“Yep. He didn’t knock, did he?” Toni turned her phone so that Logan came into view in the corner of the screen.

Birdie beamed. “Hi, Logan! Mom let me use her phone. Now Toni can read to me and I can see her.”

“Awesome. She can read to me too.”

“No, she cannot,” Toni said, her cheeks blazing again. There was no way she was letting Logan see her acting like a complete fool on purpose. He got to see her acting like one accidentally far too often as it was.

“Please, Toni,” Birdie said.

“Please, Toni,” Logan mimicked as he slid a hand up her thigh out of view of the camera. She caught his hand before it disappeared under the leg of her sleep shorts.

“Sit over there.” Toni shoved him so he’d move out of reach. She didn’t want to become an inferno of insatiable need in front of her little sister. After she hung up? Well, that was another matter entirely.

“Only if you promise to read to me.”

Mr. Grabby Hands reached for her boob, and she smacked his hands away.

“Fine!” Toni said. “But you can’t laugh at me.”

“Can I laugh with you?”

“Birdie, it’s time for bed,” Mom said from out of sight on the other end of the line.

“Not yet,” Birdie complained. “Toni is still reading to me.”

“Five minutes.”

“Hurry, Toni!”

Toni wasn’t sure if she could do this in front of Logan. She took a deep breath and said in her best Cheech Marin impression, “My name is Meee-ster Featherface. You keeled my cheeek-ken, prepare to die.”

A strange snorting sound came from Logan’s general direction as he tried to swallow a laugh. No good. He cackled with glee until Toni gave him her death stare, and he stiffened, releasing an occasional snort as he tried to contain his mirth.

“I don’t think that’s how it goes,” he said. “I’ve seen the movie dozens of times.”

“The book is better,” Birdie said wisely.

“I don’t recall a chicken or a Mr. Featherface,” Logan said.

“Mr. Featherface is our rooster,” Birdie said.

“You have a rooster?”

Toni nodded. “They’re kind of necessary on a chicken farm.”

“I still can’t picture you as a chicken farmer,” Logan said, shaking his head at her. “Do you wear overalls?”

She laughed. “On occasion. Actually, Birdie is in charge of the chickens. Isn’t that right, Buttercup?”

“Yep!” The chirp came loudly out of the phone’s speaker.

“So your rooster plays the part of Inigo?” Logan asked.

“Yep. I’m Princess Buttercup and my dog Jonesy is Prince Hump-and-stink,” Birdie said. “And Toni is Tozinni.”

Logan lifted his brows at her. “Tozinni?”

“Vizzini, the mad Sicilian,” she clarified. “There aren’t many female characters in the book.”

“Do the funnest part, Tozinni!”

Oh, what the hell. If Logan could handle her many quirks, surely he could tolerate her reinventing parts of a book to keep herself entertained as she reread it for the billionth time.

“Do you know that sound, Highness?” Toni asked with a lisp that rivaled Daffy Duck’s. “It’s the shrieking peels.”

“Shrieking banana peels!” Birdie yelled. “They’re going to attack the princess. Oh help. Help meeeeee!”

“Inconceivable,” Logan said, shaking his head grimly.

Birdie giggled, and Toni couldn’t help but laugh with her.

“Your five minutes are up,” Mom said, taking the phone from Birdie.

“But, Mom . . .”

“I’ll call you tomorrow afternoon, Buttercup,” Toni said.

“We’re going to the dunes tomorrow,” Logan reminded her.

Toni wasn’t sure if she’d like racing dune buggies through the desert, but Logan was keen on getting her involved in all his insane hobbies.

“Make that tomorrow night,” Toni amended, smiling when Birdie’s face came back on screen.

“I miss you so much,” Birdie said, her eyes watery with tears.

Toni blinked back a few tears of her own. “I miss you too. Good night, Buttercup.”

“Good night, Princess,” Logan said. Toni turned the screen in his direction so Birdie could catch his wave.

“Will you be Westley next time?” Birdie asked him. “Please!”

Logan bowed his head graciously. “As you wish.”

Birdie was still grinning when Mom disconnected the call.

“Thanks for humoring her,” Toni said, setting the phone aside. “She’ll love you forever.”

“It’s hard not to love her in return.”

Toni smiled. “I know exactly what you mean.”

“And it’s impossible not to love you.”

Toni’s heart thudded as their eyes met. “I know exactly what you mean,” she whispered.

Logan grinned. “I like this newfound confidence in you.”

“Huh?” It eventually dawned on her that he thought she meant it was impossible not to love her. She still had a hard time accepting that he did, so she wasn’t yet capable of bragging about it. “I meant it’s impossible not to love you.”

He shrugged, looking devilishly irresistible as usual. “Improbable, maybe, but not inconceivable,” he said with a pronounced lisp.

She smacked him in the face with a pillow, and he tackled her to the sofa. He kissed her, chasing all teasing thoughts from her mind and replacing them with X-rated versions. He shifted his hips between her legs, and she could feel him hardening and lengthening through his jeans and her shorts. He pulled her glasses off and set them on the coffee table. He was close enough that his gorgeous face appeared perfectly clear, and for once she was glad for her myopia. It gave her an excuse to make him stay so close she could feel his warm breath against her sensitive lips.

“What are you going to teach me today, sensei?” she asked, as always, ready for a new adventure with her talented instructor.

He threaded his fingers through her hair and stared deeply into her eyes. “I think it’s time you graduated. With honors.”

She grinned. “Mega cum alotta?”

“That sounds appropriate,” he said tersely.

“Or inappropriate,” she teased, but he wasn’t teasing her back.

Her grin faded. He looked far too serious for Logan. She touched his face, and he closed his eyes, pressing his cheek into her palm.

“Is something wrong?”

He shook his head and opened his eyes. She’d never tire of staring into those expressive, soulful blue beauties.

“You’re planning to stick around for a while, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Forever, if you’ll let me.”

He nibbled on her lower lip, sending sparks of pleasure down her throat. Her nipples tightened, suddenly craving his attention.

“Toni, you can’t be my sex student forever,” he said.

“I can’t? Why not?” This sounded like being dumped. Was she about to be dumped? She could not handle being dumped.

“Because we’re in a relationship now.”

She loved that he said it. Loved even more that she knew it to be true. “So?”

“Sometimes I just need to fuck you without a lesson plan.” His fingers tightened in her hair, tugging in a way that she probably shouldn’t find exciting and pleasurable, but did. She couldn’t ignore the way the ache in her scalp made her pussy throb.

“Like now?” she asked.

“No, right now I need to be tender and you need to stop asking so many questions.”

“But what if I don’t know what to do?”

“You’ll know.”

He ground his still-clothed erection into her clit and then shifted his hips so that his cock was massaging her opening through their clothes. She groaned, surprised by how much she wanted him already. How much she always wanted him. She wondered how couples ever left their beds. Would the passion between them always blaze this brightly? God, she hoped so.

She opened her mouth to ask him what he wanted her to do, but snapped it closed again when she remembered he no longer wanted to instruct her. At least not formally. Did he want her to initiate their lovemaking? Or was he just going to drive her nuts by rubbing himself against her so that she was undeniably aware of what she was currently missing thanks to his jeans and her sleep shorts?