Then she whispered, “Okay.”
She pulled away and turned, announcing to Annie and Dougal as she reached for her drink, “Prentice says it’s time to go home.”
“I bet he does,” Annie mumbled through a chuckle.
“Dougal says it’s time to go home, too,” Dougal declared as he curled Annie closer.
Annie tilted her head back and looked at her new husband.
Then she murmured, “Mm.”
Prentice watched his friend touch his mouth to his wife’s.
Then he watched his friend’s eyes turn to catch his.
That was when Prentice realized life’s path took him and Dougal full circle, through a lot of beautiful landscape with a side trip to hell (for Prentice) and just a lot of wandering through hell (for Dougal).
But, in the end, that path led home.
Elle finished her drink, they climbed in Harry’s taxi and Harry took them home.
He walked through the great room, turning off the lamp by the couch on his way, and went into the kitchen. He came up behind Elle who was raiding the cookie jar and circled her waist, his hand sliding across her belly as he pressed against her back, feeling her ass against his thighs and liking it.
“You want a cookie?” Elle asked, mouth full, her neck twisting so she could look at him.
“No,” he replied.
He loved her cookies, he’d never tasted better.
But, at that moment, his mouth went someplace his tongue preferred to taste.
And as he ran it the length of her neck from the join of her shoulder to her ear, his body absorbed her tremble.
“We’re not ha**ng s*x tonight,” she declared in a breathy voice.
There it was, the ridiculous decision.
“We’re no’?” he asked her neck as his hand slid up her midriff.
“No. No more sex,” she replied, her voice even breathier.
“Why no’?” he asked before he nipped her earlobe with his teeth.
Another tremble.
He grinned against her ear.
“It’s confusing.” Now her voice was a whisper.
“Confusing who?” he murmured in her ear as his hand reached her breast and his fingers curled around it.
“Confusing…” she started and then sucked in breath when his thumb slid across her nipple.
No tremble this time. Instead, he took her body weight and had to slide his other arm along her waist to keep her standing.
“Elle?” Prentice prompted in her ear, “Confusing who?”
His finger joined his thumb and he rolled her taut nipple between the two.