Kaleidoscope (Colorado Mountain #6)(67)
“And when do I give and you take?”
“Every day, sometimes more than once, when you tell me you really like me when you mean somethin’ else and I know my future includes hearin’ you comin’ home sayin’ ‘hey, puppy’ to Buford.”
That got him a soft look and her eyes fired in that way he liked a whole f**k of a lot but he wasn’t done.
“Because of that, for the first time in a long time, that future looks bright. You’re not the only one’s been lonely, Emme, hoping the right one will come along so you don’t go home to an empty house and climb into an empty bed. So you give every f**kin’ day, and what you give, I like takin’.”
Her body melted into his again and she asked, “You’ve been lonely?”
“Watched my boy fall in love with a good woman, watched her give that to him in return. It’s a beautiful thing, honey. You don’t know what you’re missing until you have it or see someone have what you want. When Chace got that, I knew what I was missing.”
She held his eyes then dropped her forehead to his chest but almost instantly tipped her head back.
“Pizza, restaurant bills, bar tabs, they’re yours,” she announced. “Big stuff, we discuss, but I’ll have a mind to you being a protective uber-alpha just as long as you have a mind to me having taken care of myself for a while and being used to it.” She paused, then quieter, “And spanking and taking it up a notch, just so you know, I’m willing to explore.”
Yes. Fuck yes.
Emmanuelle Holmes had it all.
His arms tightened around her and he murmured, “Deal.”
She rolled up and touched her lips to his.
When she rolled back, she asked, “Will you sort the stuff on the stove while I call in pizza?”
“Yeah.”
She gave him a grin and a squeeze. He returned both and let her go.
She lifted her hand between them and said, “Credit card.”
He got it out, gave it to her, hooked her around the neck and pulled her to him for a quick, hard kiss.
When he let her go, he got her dimple.
Then he got to watch her ass in her tight jeans as she walked away.
* * *
Three hours later…
Emme was collapsed on top of him, her face in his neck, her knees in the bed on either side of him, straddling him, her chest pressed to his, near on dead weight.
He ran his hands down the heated, soft skin of her bare ass and whispered, “Tender, baby?”
She mumbled, “Mm…” and fell asleep in the middle of mumbling it.
Totally out.
Deck smiled at the ceiling and wrapped his arms around her.
Suffice it to say, Emme got off on taking it up a notch.
In a big way.
Yes.
Absolutely.
His girl had it all.
* * *
Five days later…
Emme’s arm tightened around his stomach.
“Mm… no, honey, read here. I can sleep with the light.”
Her words were muffled since her face was mostly smushed in his chest. She’d just felt him make a move to leave the bed.
She liked him to stay close.
He liked to give her the option.
“Sure?” he asked
She didn’t answer. She was gone.
He carefully shifted, turned on the light on her nightstand and looked back down at her.
She didn’t even twitch.
He grabbed his book from the nightstand, shifted up the headboard and took her with him.
She didn’t move or make a sound.
One-handed, his other arm around her curled into his side, Deck opened his book.
Buford got up, circled the bed then collapsed on it lengthwise, four legs spread out, his groan sounding only after he was settled in.
Deck watched this and smiled.
His eyes went back to his book, and he smelled strawberries so they tipped down to Emme’s hair all over his chest. Her body warm, legs tangled with his, arm still draped over his stomach.
He looked to his dog taking most of her bed then to his girl.
Even as the blood in his veins heated, something warm settled deep in his gut.
This time, he was not going to miss it.
This time, he knew exactly what it was.
This was because he knew he didn’t have it totally right.
His girl had it all.
And now he did too.
Chapter Twelve
Bottom of My Soul
Two days later…
“Only you would grill chops in a f**kin’ snowstorm.”
Deck looked from the built-in grill on his back patio to Chace. They were outside. They were wearing jackets. They were drinking beer and Deck was grilling chops. It was, in fact, snowing. However, they were covered by the patio’s overhang.
“Look at these chops,” Deck ordered. Chace looked to the thick pork chops on the grill then at Deck and he grinned. Deck grinned back and finished, “Now, quit your bitchin’.”
Chace kept grinning then his eyes wandered to the huge windows and he kept his grin but it changed.
Deck looked that way too and saw Emme and Faye sitting on one of his couches. Emme, unsurprisingly, was talking. Faye was smiling.
Deck had to admit Faye was all kinds of pretty. The mountain girl next door. Even prettier now, heavy with Chace’s baby, glowing, happy, expectant.