“I know I’m yours. And I finally realized that you’re mine too.” She stroked her thumb over the scruff on my chin. “I was scared. I hate admitting it, but yeah, I was. I let everyone get in my head…including your grandmother. But tonight, I finally stopped being scared. The fear of losing you outweighed the fear of you breaking my heart.”
“Baby—”
“I trust you, Ben. With my life—and my heart.” Cupping the back of my head, she pulled me in for another kiss. “Now, please, take me home.”
Grinning, I touched my lips to the tip of her nose. Everything she’d just said was what I’d been aching to hear from her. “Whatever you want, beautiful.”
The drive to my apartment took us right past Aggie’s, and I stopped really quick to grab us some breakfast sandwiches and coffee. I couldn’t even remember the last time I ate, and I could hear her stomach from across the cab of the truck, so I knew she was starving too.
When I came out with the two large coffees and the bag of food, she was leaning her head against the passenger window, sound asleep.
Putting down everything in my hands, I rearranged her so she was more comfortable, and I kissed her forehead before driving us home.
Leaving the food in the truck, I carried her up to my apartment—our apartment—and placed her in bed. Pulling off her shoes and jeans, I tucked the covers up around her and sat on the edge of the bed for a few minutes, just taking in the sight of her where she truly belonged.
After eating, I showered and finally climbed into bed beside her. As my body pressed into hers, she sighed my name in her sleep and turned over, wrapping herself around me like it was the most natural thing in the world to do. As if she’d been doing it all her life.
The events of the day before faded from my memory, and the muscles in my body relaxed one by one.
This was my peace.
Having my woman cuddled up against me, knowing she was safe and I could touch and kiss her whenever the hell I wanted… It was my serenity.
And Lexa was my salvation…
The feel of warm lips against my bare chest had me reaching for her before I’d even opened my eyes. But she evaded my hands with a sexy little giggle and moved farther down my body, her lips leaving a blazing-hot trail in her wake.
I hadn’t bothered with clothes after my shower, and when she got to my cock, her hand wrapped around it without hesitation half a second before her mouth swallowed half of my throbbing dick.
Groaning, I tangled my fingers in her long, jet-black hair, silently begging her to take more. The tip hit the back of her throat, and she gagged for a moment, but she didn’t pull back. Instead, she sucked in a deep breath through her nose and relaxed her throat, taking all of me.
Her mouth, tongue, and her soft-as-silk hands explored me until I couldn’t take it anymore. Grabbing her waist, I flipped her onto her back and tore her panties away. I wanted to thrust into her hard and deep, but remembering that she was probably sore and tender after the night before, I forced myself to take my time, slowly sinking into her tight heat inch by inch until she was squirming under me and begging for it harder.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said between gritted teeth, sweat beading on my brow and rolling down my spine from the restraint of holding myself back from taking her how I really wanted to.
She wrapped her legs around my hips, lifting her ass off the bed as she urged me deeper. “You won’t. I can take you. Please, Ben. I need it hard.”
Cursing, I gave her exactly what she wanted until she was screaming my name and begging me to never stop. “I love you,” I whispered against her ear as her pussy contracted over and over around my cock.
Her lashes lifted, those glacier-blue eyes seeing straight into my soul for the very first time. “I love you too.”
Four little words. That was all it took, and I was suddenly exploding deep inside her sweet paradise. “Lexa!” I shouted her name, unable to hold back any longer.
When I could finally remember where I was, I realized I was practically smothering her with most of my weight pressing her into the bed. But she wasn’t complaining. Her fingertips were running up and down my sides in a soothing kind of way that, when mixed with the euphoria of having just come inside her, was putting me in a catatonic state.
I lifted my head and started to take my weight off her, but she wrapped her legs tighter around me. “Don’t go,” she purred. “I love this.”
“Let me make you more comfortable.” Brushing a soft kiss over her lips, I rolled off her and onto my back, pulling her with me so it was me who was holding her and rubbing her back.
I felt her smile against my chest. “You’re right. This is definitely much better.”
Smiling contentedly, I kissed the top of her head. “Thought you might like it, beautiful.”
“Lucky for you, I’m on the shot,” she mumbled sleepily. “You didn’t seem to think much about protection yesterday or today, Sheriff.”
“Maybe I did think about it and said to hell with it,” I suggested vaguely, and her head snapped up, all traces of sleepiness gone.
She glared down at me. “Really?”