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Unlike last night, I take my time pleasuring her this morning. I want to know what she likes and how she reacts to different positions and angles. Having her turn over and raise her ass in the air, I don’t push boundaries with her yet, but I enjoy watching the way her head tilts back when I dip into her entrance with a slow and calculated drive. The intensity of her heat is felt deep inside me.

The curve of her hips highlights the small size of her waist. I can’t resist holding them while taking her from behind. I won’t last long, no matter how I try to stave off my release. So I reach around and focus on her bliss, her release becoming mine.

Through staggered breaths, I fall to the side, and she turns over on her back, and we lie together in the aftermath. She turns to face me with a sweet smile on her face, sweet being the opposite of what we just did. “I have a confession to make.”

I hate how my heart stops beating as if she’s about to devastate the world we just built. “What is it?”

“There was a bagel in that bag.”

Trying not to smile, I ask, “What happened to it?”

She rubs her hand over her stomach. “I ate it.” Biting her lower lip, there’s that mischievous look in her eyes again. “And I’m not sorry about it.”

I chuckle but then put on a straight face again. “What do you suggest we do to punish you?”

“I was thinking I could meet you here later and let you have your way with me.”

“Is that what you consider a punishment?” I ask, cocking an eyebrow. “Having sex with me.”

“No, Counselor, but spending the day away from you will be.”

Admiring the pink of her cheeks caused by the early morning workout, I say, “Who’s the charmer now?” She’s so gorgeous that I feel what she means deep inside me. I don’t want to be away from her either. “Natalie?”

Her eyes have closed, and her breathing is even. “Yeah?”

“Sex with you is . . .” I stop, the words getting choked in my throat.

When I fail to continue, she opens her eyes and caresses my cheek before kissing my chin. “I know.” Snuggling closer, she drapes her arm over my chest. I tighten my arm around her back and kiss her head. She whispers, “I feel the same,” against my chest.

We lie there in the sunshine beaming through a crack in the curtains. When I’m on the verge of falling asleep again, she says, “St. James.”

“St. James?”

“That’s my last name.”

She can’t see my smile, but that doesn’t matter because I’ll be wearing it for the rest of the day. “Natalie St. James is a beautiful name.”

15

Natalie

Nick Christiansen isthe definition of swoon worthy.

Look it up.

I should be exhausted after spending the night with Nick, but I’m not. I’m full of giddiness instead. I haven’t felt this good in so long and optimistic about the future professionally and personally. It’s great to feel like my life is back on track again.

After locking the apartment door, I lean against the back of it and fist my hands in excitement. Not wanting to wake Tatum because she’s a bear if she wakes up before ten, I squeal silently to release the energy coursing through me.

Do I go to bed to make up for the sleep I lost last night or get ready to slay the day?

Even though my parents don’t expect me to come by the office before lunch, I take the opportunity to impress them.Shower it is!Today is the day I save my business.

Knowing my mom loves when I dress up, I plan the perfect outfit for today while showering off my night, and Nick. His scent may be washed from my body, but my muscles ache deliciously as a reminder of him, a sensation I haven’t felt in quite some time.

Dressed and ready to go, I walk out of my bedroom to find Tatum leaning over a bowl of cereal. “Good?—”

“Shh!” I’m hit with a glare. I’d recognize that look anywhere—the slumped shoulders and squinting eyes even under the faintest sunlight, old makeup because she was too tired to take it off last night, and the shushing. Yeah, that’s a dead giveaway.