“I will warn you,” his tone was mock-severe, “it might take eight months for us to figure it out.” Then he tugged gently on her hair to pull her head back and he ducked his own and kissed her throat, his other hand moving to the small of her back to form its lazy figure eights.
Her body jerked.
“Eight?” she breathed.
He noted, again, she said it in (weak) protest but she didn’t bloody well mean it.
He had her, he knew in that moment, she was definitely his.
“Yes, maybe nine or even ten,” he replied.
“Do I still have to do what you tell me to do?”
“Yes.”
He felt her slump and he grinned against the skin at her throat then he slid his lips up her neck to taste the area just under her ear.
Sibyl trembled.
“Obviously you can’t see anyone else but me,” he warned, moving his mouth to hers and he brushed his lips there, feather-soft.
“What if I don’t agree? The original bargain was two months; you keep changing the goal posts. Now you know what I did with the money, and you obviously don’t mind, you can get a tax break, that ought to buy back some time.”
He ignored her thoughtful suggestion (although he mentally filed it away). “You never know, it could take a year.”
She gasped.
“I’m not doing this for a year!” she cried.
“No?” he asked, his hand slid back under her t-shirt and his finger swirled around her nipple.
She gasped again, this one much different than the last.
At her reaction, he gave her a smug smile as he felt his body tighten and he kissed her freckled nose.
And she gasped again, this one soft and, finally, full of understanding.
“Colin,” she whispered, “You called me ‘sweetheart’.”
Colin didn’t reply.
Her eyes liquefied instantly to sherry.
“Colin?”
He stared her straight in the eye. “Yes?”
“Do I have to be where you want me, when you want me?”
“Not if you don’t want to.”
He felt her relief as she moved into him, wrapping her arms about his waist and pressing her soft, sweet body against his as a reward.
“So, can we start over?” she asked, her voice gentle and honeyed, and, if he heard it correctly, happy. The glorious sound of it nearly made him groan.
Nevertheless, he answered her honestly, “No.”
She looked startled.