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CHAPTER 30

A SOFT KISS on my shoulder woke me from possibly the best night’s sleep of my life. Then another kiss, and another.

“You awake, Diamond?”

I turned so he could see my smile. “That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever woken up to.”

“Better than the time Dan hired a stripper to serve you breakfast in bed on your twenty-fifth birthday?”

“Definitely.” Although that dude sure had been pretty. “Maybe even better than coffee.”

“That’s some compliment coming from you.” Black nuzzled my neck. “And it’ll only improve with practice.”

Practice makes perfect, that’s what they say. Although in my eyes, he already was.

Black had given me a reprieve from the gym this morning, so I snuggled back against him and closed my eyes. Last night was seared into my memory, filed under A for Amazing. I only regretted that we’d taken so long to do it, but Black was right—before, I hadn’t been ready. And I couldn’t deny he was worth the wait.

With that thought, I made him a promise. “I’m going to try really hard not to run away from things from now on.”

“I’ll handcuff you to the bed if you even consider it. Although the running away option seems attractive this morning. How many people were in the house last night? Were they all planning to stay?”

“The handcuffing option seems quite attractive, too.” I grinned at him then wrinkled my nose at the thought of the guests. “I expect most of them will have slept here. There was a river of champagne flowing.”

“Just when I want you all to myself.”

I shared his sentiment, but we were totally out of luck. “That won’t happen for weeks. Mack’s apartment got flooded, so she’ll be here for a while. And if she’s here, Luke will be too. And the Takedas, at least until the baby’s old enough to fly back to Japan.”

“Plan B.” He disentangled his arms and rolled out of bed. “Come on. It’s not light yet, so nobody else’ll be up. We can sneak out.”

I got momentarily distracted by his abs and, er, other things. “What?”

“You, me, and a pair of handcuffs. Just for a few days. We can start unravelling what’s left of this mess when we get back.”

“What did I say two seconds ago about not running away?”

“I prefer to think of this as a strategic retreat.”

“Nate’s gonna go crazy. I promised him I wouldn’t take off again.”

“I’ll tell him it’s my fault. Are you coming?”

Definitely. Of all the decisions I’d ever made, that one was the easiest. “Of course I am. What do I need to pack?”

Most of the time, we stayed in one of our other homes, and I didn’t need to pack a thing. But the idea of a quiet hotel somewhere, a little privacy, nobody knowing who we were… Yeah, that appealed.

“Don’t pack much. I’m not planning on either of us wearing many clothes.”

This trip sounded better and better. “Where are we going?”

“Did you get your birthday present?”

“The car? Yes, it was amazing. Such a surprise. I nearly told the bloke delivering it to get lost because I wasn’t expecting it.” I stood on tiptoes and kissed him. “Thank you.”

“Oh, yeah, the car. Glad you liked it.”

“What’s that got to do with packing though? Are we going somewhere hot or cold?”

I dropped onto the edge of the bed as Black stopped in front of the window and stretched. That view. I’d never, never get sick of the sight of it. Unsurprisingly, Black caught me looking and turned around.

“Like what you see?”

“Sure do, honey.”

“Well, you need to stop looking. If we don’t leave now, we’ll end up downstairs eating waffles and cooing over the baby.”

Waffles, yes. Baby, no. Tiny little people scared the life out of me.

“Fine. But you still haven’t given me a clue where we’re going.”

“I need some sun. That okay with you?”

I’d spend a week in a cave as long as Black was with me, but somewhere hot sounded perfect. “Bikinis it is.”