CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
SKYLAR
NOT-SO-BREAKING NEWS: I miss you.
I CAN BARELY SIT STILL ON THE RIDE BACK TO ROSE HILL. I WOKE UP earlier than expected this morning, considering I stayed up late into the night talking to West on the phone. I’m fairly certain I fell asleep that way.
Waking up with my phone in my bed rather than him was enough to spur me into action. My bags were already packed, so I tried my hand at getting an earlier flight. And it worked.
Now I’m just enduring the three-hour drive back to Rose Hill. Which feels like its own special brand of torture. I want to snap my fingers and be in his arms.
The trip back to Los Angeles hadn’t been as bad as I expected. I managed to keep my cool while being interviewed. Talking about a song or an album that I actually feel passionate about had words rolling off my tongue.
Nothing I said was a lie, nothing I did was for show. There’s something freeing about loving your work so much that you don’t give a flying fuck if anyone else does. And that’s this album—Photosynthesis. And from the
moment I heard the playback—just me and Ford Grant Senior on his acoustic guitar—I knew I loved it enough that no one could pop my bubble.
I wouldn’t let them. Even my dad milling around walking on egg shells bothered me less than I thought it would. Knowing he couldn’t touch this project gave me peace. He wasn’t worth the fight, and so I chose to ignore him.
I felt secure in myself for the first time. Because, for once in my life, I knew where I belonged—what I was going home to.
And West was man enough to let me go do what I needed to do. He didn’t cling to me or make me feel guilty for leaving. He didn’t gaslight me or make it about him. And after a lifetime spent around self-centered men who treat me like I can’t do anything myself, there’s a comfort in knowing West believes in me so thoroughly that he doesn’t try to overstep.
There’s a man who will do everything for you.
And then there’s a man who is secure enough to realize there are things you need to do for yourself—who steps back and revels in watching you soar.
That’s the man who’s your biggest fan.
That’s West.
My throat aches as we turn down the backroad that brings me closer to him. “That sign, right there.” I point to the Sparkly Turquoise Unicorn Ranch sign that still dangles from the official one and smile with watery eyes. It’s
more sun-bleached than it used to be.
It’s more perfect than ever.
When the tires hit the gravel driveway, I sigh and melt back into the town
car’s leather seat.
Home.
Sure, I stayed at a house I own in Los Angeles, but this? This is home.
The sun hangs low in the sky, and I can feel that nip in the air as we barrel toward fall. Some leaves here in the valley already look suspiciously yellow. I close my eyes and let myself imagine this place in the winter.
Bluebird skies. Pine-covered mountains turned to snow-covered mountains.
Skating on the lake. Tobogganing with Emmy and Ollie. Hot chocolate.
Morning snuggles.
Excitement surges in my veins, and a sense of peace wraps itself around
me at the prospect.
Yes. This is where I want to be.
When the car pulls to a stop, I leap from the back like an excited child. I
don’t bother going for my suitcase. I don’t even close the door. Instead, I jog up the front steps to the farmhouse, flashes of my first day here flitting through my mind. The kids’ tea set. Bikes. West in his ridiculous apron.
I fling the door open. “West?”
“Sky?” He sounds surprised, and I grin as I kick my shoes off and go searching for him.
“Sky?” His footsteps thud as he jogs down the creaky stairs. “You back
early?”
“Missed you!”
“Aw, Cherry, I missed you too.” They hit the landing and my heart stops in my chest. It’s only been a week, and I missed him. I’ve never truly missed
a person.
It’s fucking gut-wrenching. I hate it.
“Hi,” I breathe as I take them in. Cherry is perched comfortably on West’s shoulder. Both of them look so happy to see me.
Suddenly, I feel a little uncertain about what I should do next. Throwing myself at his feet and sucking his dick seems a little extreme, considering the driver is probably about to bring my bags into the house. And Cherry might pick up some new colorful language if she heard the mouth on West.
I settle on smiling at them, wide and relieved and unencumbered.
“Love you!” Cherry adds, right before…flying to me.
My parrot, who hasn’t spread her wings in years, swoops across the space between us and lands on my shoulder. Stunning me.
I stare wide-eyed at West as she nuzzles her head against my cheek.
“Love you! Love you!”
“Did she just? Did you—are you a parrot trainer now?”
He scoffs, and I realize he seems just as alarmed as me. “We spent a lot of time together this week, but she has not done that.”
Cherry’s body flexes as she takes off again. Back to West. When she lands, she pecks at his tightly cut fade. “Like you! Like you!”
I tear up watching this bird, who was treated so badly, finally feel safe enough to fly.
Cherry and I have been in this thing together for a long time, and watching her take a chance has tears spilling over my lashes.
She never likes anyone. But she likes West.
Again, she flies. Back to me, where she nuzzles and tells me she loves me. “Feed the horses?” She says it like a question.
“Feed the horses?” I stare at West, who is still staring at me.
His tongue darts out over his lips as his gaze rakes over me. “Yeah.
Doing night check alone was depressing, so I made Cherry my assistant.”
I nod, lips pinched together, and look back and forth between the bird I love and the man I love.
Because I do. How could I not? Did I ever stand a chance? It wasn’t even a choice. It just is.
“Ma’am, I’ll leave your bags here at the door. Is that okay?”
I turn to the portly man who drove me all this way. “Of course. Thank you so much.”
Then he’s gone, and West’s eyes bore into mine.
“Get over here, fancy face.” He holds one arm out, and within seconds, I close the distance between us. My head on his chest, my arms clamped around his ribs. He grips me, holding me tight against his hard body, and I
feel it again.
Home.
“I never want to leave again.”
His broad palm smooths over the back of my head and he chuckles. “That seems excessive. How will we take vacations?”
A watery laugh spills from my lips as I nuzzle against his sternum and let the sound of his heartbeat soothe me. “You know what I mean.”
“Then you don’t have to leave. Literally, whatever you want. It’s yours.
Me. This place. The future. Just tell me what you want, and I will do everything in my power to give it to you.”
I sigh as his words sink in. The future. I very much want that with him.
“I want to go to bed and be naked with you all night long and only stop to have you feed me bizarre variations of grilled cheese sandwiches.”
“Want to be naked!”
West’s body shakes with laughter. “This bird is one of my new favorite people.”
“She needs to go to bed now, or she’s gonna develop an even worse mouth than she already has.”
He lets me go and steps back. “Off you go, Cherry.” When he holds his hand out, she takes a little jump onto his waiting arm. Without complaint.
And without shit-talk.
I watch West put her back in her cage, murmuring to her about how he promises to take her back out for night check.
I’m not sure I’ve ever wanted to fuck him more.
Which is why I don’t wait. I don’t talk, fearing it might slow us down.
Instead, I take his outstretched hand and let him lead me up the stairs onto the second level of the sun-drenched farmhouse. In the master bedroom, it’s clear that he has been preparing for my return. The cracked windows allow the linen drapes to flutter across the hardwood floor. The bed is impeccable, as if he agonized over smoothing out every wrinkle on the blue-and-white patterned duvet. It’s so fresh that I can smell the laundry soap on the soft breeze.
My eyes flutter shut, and I inhale his signature smell, the soap, the light pine scent that always permeates the air here in Rose Hill.
Home.
He turns on me and my gaze lands on his baby blues, flashing with need.
With love.
“Strip.”
I bite down on my lip and quirk an eyebrow at him. “The pictures weren’t enough?”
“It’s never enough with you. I’m greedy with you. I always want more, more, more.” He steps closer, thumbing the bottom hem of my shirt like he’s considering whether he should remove it gently or rip the fabric from my body. “It felt like I couldn’t breathe when you were gone.”
He focuses on his fingers, still tugging at my shirt. “I’ve never felt like that before. It feels like that sometimes when the kids are gone. But you too?
It was…”
“It’s almost like you’re my number-one fan.” I reach out and caress his forearm to comfort him. West’s an actions kind of guy, so I’m not oblivious to this being a vulnerable moment for him.
“No, Skylar.” His eyes snap up to mine. “It’s almost like I love you.”
I hiss in a harsh inhale. He couldn’t breathe while I was gone, and I can’t
breathe right now.
“Almost?” My voice shakes.
“There’s no almost. No question, no doubt in my mind. I love you, Skylar Stone. I think I fell that day on a backroad. The first moment I laid eyes on you.”
I blink. And I think. And I try to wrap my head around what he’s telling me. I’m not sure anyone has ever loved me like that. With such surety. With no qualifiers.
I never have.
Until now.
My palms land on his pecs, and I slide them up over his chest until my arms link around his neck. “Well, thank god for that. Because I’d hate to love you the way I do and not have you do the same.”
Then I kiss him.
I pour myself into it. Into him. Us.
Everything feels right in the world. It’s not. But somehow knowing West loves me makes me feel like things that are wrong aren’t so insurmountable.
My parents. My royalties. My anxiety.
In his arms, everything feels better.
We undress each other with torturous care. Every graze of his hand over my bare skin sends a wave of gooseflesh out in its wake.
Every touch is reverent. Every word is tender. Every look holds promise.
West and I have done our fair share of fucking, but this is not that.
I have the sinking suspicion—cheesy as it sounds—that I’m about to make love for the first time in my life.
Stripped naked, our clothes splayed across the floor, we take a minute to admire each other. Full light and not a shred of shyness between us.
His body is roughly hewn, hard and masculine and big. There’s nothing refined about West, and that’s what I first found so damn appealing about him.
That was before I got to know his heart. His mind. He’s so much more than meets the eye.
His big hands cup my head, and he kisses me as he walks me back toward the bed. We tumble onto the soft, fresh sheets, still warm from the sun. They feel almost as delicious as the weight of him on top of me.
One gentle hand trails down my body, exploratory and expert. I arch into him when he gets to my breast, first palming and squeezing, then plucking at my nipple. He moves down, his mouth finding my opposite nipple.
He sucks, he licks, he nips. He makes me see stars. And then he moves to the other and does the same.
“West, West…” I’m breathlessly moaning his name on repeat as he works my body. God, he hasn’t even gotten inside me, hasn’t even touched my clit, and I could come. He’s got me keyed up in a way I have never experienced.
“Yes, fancy face?” He drags his lips across the valley between my
breasts.
“I feel like…I feel like…”
One of his fingers swirls over my inner thigh, and I lose my train of thought.
“You feel like you’re gonna come?” he asks as he sinks two fingers into me without preamble.
When I look down, my tits glisten with his saliva, nipples stiffened to hard points. His bright blue eyes glow in my direction while his fingers twist
inside me.
“Yeah, I can tell.”
“How can you tell?” I breathe the words, my hips bucking against his hand.
“Hmm… Because I get off on watching you. And you get this pretty pink flush that starts on your cheeks.”
He’s there, hovering over my face. He kisses my cheeks in turn.
“Then it creeps down your throat, here.”
His mouth grazes over the exact spot. His stubble makes me shiver.
“And then your chest.”
This time his lips drag over my collarbones, his fingers still working my pussy at a painfully slow pace.
“And then these tits. I love them almost as much as you.” He chuckles and sucks a nipple into his mouth. My body shoots straight back up to attention. “Pretty sure if I tried, I could make you come just by playing with them.”
His fingers thrust harder now, and he presses his thumb down on my clit, almost clamping me in place. My head falls back on a sharp gasp.
“But it would be a shame to ignore this”—his fingers slam in hard —“seeing as how you’re making a mess all over your thighs already.”
“Yes. Yes.”
“Whatever you want, baby. Just like I told you, whatever you want.” His head drops and he does this thing. I don’t know what it is, but between the heavenly suction of his mouth, the fullness of his fingers, and the heavy
weight of his thumb…
I fall.
I fall in love.
I fall apart.
He plays me like an expert. Like I was made for him.
“West!” I cry out and comb my nails over his scalp as my body seizes beneath his. And he doesn’t let up. He rides the wave until I’m putty in his hands.
I’m borderline delirious when he pushes up to his knees and nudges my legs apart, spreading me. He looks fucking incredible. Bronze skin. Huge cock. Flushed cheeks. His broad chest, lightly dusted in hair, heaves as he stares down at me like I’m his last meal.
He fists his cock and runs his tongue over his lips. “I sure hope that birth control is working, Sky.” He swipes his swollen head through my core.
“Because I have every intention of filling this pretty little cunt with my cum
today.”
“Fuck.” I hiss the word. “Yes. Do it.”
That’s all the invitation he needs before he’s feeding me his cock. Inch by delicious inch. My head flips from side to side. After only a week apart, the fit feels even tighter. He fills every bit of space. Like I was made to fit him.
Bare skin on skin just feels…incredible. Addictive.
He grips my thighs, lifting my legs as he draws out and pushes back in.
“Fuck, we look so good together. You take me so well, Sky,” he rasps as he seats himself inside me with intensity and attention. And when he’s in to the hilt, he collapses over me, his elbows bracketing either side of my face.
He rocks his hips, and his eyes search mine as I wrap myself around him.
My legs around his waist, my arms around his shoulders.
Then we kiss, and we roll, and our skin is hot and given to sensation with every touch and every damp slide. I’ve never felt more whole than I do in this moment.
“It’s too much,” I whisper. And I don’t mean physically.
His hips hit me harder. “You can take it, Sky.”
“God.” My eyes flutter shut. “Yes. Again.”
“Again? I’m trying to be gentle.”
My eyes flash to his. “You have been. Now fuck me.”
A sultry smirk hits his lips as he draws away. “I told you whatever you want, didn’t I?”
I nod, licking my lips as he considers. And this time, when he takes my thighs, he pushes them up, practically folding me in half.
“Hell yeah. Fuckin’ look at you. Perfect from head to toe,” he grits out before slamming in hard. Hitting me deeper than before. My moan is louder this time.
He fucks me in earnest now. Perspiration dots his brow as his fingers grip my legs harder. He’s hypnotized by the sight of his cock inside me.
With every thrust, I cry out. I don’t even know what I’m saying. It’s mostly wordless, just noise to go with his pants and the sound of his balls slapping my ass as he unleashes.
“Pinch that clit, baby. Let me watch you.”
My shaking hand jumps to obey. “Oh, fuck.”
“Again. Do it until you come on my cock.”
I do it again, and again, while he rails me. And before I know it, I’m screaming his name. I’ve never been loud in bed, but with West I feel safe enough to let go. And I do. I explode. I see literal stars.
“Oh, fuck yeah.” His strokes turn from short and quick to long and punishing. My body shakes on every downstroke.
And true to his word, watching me come is his undoing.
I feel him. Every pulse, every twitch, as he empties himself inside me.
His entire body tenses.
Fuck. It’s so hot.
Almost as hot as when he pulls out to inspect his handiwork.
“That’s what I love to see,” he murmurs as he trails his fingers over my swollen pussy. His touch makes me shiver even though I’m hot all over.
“How do I look?” I tease, breathless as I stare up at the ceiling, mind blown by the simplest and hottest sex of my life.
“You look an awful lot like you belong to me.” I can feel his seed leaking out. But not for long because he catches it, pushing it back into me with one gentle finger. “So fucking pretty like this.”
“Yes,” I whimper as my legs shake. I arch into him.
“So eager for more. Never enough, is it?”
“With you? No.”
He adds a second finger, pumping into our wetness.
“Oh god…” My nerves surge to life under his touch—under his gaze.
“I think I’ll watch you come like this too.”
And he does. All afternoon. All night. And the only breaks we take from being wrapped up in each other are to eat grilled cheese sandwiches with pickles inside.