She sat up and stared down at him. Golden stubble darkened his jaw and glinted in the soft morning light just starting to filter through the blinds. His blue eyes stared back at her full of want and need and so much more.
“I love you.” She needed him to know that, to feel it in her.
Tate rose up and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her down harder on his lap. “I love you. I don’t ever want to lose you.” He moved under her. She rocked over him, her arms locked around his neck, their lips pressed together. They lost themselves in each other, the dawn, and a memory of this moment they’d never forget.
Tate fell back on the bed taking her down with him. She took advantage of more room to move and spent ten minutes making him crazy to the point he finally stopped letting her lead and took control, thrusting deep and grinding against that sweet little spot. Her body responded with an explosion of rippling pleasure that made her gasp and smile all at once. Tate thrust deep several more times and found that same burst of passion as she sank her teeth into the ridge of his shoulder where it met his neck. She ran her tongue over the small hurt as he settled into the bed beneath her, his big hands covering her ass, his breath heaving in and out.
She smiled against his neck.
“Pretty proud of yourself, aren’t you?” His deep voice vibrated against her lips nibbling at his neck.
“Yes I am. Why? Should I try again?”
His hands squeezed her ass to hold her still. “I’m good. So good.”
She giggled, feeling wicked. “Just good?” She rolled her hips against his still-hard flesh.
He clamped down harder. “Great. Fantastic. Totally spent. I won’t walk for a week.” He adjusted his back. He’d been working so hard to keep up with things on the ranch and take her to and from work.
She leaned up on her hands and stared at the dark smudges marring the underside of his eyes. She brushed her thumb over his cheek. “I’m sorry you’re not getting much sleep.”
“I’m not.” He didn’t look one bit unhappy about it. His gaze dipped down between the two of them. His hands came up and covered her breasts, then went up her neck to her face. “You’re the best way to wake up in the morning.” He pulled her down for a sweet kiss. “I want to wake up to you naked on top of me every morning.”
She smiled down at him. “Well, I will be naked all the time if I don’t go pick up some more clothes from my place. I need to do laundry and clean out my fridge.” She’d been staying at Tate’s so long some of the stuff had to be spoiled by now.
His smile vanished.
Anxious butterflies filled her stomach. “What?”
“What if you didn’t go home?”
She tilted her head and teased him. “Am I supposed to just buy new clothes?”
He shook his head. “No. Um. I mean, what if you didn’t move back into your condo? What if you moved in here? With me. Permanently.”
Stunned, she stared at him, trying to make her brain function when her heart jumped up and down in her chest like a toddler who got a puppy.
“Um.”
Tate held her face, the way he did when he wanted her to really hear him.
“Move in with me. I don’t want to spend another night without you. I don’t want to wake up without you.”
“What about Declan?” Why the hell was she thinking when her heart wanted her to spit out the only acceptable answer? YES!
“He has to get his own woman.”
She smacked his shoulder. “Not funny.”
“Neither is making me squirm while you make up your mind.”
“I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Haven’t we waited long enough for what we both want? It’s not ideal to be here with my brother two doors down the hall, I get that. But Drake and Adria will be out of the cabin soon. It’ll be ours. Declan and I already talked about it.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, when Drake and Adria got engaged and bought their place.”
So not because Tate started seeing her.
“Wipe that look off your face. I want you to live with me. I’ve never wanted that with anyone else.”
She pressed her finger to his lips. “You don’t need to convince me, Tate. I’ve only ever wanted you.” That was a truth she’d learned to live with.