“Do you have any idea what you do to me?” He sucked her other breast.

“I’m concentrating on what you’re doing to me.” She arched her back, offering up more sweet skin.

“I’m going to be doing a lot more to you here in a minute.”

She palmed his jeans. His cock was hard and pulsing, and the brief touches of her damp flesh against it were driving him fucking insane.

No more waiting.

Not tonight.

She finally found the condom in his pocket she’d been looking for. She pulled it out, ripped it open, and worked it over his cock. Her arms pushed her breasts together like the best damn offering he’d ever been presented with. He buried his face in her soft cleavage, sucking, kissing, and licking. Back and forth, he took one nipple into his mouth, then the other. Devouring her in long draws and coming back for more.

When she’d covered his cock with the condom, she wiggled and tried to get closer, but he cupped her ribs and lifted her until her hot flesh was right above his waiting cock.

She gripped his shoulders, looked him in the eye, and whispered, “Please.”

It was all he needed to hear. He set her down on him, impaling her as he went.

They gasped together. She was tight, hot, drenched, and it was all for him. All the pent-up need of the past few days, hell, the past few months, were finally culminating in this single moment.

“More,” she begged, clawing at him. One word with so much meaning: deeper, harder.

Gage wanted more, too. He sat forward on the couch and tugged her knees until she was wrapped around him.

He thrust deep. “Like that, sweetheart?” She nodded vigorously while grinding her hips against him. No up and down, that’d be too much space. He was sheathed to the hilt and wasn’t fucking going anywhere. He stayed deep, rocking enough to hit her every inner inch while she worked him right back.

Grinding and moving. So damn close he could feel her everywhere.

“Missed you. Missed this,” she said.

“Me too,” he rasped. He reached between their bodies and spread her sex with two fingers so that her clit rubbed against his lower stomach.

“Oh, God, so good,” she moaned. As she whipped her hips in his lap and he delivered deep thrust after thrust, her slick little bundle of nerves glided along his abs, and with every sweep, her channel gripped him tighter.

“Lean back.” He cupped her waist and held her steady as she obeyed. Her back arched, breasts high and round, those pink nipples pointing to the sky, and her long hair danced around his shins.

She was at his mercy. His. And he had a front row view of her sexy body spread out and at his disposal. She trusted him to hold her, and that was a gift he wanted to take. He’d hold on to her now and every time he returned. He’d keep her safe.

“Hold on,” he growled. With a tight grip on her, he leaned forward, never breaking their connection, and laid her on the floor, following her down. “I’m just getting started with you.”

Her legs locked tighter around him as he thrust into her, over and over, each time harder and deeper than the last.

“Yes! Oh please, please baby.” She’d never used an endearment with him before—it was like a shot of sugar to his veins. He reached beneath her, grabbed her shoulders, and pulled down as he plunged up. He was being rough, but he couldn’t stop. He needed to feel her everywhere.

Good thing she didn’t want him to stop.

Her fingernails scoured down his back. “Right there!”

He growled, loving the sting. The raw, wild passion. It was all Chloe. All he thought of when he was away from her. All he wanted when he was near her.

He fucked her impossibly hard, and she was there to take it all. When her tight sheath clamped down on him, her body tensed and gifted him with her release.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” he whispered in her ear as she let herself go. “Show me how much you missed this. How much you want it.”

She moaned and pulled at him. Writhing, shivering, begging. She was gone—spiraling into a powerful orgasm he was proud to have given her. And he was there to cover her. Catch her. And go with her.

His balls were heavy, and he couldn’t resist anymore. With her name in his throat, he pumped in and out while he shook with his release.

Slickened with sweat and breathing against him, she cupped his face and kissed him wildly. His cheeks, his chin, his nose. Rained down praise and satisfaction without saying a word. It was these moments he felt immortal. Nothing could touch him so long as he had her praise. As long as she wanted him.

Yet one word kept beating in the back of his brain…

More.

Chapter Six

Chloe dropped in some change, opened the newspaper bin, and grabbed a fresh copy. After the other night with Gage, it was difficult to think of anything but him. Or his body. Or the way he owned hers.

But she had a restaurant to run and an event around the corner.

She opened the newspaper on the side of a busy street and skimmed through it.

“Damn it,” she huffed, taking apart the newspaper and reading the social section another time to make sure she hadn’t missed the article on her restaurant.

“What are you doing?” Michelle Ruby asked, stepping out of her boutique. The fashionable city woman owned and ran Chic Storm, and judging by the few looky-loos hovering around the storefront display, the boutique was doing well today.

Which wasn’t surprising. Even though Michelle was relatively new to town¸ her high-end fashion apparel was already a staple around Beaufort.

“Just checking the paper.” Chloe crumpled it back together. The sun was already burning off the morning dew and making way for a bright summer day, yet a gray cloud hovered right above her head.

Michelle looked at the paper. “Are you job hunting or something?” Her bright red hair was fastened into a bun, and her light blue eyes were lined with smoky kohl that made her look like a Paris model.

“No, I’m looking for something. The paper was supposed to do a little article about my restaurant.” And her mother. “It was supposed to come out last week, but I still haven’t seen it.”

Last week. As in exactly five days ago. Chloe had been so excited and had gotten up at dawn to get the paper, but the article hadn’t been there. She’d checked every day since, even the online version, but had seen nothing.

Silly thing was, it was important to her. Yes, the article would help advertise the anniversary, but it was more than that. The piece was about her mother, how she’d opened the bar with little more than a dream and a small business loan. Twenty years later, it was the center point of the town. And it was struggling. Chloe was determined to bring back the joy and light that made the restaurant great, including her mother’s food. Just the possibility of this article gave her a flare of connection to her mother. Like others could still experience her memory.

“Oh, I saw that!” Michelle said. “It was an insert a few days ago.”

“An insert?”

She nodded. “Yeah, like a little two page spread. Had some pictures and a story about the bar and its origins. The woman who opened it was really incredible. She renovated her house into a restaurant!”

Chloe nodded. “Yeah, I know. She was my mother.”

Michelle gasped. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She clasped her hands together. “I should have put that together. Let me go check to see if I saved the insert.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

She nodded and hustled into her boutique while Chloe gripped the paper tighter. She already knew what Michelle would say when she came back. It was an insert, which meant she’d thrown it away. Chloe knew Michelle had done that because Chloe had done that. The inserts in the paper were usually a bunch of ads and the local grocery store deals of the week. She hadn’t thought the article would be amongst the filler.