I nodded. “Yes, I believe so.”

  “She’ll be here for a couple of weeks. You’ll have plenty of time to stay up too late and watch Christmas movies,” Wilder assured her.

  A couple of weeks. How was I going to leave them after being here for that long? I wouldn’t think about it now. I had to stop fretting over the future. I’d survived losing Wilder once before. If it happened again, then, well, I would survive it too. Maybe.

  Wilder stood up, carrying his empty plate to the sink. I finished with my last bite just as Sarah jumped up with her plate and followed him.

  “Can we make popcorn?” she asked him hopefully.

  “You just ate dinner,” he pointed out.

  She shrugged. “But it’s a movie. You can’t watch a movie without popcorn.”

  His lips curled at the ends in an amused smile. “Okay, fine. I’ll put a bag in the microwave.”

  “But Oaky does it on the stove. I like it better that way.”

  Wilder looked over at me as I made my way to the sink. “What?” he asked, looking confused.

  I set my plate down and walked over to the oven, then opened the cabinet above it to pull out the container of kernels. I shook them and smiled at him. “The old-fashioned way,” I said, then turned to Sarah. “Get the pot, and I’ll get the oil,” I instructed.

  “On it!” she exclaimed happily.

  “Explain why you do it this way when we have microwave popcorn in the pantry,” Wilder said, watching us get our supplies.

  “Because it’s fun,” Sarah told him, setting the large pot on the stovetop.

  “What she said,” I replied.

  He chuckled and shook his head. Turning, he took my plate and rinsed it before loading the dishwasher.

  “While you heat the oil, I’ll go pick the movie,” Sarah told me, then hurried from the kitchen.

  I glanced over at Wilder, who was making domestic work look sexy, before putting the oil in the pot.

  This was going to mess my head up so bad. Being here with them like this. Wilder being nice to me. It was all making me want what I feared he would never give me.

  “You still do the best thing that happened to you today thing,” he said. “That’s why Sarah asked us that. She got it from you.”

  I smiled. “Yeah. When I pick Sarah up from school, I ask it, and I try to text her every day and ask.”

  I hadn’t realized he remembered that about me. I hadn’t thought it was something memorable. Just my way of trying to focus on the good and not let the bad get to me. I had begun asking myself that question after my mom died.

  “She loves you,” he said.

  “And I love her.”

  Even when I hadn’t wanted to, I’d loved her. She’d been a tiny little life, who was the result of my biggest heartbreak. But I fell in love with her anyway. It had been impossible not to.

  “I don’t—” Wilder began, but Sarah came rushing back into the kitchen, holding up a DVD.

  “I found it! The Polar Express!” she exclaimed.

  I turned to her. “Then, we will need hot cocoa too.”

  She nodded enthusiastically.

  “Do I get the packets out of the pantry, or do you make that like a pilgrim too?” Wilder asked.

  “Pilgrim-style,” I replied.

  He nodded. “Of course you do.”

  “The packets are for the lazy and those with no taste buds,” Sarah told him, repeating what she’d heard me say.

  “When Oakley isn’t here, that’s how we make it,” Wilder replied.

  Sarah grinned up at him. “But she’s here now, so we get the good stuff. Not the Dad stuff.”

  “Ouch!” he said, placing a hand over his heart.

  “Sorry, Dad, there are just some things Oaky does better.”

  I didn’t look up from the pot because if I did, I knew I would laugh.

  Thirty-Three

  Wilder

  I hadn’t said anything to Oakley but good night after Sarah was in bed.

  During the movie, I’d waged an inner battle on what was best for Sarah. I wanted Oakley in my bed—preferably naked and under me, but I would settle for just in my bed.

  But if I started that, if Sarah thought we were something more … sure, she’d be ecstatic. The idea of having Oakley here all the time. Us doing things together … like a family …

  That was what had stopped me. I wasn’t willing to do something that could break Sarah’s heart. What if it didn’t work? What if I got so fucking wrapped up in Oakley again that I lost her and it destroyed me? This’d impact Sarah. I had to put her first. Not my need for Oakley Watson.

  The light knock on my bedroom door interrupted my thoughts. I went to open it and found Oakley standing there, staring up at me with wide, nervous eyes. Fucking hell. How was I going to resist her when she was at my damn door? I’d been struggling enough without her here in front of me.

  “I can’t sleep,” she whispered.

  I was weak. I stepped back and let her come inside before closing the door and locking it. She was here now, and I was going to end up fucking her. I didn’t need Sarah walking in to witness it. Talk about scaring her. That would do it.

  Turning around, I watched as she walked over and ran her fingertips along my blue quilt that covered the king-size bed I’d bought when I got the house.

  “If you want me to go, just tell me,” she said, not looking at me.

  “I locked the door, Oakley. You’re in here now.”

  She glanced back then, and her blue eyes said it all. She didn’t have to verbalize what she was thinking. She knew this had no future, but she wanted the now. Just like I did.

  Fuck that. I didn’t want it. I craved it. She was addictive, and I’d gotten a taste of her. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to end that. Stop this.

  Maybe we didn’t have to. What if we could be friends who fucked? We would stay platonic unless we were fucking.

  Her gaze traveled down my body. When I had gotten out of the shower, I’d put on a pair of green plaid flannel pajama pants my mom had given me last year. I knew Oakley could see my erection. The pants didn’t exactly hide it.

  “What’s your tattoo of?” she asked me.

  “A compass with Sarah’s thumbprint in the center. The points are her birth date,” I replied.

  “That’s perfect,” she said with a small smile on her lips. “I didn’t know you had gotten one until I saw you without a shirt on.”

  “I got it during the divorce. I wanted a way to remind myself of where my home was. That Sarah was it. No matter where we lived,” I explained.

  Her expression fell, and I knew why. She was thinking about our past. What she had said that day in court. I wasn’t going to let her head go there. Not tonight.

  “Take off the nightgown, Oakley,” I told her.

  The heat flared in her eyes, and she reached for the satin material, tugging it up and then over her head before letting it fall to the floor. I stood there, taking in the sight of her.

  Would there be a time when this view didn’t make me want to fall to my knees and promise her the world?

  If we were going to do this, I had to keep my head on straight. Not start worshipping at her feet. Even if she should be with a man who worshipped her. Adored her. Put her on a damn pedestal. Things I could never do. Things I was too fucking scared to do. Even though I knew the truth now, Oakley would own me. My soul. If I let her.

  Closing the distance between us, I told myself I could keep my heart and this separate. This didn’t have to be more than physical. If I could just touch her, taste her, sink inside of her, then it would be enough. The rest I could shut off. My emotions didn’t have to be connected to my pleasure.

  When I stopped in front of her, I intended to grab her and throw her onto my bed, but her hands went to the waist of my pants. She tugged them down as she lowered herself to her knees. That was a sight that took a man’s air from his lungs. I stared down at her as she wrapped her fingers around my cock. Jesus! I wouldn’t last long like this. Not with it being Oakley taking me in her mouth.

  “Oak—” I started to say her name, but then her lips covered the head of my dick, and the rest of the world no longer mattered. Nothing did.

  She had always looked like an angel, and the view of an angel kneeling in front of me with my cock in her mouth was a level beyond erotic. There wasn’t a name for it.

  “Fuuuuck,” I groaned as the head of my dick hit the back of her throat. I grabbed a handful of her blonde locks and held on to them. “That’s it, baby. That fucking mouth. Goddamn.”

  Her nails slid up my thighs, and then she cupped my balls with one hand. I felt my knees give slightly. There was a good chance I’d black out when I came. Especially if she intended for me to shoot it down her throat.

  When her tongue flicked the slit on the head, I hissed and pulled her hair, slamming myself deeper. I heard her gag as her nails bit into my thigh.

  “Fucking heaven,” I growled. “Dirty little angel, taking my dick. So damn sweet.”

  She hummed with her mouth full and looked up at me through her thick lashes. My body trembled as I stared down at her in wonder. To think, I had once thought all blow jobs were the same. A wet, willing mouth was as good as any. Fucking hell, was I wrong.

  “I’m gonna come,” I warned her, tugging her hair back, not sure she was ready for the explosion she was about to cause with those pretty, swollen lips.

  She fought against me and took me in deep again, sucking hard. The room felt like it was starting to spin as complete rapture took over me. I jerked as her name tore out of my chest, and I erupted down her throat.

  I was torn between falling back onto the bed and standing there, watching in awe as she sucked and licked me clean. As I slowly came back down from my earth-shattering climax, she let my semi-hard dick fall from her lips and leaned back on her heels to gaze up at me.

  Her pink tongue came out and licked her bottom lip, as if she was afraid she’d missed a drop. I shuddered. I was so fucked. I wasn’t going to be able to stop this. Not with Oakley. No one compared to her. They never had. But now, I wouldn’t even be able to have sex with someone else without seeing her face. Every woman after her wouldn’t be enough because they wouldn’t be her.

  I held out my hand, and she slipped hers over my palm. Taking it in my grip, I pulled her to her feet. I couldn’t take my eyes off her face.

  God, that face had been my downfall for eleven years. No matter how much I’d hated her in the past, one look from her, and for a moment, I would forget everything.

  Loving Oakley had never been the issue. It was surviving her.

  Thirty-Four

  Oakley

  When my eyes opened, I found myself cocooned in Wilder’s warmth. His arm around me, his leg thrown over mine, and his breath hot against my ear. I was sure I could die happy right now.

  Last night had been magical. At least for me. He’d made me come with his mouth twice before he brought me to a climax two more times while buried inside of me.

  I wanted to stay here and enjoy this, but the clock by his bed said it was 6:33, and I needed to get back to my room before Sarah woke up and caught me in her dad’s room.

  I was positive my sleeping in here had not been his plan, but we’d sexually exhausted ourselves and passed out from it. The smile on my face was going to be hard to dampen today.

  There hadn’t ever been a time in my life when I felt like I had last night. Every fantasy I’d had seemed to come true. Every wish I’d made silently, never believing it would happen, and every daydream I had tortured myself with over the years—I had it all last night. Because I had been with Wilder.

  I started to slip out of his hold, but he tightened his arm.

  “Not yet,” he murmured.

  He wasn’t ready to let go of me, and that felt amazing. He wanted me here.

  “It’s after six,” I said softly.

  “She sleeps until eight,” he replied in his sleep-raspy voice.

  I snuggled back against him and sighed in contentment. This was perfect. It was all I had ever wanted. Wilder. To be his. For him to be mine.

  His hand began to move down until he tucked it between my legs. His leg no longer pinned mine down, and he nudged my thighs open.

  “I want to feel my cum leaking out of you.” His deep voice so close to my ear made me shiver. Or maybe it was his words.

  When I opened my legs for him, he made a deep growl in his chest and eased his middle finger inside of me. I rolled onto my back as he shifted to prop himself up onto his side. I looked up at his face, and for a moment, there was something in his dark gaze that took my breath away. It was gone too soon though, but only because he lowered his head until his lips brushed against mine.

  I shoved my fingers into his hair and held him there. The way he kissed me always let me give in to my wishful thinking that he could love me again. That I hadn’t lost him forever. His mouth seemed hungry for more, as if he couldn’t get enough.

  He pulled back, and the brown of his eyes were almost black. “Get on top of me, Oakley.” His words were a husky command. “I want to see you come while you’re riding me.”

  I nodded, the rush of desire tingling throughout my body. He lay back, and I turned over, climbing on top, like he wanted. I stayed on my knees for a moment just so I could look down at him. The sexy, masculine definition of his jawline, his full lips, and his hooded eyes. All of it made me ache for him.

  When I eased down, taking his erection in my hand and angling it so I could sink it inside of me, a low hiss escaped him, and his abs flexed. He was beautiful, and right now, in this room, he was mine. I could at least allow myself that.

  His size stretched me, and I let out a soft moan as the pleasure from him filling me began to consume my thoughts.

  “Fuck, Oakley. When I think you can’t look any more beautiful, I find out how wrong I am.” His words were sweet, but the way he’d said them sounded as if it was painful. Like he wished it weren’t true.

  I shoved my insecurities aside and placed my hands on his chest, feeling him tense at my touch. Lifting my body, I began to slowly move up and down, taking my time with the speed in which I did it. I wanted to savor the power I felt, being able to please myself with his body.

  His hands slid up my thighs and reached around to grab my butt. “That’s it, baby. Ride me. Let me see your gorgeous face as you get off on my cock.”

  I wouldn’t last long if he started talking like that.

  His hand came down on my right butt cheek hard, and the loud smack startled and excited me at the same time. My mouth fell open in a gasp, and he grinned up at me wickedly.

  “That’s for making me want you so damn bad,” he said.

  His left hand landed on my other butt cheek, and my clit throbbed. “That’s for being a naughty angel who makes me crazy.”

  My nails dug into his abs, and I moaned, my pace quickening.

  “You like being spanked?” he asked, his breathing giving away just how close he was to his climax.

  “Yes,” I replied, riding him harder now. “By you,” I added.

  His hands grabbed my waist then, and he began controlling me. Moving me up and down on his cock, fast and hard. His breathing loud and ragged.

  “Fuck, Oakley. I can’t get inside you deep enough. I want to stay buried in this tight little cunt.”

  That was it for me. My orgasm crested, and I cried out his name as the bliss curled through me.

  “So fucking beautiful,” he shouted, then rocked his hips up into me and stilled as his body shook.

  The warmth of his release filled me, and my pussy squeezed around him, wanting to take it all.

  “Fuuuuck,” he groaned, then reached up and pulled me down onto his chest, wrapping his arms around me.

  We lay there like that while our breathing slowed.

  Had I ever wanted anything this much in my life?

  I tucked my head into the crook of his neck and inhaled his scent.

  I would beg him to love me if I thought it would help. But I knew you couldn’t force someone to love you. I’d tried that many times in my youth. First with my dad, then my stepmom, and finally him.

  No one had ever wanted to keep me.

  Thirty-Five

  Wilder

  Three days in this house, and no word from Blaise about what was happening next. I wasn’t complaining exactly. It was hard for a man to be upset about having Oakley locked up in a house with him. Especially with her coming to my bed every night. Stripping her naked and burying my dick inside her over and over.

  I’d given up on trying to draw a damn line. That had been a joke. I couldn’t look at her and not think about taking her into a room and spreading those legs that led to heaven.

  All my good intentions had been shot to hell. I wasn’t going to end the sex. Truth was, when Blaise did say it was safe for her to return home, I wasn’t going to tell her. Not until I didn’t crave her like an insane man.

  I stayed out of the dining room, where Oakley was helping Sarah with her schoolwork. I’d handled her absence with the principal, and the teacher had sent home all the assignments that Sarah had missed. The Hughes name held power everywhere. I used it when necessary.

  Every time I heard their laughter filtering down the hallway, my fucking chest got warm and tingly. Shit it had to stop doing. My dick could love Oakley. My heart, however, needed to back the fuck down. That wasn’t a ride I could afford.

  “Hey, Dad,” Sarah said, walking into the living room.

  “You done with your work for the day?” I asked her as she came over to sit beside me on the sofa.

  “Yep! Oaky helped me understand my math. She taught me a song to help me memorize my steps,” she explained.