The Secret (Single in Seattle 1)

She jerks around me.

“Holy shit,” she breathes. “Just like that.”

Jesus, she’s just fucking…everything. I’ve never felt this way about anyone, and it’s completely overwhelming.

No one’s ever been this important.

This damn vital.

And she’s all mine.

I pull out and flip her over, spreading her wide and plunging right back inside of her. Her hand drifts down, and she rubs circles over her clit, and that’s my complete undoing.

“Ah, fuck, babe.”

She jerks, contracts, and I can’t hold back any longer.

“Wow,” she says for the second time of the evening and kisses my shoulder. I’m lying on top of her.

I don’t know if I have the strength to roll over.

“I love you,” she whispers in my ear.

Suddenly, my strength is revived, and I push up to smile down at her.

I’m still inside her, and I’m swamped with love.

“I love you, too, babe.”

God, I love her so much.

And this is only the beginning.

“That pool is to die for,” Stella says when she and Drew come in from checking it out. “We need to have pool parties next summer.”

“Done,” I reply with a grin.

“Where do you want this one?” Liam asks, carrying a big box marked sewing.

“I have a room for that,” Liv says and motions for her cousin to follow her. “Down the hall here.”

“Wow. I don’t have to climb stairs for once,” Liam says sarcastically.

“We brought food,” Natalie announces as she and Luke walk in through the open front door. “And I want to check the place out.”

“Come on in,” I say. “Liv’s the foreperson here. I’m about to go out to the truck for more boxes.”

“She has a lot of crap,” Luke says with a smile and slaps my shoulder in greeting. “And now it’s in your house instead of mine.”

“Lucky you,” Liv says with a laugh as she rushes past me toward the moving truck. “I think I might have forgotten my bobbins.”

“I don’t know what bobbins are,” I admit to Luke, who only laughs. “And, yes, I’m the lucky one. Want the grand tour?”

“I do,” Natalie says. “This is a great place. The view is spectacular. I could take some great shots from up here.”

“Come up anytime,” I offer and lead the two of them through the house while Liv barks orders to Drew, Stella, and Liam.

“We’re going to Iceland for Christmas,” Luke says when we’re walking down the steps from the second floor.

“Yeah, I heard that you were all going,” I reply.

“No,” Nat says, shaking her head with a smile on her gorgeous face. “We’re going. If our girl’s living with you, you’re one of us. So, you’ll be joining us.”

I stop on the last step and stare at her for a moment.

It hadn’t really occurred to me until right now that they might just include me as a part of their family.

“I can make that work,” I say slowly. “Just tell me what you need from me.”

“Show up,” Luke advises, pats my shoulder again, then walks past me. “I’m gonna go find my daughter.”

He walks away, and Natalie watches him go, then pats my arm.

“You’re one of us now. You know that, right?”

“I guess I do now.”

“In our family, it’s an all-or-nothing sort of thing.”

“It’s a good thing I like all of you.”

“Isn’t it, though?”

We watch as Luke and Olivia come in, both carrying boxes. He says something that makes her laugh, and then she glances around, looking for me.

When her eyes meet mine, she winks.

My heart stutters.

“Well, look at that,” Natalie says with a happy sigh. “That’s exactly what I came here to see.”

“What’s that?” I ask without looking away from my girl.

“That smile. She loves you, you know.”

I rub the center of my chest over where I feel a small ache. “Not as much as I love her. Not nearly as much.”

Epilogue

~Olivia~

“It’s raining,” Vaughn says as if that should mean that I don’t do yoga this morning.

“It’s a good thing I don’t plan to do warrior’s pose outside,” I reply as I unroll my mat. I’ve started being more mindful of my body and moving it every day in some way during the last month or so since I moved in with Vaughn.

Yoga has been a big part of that.

He’s not as impressed with it, but if he’s home, he does it with me.

“No phones,” I remind him, and he shrugs, taking his out of the room before coming back to join me. I love this sunroom. Even with the rain falling, it’s beautiful to see the city covered in gray through the droplets on the glass.

It looks like art.

Over the next thirty minutes, Vaughn and I work our way through the simple poses called out by the woman on my computer set on a chair in front of us.

When we’re finished, sweaty, and all stretched out, we hold our hands as if in prayer over our chests and say, “Namaste.”