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“You look beautiful tonight.” She wore a short red and white sundress with skinny straps, with a V-neckline that showed off her cleavage. Her skin had a golden tan from the time they’d spent in the sun, her hair was a luscious brown and fell to her shoulders and over her breasts in beautiful waves. Her eyes were dark brown and mysterious.

“Thank you. But you already said that.”

“Can’t be said too often.” He abandoned her feet and ran his hands gently over her calves. She looked and felt soft, but he knew how strong she was. As a woman who performed a lot of hard, physical labor, she was a lot tougher than she looked. But right now she was soft and giving and he couldn’t wait to slip inside that welcoming sweetness.

She laughed softly and moved her feet, then leaned in to kiss him. He cupped her breasts through the fabric of her dress and they both groaned. She unbuttoned his shirt and helped him slide it off over his shoulders. Then she turned her back to him.

“Unzip me.”

He did so, kissing her nape as he slowly pulled it down. Then he slipped the straps off her shoulders and pulled the dress down to uncover her breasts.

She turned around and he caught his breath as her breasts spilled free of the dress. “Your breasts are amazing.” They were high and full, with pink nipples that tightened as he looked at them. He licked one and then the other, swirling his tongue around the second one and sucking it into his mouth and releasing it, only to do it again. Damaris’s head fell back and she murmured her pleasure as he continued to cup her breasts, sucking one nipple and rolling the other in his fingers.

As he sucked her nipples, he slid his hand down between her legs and slipped a finger inside her. She sighed and raised her hips, clenching her muscles around his finger. He withdrew and pushed two fingers inside her, pumping them in and out slowly.

“Nate,” she said, panting. “You’re driving me crazy.”

“Other way around,” he murmured. He worked his way down her body, laying kisses along her skin, down to the delta of curls.

“What are you—what are you doing?” she gasped when he replaced his fingers with his mouth.

Looking up, he smiled at her. “Guess.”

She gasped as he got busy. “Oh, my God.”

She unraveled, coming with a scream. He couldn’t wait any longer. He put on a condom and plunged inside her, pumping hard. She was soft, wet, and swollen, tightening around him while he thrust in and pulled out. She wrapped her legs around his waist and met him stroke for stroke, until the tension built and he exploded inside her with a shout.

He didn’t want to squash her, so, still inside her, he rolled to his back, taking her with him. “That was amazing,” she said after some time.

“You’re amazing.”

Was he dreaming to think Damaris had started to relax, was beginning to trust him, to realize how good the two of them were together? He hadn’t come right out and told her he loved her, but he’d implied it in a hundred different ways. It would take someone a lot more oblivious than Damaris not to realize how he felt.

Chapter Sixteen

“There’s something different about you,” Hazel said.

Hazel had called that morning, wanting to meet at Booze’s for lunch. They’d snagged a booth in the corner, had their drinks and were waiting for their food.

“Why do you say that?” She sipped iced tea, eyeing the sugar and trying to decide if she really needed sugar or just wanted it. To hell with it, she thought, grabbing a couple of sugar packets, opening them, and dumping them into her tea.

“I don’t know. I just—” Her eyes widened and she stabbed her finger at Damaris. “You had sex!”

Damaris felt her face warm. Silly, but there it was. “What? Do I have it tattooed on my forehead?”

“I knew it! Did it happen when you went to San Diego?”

Damaris couldn’t help smiling. San Diego. Every night. Every day. Every amazing, wonderful night. And almost every night since.

“Tell me all,” Hazel demanded. “I need to live vicariously through you since absolutely nothing is happening to me.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“Don’t try to distract me. Tell. Was it romantic? Was it wonderful? Is Nate a good lover?”

“Hazel!”

“Oh, come on. I’m not asking for details. Unless you want to give them,” she added with a cheeky grin.