The low thump of Rowan’s boots announced his return to the kitchen. As if pulled by some magnetic force, my eyes fixed on him of their own volition, roving over his strong body, his thick muscles, the shadow on his jaw. I found it incredibly hard to believe that this man was just inside me. That this man had just vowed he was mine while giving me the best sex of my life.

Rowan grasped my hips then gently put me on my unsteady feet, reaching down to retrieve my dress from where he’d tossed it onto the floor.

I took it from him wordlessly, slipping it back on.

Rowan watched me as I wrapped the dress back around me, tying the tie firmly. With my dress settled back on my body, reality rushed back in.

“I can’t believe we just had sex in the kitchen,” I whispered, my cheeks warming.

One side of his mouth turned up in a devilish smirk. “I can’t believe I just fucked you like I did, and you’re still blushin’.”

My hands went to my cheeks. “I can’t help it.”

“Don’t want you to help it,” he replied. “Don’t ever want you to stop blushin’ with me.”

“I don’t think I’m ever going to be in danger of that,” I responded.

He kissed my nose then ran his hands down the side of my dress.

“You go about your morning,” he commanded, stepping back.

“What are you going to do?” I asked, straightening my dress. “It’s going to be incredibly boring for you to spend the morning watching me.”

He settled himself on a stool right by the counter. “Like fuck it is.”

I felt myself blush again. I couldn’t help it.

He did that to me.

And he stayed there, on the stool, nursing the coffee I brought him while watching me begin the day’s preparations, making all of our morning treats.

He especially liked that he was the first one to get them out of the oven.

It was not long before Fiona arrived, yelling about how this hour of the morning should be illegal, and I should be sued for unfair working conditions—pretty much the same shit she said every morning until she’d had her first coffee.

She stopped short, though, when she made it into the kitchen and saw Rowan sitting there.

To her credit, she didn’t look surprised. Not even a little. She looked like it was the total norm to walk into the kitchen at six thirty in the morning and see a sex god in a backward baseball cap sitting there drinking coffee and watching me work.

Watching me work on the counter he’d fucked me on earlier.

To be fair, I’d disinfected it three times. And Fiona did not know we’d had sex on the counter.

“So, you know what it feels like to be up this early, and you still like her?” she asked, striding forward to snatch a muffin from the rack where they were cooling and then my coffee cup out of my hand.