asked me to New York, and of course he’s crazy, but I just wanted you to know I’m…thinking about it.”
“Spence?”
“No, the postman. Yes, Spence! Keep up. Jesus.”
“Spence asked you to New York.”
“Yeah.” Serena thrust a bag into Emma’s hands. “The best croissants on this side of the Divide.”
“Is this a bribe of some kind?”
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
“If I said I was fine with you and Spence, that I’ve always been fine with you and Spence, can I still keep the croissants?”
Serena’s face filled with relief. “So we’re good? I can still be my mean old self, and you’ll still be your stick-up- your-ass self? We’ll co-exist?”
Emma took a bite of a croissant rather than dwell on the stick-up-her-ass comment, and nearly died and went to heaven. “We’re good, Serena. For better or worse.”
As Serena drove off, a set of arms surrounded Emma from behind, pulling her back against a hard, warm chest.
She turned in the circle of Stone’s arms and faced him.
“I’m glad,” he murmured, his voice morning gruff and bringing tingles to her erotic zones, of which she had far more than she remembered.
“About?”
“That you’re okay with her and Spencer knocking boots.”
She just soaked up his warmth and breathed him in. How terrifying was it that she could do this every morning and not get tired of it?
“Our last day,” he whispered, his hands all over her. “Right?”
“Yes.” She was leaving tomorrow, come hell or high water. She waited, expecting him to say something or maybe to try to talk her out of going. Instead, he pulled her back inside, kicked the door closed and pressed her back against it, holding her hands in his, pulling them high above her head as he kissed her blind. God, his mouth. And those hot, demanding kisses-
“Love it when you hum like that,” he murmured, his lips against hers. “I came when you made that sound last night, did you know that?”
She smiled and rocked against his most impressive morning erection. “Should we go back to bed?”
“Not going to make it that far.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Here then?” she asked breathlessly.
“Yeah. Oh, yeah.” He let out a rough sound of pleasure when she rocked again. Gripping her hips, he swiveled his head around to eye the small desk where she’d been tossing her purse and keys whenever she walked in. Twisting them both around, he set her on top of it and slipped his hands up her top to cup her braless breasts.
“Stone.” Her need level ramped up a notch. “I don’t think it’ll hold.”
“It’ll hold.” With another rough sound, he easily and efficiently stripped her out of the sweats she’d so hurriedly slipped into.
She was amused at his hurry, and turned-on beyond belief. He produced a condom, and in the next minute, his sweats were down, her legs wrapped around his waist, and all her amusement fled, replaced by a desperate hunger. He slipped his fingers between her thighs and let out a heartfelt groan that she was already wet for him “Hold onto me. Yeah, like that-”
He switched his fingers for something better, bigger, harder, and when he pushed into her, he groaned, dropping his forehead to hers. “Oh, God, yeah. That’s just what I needed. You.”
She swallowed hard against the ball of emotion suddenly in her throat, because wasn’t that the truth. All her anxiety, her rush, her need to be so driven, it all came down to what she needed, and she knew what that was now.
This.
Chapter 26
Emma spent the morning sitting at the bank with her father. They were officially in escrow, and because the buyer had requested an expedited seven day escrow, the Urgent Care was going to be closed for the week so that some work could be done on the place to the new owners’ specs.
Emma would have loved to see what that work would entail, but she was going home.
Home.
It’d been all she wanted for the past few months, yet suddenly the word had taken on a new location.
The building she’d just sold. She looked at her father as they walked out of the bank together. He took one glance at her face and reached over and patted her hand.
Reassuring her.
Her heart tightened.
“Here,” her father said, and steered her into Wishful Delights. “We need a sugar fix,” he announced to Serena. “Cookies, cakes, pies…whatever you’ve got.”
Serena brought out a tray of to-die-for brownies and slapped it on the counter. “Have at it.”
Emma frowned at the pastry chef. “Something wrong?”
“I’m overworked, under-appreciated, and I need a damn vacation.”
“I’m sorry if you’re overworked,” Doc said very gently. “But if it helps, these are the best brownies I’ve ever had.”
“Thanks.” Serena leaned against the counter, propping up her head with a fist. “I hear you sold. Think your investors would be interested in this building too?”
“You selling?” Emma asked in surprise.
“Thinking of it.”
It was so unlike her that Emma reached out to put her fingers on Serena’s wrist to check her pulse.
“Stop it. I’m not sick, just tired.”
“Maybe you should take a vacation off the mountain. Get your mojo back. I hear Mexico is good this time of year.”
“Yeah, you’re right on getting out of here. But I was thinking New York.”
Emma blinked, then set down her brownie. “New York. As in my New York?”
“As in Spencer’s.” Serena paused, looking first at Doc, then Emma. “He left me this.” She pulled an envelope out of her pocket with the words written DO NOT OPEN UNTIL READY on the front.
Spencer’s writing.
“On the day I didn’t take him to the airport,” Serena finished.
“Okay, what?”
“Yeah. I kept him overnight and had my merry way with him until yesterday. Sorry, Doc,” she said to her father.
He shook his head. “No apology necessary.”
Serena watched as Emma opened the envelope and peeked inside. “A ticket to New York. Wow. He must really like you.”
“It’s a one-way,” her father noted, looking over her shoulder. “Must have been a nice night.”
Serena smiled dreamily. “It was.”
Emma eyed Serena in an entirely new light. “You’re thinking of doing it, you’re thinking of going.”
“Would that be so odd? Me in New York, crushing the competition with my off-the-charts desserts?”
“No.” Actually, Emma could see it quite clearly, and it worked. Just as Serena and Spencer would work. As her father had earlier when she’d needed it, Emma reached out and squeezed Serena’s hand. “I’m happy for him.”
