“This has to go,” he says with a laugh.

I clutch it to me. “I’ll be naked,” I whisper.

“That’s what I’m going for,” he whispers back playfully. He tugs the sheet again, and I let it slide away from me. I pick up the pillow and put it over my face. I’m embarrassed, but I don’t want him to stop. I would stab him if he stopped right now. My clit is thrumming so hard that I can feel it in my entire body.

He whistles like a dockworker when my body is bare. His hands slide up and down my sides, gentle and soft, but with an intensity like I’ve never known. It’s almost as if he’s memorizing the lines of me. He pulls my hands back and says, “I’m so sorry. I think I just drooled on you.”

I laugh and lift the pillow to look down at him. But his eyes are on my br**sts. He cups them in his big, tattooed hands and plumps them.

“God, they’re so perfect,” he says. Then he takes my nipple into his mouth. It’s not a gentle lick. It’s a pull that reaches the very center of me. He laves my nipple, rolling it against the roof of his mouth as he toys with the other breast with his fingertips. I pull the pillow back over my face because if I keep looking at him as he looks into my eyes and plays me, I’ll explode.

“Matt, please,” I beg.

He lifts the pillow from my eyes and tosses it off the bed. His eyes are deep blue, his pupils wide and intense as he kisses his way down my stomach. “I told you I’d take care of you,” he says. “Patience.” His breath tickles my belly button just before his tongue dips inside.

Matt pushes my legs apart and settles between my thighs, his exhales teasing the little strip of hair at the apex of my thighs.

“I like this,” he says as he brushes it with his thumb. I arch my hips toward his pressing fingers.

“Matt,” I beg. I’m going to be a quivering, pleading mess if he doesn’t get on with it. “Please.” Oh crap. I already am.

His thumbs part my folds, and he slides two fingers inside me. I lift my head to watch him as he licks across my clit. But it’s not enough. I squirm, and he rewards me by pushing his fingers deeper. He crooks his fingers and presses down with his hand just above my pubic bone, and his lips latch on to my throbbing clit.

“Oh my God,” I breathe.

He lifts his head just long enough to say, “Nope. Just Matt.”

I thread my fingers through his hair and push his head back to where I want it. He latches on again, and licks against my clit in time with the thrusts of his crooked fingers. I grip the sheets in my hands, squeezing tightly, because Matt is about to break me. I can feel the build up. I keen and cry out and arch my hips to meet him. Then he starts to hum against my tender flesh.

I shatter.

I break.

I fall apart.

I come.

And Matt pushes me all the way through it. He takes me to the top of the cliff, and then he throws me over it. But he’s there to catch me when I fall. His fingers pull out of me while his gentle suckle on my clit turns to a solid, secure lick. He coaxes every tremor from me, every quake, every shake, and when I can’t take any more, I push his head back. He reaches back and pulls the rubber band from his ponytail. I messed his hair up, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He wipes his face on the sheet and then comes up to kiss me. I can smell me on his breath, but it’s beautiful. His hair hangs like a veil around us, but I can’t even lift my arms to push it back.

“You okay?” he asks.

I moan because words won’t even leave my throat. They’re stuck somewhere between my sated brain and limp body.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he says, and he falls over, landing beside my naked body. I can’t even turn my head to look at him. He kisses my cheek and rolls me over so that my bottom is nestled in his lap. “Go to sleep,” he says. His arm is beneath my head, and his other arm wraps around my waist.

I want to take care of him, too, but I can’t move. “I can’t sleep,” I murmur. “I have to pick up the girls.”

He presses a kiss against my hair. “I’ll wake you up in time,” he says softly. “Sleep.”

“You sure?” I murmur. It’s not like I could move if I wanted to.

“Let me hold you,” he says. He brushes my hair down between us and pulls the blanket over our bodies.

“Mmm,” I murmur. But darkness is already crowding the corners of my vision.

“I love you,” he says quietly, just as I let sleep overtake me. I let Matt overtake me. I let peace overtake me for the first time ever.

Matt

I wake up to the feel of a warm, feminine body draped over mine. I look down and see a blond head as it bends to kiss my chest. I reach down, gathering her hair as I say, “Sky?” and try to blink the sleep from my eyes.

She stills and looks up at me, her brows drawing together. “Who else would it be?” she asks. She’s straddling me, and she moves like she’s going to get off my hips, but I hitch my hands under her arms and lift her higher so I can kiss her. She resists. “Who else would it be?” she asks again.

She’s serious. Fuck. I messed that up.

“No one,” I say. I scrub a hand down my face. “I was asleep and you’re kind of kissing my chest and sitting on my dick at the same time, and I woke up and it seemed very strange. That’s all.”

“You knew who I was, right?”

I don’t even need to think about my answer. “Of course.” I did. Really, I did. “I was just confirming what a lucky son of a bitch I am by getting you to look at me while you kiss my chest and sit on my dick.”