“Yes,” she said—no shame, no embarrassment. He gave her a hard thrust, and her teeth pressed into her bottom lip. “Makes me wish I had my camera with me. You’re too beautiful not to photograph.”
His balls tightened, the idea of Evan taking photographs starring the two—or three—of them an enticing fantasy. “Maybe next time. Or the time after that. Or after that.”
Her lips parted on a gasp as he pushed deeper, burying himself to the hilt and grinding his pelvis against her clit.
“Because I’m never going to get enough of you, Evan.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and tilted her head back, exposing the damp column of her neck. “Jace.”
A simple plea. Maybe to fuck her harder. Maybe to stop making long-term promises. He didn’t know. And at the moment he didn’t care. He lowered his mouth to her neck and pressed his teeth to the tender skin, eliciting a moan and a buck of her hips.
Fuck. Her response to the roughness sent electricity curling down his spine and winding around his cock. Her cunt clenched around him, and his own groan of pleasure filled the balcony. His hips dialed up the speed without his conscious awareness as he mouthed her throat. The lounger creaked beneath them, mixing with their ragged breathing.
She dug her nails into his shoulders. “Jace, I’m so close. Can I—”
The request rippled through him like fire. She was asking. Asking to fucking come. Without the pretense of a scene happening. Every muscle in his body seemed to coil tighter, her submission like sexual heroin to his already climbing pleasure. “You have my permission, baby. Let me feel you come.”
He reached down to give her even more pressure on her clit and stroked. Her torso arched and he claimed her neck again, this time sucking her skin so hard he knew it’d leave a hickey. A proud, visible mark for Dr. Dan and the world to see. Mine. The word whispered through him, feeling more right than anything had in a long time.
He held on, driving into her with rocketing need. A freight train without brakes. Sensation enveloped him. Evan cried out in orgasm, calling his name and burying her face against his chest.
And that’s all it took. The pleasure pooling at the base of his spine exploded like a sunburst, and waves of bliss rolled through him as his cock pulsed inside her. “Oh, baby. God. Yes.”
Mine.
When their breathing slowed, he eased out of her and settled her skirt back down. She didn’t open her eyes, simply laid there with a sated smile. He quickly discarded the condom and zipped back up, even those few seconds too long away from her. He settled back down next to her, and she cuddled against him, both of them perfectly content lying in silence next to each other.
As he lay there watching the sky turn to dusk, feeling her heart slowing to a steady beat against his side, he realized that two months would never be enough. That he wanted her to walk away from Dr. Dan. That he’d never stopped missing her. And that he’d claimed her as his long before he’d known what that meant.
There was no walking away unscathed. It was already too late.
“So Andre told me about your proposition,” she said long after he thought she’d dozed off.
He traced his fingertips down her arm. “Is that right?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“And?”
Her sigh was weary, but she snuggled closer. “And I can’t imagine going back to The Ranch and letting anyone else touch me.”
He closed his eyes, letting her statement wash over him. “Glad to hear it, Ev.”
“Daniel gave me two months of freedom before the wedding and the move, so I might as well spend it how I want it, right?”
“Of cour—” Every tendon in his body went stiff as he registered the rest of her comment. “Wait, what move?”
She sat up on her elbow to look down at him, her brow furrowed. “To L.A. For the show. As soon as we get back from our honeymoon we’re going to start packing up to head west. I thought you knew.”
Her words twisted his windpipe into a knot. He tried to clear his throat, but no response came out. Two months and she’d be gone? Like cross-country gone?
She ran her thumb along his forehead, smoothing the creases. “What’s wrong?”
He swallowed hard, forcing down the lump. “Nothing, it’s just, I’m a little surprised is all. I didn’t know. I mean, I knew that we would end this part when you got married, but I was hoping to still be a friend afterward. I just found you again. And now you’re leaving.”
Her smile held heartbreak. “You think Daniel would’ve let me do this with someone local, someone I’d have a chance of seeing after we’re married?”
He grimaced. Of course not. The guy may be an idiot but he wasn’t stupid. “I see your point.”