I lose the smile and become my old self. “Well, Mr. Hamilton, I haven’t seen the property with my own eyes, but I did study the reports.”
Somber, like his old self, he grumbles, “I’d expect nothing less.”
We walk into a foyer, both of us glancing around to see if we can imagine ourselves living here.
I lift my chin and guide him through a warm, large living room with hardwood floors. There’s a library with cherry-wood walls and floor-to-ceiling shelves on two of those, plus a rolling ladder like he loves so much. He touches it and brings back memories, though he’s unaware of the effect it has on me.
The basement has a wine cellar that needs remodeling. The dining room is almost too big. Upstairs has a Master bedroom with a bathroom we both fall in love with because it’s like the one in the Bahamas—shower separate from a jacuzzi bathtub, but this one has dual sinks and stylish hardware.
There are three additional bedrooms and when I walk into the last one I get a little misty, stop the tour and cross the empty space to gaze out onto a backyard that’s somewhere between the size of my brother’s and cousin’s. Ethan’s home is way too large for me, and Hannah’s is a little smaller than this, but not by much.
I can’t believe I’m here.
That I’m with a man I love this much.
Tanner comes up behind me, wraps my hips with his hands, drinking in the view, too.
I lean against him, and he dips down to kiss the soft skin under my ear, asking, “You picturing something here, Cocky Love?”
“No.”
He turns me around, taking my chin in hand with love in his eyes. “You’re still a terrible liar.”
My vision blurs as I tell him, “This could be where our children sleep. And they’d be playing out there on the grass.”
He pulls me so close I feel his heartbeat quickening. “I was thinking the same thing, and how I never thought I’d be here but now I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”
Digging my fingers into his back I start to cry. Tanner’s breathing is sharpened, too. He bends to kiss me and it turns into a happy smile for both of us. “So, Mr. Hamilton, what do you think of the place?”
“Our home, you mean?”
“You really like it? And you don’t mind being this close to my family?”
His eyes narrow as he says, “It’s perfect. I promised you we’d live as close to Hannah as possible. Pretty sure this does the trick. Except you haven’t shown me the kitchen. The appliances are very important to me.”
Wiping my cheeks I straighten to my professional stance and head out. “Of course. I’m sure you are aware, being an intelligent man like yourself, that they can never be replaced if you don’t like them.”
He chuckles, “Smart ass.”
Downstairs as my Saturday afternoon sandals clip across the Spanish tile I gasp at the flow of the room’s design. “This is made for entertaining! Look, a conversation counter facing the backyard, and an enclosed patio for humid nights when the mosquitos are out! Oh, Tanner, look at this refrigerator. It’s enormous! Brand new! Doesn’t need to be replaced at all. And a gas stove!” Glancing over my shoulder for his reaction I’m surprised at the lust in his eyes. “What is that look for?”
He makes quick strides to pick me up and set me on the counter, burying his face under my skirt and pulling my panties aside.
“Wait!” I cry out. “Take them off. I don’t want to have wet panties all day!”
We wrestle them off, a little awkward since I’m sitting down, and he slides them onto the floor. He murmurs into my thigh, “Anyone else coming to see the house today?” kissing his way up while I brace myself for ecstasy.
“Nobody cumming but us.”
He chuckles at my pun and goes to work, licking me, fingering me, bringing me close to the edge and murmuring, “Don’t cum yet. Whatever you do, don’t cum.”
Whenever he does that I start throbbing—he knows I like the forbidden. Hungry for release I crane my hips up, cup his head and rub my pussy against his tongue. “Please,” I gasp as he pauses to draw it out and tease me. “Don’t stop!”
Tanner dives in and strokes me with long and quick licks, then hones in on one sensitive side of my clit with hot flicks until I’m tensing up, moaning and holding very still as my orgasm hovers just out of reach. Tanner rises up, his white linen shirt missing a button and making him look a little more casual and easy going. I told him he wore it too high, which he ignored back at my apartment. But now it’s perfect.
“What happened?”
He glances down, shrugs, “Who cares,” and undoes his belt and zipper in a flash, dropping the tan slacks and pulling our bodies together. My legs hook around him as our mouths latch on a moan. His cock, so full, so hard, is a good nine inches, with width that stretches me in the most delicious way.
My future husband and I lose ourselves in the moment. Knowing this will be our home.
Our children will grow up here. We’ll pass it down to them, and hopefully they’ll do the same with our grandchildren. That way they can always stay close to our family, their family, the chaos of the Cockers, happily, for many generations to come.
CHAPTER 43
T ANNER
“O h no, look! What’s going on at my grandparents’ house?” Emma wonders aloud as we come up on a ton of cars parked in front of Michael and Nancy Cocker’s property.
“That’s odd,” I mutter.
“Please stop the car.”
Feeling protective I don’t hesitate, despite the fact that this house has given me pause every time she’s pointed it out during our visits with Hannah and Ethan just up the street. But if her grandparents
