The Long Way Home (Corps Security #6)(32)

“Missed you,” he says after a brief silence.

We don’t break our gaze while those two words hit me and I soak up the importance of them. He hasn’t been shy in letting me know he has deep feelings for me, but until now he’s never said anything remotely close to that.

“I …” I clear my throat, the emotion just a little too thick. “I missed you, too,” I continue on a whisper, uncurling my fingers from his shoulders to wrap them behind his neck to frame his face with my palms. I give him a shy smile before I lean forward and place a small kiss to his lips.

“Well, that’s new,” I hear Ella chime into the silence.

He lifts his lips away from mine and with a small squeeze to my butt, he helps me drop down to my feet.

I lean my body into his side and wrap my arm around his center without realizing I had done it. That is, until his arms snake around to shift me. My back to his front, arms around my body engulfing me in his scent and he pulls me a little harder against him. His very hard front pushing into me, making me shift as need takes over. I know they can’t tell what’s happening between us, but I’m practically coming undone just from feeling his hard cock against my back.

“That’s definitely new,” Ella continues, eyes as wide as her smile.

“No, it isn’t,” Riley sings, running over to Ella and giving her a hug before giving Grace the same treatment.

“What do you mean, little bouncy bean?” Ella asks, her eyes not leaving mine and Drew’s direction.

“Auntie and my giant are special friends. You know, like the bestest of friends that hold hands and mouth kiss each other.”

Grace has the decency to cover her laugh, but my best friend absolutely does not. She tosses her head back and laughs loud and long. Riley joins in, little giggles that tell me she has no idea what she’s laughing at, she’s just laughing because that’s what kind of little angel she is. Loving life, that girl.

“Mouth kiss, huh?” Ella gasps when she finally stops laughing, reaching up to clutch her chest in mock shock. Playing this up for all it’s worth, apparently.

“Yup. Those.” Riley places her hand over her mouth and laughs a little harder. Her body moving with each one that escapes her adorableness.

“Wow, Riles … that is quite the news. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this sooner. You holding out on me, girlfriend!”

She smirks and I should have braced while I could. I should have known she would manipulate Riley into more confessions.

“Auntie even got a spanking the other day. She wasn’t giving him his …” she looks over at us and oddly nods after a second. Just like Drew does when he’s studying us for something only known to him. “Sweetness.”

“Oh my gosh,” I gasp.

Grace stops covering up her laughter up at this moment and joins Ella when she lets out even more loud giggles of her own.

“I don’t think you should keep your sweetness from him, Auntie.” Riley continues, to my horror. “Why would you not want to be sweet to my giant?” She glances back to Ella. “So you see, that’s why she needed a spanking.”

I open my mouth to shut this down at the same time that my back starts vibrating and the man pressed tight against it bellows out a deep, rich and smooth as honey laugh that is so spectacular to experience the whole room goes silent … well, minus Riley, who is laughing with him and looking at him as if he was holding the moon out toward her in his arms. I wish I could see his face. When he laughs like that the man deep inside him that is rarely shown bursts forward. I close my eyes and picture how breathtakingly handsome he looks in these moments. Soaking in his velvety laughter, no longer as rusty as it was when we first started this thing between us. That youthfulness he rarely shows enveloping the room around us. I feel so much lighthearted excitement from just hearing his laugh, I have no doubt would be knocked flat on my tail if he wasn’t holding me.

Ella’s eyes meet mine and I see the shock in hers. I’ve been blessed with this man’s laughter for almost three months now, she hasn’t seen it once though. I know from experience how heart stopping it is to see his handsome face when he lets go like this for the first time so I completely understand her reaction.

“Well, I really didn’t see that coming either,” Ella whispers when he stops laughing.

“What?” Riley asks.

“Him,” she responds, pointing at Drew.

“How did you not see him? He is right there, silly goose.”

She reaches out to ruffle her curls. “Takes some people a little longer to see what’s in front of them,” she adds without looking away from Drew and me. Something tells me she’s talking about a lot more than not seeing this side of Drew before.

Riley giggles, but doesn’t spend any time mulling that over. She launches over to us, gives Drew a hug with me in the middle before taking off and running out of the room toward her playroom in the back.

“Don’t mean to interrupt, but I was hoping to steal the rest of this woman’s time today,” Drew rumbles low toward Ella and Grace.

“Are you actually speaking?” Ella crazily asks.

“Uh,” I start, but snap my mouth shut when he snickers low in his throat.

“I am.”

“To me,” she adds.