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“I guess we better make the most of it while we can,”

Carmela replied as she started unbuttoning Rhiannon’s pants.

Allowing herself just the briefest indulgence, Rhiannon sighed as Carmela’s adept fingers pushed aside the thin fabric of her underwear as she kissed her clavicle. Having discovered her weakness, Carmela used it against her every chance she got.

Unable to resist the temptation to go further, even though they’d woken up together that morning and had sex in the shower, Rhiannon blurted the atomic bomb of mood killers.

“Are you excited to meet my parents tonight?”

Carmela released her tortured skin like it was poison before relaxing back in her chair. “Are you sure I can’t bring anything?”

Rhiannon slipped o the chair and slid onto Carmela’s desk. “You definitely can’t bring food because she’ll be insulted and they’re not really big drinkers.”

“A plant?”

The worry etched in Carmela’s face made Rhiannon pull her out of her chair and into a hug. “Babe, you don’t have to bring anything but yourself. I promise. I’m not going to set you up for failure.”

“I want your parents to like me,” she confessed against Rhiannon’s cheek.

Pulling back to gaze into Carmela’s big, dark eyes, Rhiannon smiled. “They’re going to adore you,” she said with complete confidence.

“You don’t know that. They’re going to see us together and realize I’m way too freaking old for you. And what am I going to say? I can’t argue with that,” she added, getting herself worked up.

Rhiannon dropped her smile. She never thought about their age di erence, but Carmela seemed unable to ever

forget it. “I swear my parents are going to fall head over heels for you, okay? I guarantee it.”

Carmela looked up at her with fear-stricken eyes. “You might want that, but you can’t control what anyone else thinks.”

“Do you want to know why I’m so sure?” Rhiannon asked, her body shaking and her heart pounding in her ears.

This wasn’t how she expected to say the words, but they’d been wanting to break out of her since they were in Puerto Rico.

“How?” Carmela’s voice was barely a squeak.

“Because you make me so happy I can’t stop smiling. I freaking whistle in the morning, Carm. Whistle! Maybe it’s too early to say it, but I can’t hide it from my parents.”

Carmela moved closer, her lips hovering just over Rhiannon’s mouth. “Say it,” Carmela demanded in a needy whisper.

Swallowing hard, Rhiannon wasn’t sure they were thinking of the same thing. What if she bared her heart and scared her away? They’d already been spending every night together; the wrong move could freak her out.

“Say it,” Carmela repeated, nearly moaning as she squeezed her body between Rhiannon’s parted thighs.

Taking a massive leap of faith, Rhiannon confessed. “I love you.”

For a single, terrifying moment, Carmela didn’t react.

Then, her lips spread into a smile and she wrapped her arms around Rhiannon’s waist. “I love you too.”

HAVING DECIDED ON AN ORCHID, Carmela gripped the pot for dear life as she followed Rhiannon up the walkway toward her parents’ house.

“Don’t worry,” Rhiannon said with her hand on the door,

“they’re going to love you.”

The word sent Carmela’s brain reeling back to the heady moment hours ago when they’d confessed the depth of their feelings for each other.

“Ready?” Rhiannon asked, snapping her back to the present.