He kept the shirt tight around her torso, pinning her arms at her side, but her hands were still free to stake her claim. She took a page from his playbook, opted for the direct approach, and reached for the button of his jeans.

  His flat stomach clenched in response and the outline in his jeans lengthened when she slid the zipper down, the metallic sound drowned out by her labored breathing. One hand traveled north to explore the marble-like terrain of his abs and the other went south to burrow into his jeans and encircle his rock-hard erection. He released a sound somewhere between a groan and a growl and tilted his head to deepen the kiss as he backed her against a wall and pressed into her. His scent, musk and sandalwood, filled the air around them, adding to the turmoil churning inside her.

  Releasing her shirt at last, he used one hand to unfasten the front clasp of her bra. Her breasts spilled out and he cupped them in his palms, all the while keeping his mouth locked onto hers. When he brushed his thumbs over her nipples, causing a spike of ecstasy she felt from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, it was almost her undoing.

  His hands explored the rest of her, the sensations he stirred making her dizzy. The world tilted a little to the left just as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her with him toward the bedroom. Unfortunately, they didn’t quite make it. He took her as far as the little alcove that led to Sun’s room and lifted her onto the edge of the antique marble-top table. The cold stone on her ass caused her breath to catch in her lungs, and she wondered where the hell her pants had gone off to. She could’ve sworn she was wearing a pair when she walked in.

  Figuring all was fair in love and war, she slid his jeans over his steely buttocks, scraping her nails over his cheeks as she went. His cock pressed into her abdomen, and she wrapped her hand around the hardened flesh, eliciting an instant reaction from him. He sucked cool air in between their lips and blood rushed beneath her fingers. She had every intention of ducking down and sliding her lips over his exquisite erection, of tasting every inch of him, but he locked one arm around her to keep her in place and pushed his hips between her knees.

  She waited with breathless anticipation, her hunger reaching a fever pitch, but he didn’t enter her as she’d hoped. Instead, he lifted two fingers to his mouth, wet them, then dipped them between her parted legs. She almost jumped off the side table when he spread her and circled her clit, his touch featherlight and painstakingly slow.

  She clamped both of her arms around him as he worked, but she wanted more. When she tried again to wiggle off the table to drop to her knees, he tightened his grip and issued a soft warning, his deep voice bathing her in a buttery warmth. “Uh-uh,” he said as he brushed his tongue over her ear. “Come first. Then I’ll let you go.”

  He was right. She was very close, but he was torturing her. Circling her clit with such meticulous precision, he coaxed her with a skill that bordered on cruel. Even still, she didn’t know if she’d be able to—

  A-a-a-and there it was.

  Her climax rose up inside her so hard and so fast, it shook the very foundations of her soul. The quickening, almost violent in its nature, shuddered through her, wave after wave pouring into her abdomen and crashing into her bones, suffusing every cell in her body with light.

  Before she could come down, he pulled her even closer, his arms under her knees and his large hands on either side of her hips, and slid into her in one smooth thrust. The sharp delight that followed spiked her orgasm again. She saw stars, quite literally, as he slammed into her over and over. Digging her fingers into his hair, she rode the new high he’d taken her to with astonished abandon, the sweet sting of orgasm seemingly endless.

  When his muscles contracted and he spilled into her with a soft groan, she tightened around him again in disbelief. He stilled inside her and rode out his own wave of pleasure, his expression part euphoria and part agony.

  After a long moment, he relaxed and braced a hand against the wall behind her as he tried to catch his breath. “Fuck. That didn’t go as planned,” he said, his voice hoarse. He pulled her to him and held her against him.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, panting into the crook of his neck. “I thought it was pretty amazing.”

  “I wanted this to be romantic.”

  She did her damnedest not to laugh. Who knew Mr. Gruff would be a romantic at heart? “Oh, trust me, hon, I felt the romance to the deepest depths of my soul.”

  “That was my cock.”

  “I felt that, too. But if you really want romance, I have Barry White in my playlist and we have all night.”

  “True. Maybe we’ll actually make it to the bedroom next time.”

  She laughed as she considered their current furnishing of choice. She’d never loved an antique more. “This has to stay between us,” she said, patting the marble top. “If my mother finds out we did it on her favorite table, she’ll disown me.”

  He deflated against her, then leaned back. “I’m sorry, Shine. I really didn’t mean to make a pit stop in the alcove. I’ll do better.”

  “Levi,” she said, chastising him, “how can you possibly do better? Do you have any idea how many times I came?”

  His expression morphed into one of unmitigated surprise. “You came more than once?”

  She offered him a sly smile and held up three fingers.

  He crossed his arms over his chest and looked away, an adorable pout on his handsome face. “That is so unfair.”

  “Isn’t it, though?” she said with a giggle. She reached up and turned his face toward her again. “Seriously, Levi, this was all kinds of wonderful. And I read that having sex in places other than the bedroom is the secret ingredient to a long and happy relationship.” When he narrowed his eyes on her in doubt, she laughed out loud.

  He pulled her to him again and started nibbling her ear, sending spasms of delight along her nerve endings.

  Before they got too carried away, however, she asked, “What happened to my pants?”

  * * *

  Sun lay staring at the sleeping man she’d been in love with since the beginning of time. She’d recently become convinced her soul had seen his from across a sea of spirits waiting to be assigned a human, and she’d prayed they would end up in the same space. In the same town. And the first time she saw him and fell in love in less time than it took for her heart to beat, her soul had simply recognized his.

  She ran a finger over his perfect nose and decided he didn’t make sense. How could he be so strangely elegant yet so ruggedly handsome? Arrogant yet humble. Imperious yet, in many ways, shy. He just didn’t make sense.

  “You’re staring,” he said, his voice thick and groggy.

  “You’re supposed to be sleeping.”

  “I’m trying to but this weird chick keeps staring at me.”

  “You can’t leave me a third of your shit. Leave it all to Hailey and Auri.”

  He drew in a deep breath and snuggled closer to her. “I left you a third of my shit twelve years ago.”

  “Why?” She couldn’t help herself. She lay a hand on his face, her incessant need to touch him too overwhelming to ignore. “If you didn’t know Auri was yours yet, why leave us anything at all?”

  He turned into her hand and kissed her palm before answering. “I figured my family owed you. And it’s not my fault you’re just now figuring all of this out. The will is set in stone now. The statute of limitations has run out.”

  She snorted softly. “I’m pretty sure that’s not a real thing.”

  “And you call yourself an officer of the law?”

  “We’re like two ships in the night who keep crossing each other and have a series of near-misses but we just can’t seem to find solid ground and…”

  When she didn’t continue, he asked, “And?”

  She’d been wanting this for so long. Wanting him for so long. She swallowed hard, and though she meant to sound confident and matter-of-fact, her voice became a breathy whisper. “And will you marry me?”

  His eyes flew open at last, a little puffy from sleep and having been beaten to shit only days prior, but the boyish effect was all kinds of adorable.

  “You know,” she added when he just stared at her. “For Auri.” Her heart fought its enclosure as time slipped by. “I think it would make the whole thing easier for her to take if she knew we were engaged and going to be a family. If she knew that we”—she lowered her head—“that we loved each other.”

  His face remained expressionless and utterly unreadable when he said, “That’s a good point, Vicram, but we can’t get engaged.”

  She tried to hide the disappointment that surely flashed across her own face. The one that was most definitely filled with expression and very readable even when she didn’t want it to be. She nodded. “I know. It’s silly. It was just a thought.”

  A lopsided grin stole his expression, stopping her heart in its tracks. “We can’t get engaged because we already are.”

  She frowned at him, her brain racing with memories coming at her left and right. “Wait, that’s what you said in the truck,” she whispered in astonishment. “That night we were together, you said something important but I couldn’t remember what it was. You…”

  “Asked you to marry me? Yes.”

  “No.” Her brows snapped together, then she grinned up at him. “You didn’t ask me, so to speak. You suggested it.”

  He laughed. “Did I?”

  “Yes. I remember. You said, and I quote, ‘We should get hitched.’”

  He tugged on a strand of hair, and Sun could only imagine what it looked like at this point. “And you said?” he asked.

  “I said, ‘What took you so long?’”

  He eased back to study her as though impressed. “You do remember.”

  “Levi, all the time we wasted, all the moments we missed—”

  “We can’t think like that. We have the rest of our lives to make up for it, so we’ll have to pull a few double shifts. Coordinate our schedules. Auri might have to quit school so we can make up for all the camping trips we’ve missed. We could be out there a year or more.”

  “I don’t think it works like that. Maybe we should hold off on the whole thing until—”

  “Hey,” he said, his tone suddenly razor-sharp. “You already asked me.”

  “Yeah? Well, you asked me first.”

  “Either way, you can’t take it back without looking like a dick.”

  A surprised giggle bubbled up. “I certainly don’t want to look like a dick. Wait, since you left me a third of your shit, does that mean you’re rich? If not, I might have to embrace dickdom after all.”

  A grin as wicked as Levi was beautiful lit his face. “I’m penniless.”

  She heaved a heavy, weight-of-the-world sigh and sank back against her pillow. “Fine. I’ll support us, but you have to do the laundry.”

  “Done.”

  “And make me tacos.”

  “Done.”

  “And tell me I’m pretty.”

  “How ’bout I show you?” He dipped under the covers and Sun was sure she’d died and gone to a paradise where money and orgasms grew on trees. Because they do that in paradise.

  16

  Keep your marriage fresh by writing each other love notes like,

  “I considered smothering you with a pillow last night but didn’t.”

  —PRO TIP FROM THE ROADHOUSE

  “Mom! What are you doing? I have to meet Chloe in ten minutes.”

  Sun sprang up so fast the room spun. She looked around for Levi but he was gone. Had she dreamed the whole thing? Again?

  Then she saw the copy of his will on her nightstand, tucked under her clock radio, and sank back against her pillow. For two point three seconds before another screech echoed through the house.

  “Mom!” Auri shouted from the door that was three feet away from her.

  “Okay, okay!” They stayed up way too late, she and Levi. And it was all kinds of wonderful. His scent wafted around her, and she was sore in all the right places.

  “For real?”

  And then there was the gingersnap. She grabbed a pillow, the one that read THE MOM, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND, and threw it at her, rushing her daughter out of her room. Then she pulled on a pair of sweats and some slip-ons. “I’ll drop you off and come back to get dressed.”

  “Wait.” Auri appeared at her door again, half dressed with her hair like something out of a horror movie. “I thought you were going to be there.”

  “I will be. The second I get dressed. But I’m worried she won’t talk to you if she sees me. Don’t sweat it. I’m sending in some of my best deputies.”

  “Deputies?” she called out, having disappeared back into the cave that was her room. “Mom, how many are you sending?”

  “All of them, I think. They have to get coffee anyway, right? And this way the county will buy since it’s an undercover operation.”

  Auri burst out of her room, fully dressed at last, and grabbed her backpack. She took one look at Sun and stopped mid-step. “You’re going like that?”

  “What?” She looked herself up and down. “It’s not like anyone’s going to see me. I’ll drop you off at the corner and hurry back home.”

  She crossed her arms and thrust out a hip. “Mother, have you even met the people in this town? I’ll be surprised if a sheriff in a purple T-shirt that says INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: DON’T BE A DICK doesn’t make the evening news.”

  “What? It’s good advice.”

  They hopped in the cruiser and took a right on Main to scope out the scene.

  “She’s already here,” Auri said when they drove past Caffeine-Wah. Right before she hit the floorboard.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t want her to see us together.”

  “Yeah, but she knows you’re my daughter, right?”

  Auri crawled back into her seat. “Yes, but she doesn’t know you dress like a college kid with a fake ID at Daytona Beach.”

  “I’ve taught you so well, Padawan.” Sun parked next to the station. Caffeine-Wah was right next door. “Okay, Poetry and Zee are already inside. You should be good. You know what to ask Chloe, right?”

  “Yes. No. I think so. Crap, I should’ve made notes.”

  “Auri, if you want to back out…”

  “No. I started this, Mom. I need to see it through. I should be able to do at least that much.”

  “Hey,” she said, drawing Auri’s attention back to her. “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know. I feel like everything I do lately is wrong. Like I only get people hurt because I’m stupid and worthless.”

  Sun ignored her knee-jerk reaction, took Auri’s face into her hands, and said, “Honey, you are not, nor have you ever been, worthless. Your kidneys are worth a fortune on the black market.”

  “Really?”

  “Would I lie to you?”

  “I guess not.”

  “Yeah, let’s go with that.” She patted her cheek softly. “And we’re talking about this tonight.”

  “I didn’t mean it, Mom. I’m fine.”

  “Says every passive-aggressive human on the planet.”

  “It’s just, I’m the whole reason Cruz had to take painkillers in the first place. It’s all my fault.”

  Ah. It was going to be a take-the-world-upon-my-shoulders kind of day.

  Before Sun could think of a smartass remark, Auri filled her lungs, and said, “Okay, wish me all the luck.”

  “All the luck. And remember, I’ll be back in thirty to take you to school, so don’t even think about going to check on that boy of yours.”

  Auri grinned. “You think he’s mine?”

  “I think you have that poor kid wrapped around your little finger.”

  With Auri’s disposition doing a one-eighty, she hopped out of the cruiser and walked around the station toward Caffeine-Wah. Sun had already warned Richard and Ricky what was going down. Hopefully they wouldn’t hinder Auri’s interview. They tended to hover when it came to Aurora Dawn.

  A soft rap on her window jerked her out of her musings. She turned to see Quince, who was looking spiffy in his crisp new uniform thanks to a certain varmint who shall not be named. “What are you doing here so early?” she asked, rolling down her window.

  “Like I’m going to leave the redhead to fend for herself—and what the fuck are you wearing?” He leaned his head in to get a better look at her outfit, if one could call it that with a straight face.

  “What? I slept late.”

  “I can see that. You look like heck. What’d you do last night?”

  Besides make sweet love to the man of her dreams? “I organized a threesome.”

  “Without me?”

  “There were a couple of no-shows, but I still had fun.”

  “Nice.”

  “How’s Cruz?”

  “Mad that he’s missing the field trip.”

  “I would be, too. What field trip?”

  “The one that’s scheduled for tomorrow? The one taking a bus full of high school freshmen to the petroglyphs? The one your daughter is going on?” When she only shook her head, he added, “The one you signed the permission slip for?”

  “Oh, is that what that was for? I totally misunderstood the whole field-trip thing. Why is he so keen on going?”

  “Your daughter is going.”

  “Right, but he sees her every day regardless.”

  “Your daughter is going,” he repeated like she’d lost her mind.

  “Gotcha.”

  “He wants me to fire his doctor and get a new one.”

  “Did you tell him we only have the one? We’re a small town.”

  “I did. He’s insisting.”

  “Poor kid. I’ll be back in thirty. Don’t scare Chloe off by getting too close.”

  “Okay.”

  “But don’t get so far away you can’t see them.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “And try to be incognito.”

  “In my uniform?”

  “Do your best.”

  He nodded. “I’m on it, boss.”

  “And get me a mocha latte.”