you serious?”
He wrapped my hand around his solid cock. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s your turn.”
“Mile-high club. Commercial flight.” His eyes rolled back as I stroked. “I can’t take this any longer.”
I glanced between us. That thing had to be nine inches at least. “I’m not sure I could either.”
“Beth, you’re killing me, but at least it’s a pleasurable death.” Before I could blink, I was underneath him again. “Are you sure about this? Bare?”
“I’m certain.”
I didn’t ask whether Alaric was clean. I knew he wouldn’t risk hurting me. And weirdly, his “arrangement” with Ravi made me feel better because if they were taking care of each other, then they weren’t hooking up with random people they met in bars.
Alaric stretched me to the point of pain as he slid slowly inside, and I began to wonder whether fantasy number one was a good idea after all. But he gave me a moment to adjust, peppering me with those sweet, sweet kisses that sent shivers through me before he started to move. Oh, fuck again.
Earlier when I’d snapped at Priscilla, when I told her she should get out more if she thought Piers was decent in bed, I feared I’d been bluffing because I really didn’t know any better. But now I knew I’d been telling the absolute truth. At this rate, I’d need to soundproof the ceiling. And the floor, and probably the walls too. By the time I fell back on the mattress, I’d found a new religion.
“I love you,” I gasped, then regretted it as Alaric stiffened, and not in a good way. “Uh, too soon?”
“When you know, you know. I love you too.”
A warm glow spread through me.
“Say it again.”
“I love you, Beth.”
“Again.”
“I love you.”
Piers had made me believe I was unloveable, but thanks to Alaric, I’d seen the truth. Felt the truth. The problem had been us, not me. But now I was part of a new “us,” and I was free to become the person I’d always wanted to be.
“It’s your turn again,” he told me, pulling me closer so our hips pressed against each other. The tip of his tongue rimmed my ear before he murmured, “Tell me your deepest desires.”
Uh, perhaps not.
“I don’t need fantasies anymore. I’ve got reality.”
“No, I think you should confess.”
“You might hate me. I don’t want to ruin this.”
“Does it involve spanking?”
“No.”
“Rope?”
“No.”
“Candles?”
Candles? “No.”
“Tell me.”
So I did. I leaned forward and whispered my darkest thoughts into his ear, and his eyebrows shot into his hairline. Oh, shit. Had I broken us before we really even started?
Alaric blew out a breath. “Not quite what I was expecting. You’re a dark horse, aren’t you, my sweet?”
“Please, forget I said it.”
“Forget it? Never. But maybe I’ll just file it away for the moment.”
Thank goodness. “It’s your go again.”
Now it was Alaric’s turn to look nervous. “I’m not sure it’s entirely appropriate given today’s events.”
“What happened to ‘we can talk about anything’?”
He made a show of covering his balls with his hands before he answered, then he leaned in close to whisper the way I had with him.
“I want to fuck my wife in her wedding dress.”
“Oh, that’s an easy one,” I blurted. Stupid, stupid mouth. “Uh, what I meant, without wanting to sound presumptuous, was that if maybe at some appropriate point in the future you happened to ask, I would definitely be willing to keep the dress on. Can I go and die quietly now?”
“As long as you do it in my arms. Out of interest, what would you consider to be an appropriate point in the future?”
“Huh?”
“A month? Two months?”
“Uh…”
“I’m not sure I can wait much longer than three.”
Was he saying what I thought he was saying? My post-sex brain was still drowning in endorphins.
“Three months,” I choked out. “Three months is good.”
CHAPTER 43 - EMMY
“READY TO GO?” Black asked.
“Not remotely.”
Over a week on, and I still hadn’t forgiven him, not even a little bit, but he was trying. Very trying.
When I’d said to call me if anything work-related came up, he’d taken it to heart. He called me about work every five fucking minutes. And now he’d come up with the marvellous idea of the two of us heading to Penngrove to get a head start on the search for Dyson.
But I could hardly complain, could I? Not when I’d told him to fix things. Nor could I send him on his own because Alaric and I were the only ones who’d seen Dyson in the flesh. Well