shook my head. “He only takes sex for payment.”
“Is that so?” Her eyes twinkled with mischief, and she wrapped her arms back around my neck. “Well, then, I’d like to make a down payment right now.”
“We have dinner reservations in fifteen minutes.”
She pushed up on her toes and spoke with her lips against mine. “Fuck dinner.”
Now she was talking. I backed her up to the wall and pinned her against it. Hiding what I’d been up to with her house had been weighing on my shoulders. Secrets had no place in a relationship, and getting it off my chest was a huge relief.
It had only been four days since I’d been inside of her, but it felt like a year. I buried my face in her neck and started to suck along the delicate skin leading up to her ear. “God, I missed you.”
She panted. “I missed you, too. No time to undress. I took off my panties before I came downstairs and slipped them into my purse so I could give them to you during dinner.”
I immediately reached under the hem of her dress and slid my hand up between her legs. Sure enough, she was bare. And wet. I groaned. “You’re soaked for me already.”
Val slipped her hands between us and started to unbuckle my pants. There was no sexier sight in the world than my girl shaking in a frenzy to get to my cock. Later, when it hit her that I’d really bought her house and told her she’d be getting it as a wedding present some day, I’d make love to her when doubt started to creep in. But right now? Right now was all about fucking. Fucking my woman who was going to leave me for months to teach in Rome. And her fucking me because a part of her was scared and angry at what I’d done.
I used my hips to keep her pinned to the wall while I helped push down my pants. Val wrapped her legs around my waist. The minute my throbbing cock felt the hot wetness between her open legs, I was done for. I needed to be inside.
I gripped my shaft and guided myself inside her. Our groans blended into an achingly erotic song as I simultaneously pulled her onto me and lifted until I sank balls-deep inside of her. Then, I stilled to take in the feeling. Nothing had ever felt so damn good.
I tried to start slow, easing in and out in a smooth rhythm, but it didn’t last. Before long, I was pounding into her. But she was right there with me, begging for more, telling me to go harder, faster…more.
That word…more…it was everything about how I felt about her. I wanted more—more of her heart, more of her body, just more.
I pulled my head back to look at her, and our gazes caught. Val’s voice shook. “I love you, Ford.”
“I love you more.”
As I came, her body shook, and I mumbled her name over and over.
“Thank you, Ford. And if what we just did is the payment BJ Cummings wants, he’ll be getting plenty of those in the future.”
“BJ plans to collect every one of those payments—but this is a fifty-year mortgage.”
“Fifty years?” Her eyebrows raised. “I don’t even want to do the math on how old I’ll be by then.”
“Good. Because age is just a number to use to count all the years I’m going to love you.”
Epilogue
* * *
Valentina - Almost two years later
Go commando under my dress.
I peeled the sticky note off the coffee pot and smiled from ear to ear. Ford must’ve snuck in during the middle of the night to put this here. Considering the girls and I didn’t go to bed until after one in the morning, he had to have been up pretty late. I laughed to myself—Tom definitely didn’t keep him company next door. He conks out by nine. At least he had Ryan over there.
After a rocky start, my two guys had grown close. Lately, Ryan had even been talking about changing his major to architecture. He’d spent all last summer working with Ford on a building renovation, and it seemed to have given him some direction for his career path.
“Good morning, almost-Mrs. Donovan.” I turned to find my almost-sister-in-law rubbing the sandman from her eyes as she padded into the kitchen.
“You’re up early.” I reached up and took two mugs out of the cabinet over the coffee pot.
“My brother is still a pain in