Chapter 50

50

Grady

My love doesn't half-ass anything.

Including beating herself up.

Guess it's good for both of us that I've finally found my own stubborn streak.

I run her a hot bath, help strip her out of her clothes, which I'd enjoy way more if she wasn't wincing in pain with every movement, and then I rescue the cookies from the oven before they burn to a crisp.

The bathroom is small—everything in the house is small—but I prop myself next to the tub and feed her cookies and painkillers and openly admire her naked body in the water.

"Did you put magic healing ingredients in these cookies?" she asks. "Because I'm starting to feel much better."

"They're part of the whole get Annika better fast package."

"Who's running Crow's Nest today?"

"We're shut down for the day."

" Grady . You can't shut down. Not today. Not when the?—"

I put a finger on her lips, then a thought strikes me. "Does it hurt here?" I ask, tracing the delicate, plump skin.

Her eyes go three shades darker. She shakes her head and grimaces, which is both adorable and fucking hard to watch.

"No," she says. "My lips don't hurt."

"Huh. Guess that's a good thing."

Those beautiful lips spread in a smile. "Grady?"

"Hm?"

"Kiss me. Please."

"Am I going to have to do all the work?"

She laughs, then winces again. "Ow. Yes."

"You have a lot of booboos," I say as I lean over the tub. "Do they all need kisses?"

"Yes. But Mama could be home any minute, and Bailey's supposed to get off the bus at— oh ."

I cut her off by sealing my lips over hers, and her happy, contented, chocolate chip-flavored sigh makes me smile.

So does the way she sucks my lower lip into her mouth.

The way her nipple pebbles when I skim my hand over her breast.

"Does that hurt?" I murmur against her mouth.

"Touch me more."

Her breath catches while my hand trails lower, and she lifts her fingers to my cheeks and kisses me slowly, carefully, leisurely.

I want all the kisses with Annika.

Hard and deep.

Soft and sweet.

The quick peck on the way out of the door in the morning.

The full-body, leap into my arms welcome-home kiss at night.

Stolen in the middle of the day when she swings by Crow's Nest. Or wherever the hell I'm working.

In the backyard, watching Fourth of July fireworks.

While we're both covered in face paint for matching Halloween costumes.

Over a turkey in Ma's kitchen.

Everywhere.

Every day.

I slide my hand lower over her wet body, and I start chuckling into our kiss.

"What?" she asks.

"Always wet."

She giggles, and she's gazing in my eyes when I reach between her legs and stroke.

Her eyes cross, and her lids go heavy. "Oh my god, Grady."

"Too much?"

"More."

She's slick and hot and when I push two fingers inside her, she's tight and swollen and so fucking perfect.

"I don't deserve you," she whispers.

"I'm a pain in the ass. It'll even out in the end."

She laughs, then gasps as I graze her tight clit with my thumb.

"Besides," I add, "having a naked Annika completely at my mercy in a bathtub? Do you have any idea how many times I've fantasized about this? You are so fucking sexy."

"Look who's talking. You and your— ohmygod, more."

I slide my fingers in and out of her pussy while her breath goes ragged.

"That's it, baby." I add another finger, and she slips lower in the tub, her hips matching my rhythm. "You're so tight, but I know you can take more. I'm gonna fill you so good, you won't remember a time when I wasn't inside you."

"Are you—master baking—me?" she pants.

"I'm loving you."

She cries out and her walls clench around my fingers, squeezing so tight she's probably cutting off circulation, but I don't care.

I can get new fingers.

No, that's not right.

Blood flow will come back.

But making Annika happy?

That's priceless.

"I love you," I murmur as I lean in to capture her lips again while her whole body sags deeper into the hot water.

"I love you more," she replies.

We're both laughing through kisses, and that smile—that laugh—all of her.

Every bit of her.

She was worth the wait.