“Night and day since you first started showing up at Baccarat.”
Her confession prompted him to offer one of his own. “Losing Rick to you was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“You don’t say.” Her chest vibrated with a sexy laugh, making her breasts shift tantalizingly against him. Her tight nipples were searing points of heat that quickened his breath.
“Or it was,” he amended, unable to stave off the quickening of sensations any longer. “Until now.”
He moved more strongly into her and felt her close tightly around him, forming a tight sheath. The friction was almost too intense to handle. But if her body brought him acute pleasure, her dreamy smile was a balm for his spirit.
And then he felt her body tighten and her focus sharpen. Using all his willpower to hold off his own release, he watched her climb higher and higher. Her eyes flew open. Her sharp gasp was followed by a shudder. Only then did JT let himself go.
His orgasm came with such speed and intensity he wondered how he’d held it off as long as he had. The pool, Violet’s face, all vanished behind a wave of black. He was cast into the heavens. A thousand pinpoints of lights guided his flight. They rushed at him, through him. Each one left a mark, a permanent reminder of this perfect moment.
He came back to earth and realized that his chest hurt. The pain was caused by either his tortured lungs or the impossibly swift beat of his heart.
“Best sex ever,” Violet murmured, framing his face with her hands and smiling at him. Equally winded, she seemed less shaken by their turbulent lovemaking. “I knew it would be great with you, but wow.”
He couldn’t match her openness. What he felt for her was too immense, too raw.
“Yes.” It wasn’t eloquent, but it was heartfelt. “Wow.”
The corners of her eyes crinkled as her grin grew. “Am I still banned from skinny-dipping?”
Captivated by her happiness, he shook his head. “In fact, I plan to burn every bathing suit in the place.”
* * *
“You’re smiling a lot this morning,” Harper commented, eyeing Violet over a glass of orange juice.
It was Tuesday morning and the Fontaine sisters were meeting for their weekly breakfast, this morning in Scarlett’s office at Fontaine Richesse. Usually they met on Wednesdays, but Violet and JT were having their belated wedding reception at the ranch that evening and they all figured it would be a late night.
“Am I?” Violet sipped her green tea and tried to look nonchalant.
“Of course she’s smiling,” Scarlett put in. “She and JT have been shacked up for three days of postnuptial bliss.”
“I don’t think it can be called ‘shacked up’ if we’re married,” Violet corrected her.
Harper frowned in confusion. “You’re living together now?”
“If you’d pay attention to something other than your hotel once in a while,” Scarlett began, “you’d know that Preston showed up here and threatened to sue JT and Violet for fraud if their marriage wasn’t real.”
“He can’t possibly have a case,” Harper said.
Scarlett smirked. “Not anymore.”
“What I mean,” Harper continued, shooting Scarlett a look, “is there’s nothing in the corporate bylaws insisting the marriage must be real, just legal.”
“We were concerned that by taking us to court, he could prevent me from voting my shares at the upcoming shareholder meeting and remain CEO.”
A line formed between Harper’s brows. “I guess that’s possible. I just don’t know how likely.”
“We didn’t want to take the chance.”
“And because of that your relationship has become physical?”
Violet resisted looking Scarlett’s way for fear that her sister’s expression would make her laugh. Harper was a little too literal and that often kept her from finding the humor in a situation.
“Not exactly...”
“He’s crazy about her and vice versa,” Scarlett explained. “Unlike you and Ashton where you make each other crazy.”
“I have every right to be crazy,” Harper insisted. “The restaurant is behind schedule because he hasn’t been here to make decisions. And when he does make decisions, it puts us even more behind schedule because he wants to change things.”
Scarlett gave her sister a doubting look. “To say nothing of the fact that he’s gorgeous and sexy and your DVR is full of his television series.”
Harper’s scowl would have been more intimidating if she’d been able to meet Scarlett’s gaze. “It seems to me that you and Logan were in that drive-each-other-crazy place less than a month ago.”