In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes (The Queen’s Cove Series Book 3)
In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes: Chapter 53

SADIE FLICKED the light on when she stepped in the front door and the familiarity of it, her reaching for the light switch, knowing where it was, made my heart ache. I closed the door and reached for her, pulling her against me, kissing a slow line down her neck with her back pressed against the door. Her head fell back and she closed her eyes, humming with approval. Her hands found my hair and she sighed.

She loved me, and she was staying. I kissed her harder. I was never, ever letting her go.

“Are you trying to distract me from painting you?” she mumbled as I backed her against a wall.

“Never.” I kissed her slow, soft, lazy, because we had all night and I wanted to savor her. “Upstairs?”

She shook her head, gaze locked on mine. Her fingers stroked the hair at my nape and my eyes fell halfway closed as the sensation shot tingles down my spine.

“In front of the fireplace.” Her throat worked and her gaze dropped to my mouth. “The light is better.” She leaned up on her tiptoes to press a soft kiss onto my mouth. She lingered and I inhaled her, saturating myself with the overwhelming brightness that was Sadie.

“Be right back. I’m going to change.” She winked and slipped out from under my grasp, running up the stairs, shooting a cheeky grin over her shoulder before she disappeared down the hall.

I stood there, watching her go, with a half a mind to follow her up and help her take her clothes off.

I wanted her to paint, though, and I wanted to watch her paint. I headed upstairs after her to bring down her painting supplies.

When she returned to the living room, I had already settled into the chair. Two mugs of hibiscus tea steamed from the coffee table. The fireplace was on and dancing with flames, casting a warm glow around the room along with the soft lighting.

My gaze skimmed all the places her leggings clung. The curve of her thighs. The shape of her calves. The hem above her delicate ankles. Those toes with sparkly gold polish.

Her hoodie. It was my hoodie I had gotten from a client a few years ago from a golf tournament. It was way too big for her. The sleeves bunched and it hung to the tops of her thighs.

“Fucking hell, you look cute in that.”

She smiled openly at me, picking up her mug and blowing the steam off it. I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees, watching her lips as they moved.

She winked at me and grinned wider. “Easy, tiger. You get comfortable and I’ll put some music on.”

I stayed right where I was as she moved around the living room. Her fingers walked over the records before she pulled a record out. Rumors by Fleetwood Mac.

As she slid the record out and set it onto the player, her delicate motions enchanted me, spinning a spell around me, drawing me in and pulling my entire focus. The way her fingers moved. The way she shifted as she set the album cover on the table. How her mouth lifted into a smile every time our eyes met. I swallowed again.

She turned the record player on and Stevie Nicks’ voice scraped into the room at a low volume. She stepped toward me, assessing my position in the chair with a thoughtful, fucking adorable look on her face.

“Shift sideways a bit?” she asked, gesturing. She worried her bottom lip, studying me as I did as I was told.

“I love when you tell me what to do,” I whispered, fighting a smile. I was already hard from anticipating this, and the intimacy of being in my home that now felt like our home.

She broke off with a quiet laugh. “You’re so beautiful, Holden. You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever met.”

My pulse beat in my ears. No way in hell I’d ever forget Sadie Waters standing in my living room, wearing my hoodie with that open expression on her face, like it mattered what I thought.

She grinned but her eyes fell to my straining erection. Her eyebrows lifted.

I shot her a rueful smile, raking my hand through my hair. “You’re wearing my hoodie. How could you blame me?”

She smiled wider. “Of course, wearing your hoodie, how could I tease you like that?”

She laughed softly and set her brushes out, studying them. My side facing the fireplace warmed and I relaxed into the chair, letting out a long breath.

I raked a hand over my hair again, smoothing it. “Hair look okay?”

Her gaze returned to me. “Hair looks perfect, baby.”

My brain melted at her calling me that. I swallowed past a rock in my throat.

“I want the real Holden,” she said, eyes on her paints, a little smile on her face. “Unruly hair and all.” Her gaze cut back up to mine and my heart expanded in my chest.

The cutest little frown appeared between her eyebrows as she concentrated on sketching me. She hummed with the music. The quick scrape of her pencil over the canvas gave me goosebumps. Behind her eyes, she went somewhere else while her gaze cut between me and the canvas, her pencil moving fast. She went somewhere quiet, thoughtful, and focused.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

 She studied her sketch, tilting her head and chewing that plump bottom lip, and it took everything I had to stay where I was instead of stalking over, hauling her over my shoulder, and kissing her, touching her, stroking her until she gasped. She chewed her lip in concentration before selecting the colors and squeezing dollops onto her palette.

This was better. Watching her work, watching her pick up paint on her brush and light up as she dragged the first stroke of paint onto her canvas. Watching her relax into it, fall into her rhythm. Glance at me, back at the canvas, stroke. Glance at me, back at the canvas, stroke.

The spell she wove around me intensified, wafting through my head, and now I couldn’t move if I tried.

I reached a new level of contentment, watching her paint, her eyes cutting from her canvas to me, her mouth curling up on instinct every time our gazes met. The soft light from the fireplace on her skin. No makeup, hair pulled off her face, in a sweater and leggings.

Fucking hell, she was gorgeous. The most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I’d do anything to keep her like this, in her element and at ease. Her tea sat untouched on the coffee table while she worked.

While she worked, I thought about our life together. Fucking hell, I wanted to marry her. I wanted her so bad, painting like this in a home we shared, trusting me and leaning on me and bossing me around like she owned me.

I closed my eyes a moment and swallowed.

She owned me. She owned me through and through. When she was ready, we’d get married. My mind flicked to my grandmother’s ring, passed down to my dad. I hadn’t seen it in years because it was locked away in a safe but I never forgot the bright, captivating glow of the yellow center diamond.

I wanted to give it to Sadie, if she wanted it. When the time was right.

“I’m done.”

Her mouth twisted to the side, chewing and biting her lip with uncertainty as she glanced between me and the painting. I gave her a questioning look.

She let out a nervous laugh. Her forehead pinched and fear streaked through her eyes.

“Honey.” My voice was low.

Her chest rose and fell as she took a deep breath. Her bravery made my heart ache.

“I’m in love with you,” I told her. “Anything you paint, I’ll love, because it’s a part of you.”

She nodded and I could see that my words sunk into her, and that she believed them. She stood and turned the canvas, careful not to smear the wet paint.

It was me, but it was her version of me, and when I saw it, I knew Sadie Waters loved me right back. It was the soft affection in my eyes, with careful, serious watchfulness. The wistfulness in my heart every time I thought about falling in love, written all over my expression on the canvas.

My chest ached and I studied the painting. The long lines of my arms and legs. The unruly mess of my hair. The pull of my t-shirt over my chest and shoulders. My eyebrows rose and I narrowed my eyes at her.

“You gave me extra muscles.”

She laughed and shook her head. “I promise I didn’t. You’re a beautiful guy, Holden Rhodes.”

My throat worked as I stared at the painting of myself. Sadie had captured my soul and painted it onto this canvas.

I met her gaze and listened to my pulse in my ears.

Her eyes changed. The softness spiked with terror, and her eyebrows lifted but her gaze stayed locked on mine, like she couldn’t let it go.

“I’m still scared,” she whispered.

I nodded. “I’m scared, too, baby. Now that I have you, I don’t want to lose you.”

Her throat worked and she clutched her arms around herself.

I held my arms out. “Come here.”

She wandered over and I pulled her into my lap. She straddled my hips and my head fell back against the chair as my hands rubbed up and down her back, slow and steady.

Her weight on my lap felt incredible and blood surged to my cock. “Let’s go to bed.”

She nodded before pressing a sweet kiss to my mouth.

She led me up the stairs to the bed we shared, pulling on my hand with a little smile to move faster but I took the stairs one at a time, nice and slow, because why hurry when we had forever? In the bedroom, we pulled each other’s clothes off, and my mouth and fingers found the pinched peaks.

“If I had known you weren’t wearing a bra this entire time,” I said in between working one with my tongue while she let out soft gasps.

Her hand tugged at my hair and I groaned, forgetting the second half of the sentence.

My hands came to her hips, slipping her leggings and underwear off, finding her wet center, stroking so soft and slow.

“Holden,” she gasped as I brushed her clit.

I walked her back until her knees hit the bed. She lowered herself down and I pushed her knees apart. Everything was slower, this time. I wanted every second of her.

She gasped when my tongue dipped into her. My hands were on her thighs, skimming the smooth skin, touching all of her, memorizing her. I dragged a line up her center with my tongue, groaning at her taste and the way her thighs tensed under me.

“You’re torturing me.”

“It’s different this time.” I sucked her clit a brief moment. “Isn’t it?”

My tongue worked her clit, massaging it. “Yes,” she gasped. “It’s different.”

“How is it different?” I wanted her to say it.

She moaned again as I pulled her clit in between my teeth, so gentle, so fucking gentle and careful with this woman. “Holden.”

“Say it, honey.”

“It’s different because I love you.”

My pulse hammered in my head as I fucked her with my tongue, slipping fingers inside her and working the front wall until she pulled my hair, gasped my name again and again, and squeezed my head with her thighs, coming under my mouth and fingers. She clenched me so hard as the waves moved through her. Pride spiked in my chest.

When her orgasm had subsided, I moved over her, hovering and taking in her gorgeous, glazed eyes. Her messy hair that had fallen out of the ponytail when her hoodie came off. Her chest, rising and falling as she caught her breath.

“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” I told her.

She lifted up to meet my mouth, kissing me hard and yanking me down until my weight covered her.

Moments later, the foil packet crinkled as I tore it open and rolled the condom on, and I slid inside her slow and steady to the hilt.

“Fuck,” I groaned into her hair, taking a moment to collect my scrambled thoughts as heat squeezed my cock and my spine. “Jesus fucking Christ, Sadie.”

Her hands were in my hair, stroking and sending electricity down my spine. I pulsed inside her and a moan slipped out of her mouth.

“You’re so perfect,” I gritted out as I pulled back and thrust back in with a groan. My hips bucked as she clenched me. “I’m yours if you want me, honey.”

“I want you,” she gasped. “I want you so bad.” She winced and moaned, her eyes falling closed.

My breath turned shallow as I found a slow rhythm, and when I hitched her leg up to get deeper, she let out a high, breathy moan. Her muscles began rippling around me, clenching me and gripping my length. I blinked as pressure built. Desire, lust, need, love, it all sliced through my brain at different angles and even in the dim light, she was so bright beneath me, gasping and watching my eyes with that open look like I held her heart in the palm of my hand.

She arched, mouth falling open and lids falling halfway as she came, bucking underneath me and digging her nails in my back. I was right behind her, groaning as she clamped down on my cock. I watched her come, unfurling beneath me, before white light exploded behind my eyes and I groaned into her neck, holding her hard against me as I emptied myself into her.

“Sadie,” I breathed into her neck, because that was the only word I remembered in that moment.

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