I was that man.
It didn’t make any sense, but I treasured the feeling, nonetheless.
“So beautiful,” I murmured against his lips. “Want to stay inside you like this.”
“Darius,” Miller said with a little hitch in his breath.
“Stay with me,” I said without thinking. “Please.”
Our eyes met and locked. I thought of the number of times I’d heard people talk about “just knowing” when you’d met the person you were meant to be with. I’d doubted it and had chalked it up to wishful thinking.
But there wasn’t a cell in my body that didn’t feel like this was finally it. It was my turn to feel the absolute certainty of knowing Miller Hobbs was the one for me.
“Darius,” he whispered again, pleading.
I ran my thumbs along the planes of his face, memorizing every freckle and crease. “Want you,” I confessed in a broken voice. More than I’ve ever wanted anything.
“I’m yours,” he breathed before throwing his head back and letting out a feral sound. I reached down and stroked his dick, murmuring encouragement for him to let go, to come for me.
When his release came, it shattered both of us. I roared into the heated space between us and joined my voice with his.
I hardly knew anything about the man in my arms, but I knew enough. And as far as I was concerned, I had all the time in the world to learn more.
Miller fell asleep as soon as I cleaned him up. When I followed him under the covers, I wrapped my arms around his boneless form and took a deep, centering breath.
Home.
Months after moving into my dream house, I finally felt like I was truly home.
I woke up with a toe almost up my nostril.
“What the hell?” I batted Miller’s foot away. “Where did you go?” After cracking open one eye, I spotted him upside down in the bed with one arm hanging down to the floor, the covers twisted around him like an elaborate sari, and his knee draped across my chest.
He was a hot mess, still dead asleep.
“Ngh.”
I gently pushed him around until he was the right way around again. His head rested against my shoulder, and he continued to make soft sleeping noises as if he hadn’t been bodily manhandled across the bed.
“I now know something about you I didn’t know before,” I said with a soft chuckle. “You’re all sweet and easy until you fall asleep. Then it’s every man for his own.”
My eyes roamed over his skin, noting adorable freckles here and there I hadn’t noticed last night. He had a small scar on his shoulder that had turned white with age, and I noticed a patch of beard that hadn’t grown in overnight on the edge of his jaw. I wondered if he’d been the kind of little boy who’d gotten into scrapes or if he’d been careful but had landed himself a few injuries anyway. Noticing these marks only made me want to learn more about his past.
“Babe,” I said, nudging him awake enough to hear me. “I have to go to work. It’s super early, though. Do you want to stay here?”
“Stay here,” he murmured.
“Okay. I can come back after lunch and drive you to the lodge.” I started to climb out of bed, but he tightened the arm he had around me.
“No, you stay here,” he said without opening his eyes.
I leaned in and pressed a kiss against his warm, prickly cheek. “I can’t. Believe me, I would give anything to stay here with you. But I have holiday orders coming in like crazy at the bakery.”
He opened an eye and peered at me. “Oh. Right. I’ll come help?”
I brushed the hair back from his face. “You don’t have to, but you are always, always welcome.”
Miller rallied. He got up and let me maneuver him into a hot shower. After resisting all kinds of sexy temptation, I managed to scrub both of us and make us presentable.
We sucked down some coffee on the frigid drive into town, and when I let him into the bakery, he finally seemed to wake up.
“I love this place,” he said reverently. “It’s so cozy and welcoming.”
His words warmed me up inside. “Thank you. That’s exactly the kind of place I wanted to create. It’s why I waited until I found a storefront with a fireplace. It wasn’t easy.”
I moved over to start the fire. Hannah might have complained about the work involved in keeping it going all day, but even she admitted what a difference it made to the welcoming feel of the place on cold days.
As soon as the flames began to lick at the wood, I moved into the kitchen, flipped on the lights, and began firing up the ovens.
“It’s peaceful in here this time of day,” Miller said softly. “Or should I say night?”