into the circle created by his family with their own glasses raised in toast.
Atop the table, he covered Monica’s hand with his own and entwined their fingers.
“À la nourriture. À la vie. À l’amour,” he said, leveling his eyes on each of his family members.
“À la nourriture. À la vie. À l’amour,” they all said in unison.
With his thumb still stroking the back of her hand, he leaned in close to her ear. “To food. To life. To love,” he said before pressing a kiss behind her lobe.
He felt her tremble. “Soon,” Gabe promised.
Monica looked at him, her soft eyes filling with heat. “Another wild night like the first one, Mr. Cress?” she said for his ears alone.
His pulse raced as he chuckled. “Better,” he promised.
Epilogue
Three months later
“Marry me.”
Monica opened her eyes and looked up at Gabe as he paused in delivering delicious stroke after stroke inside her. She lay beneath his strong, muscled frame in the center of their king-size bed. “You’re doing this right now?” she asked in between deep gasps.
Gabe kissed both corners of her mouth. “Yes,” he said before deepening the kiss with his clever tongue as he resumed stroking inside her, slowly. Deeply.
She released a tiny cry, feeling his hardness pressing against her walls. Her fingernails dug into his fleshy buttocks as she took the lead and suckled his tongue into her mouth, using her hips to meet his pace.
“Wait,” he gasped, stopping all movement.
“What?” she asked, pressing her head back against the softness of the pillow to look up at him.
“Don’t move. I’m not ready to come. Not yet,” he said, resting his forehead against the pillow beside her as he clenched and unclenched his jaw, seeking control of his body.
She smiled as she worked the muscles of her intimacy to grip and release his hard inches slowly.
He tensed. “No, Monica,” he pleaded, raising his head to look down at her.
“What?” she asked again, this time with feigned innocence.
He smiled before capturing her mouth with his. “I could stay inside you forever,” he said.
“Really?” she asked as she rubbed the soft heel of her foot against his calf and stroked his nape with her fingertips.
“Absolutely.”
She chuckled. “We wouldn’t get much accomplished,” she reminded him.
“Hell with the rest,” he said.
She eyed him for long moments, amazed at how freely she accepted her love for him. Her trust of him. Her desire for it to last. And how much she believed he loved her just as deeply. “Monica Cress, huh?”
“Sounds good,” he said, nuzzling her neck and kissing her racing pulse as he began to roll his hips to stroke his hardness inside her again.
“Monica Darby-Cress,” she sighed as she arched her back and closed her eyes in pleasure.
“That’s cool, too,” Gabe said, raising his head to look down at her. “As long as I can call you my wife, the name change is up to you.”
Monica struggled to stay focused on his words as his lovemaking wreaked havoc on her senses. The smell of him. The feel of his body and his sweat pressed down upon hers as he made love to her slowly, his hardness filling her and slickly striking against her bud. She opened her eyes to watch his profile as he opened his mouth against her shoulder and gasped in pleasure.
“Your wife,” she said, wrapping her legs around him as she dug her fingers into his back.
Gabe looked at her. “My wife,” he said, with a deep thrust that caused them both to gasp sharply.
She licked her lips, feeling parched from their explosive heat. “My husband,” she whispered.
He fixed his wild eyes on hers. “Your husband,” he said.
“Absolutely,” she said, raising her head to capture his mouth with her own.
With a primal moan, he slipped his hands beneath her to cup her buttocks as he quickened his pace inside her. Swift. Deep. Thrilling.
Monica had been sucking his tongue but freed it as she cried out. Her release came in a rush and exploded deep inside her. She gave in to the pleasure and got lost in the madness. “Gabe!” she gasped as tears welled from the passion and her love for him.
He roared in that hot second just before she felt his rod get harder inside her as he filled her with his seed. Even in the midst of her passion, with her body still trembling, she rocked her hips back and forth, drawing everything from him and evoking even more primal moans and cries. She pushed through her own weakness, brought