the bed beside him, pulling down her pants and panties, then sitting on the edge of the bed so she could shuck them to the floor. Cain took a minute to do the same, pushing his jeans and boxers the rest of the way off and toeing his sneakers onto the floor.
But his mood went from playful to reverent as he turned to find her naked, her back to him, still sitting on the edge of the bed. She’d pulled her blonde hair over her shoulder so he could trace the line of her neck and back with his eyes, and he drank her in like a man dying of thirst. The way her waist curved in and her hips curved out. The slight swell of her breasts. The smooth lines of her shoulders. She was a goddess, and he was definitely not worthy of her, though he’d worked his whole life—his whole life—to find himself here, to deserve her. And even if it took the rest of his life to earn her, he’d never stop thanking God for the chance to love her, for the second chance to be loved by her.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you for givin’ me that part of you.”
“It was always yours to take,” she said, looking at him over her shoulder.
“Thank you for lovin’ me.”
“I never stopped.”
“Thank you for lettin’ me love you.”
“You’re welcome,” she murmured.
Sitting behind her, he pulled her into the V of his open legs, pressing his lips to her back, skimming them up to her shoulders and kissing each wing, then lingering at the base of her neck, his hands slipping around her body to cup her breasts and pull her closer. His erection strained against her back, and she leaned her neck to the side, granting him access to her throat as he massaged her breasts, playing with her nipples, circling them with his index finger and pinching them gently between his fingers.
He took a deep breath.
“I’ve never . . .”
“You’ve never what?” she asked breathlessly.
“I’ve never been inside a woman . . . without protection,” he admitted, biting on the lobe of her ear, which elicited a gasp from her. “Without a barrier.”
He flattened his palm over her heart, feeling the slight groove of an old scar and, just beneath, its strong beat under his hand, knowing that it was fully mended—from her surgery, from the heartbreak he caused, from the loss of Woodman. It was whole and strong . . . and his.
“Never?” she asked breathlessly, letting her head fall back on his shoulder as his cock throbbed against her.
“Not once,” he said, his lips dragging across her skin, wondering if he had the right to ask her for such a thing. “But I want that . . . with you.”
She raised her head and stood up, turning around to face him. Reaching forward, she cupped his face, and Cain Holden Wolfram, notorious manwhore, was speechless, struck dumb with the force and fullness of his love for this one woman, for this beloved creature, whom he’d known forever, who had owned a piece of his heart since his earliest days and owned all of it now.
She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his forehead, skimmed them to the tip of his nose, then to his lips, which she kissed softly, nibbling at his bottom lip and then gently nipping the top. Kneeling down between his legs, she put her hands on his shoulders, and he dropped his hands to her hips to help her, to guide her.
“I want that too,” she whispered, so close to him that her breasts were crushed between them. He reached down and cupped her ass, lifting her gently, helping her bent knees settle on either side of his hips. She arched into him, against him, reaching down to position the tip of his sex at the entrance of her body, then winding her arms around his neck to hold herself up.
“Lionhearted woman,” he sighed. “I love you forever.”
“I love you forever too,” she said, lowering herself, inch by inch, onto his swollen, throbbing cock.
She was wet and warm, tight and soft, squeezing him like a glove, sucking him forward and up up up into the heaven of her sex. He held his breath, feeling her stretch to take him, amazed by the tiny ridges that massaged his cock, waiting until she was fully impaled on him before exhaling. Her eyes, which had been closed, opened, finding his, owning his, and