Having a woman in my home cooking for me was not something I had any experience with either. But I was pretty sure I could get used to it. Yup. Brynne had me hooked. Brilliant, sexy, beautiful, accomplished, a damn fine cook—and beyond fine spread out underneath me in my bed. Did I mention sexy and beautiful? I thought about bedtime for us later.

I took another bite and savored the taste. She had her hair up in one of those claw clips and a deep v-necked top in crimson that drew my eyes right down to her mouth watering ni**les which were budded up nicely and screaming for my mouth. A few long strands of hair had slipped from her hair clip and rested over the swells of her cle**age. Mmmmm…delicious.

“I’m glad you think so. This is really simple to make,” she said.

I watched her mouth and lips as she took a sip of wine, totally shocked I had spoken aloud and glad she thought I was merely talking about the food. “How did you learn to c**k so well?” I sputtered, “I mean cook!”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

I gave her a grin and a wink. “You do both so well, baby, my c**k and the cooking part.”

“You idiot,” she scolded. “I watched cooking shows and learned. My dad let me experiment on him after the divorce. You can ask him about when I first started cooking.” She laughed and speared another bite of dinner and popped it into her mouth. “But better not ask him about when I started cocking you!”

I laughed at myself and hung my head. “Not as good as this food you’ve made tonight then?”

“Not even close. My first attempts were awful, and Daddy paid the price. He never complained though.”

“Your dad is no fool, and he loves you so very much.”

“I’m glad you two talked it out. He really does like you, Ethan. He respects you a lot.” She smiled at me.

“Ahhh, well I feel the same about him.” I hesitated before bringing up her mum, but figured I should. “I don’t think your mum was too impressed with me today though. Sorry about that. I thought it best to introduce myself and tell her what I was doing in your life—I probably could have said it more tactfully though.”

She shook her head. “It’s okay. She actually said she’s glad you’re watching out for me, and that you sounded determined to make sure nothing happens…”

I caught the falter in her voice and wanted nothing more than to reassure her, but waited for her to finish.

“She thinks you’re obsessed with me though.” Brynne toyed with her chicken.

I shrugged. “I didn’t hold back with her, it’s true. I told your mum how I feel about you.”

She smiled at me. “She told me that too. Pretty brave of you, Ethan.”

“Telling the truth is not brave, it’s expected.” I shook my head. “It’s important to me that your parents know I’m not just providing security for their daughter.” I reached a hand toward her. “It’s important that you know that too, Brynne, because you’re so much more to me.”

She put her hand into mine and I gripped it, closing my eyes as well as my fingers around the delicate bones of her hand. The same lovely hand that had made my dinner tonight, and tied my tie this morning. The same hand that would be touching my body when I took her to bed and laid her out in a very short while from now.

“You are too, Ethan.”

I felt that possessiveness come over me again. I swear it worked like a switch. One minute I was tolerating our situation well, or thought I was, and then something was spoken, or alluded to, and bam, I went into—I need to f**k you now—land.

Her words were all I needed to hear. I rose up from my chair and took her with me, picking her up with my arms and feeling those long legs of hers wrap around my waist so I could carry her out of the dining room and into the bedroom.

She held the sides of my face and kissed me madly the whole way I carried her. I wasn’t complaining. I loved it when she was all sexed up. And Brynne could be like that.

Thank. Fuck.

I peeled her top and bottoms off her, not waiting for the foreplay of stripping, needing to see her body before I totally lost it. She had on a violet bra and a black thong. I groaned down at her from above. “What are you trying to do, woman, kill me?”

She smiled and slowly shook her head back and forth. “Never,” she whispered.

I leaned down and kissed her slow and sweet for that answer, but my heart was beating hard and fast. God, I loved how she was with me, so soft and alluring—accepting of me.

I loved many things about her.

I flipped her over onto her stomach and unhooked that pretty bra and ditched the thong. I just took in the sight and breathed out, dragging my hands down her back, her hips, the cheeks of her lovely ass and then back up again.

Once she was naked, I calmed some and slowed it down. I left my clothes on and stretched out beside her. She turned her face to mine and we just stared at each other.

I reached for the hair clip and took it away, spreading her hair out on her back and shoulders. Brynne had long, silky hair. I loved to touch it and drag my fingers through pieces of it. I loved when it whipped my chest when she was on top of me working out my cock. I loved to grab a huge handful and hold her with it while I f**ked her to a shattering orgasm and she cried out my name.

But I didn’t do any of that tonight. Instead I worked her over slowly and carefully, getting into all the places I have to be with my tongue and my fingers, making her come and come again before I got undressed and my c**k into her.

We fit beautifully together like this. Sex with her shattered me down to my deepest levels of complexity; even if Brynne wasn’t aware, I was. I don’t even know what I said to her during the heat of it. I say all kinds of things to her because she likes my filthy mouth. She told me so. It’s a damn good thing too because I cannot help it. The filter between my brain and my mouth is pretty much nonexistent.

I still didn’t know what I said to her after the explosive orgasm that had me so drained I began drifting off to sleep still buried inside her and hoped she let me stay there for a while.

But I knew it when she said, “I love you too.”

My eyes flew open and I stared into the dark and held on to her. I replayed the sound of those words over and over and over again.

Fuck. They’re going to do it. My heart started to pump as fear like I’d never known raced on adrenaline charged veins throughout my body. I’d been waiting for this to come. Deep down I knew it would but to save my sanity I’d pushed it away. Denial worked for a while but the time for that had expired.