without telling her how special she is, how much she means to me, and how grateful I am to be the man in her bed and in her heart.
“Especially your bed,” I murmur against her lips as we catch our breath after, with my softening length still deep inside the only place I want to be.
“What’s that?” she asks, fingers skimming up and down my back.
“Just thinking about how lucky I am to be here with you.”
“I think I’m the lucky one.” She turns her head, pressing a kiss to my arm.
“I guess we can both be lucky.”
“No,” she says, kissing me again with her eyes closed. “A winner must be declared. We’ll settle this in the way of my people. Co-ed naked shower wrestling to the death. It’s the only way.”
Grinning, I ask, “Oh, yeah? Does it have to be to the death?”
“Yes, but just the little death.” Her eyes flutter open, burning into mine as she adds, “That’s what the French call orgasm, la petite mort.”
I shiver, and my cock twitches inside her. “Fuck. Do you speak French?”
“Oui, je parle français. Ma grand-mère m'a appris,” she says in an accent so sexy I lose all sense of reason.
The next thing I know, I’m taking her in the shower while she laughs and says more sexy-as-hell things in that accent, and I thank God for the French language and sex and love and this woman.
Most especially this woman.
She’s the fucking best.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Colette
When I wake up with the sun glaring into my eyes, I smile, not at all irritated that I forgot to close the curtains before we fell asleep last night.
Even with only a few hours of rest, I’m thrilled to be awake again. I had lovely dreams, but for once in my life, reality is better than anything my subconscious can whip up in the dream kitchen.
Zack is mine, and I am Zack’s, and we’re going to start our life together today.
Today is the day.
The first day of the rest of my unbelievably lucky life.
I roll over to find Zack already awake, propped up in bed, reading something on his phone. He glances over as I move, his face lighting up as our eyes connect, leaving no doubt he’s as happy to be here as I am.
Setting his cell on the bedside table, he slides back under the covers, then wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close. “Good morning, beautiful.”
“Good morning.” I tuck my chin, resting my forehead on his chest as I add, “I need to brush my teeth. Morning breath.”
“I love your morning breath. It makes me hard.”
“Gross,” I say, giggling as he hooks his fingers into the top of my panties and tries to drag them down my thighs. I squirm away, pointing a stern finger at his face. “No. This isn’t like the shower. You’re not talking me out of it so easily. Teeth brushing first, then morning sex. This is a firm boundary.”
He relaxes back against the headboard, grinning. “It’s not the only firm thing around here, so hurry up, woman. I brushed mine when I woke up an hour ago.”
I frown, pausing with my hand fisted in the covers. “Why were you up so early? We didn’t get to sleep until after two.”
Zack rolls his eyes. “I’ll tell you later. It’s not worth ruining the mood.”
I frown harder. “It won’t ruin the mood.”
“Oh yeah, it will,” he says with a laugh. “It’s not a big deal, though. I promise. And I swear I’ll spill all the gory details soon.” He pauses, his eyes dragging up and down the landscape of my body beneath the covers as he adds in a softer voice, “But I need to be inside you again first.”
Tingles race across my skin, and my nipples bead beneath my sleep shirt, but still, I hesitate, worried that whatever he’s holding back is worse than he’s letting on. “I want to share everything with you, you know,” I remind him. “Good and bad, happy and sad. You don’t have to hide things from me.”
“You promise?” He pushes the covers down to reveal the strained front of his boxer briefs, making my breath catch and blood rush between my legs, the sight of him hard and aching for me affecting me the way it always does.
“I promise,” I murmur, coming onto my hands and knees and reaching for him, running my fingers over the thick ridge of his cock, biting my lip as he twitches beneath my touch.
He groans