obviously I don’t want you kissing another man, but if you wanted to kiss a beautiful woman? That’s a different story.”
“Why?” she asks, curiously.
I shrug. “Because you’re not into women, so it’s not a legitimate threat, and… you know, two beautiful women playing together... What’s the question?”
“I’ll be honest, it does nothing for me to think of you kissing another man. Definitely does not turn me on.”
It’s funny that she’s comparing her sexuality and mine. Sex isn’t where I wanted to go with this though. Before we can drift back into unpleasantness, I turn the wheel. “Tell me something I don’t know about you.”
Laurel snuggles into my side, tilting her head back to look up at me. “Like what?”
“Did you have any heroes growing up?”
Nodding her head, she says, “Yeah, but you already know the answer to this one.”
“I do?”
“Carly,” she says, her voice pointed with expectation, like this is ground we have covered before. “Sacrificed and worked her ass off to take care of me. My sister is my personal hero, no contest. What about you?”
“You wouldn’t like my heroes. They’re not very good ones. I looked up to them for other reasons, not because they were good people.”
Cracking a smile, she says, “Your heroes were the villains, weren’t they?”