Page 151 of Learn Your Lesson

All the pain had been erased, word by word, thanks to the man to my right.

He barely took his eyes off me throughout the dinner, and when I told the story of how Coconut came to join my little family, he hung on every word like it was gospel.

Then, as we all laughed together, he covered my hand on the table with his own.

My heart leapt into my throat when he did, soaring into the sky and sinking into my gut at once. It was the most incredible, powerful feeling, to be claimed by him like that, to feel the action behind every word he’d spoken earlier. And yet, it was new, unfamiliar, terrifying.

Chef and Mitch grew quiet when it happened, sharing a look over their wine glasses before they went back to eating with little smiles of victory on their lips. And when I chanced a glance at Ava, she was completely unbothered. She smiled at the gesture, and then proceeded to kick her feet under the table while she did her little happy dance she often did when mac and cheese was on the menu.

Will squeezed my hand in his, and I bit my lip, disbelief dancing with the most unbridled joy in my belly.

After dinner, Mitch helped Chef clean up, and then they were headed out the door. Will and I spent time with Ava, who was very sad her father wouldn’t play a game of paper towel hockey with her until she’d rested her ankle for at least a week. But she settled for a book and an imaginary cookie baking with her teddy bears, and then she let us tuck her in, already falling asleep before we could turn on her nightlight.

It was just the two of us, then.

Wordlessly, Will wrapped my hand in his, tugging me down the stairs and into the dark hallway that led to his bedroom. We’d no sooner made it through the door before he was shutting it behind me, pressing me into it, and kissing me senseless.

His lips warmed mine, and I sighed, melting into his touch like it was the first time. The tension in his shoulders relaxed, too, like he’d been waiting for this moment, for the second he could get me alone and touch me how he wanted to.

Like always, he was all-encompassing, his hands traveling the length of me before they were in my hair and cradling my skull. He had the power to make me feel so small and yet so cherished, protected and revered.

“I love you,” he whispered on a sigh, punctuating the declaration with a long, deep kiss.

“You just want to hear me say it back.”

He grinned against my kiss, spinning me and backing me up to the bed. “You caught me. Now give me what I want.”

“Say please.”

I fell back into the mattress, and he was immediately crawling over me, his lips marking every inch on the way up to my mouth.

“I’ll beg all night, if that’s what you want.”

I moaned when he hiked my thigh up and pressed his desire against me, his mouth claiming mine.

“Please, Chloe,” he growled, rolling his hips and sparking a wave of chills. “Say it.”

“Fuck me, Daddy,” I whimpered, writhing against him.

He balked, whole body freezing as I grinned and bit my lip.

Then, he was laughing, shaking his head and digging his fingers into my ribs. “You little brat.”

“Mmm, gonna spank me?”

He tickled me mercilessly, until I was thrashing and nearly crying from laughing so hard. I pusheduntil he let me climb on top of him, and then I straddled his hips and framed his head with my hands in the mattress, lowering my mouth to his.

“I love you, you impossibly frustrating man,” I said, kissing him between each word. I ground against his erection with a sigh. “Now give me whatIwant.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

We were all hands after that — fingers sliding buttons through fabric, zippers unzipping, clothing being shed left and right. We laughed as we maneuvered one another, the dance not graceful or sexy in any capacity, but then we were bare to each other, warm bodies pressing against one another and trembling with need.

I clawed at his back when he flipped me into the comforter and began kissing his way down between my thighs. I wanted him inside me, impatient as ever, but he just grinned against my skin and took his sweet time making me writhe beneath him.

Every press of his lips against my skin was searing hot, a branding iron I didn’t want to run from. I longed for his name all over me, for him to leave his mark for me and all the world to see.

“I’m going to taste this sweet cunt every fucking day for the rest of my life,” he rasped, licking me with one hot, flat strike of his tongue that had me bowing off the bed.