His smile was all cocky as he set her on her feet, then he hooked a finger in her panties and pulled them down, off one leg, then the other. “The difference is,” he said as he undid his belt buckle and sent it clattering to the floor, “that he would be pretending. While I never was.”
Once he was naked, he kicked the door shut and boosted her up against the wall, guiding her legs around his hips. Molly locked her ankles at the small of his back, clenching him tight between her arms and thighs and never planning to let go. His eyes glowed so bright and tender on her face, the light warmed her to the very depths of her being.
“Make love with me?” he murmured.
She jerked her head breathlessly as he held her hips between his big hands, and then, as sunlight streamed in through her bedroom window and their eyes locked, he thrust inside of her. She cried out with the joy of being physically his again. She’d been so ready to settle for friendship, if that was all she’d get. But in the deepest, most secret parts of her, she had ached for so much more.
“Jules, love me. Say you love me.”
“I love you like crazy.” He framed her face and looked into her eyes. “Never doubt it. I love you, I worship you, I adore you, Molly. You and you alone.”
His passionate words drove her to the precipice. They came together with tempestuous force, and once their endless shudders subsided, Molly gasped and turned her face into his neck, struggling to catch her breath. She’d felt his warmth spill into her, had felt the powerful contractions that seized his body, and now her heart soared in the sheer joy of being entwined with Julian again.
Panting and sweaty, she lifted her head just as he was ducking to kiss her. Their lips met in a languorous, loving, lazy kiss that left her weak and buzzing. “Every time you kiss me,” she said softly, stroking his face as he carried her to the bed, “it feels like the first time.” A dreamy sigh escaped her as she remembered that masquerade. “I should’ve known I was being kissed by a playboy.”
“Get used to it, Mopey.” He set her down on the mattress with a kiss on her forehead, then stretched out beside her and rumpled her hair. “Because I promise you’ll never see a playboy more into his wife than I.”
Her heart stuttered at the word wife, then it just completely stopped beating.
“What do you mean?”
At the sight of her wide eyes, his wolfish smile appeared, and he took her left hand within his. She watched in disbelief as he slid the matte platinum ring, large and masculine, onto her ring finger.
The ring from the masquerade.
“I’ll get you a real one tomorrow. One with a white diamond—a big one. This is just so you know my intentions are pure.”
“Oh, I have no doubt your intentions are squeaky clean,” she laughed as she pointedly glanced down at their nakedness, and then she fell somber as the magnitude of what was happening struck her. Settling her hands on his shoulders, she gazed at the ring, then into those oak leaf-green eyes. She could see his pulse fluttering rapidly at the base of his throat, could see the love and need in his eyes.
“You were meant to be my wife, Molly,” he rasped, brushing her hair back, his hands, his tenderness undoing her. “Will you marry me?”
She held his caressing green gaze and nodded, her eyes mirroring the loving way that Julian looked down at her now. Stroking his strong jaw affectionately, she simply said, “As you wish.”
* * * * *
Look for Kate’s story, coming soon!
Only from Red Garnier and Harlequin Desire!
Keep reading for an excerpt from His Instant Heir by Katherine Garbera
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