“You were sleeping so deep you were snoring. I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Are you free for the afternoon? Wanna go to a movie or something? I just found out I have to go back to Boston. I’m sorry, it’s all the disability stuff. There’s an administrative hearing I need to be at. My dad is going along; he wants to go fishing afterward. DJ and Joe are meeting us in Yellowstone. I’m taking a road trip from Boston to Montana with my father, god help me.”

She laughed. “So you’re taking me to a movie to assuage your guilt?” She wiped off the counter and set the dishwasher as she came back out into the main room. “I’m kidding, jeebus, don’t look so guilty.”

“I hate leaving you. I won’t be seeing Sheila or anything.”

“I should hope not.” Erin laughed. “Todd, I don’t suspect you of trying to cheat on me with your ex. And I like that you’re going to do something with your dad and brothers. It’s a good thing.”

“I don’t want to be gone for two weeks. But Ben will check in on you. I expect Cope will too.”

“Two weeks?” She pouted. Just a little bit. “I suppose it’s a good time of year and all. And I have work to do at Adrian’s that I’ve been neglecting. I like to tend to his yard in the back.”

She paused and looked at him. It was the perfect time to do something she’d wanted to do for a while now.

“When are you leaving?”

“Tuesday.”

“All right then. Don’t make any plans Monday night. But you and I need to have lots of sex before then.”

He caught her, pulling her close. “That’s not a problem. What do you have planned?”

“I’d like to get my clitoral hood pierced. You’re not supposed to have sex for three days, and then there’s a two-week healing period. My nipple piercings healed really fast; I have a superquick metabolism. I had to do it twice, you know. I took them out when I was nursing Adele, and they closed up, so I did it again.”

His breath caught and his c**k pressed against her belly insistently. “Did it feel good?”

“The nipple piercings? Yes. I like a little pain. You know that. I feel a bit more worried about the hood piercing pain-wise, but there’s always ibuprofen. And you’ll be gone, so there won’t be any action in that area anyway. I want a vertical piercing so the ball sits right on my clit. Raven says it’s amazing.”

He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Christ. If your brother wasn’t next door, I’d f**k you right here.” He pulled her hand, drawing her to the front door, and she grabbed her bag.

“Hang on there, speedy. You can’t f**k me if you yank my arm out of the socket.”

He laughed. “My place is closer and currently empty. I’ll meet you there in a few.”

When Erin walked through his back door he was lying in wait, grabbing her around the waist, pulling her shirt off before they’d even made it to the living room, where he promptly bent her over the couch arm.

His mouth met her shoulder, hot and wet as he laid a kiss there, then a bite. He kissed down the line of her spine, pulling her pants off as he did.

Todd pressed the pad of his middle finger over her clit. “Here? Is this where the jewelry will touch?”

She arched into his touch, undoing him completely.

“Yes. It makes me wet just thinking about it,” she murmured.

He groaned. “Touch yourself for me. I want to watch.” He sat back on his haunches, at eye level with her ass and pu**y and watched her fingers questing between her body and the couch arm. The breath shot from him when her fingers disappeared into her pu**y and came back out, glistening.

He loved to watch her masturbate. She was fearless in taking what she wanted, from him and from herself. He didn’t know anyone who had as much self-assuredness as she did about sexuality.

“I want to hear you.”

She turned her head to the side so her sounds weren’t swallowed by the couch cushions. Low, deep moans slid from her lips, buffeted by her breath, which came shorter and shorter. Greedy thing, she made herself come in moments usually, never dragging it out.

She wriggled her perfect ass, f**king her fingers into herself while she worked at her clit with her thumb, until she gasped and he knew she was coming. He surged to his feet and pushed her hand away, guiding his c**k to her and thrusting deep.

Her muscles jumped and flittered around him as orgasm still rang through her body. Once he was inside her, he wasn’t going anywhere fast. No, he took his time, loving the curve of her back, the way she felt against him—soft skin, round where a woman was supposed to be.

He made love to her, touching her deep but not nearly as deep as she touched him. This wisp of a woman owned him heart and soul and he couldn’t remember what his life had been like before her, except that it had been colder and lonelier.

“Give me your teeth,” she whispered, thrusting herself back at him.

With a groan, his resolve to continue to f**k into her until his knees gave quickly flitted away, replaced by the need to mark the smooth, creamy skin of her back in a place only he would see.

The sound she made when he did it shot straight to his c**k and he came, her skin between his teeth, knowing he had the best thing ever.

22

Erin lay relaxed and perfectly still on the piercing table. “You sure you want to be in here?”

Todd jittered like water on a skillet. She knew he was torn between sexual excitement and concern. She also knew he wouldn’t leave her alone with Raven, who would do the piercing. He seemed slightly worried about Raven, but not everyone understood her. Raven couldn’t be defined or caught; she simply was. She was intensely loyal and loving, but as Brody had found out, trying to love her in return was difficult if you expected anything like a commitment from her. It simply wasn’t who she was or what she was capable of.