So I could show her that she could trust those parts of herself with me.

My hands moved softly over her. Not to entice, just to comfort.

When her chin tucked, trying to hide, I took her chin, turned her toward me, and pressed my lips to hers.

On a little sigh, she shifted so she was sitting across my lap to give me more access.

My hand shifted to frame her face, feeling the lingering wetness from her overwrought emotions during her last orgasm.

I kissed her until my own lips felt like they were tingling. And after I broke apart, her head tucked under my chin, just letting me hold her.

I didn’t know for how long—a half hour, maybe more.

Eventually, though, she started getting restless.

“If you want to head up to the shower, I can clean this up before we head to bed.”

I figured by not putting the whole ‘you’re staying over’ thing as a question, I increased the chances of waking up to her still tangled in my sheets.

“Okay,” she agreed. “But bring up the book when you come.”

I sat there watching the view as she climbed off of me, then walked up the steps, her thighs pressed tightly together.

I shouldn’t have liked the idea of my release inside her as much as I did. To be fair, I had no other frame of reference.

See, I never needed Teresa’s constant warnings to wrap it up. I never wanted to let something as stupid as my sex drive mess up the rest of my life.

Saff was a first for me.

And as insane as it was to think so early on, I wanted her to be the only.

Hell, one day in the future, I wanted all our practicing to produce something that tied us together forever. Something with my calm and her fire. With my love of cooking, and her obsession with books.

The best of both of us—that was what I was seeing in my future.

But before I could have that, I had to make sure she stayed the night.

So I cleaned up the food mess, grabbed the book, and climbed into bed.

Where I read to her until she fell asleep.

Setting the book on the nightstand, I turned out the light, then pulled Saff into my arms.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Saff

There were rules.

I mean, there were supposed to be rules right from the beginning. Namely, not screwing my business partner—and screwing up my whole life.

But I quickly realized how impossible that was.

So I set up a few new rules.

No overnights.

But when that got squashed by the promise of challah bread French toast—which may or may not have been worth my entire life potentially falling apart—I had to go back to the drawing board.

That’s when I came up with the new rules.

Number one: no back-to-backs.