Chasing Serenity (River Rain 1)
Share, sure. He was down with that.
Carry it?
No way in fuck.
“Yeah,” he somewhat told the truth, somewhat lied.
Her brows drew down. “You’re lying.”
He grinned. “Totally not.” Though partially, yes.
She didn’t quit her examination, one hundred percent not believing him, so he threw her off the scent.
“You throwing the drama was hot as fuck.”
Her head ticked.
Then she rolled her eyes and clicked her teeth.
“We need to have our official first date so we can make love after it and get that out of the way so I can fuck you,” he declared.
Her cheeks pinkened, her eyes darkened, her body slackened into his, but her mouth was all sass.
“I’m not a sex-on-the-first-date type of girl,” she sniffed.
“Then it’s good we’re essentially on what I’d consider our seventh, though I kinda think that time in Wild Iris is a semi-date, so seven and a half.”
“Seven and a half?”
“Wild Iris. New Year’s. The meet the parents dinner at your dad’s.”
She hmphed and said, “That wasn’t a meet the parents.”
“Did I sit down to eat with all your parents?”
She hmphed again but said no more.
He fought a grin and kept going.
“Cooking Club. Brunch. Wednesday. Today’s hike. Tonight. Seven and a half.”
“None of those were dates.”
“C’mon, baby,” he murmured. “Seriously?”
She couldn’t even lean into her claim for a full second, he knew that when her gaze skidded from his.
He grinned and asked, “Are you a sex on the eighth and a half date girl?”
She looked back at him. “Don’t be annoying, Judge.”
“Thursday, you’re letting someone else look after the store, because Wednesday, you’re driving up, we’re going on a date, and you’re spending the night. That’ll be our first time. Saturday, I’ll come down to you, I’ll have Zeke with me, and we’ll stay until Sunday evening. That’ll be when we fuck.” He paused. “A lot.”
She licked her bottom lip.
He dipped and caught it between his teeth.
Then he licked it and against it, prompted, “Yeah?”
“Okay,” she breathed.
“Wanna eat?”
“Yes,” she lied, gaze lowered, eyes to his mouth.
He touched it to hers, and before he was lost, and took her with him, he let her go.
“One thing you can say about today,” she began as he started to rescue the food by sorting out the gargantuan taco she’d made in her snit. “We’ll soon find out if I can’t trust you, or you can’t trust me.”
He grinned at her. “Luckily, I totally trust you, and I know you can trust me.”
It was then, it happened.
His life changed.
The world changed.
Everything changed with the look in her eyes.
A look she got right before she replied…
“Yes, chéri. Luckily.”
Chapter 20
The Wisteria
Chloe
I woke when the bed moved.
My first semi-coherent thought was to grab hold of Judge and not let him get out of it. Keep him close to me, just him and me, the world outside could take care of itself.
Just him and me.
For the day.
The week.
Forever.
Bliss.
But when I stretched out my arm, I came up empty.
I felt something land on my hip.
“Hey, sorry to wake you, but real quick, then I gotta go and you can go back to sleep,” I heard Judge say softly.
I rolled to my back, toward the sound of his voice, and opened my eyes.
There was light coming from somewhere, his bathroom? The hall?
But it was dim.
Nevertheless, I saw he was dressed, and his hair was still drying from a shower.
Right.
What was happening?
More importantly, how did I make it stop?
“Sleep as long as you like,” he was saying. “I put a new toothbrush head out for you. Use my electric one. There’s bacon staying warm in the oven. If you wanna make some eggs or a bagel to go with, go for it. Coffee is Nespresso. You know how to work a Nespresso?”
He’d been up long enough to cook bacon?
“There isn’t a coffee machine I cannot master,” I said, my voice still drowsy. “That said, you clearly missed it in the warm glow of food and friendship during Cooking Club, but I, too, own a Nespresso.”
He grinned, his dimple made an appearance, and I suddenly wasn’t drowsy at all.
“Rix brought Zeke home this morning.”
He did?
Already?
At this hour?
That was lunacy.
“He’s good,” Judge went on. “But if you wanna let him out before you go, he’d love you forever.”
“I already have his devotion,” I pointed out.
Still grinning and, “Yeah. Also, I set a key out for you just in case and put the garage door opener in your car. It’s on the seat. Plugged your phone in to charge, you forgot to do that last night. Please just be sure to turn off the oven before you go.”
I pushed up to my behind and noted, “This all seems alarmingly like a farewell.”
“It isn’t. It’s an ‘I gotta get to work,’” he corrected.
“I’m alarmed about that too.” I gazed out his windows at the dark and then turned my attention back to him. “It’s still night.”