The door suddenly jerked open, and in walked Rip.
My heart nearly stopped as I rose to my feet and watched him walk toward me in slow motion. OK, maybe not slow motion, but it felt like it. He wasn’t smiling, but he wasn’t scowling either.
Did I hug him?
Did I shake his hand?
There was no manual for this, was there?
Just like there was no manual for losing your best friend and inheriting two perfect children while living with the one guy you’d loved forever but who was so out of reach you wondered if the sex was even real.
Because it was so unreal.
Rip stopped right in front of me while Viera made the long journey back up to her chair.
“You did your hair.” He reached out, and I batted his hand away. “It looks nice.” And then that gorgeous man flashed me such a perfect smile that my heart nearly stopped. “You look”—he leaned in and kissed my cheek, whispering, “beautiful.”
My knees turned to jelly as I reached for his biceps and held on for dear life. I don’t know how long we stood like that, me within inches of kissing him, holding on to him, begging him to lock the kids in the family room with a movie, then take me upstairs so I could kiss him, taste him, tell him about our day, ask him about his.
Get naked.
Viera sighed and threw her head back, smacking her hand against her face. “You guys are cuddling again!”
“Nah, we cuddled a lot last night, though,” Rip said under his breath. I swatted him across the stomach. He caught my hand and then kissed my wrist. “Viera, I have a surprise for Aunt Colby. I’ll be right back…”
I quickly turned off the burner as he dragged me toward the downstairs bathroom and shut the door.
And then his hands were on mine, mine were on him, frantically pulling at his neck, bringing him close, tugging at clothes and wondering how fast we could do this with two kids under the age of six mere feet away.
“Missed you,” he said between kisses. “So fucking much.”
“Missed…” Our tongues fought for dominance. “Too.”
“Need you.” He tugged at my leggings, and within moments he had a condom on and me on the countertop. Rip surged into me with one big thrilling movement, filling me to the hilt.
He wasted no time in moving.
I wasted no time in holding on for dear life as he continued kissing me. Our mouths met, attacked. Pleasure flooded through my body with each violent thrust, and then I was there, gripping both him and the counter as I rode out wave after wave of my orgasm. He slammed into me one last time, my name the only word on his lips, and then he was resting his forehead against my shoulder.
“Hey, Rip.” Why was I out of breath? I really needed to get back to the gym.
“Yeah?” He looked up at me, his green eyes lit with excitement.
“Best surprise I’ve ever been given.” I laughed. “And now we have to hurry so the kids don’t catch us.”
“It’s not like they know what we’re doing,” he said as he pulled out of me and grabbed a tissue to start cleaning up my thighs without me even asking.
I was still smiling when I pulled my leggings back up and realized last night we hadn’t used a condom the second time.
“Rip!” Panic washed over me. “What if… what if the condom isn’t enough? After last night, oh God, we can’t handle more kids and—”
OK, yeah, I was high-key panicking for no reason because that was what I did when things were going so well, when they were so perfect, when I had this god of a man taking me against the bathroom sink.
“You’re the only woman I’ve slept with in a year,” he said softly. “And you’re on birth control.”
“How do you know that?” I stared at him in shock. Then I blinked. “And a year?”
“I was busy,” he said, slowly eyeing me up and down. “And I know because I know everything about you, even when I don’t want to.”