“Can I hear it?”

“It’s not ready yet. Soon, though. Are you traveling with us to Kansas City tomorrow?”

It’s my roundabout way of asking her when I’ll see her again. Call me a coward, but asking her outright feels like crossing a line I shouldn’t. Even after everything that happened tonight.

“Nope,” she says with a shrug. “I have to attend an event in Los Angeles. So you’re free of me for a few days. I’ll be working both shows weekend after next in the Carolinas, though. And New Orleans and Nashville.”

“Ah. Well, I guess I’ll try not to inhale too much grease while you’re away.”

She’s coming closer so I set my guitar aside.

“You do that.” The words fall from her lips as her eyes flicker to my recently exposed appendage. When she looks up our gazes slam into each other with the force of two Mack trucks behind them.

I need more of her tonight. I don’t know how she’s going to feel about this. Hell, I don’t know how I’m going to feel about this. But right now I know that I need more. Neither of us is leaving this room until we are physically unable to seek out any more pleasure from the other.

“Drop the sheet, baby,” I command gently. “I need to see you. All of you.”

She does so, offering her body up like a sacrifice.

I stare openly, memorizing every inch, every angle and curve in case this is the last time she’s laid bare to me this way.

“Dallas, I want—” Her chest rises with an intake of breath I feel like she pulled straight from my lungs.

“Take it.” I reach for her, resting my forehead on her stomach and closing my eyes when I make contact with her bare skin. “Whatever you want, it’s yours.”

I’m completely still when she lifts my chin and straddles my lap.

There’s nothing between us, no layer of protection. It’s reckless. Risky and pretty damn stupid. But the need to feel her without a barrier is greater than my need for safety or common sense.

She watches me, her eyes seeking permission and telling me that she trusts me. Begging me to be careful with her.

I close mine and let my head fall back so that they don’t make any promises I can’t keep.

Robyn eases onto me and it’s like having my heart ripped from my chest and shoved back in. Her bare breasts brush against my chest, her nipples tightening against my skin. Her pace is torturously slow and my dick begs me to pound into her. But this isn’t for me. I let her take what she needs without interfering.

When I open my eyes as much as I can manage, I see the contentment etched into her beautiful face. She begins to move faster, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip, and I hold on to my restraint with a white-knuckle grip. The veins in my neck are probably straining hard enough to burst.

“I’m on the pill,” Robyn whispers in my ear. “You can let go.”

“You first.”

An incoherent word, maybe a curse or maybe my name, slips past my ear and she slams down harder and harder, pushing me nearly past my breaking point.

I almost don’t make it, but thank fuck she falls apart around my cock, stiffening then trembling on top of me.

I stand, lifting her limp body and carrying her to the bed.

Once I’ve lowered her gently on the mattress, she gapes at my still fully hard length. “Oh God, Dallas. You didn’t . . . I don’t know if I can take any more.”

“Oh I think you can, sweetheart. Besides . . . only one way to find out.”

I remain standing and run my fingertips down the length of her left foot. Once I reach her ankle, I massage my way to her inner thigh before starting over on the right side, this time placing openmouthed kisses in the trail left by my hands.

Robyn moans when I reach the apex of her thighs with my tongue.

“You taste so damn sweet. Always have, always will.” The kisses I place on her swollen center are gentle at first. Almost innocent aside from the location. But the more she writhes beneath me, the less I’m able to control myself.

She’s throbbing against my mouth, causing me to ache to be back inside her. I need to be inside her again, need to feel that cresting wave hit hard and break over my cock. But I want to prolong the sensations for as long as I possibly can.

Placing one last hard lick up the length of her pulsating flesh, I inhale her scent as deeply as my body will allow and then stand upright. Taking each of Robyn’s ankles, I place them on either of my shoulders and stroke her center with my dick.

“D-Dallas,” she moans on a shaky breath.

“I got you, sweetheart.” My view is fucking incredible as I watch my cock disappear into her tight, wet heat. Her entire body bucks from the intrusion but I’m done going slow, done taking it easy on her. I want to soak up every second with her that I can in case this is all I ever get. “I got you.”

I need every last ounce of pleasure she can give me right now. So I take it.

My alarm is ducks quacking today. I have to change it up from time to time so I don’t become immune to it. The irritating sound propels me upright in an attempt to find the offensive device.

Once I locate it and hit snooze, I realize I’m alone. The bed is empty beside me. Robyn’s purse is gone and so is she. Glancing back at my phone I realize it’s 7:45 in the morning. So either she had to catch an earlier flight than mine, or she hightailed it out of here as soon as I passed out.

I replay last night’s events to determine if I might’ve done something to make her upset. After multiple orgasms, she was fairly malleable in my arms.

Our last conversation comes back to me—the whispered one we had in the darkness just before we fell asleep.

I yawned, a huge, wide-mouthed, groaning, back-stretching yawn, and Robyn giggled in my arms.

“Did I wear you out, Grandpa?”

“Cute. No, but you slept for several hours, thank you very much. I stayed up and wrote.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’m probably going to walk with a limp tomorrow.”

I grinned into her hair. “Fuck yeah, that makes me feel better.”

“I told you it had been a while. I didn’t know you had a sex marathon in mind.”

I tightened my grip around her body. “Me, either. Two in one night’s not something I normally do.”

“No? No all-night orgies with groupies then?”

For some reason, her tone pissed me off. Or maybe it was the accusation itself. “I don’t sleep with groupies.”

Robyn twisted in my arms so that she could face me. “Seriously? Never?”

“Never. Is that really what you think of me? That I’m just in this to hook up with my fans?”

She stared into my eyes for a full minute before answering. “No,” she said slowly. “But I think you’re a human being and most guys wouldn’t be able to resist a ton of girls throwing themselves at them night after night.”

“I’m not most guys, sweetheart. You know this.”

She settled back into my arms, nestling her pert little ass against me in a way that nearly necessitated a third round. “I’m glad.”

“I’m still me, Robyn. No matter what’s changed between us, I’m still me.”

That was it, the last conversation we’d had before I passed out. I couldn’t figure which part had sent her running.

But I damn sure intend to find out.

14 | Robyn

“I’M STILL ME,” HE’D SAID BEFORE FALLING ASLEEP.

I’d been about to snuggle down into that blissful murkiness of sleepy time when he’d said it.

No matter how much he’d changed, Dallas was still Dallas. And maybe I had a college degree and a big-girl job, but I was still the same girl he couldn’t forgive. I’d been an idiot, pushed him away so that he wouldn’t let my mom’s illness stop him from chasing his dreams. By the time I realized how unfair it was and how much I needed him, the damage was done and Dallas Lark had moved on.

I was the one who’d needed space, but Dallas ended up being the one to walk away for good.