him, even if it was just a piece of him. He made my life complete, made me feel like I could escape into the sunset and never look back. I felt like I’d won the biggest lottery in history—and I never had to worry about a thing again. “I love you too, Deacon…so much.” I’d loved him long before he loved me, loved him so selflessly, I didn’t think I was capable of such patience. But I’d waited for him…because I knew he was the one.
When he heard me say that, his eyes softened slightly, like he could hear the depth of my sincerity as it came from my soul. “We’re supposed to have make-up sex now, right?”
I smiled at his naïveté. “Yeah.”
“Because I’d rather just make love to you.”
I slid closer to him on the bed and wrapped my arm around his neck, my palm flattening against the back of his head. My fingers curled around his neck, and I moved to his mouth, kissing him, making love to his mouth with mine.
It was a different kiss than it used to be. Now that everything was out in the open, it was more vulnerable, raw. I paused to breathe into his mouth, needing a moment to absorb the heat, the gravity of his emotions.
One of his hands gripped the back of my thong and pulled it down before his other hand slid into my hair, gathering the curls in his fingertips, fisting them like he wanted to keep me in place forever.
I got his boxers over his hips and ass before I pushed them down with my foot.
When our bottoms were free, he moved over me, his thighs anxiously separating mine, his weight making the mattress shift as he positioned himself on top of me. After a tilt of his hips, his head found my entrance, and he sank quickly, as the wetness between my legs erased all the friction between our bodies. I had been emotional and dry, but when he told me he loved me, that was the instant my body changed. I wanted to take him as soon as I could, feel him inside me, show him that I felt the same way—a million times over.
He moaned as he looked me in the eye, his entire length buried inside me. He definitely noticed how unusually wet I was, considering there had been almost no foreplay. My body was wet because of the love in my heart.
He rocked into me slowly, his hand still fisted in my hair, looking down at me like I was the only person in the world who mattered at that moment. He hadn’t noticed Dr. Hawthorne’s incredible body because he was too absorbed in mine. All other women were just random faces and bodies, but mine stood out from the haze.
He breathed deeply against my mouth, his lungs needing more air the longer he moved, the more he worked his body to thrust completely inside me and pull out again. When he’d made love to me the first time, he didn’t even ask if I was on birth control. He completely trusted me, assumed I would have told him otherwise. He’d realized his mistake in rejecting me and fixed it, becoming a new man like he’d promised. Even when I told him I wanted to have his kids, he didn’t run off like others would.
Now, I knew why.
My arms circled his shoulders, and I rocked my hips with him, my ankles crossed at his lower back, my nipples dragging against his chest as he moved. I didn’t even care about reaching the finish line. I just wanted to be with him, to see him look at me like that, to know that every woman who wanted him couldn’t have him…because he was mine. “I love you.” I’d just said it minutes ago, but I didn’t care. I could finally release the words sitting in my heart, say anything I wanted without fear or shame. It was the opposite of dirty talk, but it turned me on more than any dirty thing I could say. I was so deeply in love with this man, and whispering into the darkness, saying it while looking him in the eye, was the biggest turn-on for me.
As was hearing him say it back. “I love you, baby.” He kissed me, his thrusts deep and slow, his cock slightly harder as he said it back, like it turned him on too.
“I want to be your wife…the mother of