Staring out at the water, she whispered, “I didn’t know I could be this happy.”
He came up from behind, put his arms around her, and whispered huskily against her neck, “Me neither, milaya. I did not know such happiness existed.”
When his lips touched the delicate, sensitive skin at her neck, a violent fireball of sensation exploded between them. With a sharp gasp, she twisted around, and their lips collided. He ran shaking hands up under her tunic. The rasp of his callused fingers on her bare skin caused a pleasure that was almost unbearable.
She pulled his shirt, yanked open the fastening of his slacks. He bit her neck, walked her backward, pushed her down on the couch and fell on top of her, his body a long, muscled arc of aggression. They never managed to get completely undressed before she wrapped her legs around his hips and he entered her.
“I want so much to take my time with you, but not yet,” he muttered against her skin.
“Shut up. Whatever.” She groaned, digging her heels into the cushions and lifting her hips for his thrusts. Greed turned her selfish. Sliding a hand between them, she fingered where he penetrated, pleasuring herself while he moved inside.
Knocking her hand away, he took over. When he touched her, she climaxed. Swearing, he followed soon after, twisting up with the force of his own climax while she watched his clenched face and tightened her inner muscles until he had finished.
He fell back down to her, face buried in the fall of her hair and chest heaving while she held him and let herself drift.
After a time, he stirred, lifted his head, and said, “Shut up? Whatever?”
A lopsided grin lifted one corner of her mouth. “You were maundering on about something. Blah blah, I want to be a courteous lover, blah blah I want to take time. There were too many words and not enough screwing.”
He burst out laughing while his hard features were still flushed from the heat of what he had done. God, she loved the sight of him like that. “I wasn’t being courteous. I want to savor you like a five-course dinner in a world-class restaurant and take all night. Don’t tell me you want to go back to not putting out.”
Chuckling, she ran her fingers through his hair. “I think that ship has sailed, don’t you? But it was fun while it lasted.”
“If you call excruciating fun.” He pulled away, stripped with practiced economy, and picked her up.
“My two legs and two feet, they all work perfectly well together,” she reminded him as she laid her head on his shoulder.
“Shut up,” he said. “Whatever. This gets you into my bed as quickly as possible, and I’m hungry for my five-star meal. Don’t plan on going home tonight.”
She should text Sarah to let her know, she thought. Then Alexei swung her onto the bed and came down over her in one controlled motion, and all rational thought splintered.
She knew how powerful it was to be the sole recipient of his dedicated attention. Her body remembered too, and it ignited everywhere he touched her. She lost herself in a haze of sensuality and pleasure and only remembered she was supposed to text Sarah when it was well after two a.m.
Sarah always kept her phone on in case there was a coven emergency, and Molly certainly didn’t want to wake her with an apology. After deliberating for some time, she decided to let it go and apologize the next morning.
When she did, Sarah laughed. “I didn’t think anything of it. Honestly, I was surprised you waited as long as you did. The way he looks at you… I always like to tell the man that he’s the lucky one, but he looks at you like you’ve hung the moon.”
She bit her lip and then smiled. “He does, doesn’t he?”
On their fifth date, he proposed. Out near the labyrinth by the light of a full moon, down on one knee as he held out a blue-diamond engagement ring.
“It’s gorgeous,” she breathed.
“The blue is for the ocean,” he told her. “I love you. More than that, I like and admire you, and I will want and need you every day for the rest of my life. We won’t get it right all the time—and I know I certainly won’t get it right. But I can promise you this: I will support you in everything you want to do, and I will cherish