Chute Yeah (The Valentine Boys 3)

But it made me feel better that he was on the same wavelength as me.

That he was feeling much the same as I was…

I took his hand and squeezed it three times, bringing it up to my mouth and pressing a kiss to his palm.

“What was that?” he rasped, smoothing his hand down my bare hip.

“That was for the words you won’t let me say for everyone to hear,” I told him. “Even though I feel them, I will wait to share them aloud with you until the time is right. When it’s time again… I’m going to shout them from the rooftop.”

He pressed a kiss to my shoulder and then slowly pulled out of me, making me feel like I’d just lost something precious. Something I needed to survive.

I started to laugh.

“What?” he asked, his hand pressing lightly on my belly.

“I just had the fleeting thought that I needed your dick to survive.” I giggled.

He chuckled behind me before wrapping me up in his arms and guiding me to the bathroom.

“That’s not a bad thing,” he said. “I kind of like that you like it so much you’re thinking it’s necessary to live.”

“Next time I’m dying I’ll let them know all that I need to survive is your…” I trailed off when he growled and turned me around, his hands going to my face.

“I don’t want to hear anything like that.” He paused. “Ever.”

I blinked at the seriousness in his tone.

“Banks…” I paused until his attention was solely focused on me. “I’m okay. I’m better. I’m me. I’m not broken anymore, okay? I was only teas—”

He interrupted me before I could even tell him I was teasing.

“No,” he said. “Even thinking about anything ever happening to you is completely unbearable to me.”

I softened against his hold, then pressed a kiss to his chin, just to the right of his mouth.

“I squeeze you, Banks,” I told him. “If it’s my choice, I’m going to always choose you.”

His eyes went soft and his hands came up to cup my face.

“Let’s shower.” He paused. “And I squeeze you, too.”

I snickered at his words and followed him into the shower.Chapter 17I’m old enough to remember what it’s like to poop without a smartphone.

-Banks to Candy

Candy

In the wee hours of the morning, I felt my perfectly warm bed shift, and Banks pull his bicep pillow out from under my face.

My open mouth drug all along his forearm, likely leaving a trail of drool in its wake.

“Where are you going?” I mumbled, feeling like my eyelids were lined with sandpaper.

“Have to help Ace and Callum at the ranch today,” he said, sounding wide awake.

I reluctantly peeled myself out of the bed beside him, feeling like cement was filling my limbs.

Warm hands gathered me up, then Banks’ scratchy jaw was rubbing along the cords of my neck.

“Baby, you don’t have to come,” he rumbled, voice so beautiful that it almost hurt.

“I know,” I turned into his arms, pressing a kiss to the spot right above his nipple. “But I have a few things that I want to go over with y’all on the job site. I need to collect a check. I need to pay the boys—or at least get those checks ready to be cut—and then go visit all the other job sites all by ten this morning. So, getting up now, with you, works.”

I had no idea what time it was, but I knew that it was early.

Way earlier than I’d intended on getting up, but oh well.

He let me go, and I walked to the bathroom, closing the door almost all the way behind me.

After doing my business in the dark, I flipped the light on, opened the door, and smiled tiredly at the man that was almost all the way dressed except for his t-shirt.

He leaned his broad shoulders against the door and watched me brush my teeth.

“Got an extra one of those?” he asked.

I tapped my foot against the drawer next to my feet and said, “In here.”

He moved around me, making sure to grab my ass on his way, and bent down to grab an unused toothbrush from the drawer.

“Why do you have thirty-five toothbrushes?” he asked curiously.

I spit, rinsed, and then washed my face before answering.

I then walked out of the room as I explained.

“There was a really good coupon for it in the paper,” I explained. “I’m not really a couponer. But mom was. I still follow all the blogs that tell you when a super good deal is going on. I made sure to buy like eight papers that day. Ended up getting over fifty toothbrushes.” I paused. “I’ll never have to buy them again.”

He chuckled around a mouthful of toothpaste as I got dressed.

By the time he was finished, I was dressed.

His eyes took me in and grinned.