* * *
I wake up slowly to weak light spilling into the cabin. My brain is too sleepy to work out my surroundings. I close my eyes again, eager to go back to my dream, but a warm hand wraps around my waist, pulling me back against a hard chest. I breathe slowly, reveling in the faint hint of cologne.
“It’s early,” I laugh sleepily as the hand moves upward, cupping my breast and thumbing over my nipple.
“Perfect.” Branson’s voice is rough and muffled by a pillow. “That means I still have at least twelve hours before your timer goes off.” Lips caress my shoulder, sending tingles down my spine.
“Seeing as I don’t have my phone, I don’t think the timer counts anymore.”
Branson rises over me. He takes my hands in his, pinning them over my head, a devilish expression on his face. “So what you’re saying is: I win.”
“You win,” I admit with a smile. “I mean, we kind of both win?”
Branson lowers his face to the crook of my neck, breathing me in. “No, I win. If you won, I had to leave you alone. But if I won…”
“Right,” I laugh, remembering the terms of our agreement. “You get out the handcuffs and make me be your very good girl. But in case you forgot, I’m not great at being good.”
Branson bites my neck and I gasp, goosebumps prickling my neck. This has to be the greatest way to wake up in the world's history. “Then it’s a good thing I like you bad. But, before handcuffs, I have a question for you.”
“Before handcuffs?” I whine. “Can’t your questions wait?”
He presses kisses to my jaw and when I squirm underneath him, he just holds me tighter. “No, it can’t. I have a serious problem.”
I frown up at him, a hint of anxiety pinching at my chest. “What?”
“I need you to be mine.”
I laugh, relief washing over me as I roll my eyes at him. “You had me worried, you dick. You want me to be your girlfriend?”
“I want you to be mine. Only mine.” Branson cups my jaw, pressing his lips to mine in a kiss so tender my heart threatens to explode.
“I can be yours,” I agree breathlessly. “If that means I get you all to myself.”
“I was yours from the moment you crashed into me. You just didn’t know it.” Branson gives me a heart-stopping smile as he reaches off the bed, digging something out of his coat pocket. He holds up the black leather cuffs he pilfered from the club. “Now, handcuffs.”
* * *