beautiful, beneath him on the cushions of the window seat. “You’ve been mine since that moment we met. Even when we were apart. Even when we were with other people—”
She put a finger to his lips. “None of the others mattered.”
He kissed her finger before gently moving it so that he could say, “They did. Because we learned something from all of them. Learned what we didn’t want—and what we did.”
“You,” she said again as she slipped another button on his shirt free, making his heart pound hard and fast beneath her incredibly talented hands. “I want you.”
He took her mouth, loving all the delicious flavors of her taste, her kisses. “You’re mine. And I’m yours.”
The smile she gave him was full of so much sensuality it made his head spin. He wanted her—needed her so badly—that he wasn’t exactly sure how their clothes came off. Maybe she did it, maybe he did. All he knew was that they were soon skin to skin, mouth to mouth, hand to hand, with nothing between them but their beating hearts.
Holding her hands on either side of her head, he levered his hips between her thighs and looked into her beautiful eyes. “I love you.”
Her fingers tightened over his as she wrapped her legs around his hips. “I love you too.”
They came together in one perfect thrust, both of them losing their breath as her hips rose to meet his.
“This.” He could barely speak. Could barely think or even breathe. Could only marvel that she was his. “This is how we’re going to spend our honeymoon.” He moved inside her and drank in the beautiful sounds of her panting at the sweet sensation of their bodies coming together. “It’s going to be weeks of constantly taking each other higher.” He thrust into her gorgeously slick heat again, and her eyes fluttered shut for a few moments as pleasure took her over. “Going deeper. And then deeper still.” He lowered his mouth to the fluttering pulse at her neck. “And loving each other better with every single second.”
“Yes.” She moaned the word even as she arched so that her breasts were pressed hard against him. “I can’t wait to be alone and naked with you for weeks and weeks.”
Just the vision of being this way with the woman he loved, heart and soul, for weeks on end made it nearly impossible to hold on much longer. “Let me watch you, Vicki. I need to feel you let go for me.” He bent to lick over the taut peaks of both breasts, one after the other. “There’s nothing more beautiful. Nothing I crave more than feeling you come apart in my arms.”
She’d been squirming beneath his tongue on her breasts, but as he lifted his head to look into her eyes, he knew she was doing exactly as he’d asked. Letting him watch as she dropped every wall, forgot every fear, for him.
For love.
Angling their hips so that he was touching her core, pure pleasure and the sweetest possible joy infused her expression. “Come with me, Ryan.”
“Always.”
Sliding his hands from hers, he wrapped them around her body and held her as closely as she was now holding him. Closer than he’d ever believed it was possible to be with another person.
Until Vicki.
He echoed every stroke, every thrust of his hips with his tongue against hers. And as they kissed and pleasure climbed, then spiked so high that the fall was inevitable—and so damned good it blew his mind all over again—something told Ryan they wouldn’t be waiting until after the World Series to start their family.
Hopefully, they’d started today.
CHAPTER THREE
Sunday lunch at Mary Sullivan’s house in Palo Alto was always a good—and loud—time. Especially now that there could sometimes be more than a dozen adults in the backyard, and plenty of little kids running around, as well.
Gabe and Megan’s daughter Summer was the oldest at ten. Chase and Chloe’s daughter Emma was the second oldest at three, followed closely by Sophie and Jake’s twins, Smith and Jackie. Chase and Chloe’s baby, Julia, and Gabe and Megan’s son, Logan, were both talking and just starting to walk.
The family’s pets were there too, of course, with Zach and Heather’s dogs and Summer’s poodle following Lori’s cat around the yard as if they were three of her loyal subjects. All of them were great with the kids, even the little ones who didn’t quite understand how rude it was to tug a tail.
Nearly everyone in the Bay Area