Excitement bubbled up out of me at the notion. “I could do that.”

“Yeah?”

I grinned, nodding. “Yeah.”

His answer was to tug on my bra, sliding the straps down my arms. He threw it over his shoulder and grasped my wrists in his hands. He slowly guided my arms above my head and brought his lips to a whisper above mine. I opened my legs wider and wrapped them around his back.

We both gasped at the feel of him throbbing against me.

“Tell me you love me,” he demanded.

I tingled everywhere at his fierce expression. “I love you. I love you more than I love anyone.”

His chocolate eyes smoldered. “Overachiever.”

I chuckled, the sound curtailed by another gasp as he rocked against me.

“I’ll never love anyone the way I love you,” he promised with a whisper in my ear.

Heat, need, and a rush of wet moved through me at his words.

“Come inside me,” I panted, tightening my legs around him.

His answering kiss was long and slow, as if he was savoring me. When we finally came up for air, I was pushing against his hold on my wrists with impatience. Wanting him now.

“Foreplay, my love,” he admonished as he held me down. “Need to make sure you’re ready.”

My eyes widened at the endearment. “I think you’ll find I am ready.”

Killian raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “I know I’m good, but I’m not that good.”

Lips twitching with the need to laugh, I replied, “I had an interesting reaction to you telling me you loved me like you did. Plus—” I pushed against his hold on my wrists and my inability to break it caused another tug of arousal between my legs—“apparently, I like you holding me down.”

Lust darkened in his eyes. “Is that so?” he murmured, shifting his hips against mine as he pushed into me. His nostrils flared at finding me wet, and tingles of pleasure scattered down the base of my spine as he glided deeper into me.

The pullback caused those tingles to flare like sparklers.

It was his expression that made the tension inside me stretch deliciously.

And it was something else entirely that made me come hard around his thrusts on a cry of his name.

It was knowing we had the kind of trust between us that allowed me to delight in him holding me down to take and give pleasure. The kind of trust I found when a man who kept himself so closed off to the rest of the world divulged the depths of his feelings for me without fear.

“Skylar,” he groaned, letting go of my wrists to hold my hips as he shifted onto his knees to power deeper, harder into me.

Delighted surprise flushed through me as I felt that tension start to rebuild. “Oh my God.” I curled my fists around the bedclothes above my head as Killian hit a magical spot inside me with each drive.

As my uninhibited cries filled the apartment, the need in his eyes burned brighter, shooting me closer to oblivion. I was vaguely aware of the headboard smacking against the wall as he thrusted into me with so much lust.

“Come,” he demanded through gritted teeth. “Come for me again.”

It was surely too much for his ego that I shattered with a garbled scream around his pounding drives on his command.

“Fuck!” he cried as my inner muscles squeezed around him, demanding his climax. His grip on my thighs turned almost bruising as he throbbed with hot release inside me.

His hips jerked in a prolonged shudder against mine. It was the hardest we’d both ever come and I felt slightly dazed by it as Killian groaned and collapsed over me. Little aftershocks caused me to pulse around him while he was still inside me. He kissed and rocked against me like he wanted to prolong the orgasm even further.

A pounding on the wall behind us stilled his movements and he lifted his head to look at me.

Laughter bubbled on my lips. “Maybe try not to shake the headboard so hard next time.”

We burst into laughter and he wrapped his arms around me to roll us so I lay on top of him. When our laughter eventually died, he said, “We need to move.”

“But your place is nice.”

“Nah.” He shook his head. “We need to live somewhere we can slam that headboard as hard as we want.”

“Surely your neighbor is used to it,” I teased. “Mr. Serial Monogamist.”

Killian cut me a look, like he knew my game and wasn’t walking into that trap. “Sex has never been like this for me. I’m addicted to making you come harder every time.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re too good at this.”

His body shook against mine in amusement. “I’m only telling the truth.”

I squirmed with happiness and admitted, “That was pretty spectacular.”

“Aye.” He agreed, kissing my forehead. “And I intend to repeat it, so we’ll look for somewhere more private.”

“It doesn’t even surprise me that we’re going to look for an apartment based on where we can knock the headboard against the wall without pissing off the neighbors.”

“Why should it?” He yawned, caressing my arm as his whole body relaxed beneath me, ready for sleep. “It’s the best reason I can think of.”

Smiling, I snuggled deeper into him, feeling more content than I had in a very long time. The truth was if he wanted to look for a new apartment so he could do that to me anytime he wanted, I was all for it. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Now sleep. We’ve got a lot to do when we wake up.”

We did. And the prospect filled me with anticipation.

How amazing was that, I realized. Not just to sleep to wake up to the day hoping to simply survive it.

I was going to sleep to wake up to the day to actually live it.

* * *

THE THRUM OF MUSIC VIBRATED through the walls and right into my chest. Nerves like I’d never felt before caused demented fluttering in my belly.

This was what I’d done for years. Why the hell was I so anxious?

I must’ve said it out loud because Autumn grabbed my hands in hers and replied, “Because this is different.”

This was different.

And it was a dream I thought had ended when I gave up a conventional career as an artist.

The small room I was in smelled of old cigarette smoke and beer, and the wall was covered in the autographs of the artists who’d played at the legendary King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow.

And now I was going to be one of them.

The door to the intimate VIP room opened and Killian strolled in. “You ready?”

Three months ago, when we’d sat across from each other at the breakfast table in our new small but perfectly formed apartment near Kelvingrove, I never expected what was about to come out of his mouth.

Killian and I found a new apartment pretty fast so he could concentrate on starting his own label. There was a lot of financial stuff involved and it would take a while, so he wanted to get the ball rolling. He wouldn’t accept my offer of financial support, and I understood that. He needed to do this on his own.

As for me, I hired a recording booth and a band, Killian guided me through producing, and we re-recorded my album. We still had the digital files from the recording at Skyscraper but to avoid any legal problems, we decided re-recording it on my own money was the safer bet.

After sharing a fantastic Christmas with him and Autumn, we flew first to LA to see my guys and Gayle. And then they supported me when I took my first trip back to Billings to lay flowers at my mother’s grave. It was not an easy time, and I wouldn’t have gotten through it without my two best friends there with me.

When we returned to Glasgow, I didn’t dwell and got back into the studio to wrap up the album in time for an end-of-January release. I self-published it. Posted that I’d self-published it on my social media and something magical happened.

My fans bought it.

They really bought it.

Autumn had stayed in Montana to visit with her friend at a ski resort on Whitetail Mountain so she wasn’t around for what happened.

But that’s another story entirely.

While Autumn was off changing her life for the better, my album hit number two on the US Billboard and charted in the top ten in the UK.

I honestly hadn’t expected it and was anxious about the chaos it created. We were still dealing with the paparazzi and Rick and Angus were still around, thankfully, but the crazy got crazier for a while because of the album’s success.