“Fuck, Gage!” I screamed, breathless as his length filled me. I clenched around him, bucking against each of his thrusts as he controlled our speed with the strength of his hands.

“I love it when you say fuck,” he growled, angling me to get deeper.

I moaned and he leaned down closer to me, wrapping his free hand around the back of my neck, and lifting me enough to meet his mouth. His kiss was as consuming as the way his cock filled me, and I writhed beneath him, never wanting him to stop.

Which is exactly what he did, shocking the hell out of me as he went still against me.

“Let’s move to the bedroom. You deserve a bed,” he whispered against my lips before kissing down my neck. He wrapped his arms around around my hips as if to pick me up, but I grabbed a fistful of his hair and jerked him to me.

“Don’t you dare stop,” I ordered. I would not let him go. I refused to give him a moment to think, to take me to his room and remember all the reasons he’d kept me out of there since I’d moved in. I secured my legs around his waist and moved them back and forth, forcing him to pump inside me.

“Ahhhh, fuck. I don’t normally take orders, Bailey.” A low growl rumbled in his chest but he let me take control as he buried his face in my breasts, jerking the tight fabric down just enough to take one of my nipples in his mouth.

“You do now,” I moaned as he lightly bit it before rolling his tongue along the tip. Pleasure shot through me, streaking from my nipples to where he was buried deep inside me. “God, yes.”

He thrust harder every time a word slipped out of my mouth, and when he nipped at me again, all the muscles in my body clenched, tightening with need for another release.

“Come with me, Gage,” I begged. I wanted him to, needed him to let go with me completely. I needed him to be mine without a doubt, if only just in this moment.

He grew even harder inside me, the friction creating the most delicious flames that licked every inch of my body, inside and out. I gripped him with my thighs, securing him as close to me as humanly possible.

“Fuck. Bailey,” he sighed my name as I came around him, all the heat in my body soaring as I felt him release inside me.

He sighed, his body slightly trembling before he dropped his against my chest. We laid there on the kitchen island, silent except for our heaved breaths.

I tangled my fingers in his hair, combing through it as we both came down from the incredible high he’d taken us to. I didn’t know if it was the costume, the empty house, or the tension that had built between us since I moved in, but I thanked whatever happened inside his head for him to finally lift the restraints on us. And now that I knew what I’d been missing, I didn’t want to go back to the way things had been before.

The realization that I’d slept with Gage McPherson—my best friend, the father of a little girl I loved, and my boss—sent waves of warmth cascading through me. We’d been perfect together.

And it was then, with him on top of me, in the kitchen where I made him and his daughter breakfast every morning, that I knew.

I no longer was falling.

I’d fallen.

Now the question remained, would I become just another bunny of his? Or would he finally trust me enough to let me claim him for myself?

 

 

Chapter 11

 

 

Gage

 

 

The sun was out, and I felt it more than in the sixty degree high we were expecting today. There was a lightness in me that I was cautious to call happiness, but it was there all the same.

I knew exactly who was responsible for it: Bailey.

Last night...God, she’s been so perfect that I wanted to wax poetic. My eyes strayed to the section of the counter I’d taken her on, and my body inconveniently reacted.

Jesus, you fucked her three times last night, settle down.

Once in the kitchen. Once in the shower. Finally, once in the bed when we’d woken up this morning. We hadn’t really gotten around to talking about what happened, though. She’d been gone by the time I’d gotten out of the shower, and I wasn’t expecting her until later when we’d give Lettie her present a day early.

It was hard to hide a swing set the size of a small building.

“—so that’s when I told her that I wasn’t really looking for something serious,” Rory said, pulling another beer from the fridge and me from my own thoughts.

“Sounds fair to me,” Warren said with a shrug. “You got those, Gage?”

“Yeah,” I said, taking the last beer and slipping it into the cooler.

Beverages on ice and ready for delivery, we carried the cooler out the back deck and down the flight of stairs to the only level place I had in the yard.

“Beer!” Rory called out.

While the other Sharks grabbed a cold one—half the team had shown up to help build this thing—I surveyed our almost-done handiwork. The castle itself was huge, with two towers that boasted rock-climbing walls, and two slides. A set of swings came off one end, and a little zipline would be on the other. Maybe she wasn’t quite big enough for the zipline, but it had been really fucking cool, so I purchased the add-on.

“Wow, it looks amazing,” Bailey said from behind me.

I turned immediately, a smile already on my face as I found her standing in overalls with buckets and a huge toolbox. “Hey, I didn’t think I’d get to see you until later.”

She gave me a timid smile. “Your mom took her for a birthday pedicure, so I thought I’d get started on that dragon we talked about.”

“Yeah, that sounds fantastic. Are you sure you don’t mind?” Her talents were way better than the side of a soon-to-be four-year-old’s play castle.

“I’d love to. That way she’ll always have a piece of me here.” That sad smile of hers reappeared.

“Well, I love the idea, but you’ll be here, too, right? Is something wrong?” Fuck. Had I screwed up last night? She’d come at least five times. I’d counted. I’d wanted to make sure that if she ever left my bed, she’d have an impossible time replacing me.

Then again, I was kind of hoping she wasn’t going to want to leave.

“No,” she said, but she was looking at her feet.

“Bailey. We’ve been friends since we were kids, I think I can tell when you’re lying.”

She looked up and hit me with those gorgeous eyes of hers. “I’m fine, seriously. I just… we didn’t really get a chance to talk about…”