With her curvy, warm body pressed up against his, he realized she was most definitely his. “Missed you,” he said.

“Me too.”

“You missed you too?” he teased.

She pulled back to look into his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“Maybe I want to hear it spelled out.”

Her smile faded. “I missed you, Jacob.”

He let out a rough breath. “Scared me there for a beat.”

She stared at him. “If you knew how much I missed you, you’d still be scared.”

Knees still a little weak, he sank to the porch swing.

With a small smile, she sat, mimicking his body language by slouching down a little so she could eye the sky. “You know, I never really realized what a great view we have here. You don’t know what you’ve got until you go anywhere else, where the smog and city lights minimize the stars. It’s amazing.”

“I know,” he said. “There’s no place like Colorado.”

“You’ve been all over the world,” she said.

“I know.” He tipped his head back and stretched out his arm. “This place does it for me.”

“I met your mom today,” Sophie told him, pressing her face into his throat. He smelled so good—he always did. “She’s…well, she’s pretty damn great, but you already know that.”

“Yeah,” he said quietly, turning his face to press it into her hair, like maybe he thought she smelled good too. “She tell you what a punk I was?”

“Was?” she teased.

He smiled into her hair and squeezed her. “Smart-ass.”

Laughing softly, she cuddled into him. “Hud was there too. For a minute I thought he was you. But then he smiled at me and I knew.”

“We smile differently?”

“Well, when you’re looking at me, you do.” She winced with embarrassment. “His smile is nice, but when you smile, it’s…”

“Not nice?”

She gave him a mock slug to the gut. “It’s just not the same kind of smile you give me, that’s all.”

“How’s it different?”

She bit her lower lip.

And he laughed.

She slugged him again, not so lightly this time. “You know!”

“You mean because I smile at you like I’m thinking about being buried deep inside you, so deep that you’re whimpering for more, begging me to ‘please, Jacob, please’ in my ear?”

“I don’t beg!” But she blushed because they both knew that she did.

Grinning wide, he caught her hand before she could hit him again. His reflexes were good. She knew that had been conditioned into him, a necessity with the life he’d lived. But it served him well.

Rising to his feet, he scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and then turned as if to take her inside.

She hung over his back, giving her a great view of his spectacular ass, which she smacked.

“Remember,” he said, palming her ass in his big hand. “Paybacks are a bitch.”

That absolutely shouldn’t make her quiver in excitement. “What are we doing?” she demanded, ruining the effect by being breathless.

“Going to make you beg.”

Oh boy…

Chapter 21

The next morning Sophie awoke to find herself wrapped in Jacob’s arms. They were face-to-face and she’d used his biceps as a pillow and the rest of him as her personal heater.

She’d spent the night.

Panicked at the thought, she held herself perfectly still, faking sleep for a moment while her mind raced. It was just crazy chemistry, she told herself. They’d had great sex and, exhausted, she’d fallen asleep. It happened.

But it felt like more. And she didn’t want more. She couldn’t do more.

Could she?

When his alarm went off, she nearly fell off the bed, but she forced herself to stay still, not sure what she was doing. Was she really going to feign sleep?

Maybe.

Jacob stretched a little, and because he had a muscled thigh between hers, she nearly moaned at the movement.

He leaned across her to turn off the alarm, brushing a tender kiss across her temple as he did so, before rolling out of bed.

When she heard the shower go on, she debated—run out like the demons of hell were on her heels, or wait him out?

Since the shower went off, like, two seconds later, she had no choice. She felt him watching her while he dressed, but she was extremely motivated to avoid an awkward morning after because…