Page 10 of Just This Once (Stone Family #2)

Dante

T here’s something weird about opening the front door of your childhood home as an adult.

Like coming home and yet…not. Even weirder to open the door as an adult living back at home.

Because it’s not really. Not anymore. I mean, it always will be, with the scent of my mother’s lasagna and the familiar strains of “She’s Got a Way” filtering out from the kitchen, but I don’t feel like I belong anymore.

Even as Mom pokes her head out into the hall, smiling like she hasn’t seen me in years when she kissed me goodbye on the cheek this morning, reminding me not to forget my lunch like I’m in sixth grade.

“Hey, Ma.”

“Right on time.” She wipes her hands on a towel before gesturing me to the kitchen. I drop my gym bag in the corner and let myself be tugged into a chair opposite Dad.

He’s glued to his phone and barely acknowledges me with a “Good day?”

I scoot my chair closer to the table. “Yeah. Making good progress on the B she only had to allow herself to have it.

After soaping up my hand, I stroke up and down my length, spreading my feet, anchoring myself to the floor even as my mind takes me back to those too-few short hours with her.

Teasing and flirting and finally kissing those lips of hers.

Bittersweet dark chocolate. She is everything.

Curves and confidence and a no-bullshit attitude.

I imagine her beneath me now, her legs wrapped around my waist, her nails digging into my back. I imagine her on top of me, riding me, her head thrown back in ecstasy. I imagine finally getting her on her knees and sinking balls deep.

I stroke faster, my breath coming in quick gasps. I’m close, so close. And then I think about her face, her rare smile, her even rarer laugh. And that’s all it takes. I come hard, squeezing my eyes shut to the pleasure and pain of it all.

After a moment, I shift, standing directly under the showerhead, letting the water wash over me, sending the evidence of my orgasm down the drain, before I turn off the water and step out of the shower.

I towel off then wrap it around my waist as I walk into my bedroom.

And that’s when I see it. A text from Taryn.

In case I don’t tell you, thank you for the good work you’re doing.

My duchess, such a softie.