This was uncharted territory for him. After his wife died, he hadn’t thought about dating. He hadn’t wanted to. Now, the idea of getting to not just top Meredith, but date her, had his heart soaring.
Snuggling her closer, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but even when he passed out, all he saw was her.
It was always her.
*
The next morning, Meredith rolled over and reached for him.
“Good morning,” she whispered.
They had spent the entire night together in his bed. He’d woken up twice in the night to fuck her. Once he’d tied her to the headboard. The other time, she’d ridden him like a damn cowgirl. Fuck. As far as he knew, she’d never so much as ridden a horse before, but he never would have been able to tell. Not by that performance.
“And a good morning to you,” he whispered, rolling over to look at her.
Even now, with the sunlight streaming into the room, with her hair a mess, and with her makeup from the night before totally smeared, she looked perfect.
“So, last night was fun,” she whispered, nervously biting your lip.
He kissed her.
“Too much fun,” he agreed.
“Did you like it?”
>
“Very much.”
“Was it everything you hoped for?”
“And more.”
“What happens now?” She asked. She sounded nervous, and he knew it had taken all of her inner-strength to ask him what was going to happen between them. Putting yourself out there was never easy. People had this idea that if you were friends first before you got into a relationship, that you’d somehow have all of the answers, and that the transition to “more than friends” would be easy.
It wasn’t.
It was still hard, just in a different way.
They had effectively ruined their friendship, and honestly, they had probably ruined their employee/employer relationship, but Daniel didn’t care. She was worth it. She was worth all of it.
“Anything you like,” he said, because he was starting to realize that she really was the girl of his dreams. She was the one he’d been waiting for, and when it came to Meredith, he’d give her absolutely anything she wanted.
Anything she needed.
Anything.
“Breakfast?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.
“How do chocolate chip pancakes sound?” He asked.
“Oooh,” she grinned. “My favorite.”
“Lucky for you, they’re my specialty,” he grinned.
“Daniel, in all of the years I’ve been living with you and Alice, you’ve never once made chocolate chip pancakes,” she said pointedly.
He only laughed.