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Amara wasn’t much of a morning person this sunny Saturday morning. She wasn’t feeling her usual energetic self, because last night had been Friday night date night, and I’d taken my time showing her how spirited I was on date night.

Still, as many times as I’d had her the night before, when I opened the bathroom door to see my navy blue sheet curled around her toned leg, stretching up over the pale pink of her naked body, I felt suddenly animated.

“Don’t look at me like that.” She said with a sleepy firmness that had my grin stretching.

I didn’t respond and she opened her eyes, squinting at the bright light of the bathroom that spilled into the room around me.

“I’m serious, Beckett. I’m exhausted. Dead to the world and you’re looking at me like,”

Fucking hell, the woman was adorable. She was propped up on her elbows now, her dark long hair an absolute mess around her tiny face. Her cute nose was scrunched and her full lips were pouting.

“How am I looking at you?”

“Like you want to work me out and over.” She flopped back to the bed. “I can’t.”

“You can.”

“Nooo,” she droned, nuzzling into my pillow. Her little arms came up and she hugged it, her body relaxing back into the mattress.

I decided she could most definitely be worked out and over.

I didn’t care that I’d just had a shower as I walked back to the bed, dropping my towel at the foot.

I crawled up the length of her body. “I’ll do all the work.

” I murmured, kissing a sliver of exposed skin over her hip.

“You don’t have to do anything.” I added, kissing another piece of skin.

And another, and another, until I’d made it to her shoulder.

I nipped her gently there and she moaned a throaty sound that had me feeling desire in every fiber of my being. “All you have to do is say yes.”

“No,” she moaned, but I could already hear it—her need for me.

I grinned and I knew she could feel it against her shoulder. I hovered above the sensitive flesh of her throat just behind her ear, blowing gently. She shivered. “Say yes, beautiful.”

“Beckett,” she sighed—and then she rolled onto her back. “Yes.”

I liked this woman sleepy, but I knew I’d love her sleepy and sated.

I set about achieving this new goal as I claimed her mouth.

She was on her back now, but still in a tangle with my sheets.

It was no matter; I’d had her so many times the night before, exhausting her to the point where she hadn’t even had the energy to put clothes on.

She might be wrapped up in my sheets, but she was still naked.

I took my time kissing her. Need for her swam through my veins, but I resisted.

I wanted to work her into a mess of need so strong and so intense; she’d be consumed with it.

So I kissed her long, and I kissed her gently.

I touched her with the exploration of a first time even though I’d had her countless times since the cabin.

But I knew it would never change. I could explore her beautiful body a thousand times in as many days, and each time it would excite me this same way.

I could never grow tired of hearing her breathy sighs, of feeling the flush of warm heat against her skin, of feeling the softness of her body beneath my own.

“Beckett,” she breathed and my need soared.

Still, I wasn’t finished exploring. When her hand came up in a sleepy motion to touch the side of my neck, I caught her wrist and brought her fingers to my lips.

I kissed each one, before pressing my mouth to her palm and then to her wrist where I felt her pulse racing.

This woman was a weakness like no other, and yet she was my strength.

I couldn’t fathom there was a thing on this earth that I couldn’t give her, if only she asked.

So when her blue eyes fluttered open and she whispered, “Make love to me,” I was helpless to refuse.

I took her. Soft and slow. Doing exactly as I promised—all the work. And then I joined her in the shower, because we both had to be up early this morning. She had breakfast with the girls before work and I had to meet Kaiden at the gym.

It was later in the afternoon while I was sitting at the island with my books open, unable to stop thinking about the way she’d leaned into me as we parted ways this morning.

Her breasts pressed to my chest and the sound of her throaty accusation, “you’re insatiable,” sent heat pulsing through my veins.

I’d never missed a woman the way I was missing Amara right this moment. I thought about texting her, but I sensed even that wouldn’t be enough. I needed to see her. Smell her. Touch her.

Slapping my books closed, I packed them up, grabbed my keys and drove determinedly to the Library.

That’s when I felt the ache I’d been culturing abate.

Joel, her co-worker, was pushing a cart of books toward her, and she was smiling.

It wasn’t the full smile she gave me, but it was something.

I liked seeing it. I liked knowing she felt safely content in her life now, and that smiling free was something she was able to let herself do.

It felt good knowing that in a way, I’d played a part in her finding her happiness.

When her eyes lifted and she caught sight of me standing with my book bag over my shoulder, leaning against a pillar, her smile got even wider. “Hey,” she mouthed, waving for me to come closer. I didn’t make her wait as I strode with purpose toward my woman.

Then, with a hand on her waist, I pulled her in close. Touch. I kissed her temple. Smell. And she pulled back to shine another full smile up at me. Sight. I had everything I’d felt so desperately that I needed.

“What are you doing here?”

I shrugged, playing off the feeling of intensity that had driven me to come to the Library. “I figured I’d study here. If I look at our kitchen any longer, I’m not sure what will happen.”

“That table,” she pointed to a free table beside the desk she worked at. “I’ll sit with you while you study.”

I raised a brow at the cart of books. “That so?”

“After I put these away.” She amended. “You know I’m a machine at stocking books, though.”

“True.” I did know that. “Meet you there in a bit.”

I watched as she moved away, lugging her big stack of books behind her. And then I thought, not for the first or the last time, that I was a lucky man.