She didn’t need his permission, but it felt nice to have it, and even nicer for him to hold her while she did. And the best part was that she got to fall back to sleep in his arms as her happiness transformed into exhaustion.

“What do you want to do today?” Deja asked as she walked into Alejandro’s kitchen.

They’d finally woken up and gotten out of bed at nearly noon. He’d showered while she’d pored over the R&R feedback. He’d finally taken her phone from her hands and pushed her into the bathroom with a promise of brunch.

In the shower, Deja’s head was spinning as she tried to think through the revision notes. She wanted to sit back at her laptop and start working on revisions now, but once she was dressed in her favorite skater dress and had her hair in a loose bun on her head, she didn’t feel like working anymore. She walked into the kitchen to find Alejandro in a pair of baggy basketball shorts and a t-shirt that clung to every muscle in his back, and her resolve not to do too much too soon hardened.

In fact, as she watched him, she reminded herself of Toni’s advice not to overwork herself, to learn to enjoy her breaks when they came, and to let herself rest. It had taken nearly five months to get a response from the journal; she could take the summer to work on her piece before she resubmitted. Her work and her brain would be better for it.

“What are you making?” she asked.

When he turned to her, his eyes dipped to look at her bare legs. “Right now, just coffee. I wasn’t sure what you wanted. Also, I need to go grocery shopping,” he laughed.

Deja padded into his kitchen on bare feet. She could feel Alejandro’s eyes on her.

He licked his lips and leaned back against the counter. Deja walked up to him and pressed her body against his.

“Are you hungry?”

Deja groaned at the soft rumble of his voice against her chest. She felt it in her body, and it made her nipples hard. “I can wait until lunch,” she whispered.

Alejandro’s hands moved to the backs of her thighs, and he bent forward to cover her mouth with his own. She opened herself up to him, and he inched his tongue between her lips as his hands pulled her dress up in the back.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and deepened their kiss, suckling on his tongue. She spread her legs for his searching hands.

He groaned again. “Deja,” he mumbled against her lips.

“What?”

He squeezed her ass with one hand while the other pressed between her legs, his fingers skimming over her bare pussy.

“Why aren’t you wearing underwear?”