Page 88 of Crossed Wires: The Complete Series

She took it all, every thick spurt, sucked greedily on his release.

His moans turned to pants, his pants to gasping giggles. It was the most perfect sound. The laughter of absolute pleasure. She loved it. As much as she loved him.

Which was more than she could find words for.

Slowly sliding her mouth from his spent cock, she rolled to the bed, letting her thigh drape over his chest as she rested her cheek on his hip. “Now that’s better than shopping.”

Dylan laughed, lacing his fingers behind his head. “Bloody oath it is.”

Monet smiled, the Australian expletive making her feel warm and fuzzy inside. Who would have thought she’d fall in love with an Australian cowboy?

More importantly, what was she going to do about it?

Tell him how she felt? Ask him to stay? Google Green Card applications?

“Dylan?” She shifted on the bed, pushing herself up to face him and tucking her knees under her chin. Her heart beat fast, thumping its way into her throat. Her lips tingled. “Would you…”

She paused. What was she doing? Was she really going to take the next step? Was she really?

He gave her a cheeky grin. “Would I what? Make breakfast? SingWaltzing Matilda? Make breakfast while singingWaltzing Matilda?”

Oh God, should she ask him? Ask him to stay with her?

“Would you…would you…like to have a picnic lunch in the park today?”

Chicken.

He looked at her, his expression unreadable, and for a moment she thought he was going to call her out. But then his grin returned and he sat up to place a quick kiss on her lips, the subtle perfume of her juices tickling her senses. “Sounds like a plan, Stan.” He swung his legs to the floor, kicked off the boxers still tangled around his ankles and pushed himself off the bed, crossing to the door. Buck naked and so goddamn sexy Monet wanted to moan. “As long as I don’t have to eat another hotdog from those sidewalk trolleys. Call me unadventurous, but I don’t think my delicate Aussie stomach is cut out for that kind of food.”

She laughed, even as her pulse pounded in her ears. Even as she tried desperately to hide how scared she was.

Watching him walk through the door, she stayed on the bed. Unable to move. It wasn’t until she heard the sounds of the shower running a few moments later that she finally succumbed to the fear gnawing away at her belly.

Fear. God, how could she have gone from rapturous pleasure to gut-churning fear so quickly?

Because you’ve fallen in love with an Australian cowboy, because there’s no guarantee he loves you back and, worst of all, there’s no reason you can possibly think of to ask him to stay in New York even if he did. Isn’t that enough?

She dropped her forehead to her knees and scrunched her eyes tight. “Bloody oath it is,” she muttered. “Bloody oath it is.”

Five minutes later, Dylan stood in her room again, his hair a tousled mess of damp honey-gold strands, his exquisitely muscled legs covered by faded denim jeans, his fingers buttoning up a soft black chambray shirt she hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t one he’d bought here, which meant it must have come from his luggage.

His luggage from Australia.

Because that was where he was from. And unless she said something, that was where he would return. Is that what she wanted?

Ignoring the question, she hurried off the bed. She couldn’t bring herself to think about Dylan being away from her anymore.

Chicken. Again.

“How ’bout a greasy, touristy breakfast at Ellen’s Stardust Diner?” she all but shouted, snatching clean clothes from her bureau. “And then we can brave the Black Friday madness and buy some cold cuts and French rolls from Whole Foods. A hotdog-free meal but still very New York.”

Dylan’s appreciative hum made her turn halfway through yanking her jeans up her legs. He leaned one broad shoulder against the doorframe, the dimple in his right cheek flashing at her. “I’m becoming quite partial to the idea of ‘very New York’.”

The buzz of her apartment’s intercom cut through the room.

Biting back a curse, she tugged her jeans all the way on, zipped her fly and walked to her front door, all too aware Dylan watched her the whole time. There was something going on in his head. She could tell.

Her buzzer sounded again, making her jump. And swear.