“Got it.” She smiles and my heart twitches along with my cock. “I love you.”
Michaela shrugs. “Just like that? Wow, okay you’re easy. But okay. Good. So, now what?”
“Now I’m going to get Brinna home.” I turn to my girl. “Then I’m going to take care of these cuts, and a few other parts of you.” I reach down for her hand and when she grips mine back with a smile on her face the last bit of raging fear drains from me. In its place, a new responsibility rallies in me. A responsibility to prove to her I am the man I say and give her time to trust me in our new relationship, so nothing like this will ever happen again.
“And I’m going to take care of parts of you, too.” She softens more on a giggle, and her other hand reaches over to grasp my forearm, laying her head against me.
“All’s well that ends well. You two gonna hoof it back through the brush, call an Uber or let me be your chariot?” Michaela snaps her tongue in her cheek. “Because y’all are making me a nauseous at this point.”
Chapter Ten
Brinna
“OUCH.” I WINCE AND squint my eyes shut.
I’m sitting on the bed in what used to be his bedroom, which he now says is ours, with my legs straight out. I’m naked from when he brought me to the master bath and stripped me, then gave me a quick warm bath and washed my hair before carefully drying me and brushing out my mess of tangled tresses.
After that, he took his time inspecting every inch of my body for damage and looking as though he may cry as he inventoried every cut and every thorn stuck into my body from my trip through the brush. Then he carried me to the bed, laid me down and spread my legs, eating me to so many orgasms I lost count and had to plead for him to stop.
He did, then brought his hard cock to my lips and ordered me to suck like a good girl, which I did eagerly. He patted my head, telling me how good my mouth felt on him, and I loved hearing the sounds of pleasure he made, especially knowing they were because of what I was doing to him.
It didn’t take long before he pulled out, grabbed me by the hair and ordered me to open my mouth and stick out my tongue. He shot jets of his hot release into my mouth and on my face, then onto my bare breasts.
He spent the next few minutes rubbing his cum into my skin, telling me again how I was never to leave the house again without wearing him on me or inside me, at his discretion of course.
Now, we’re both right here, and he’s sitting on the side of the bed, tending a second time to each scrape and splinter. Even though it hurts, I secretly love how he’s taking care of me, just like a father would his own daughter.
“Baby, I’m sorry, but I have to take care of these, or they may get infected.” Ace is concentrating so h
ard his forehead is deep with furrows. “Sometimes love hurts, Lamb, isn’t that right?”
His wry smile distracts me momentarily until he plucks the small splinter of thorn out of my calf with the tweezers and I hiss a breath through my teeth.
“Is that the last one?” I pout.
“Yes. That’s the last. A little peroxide and I think we’re all set for now.” He reaches over to the nightstand and wets a new cotton ball with the brown bottle of disinfectant, bringing it to the fresh drop of blood on my skin. “Don’t ever run from me again, you understand?”
His softer tone from earlier turns stern, and his eyes darken as he finishes cleaning the last wound before tossing the cotton ball into the waste can he brought to the side of the bed.
“I already told you I wouldn’t. Don’t you ever make me think I have to share my Daddy,” I reply, knowing it’s probably not what I should say. But it’s the truth. “I couldn’t believe when I thought you were also with that other lady. I just came unraveled. I mean, I was going to run away, but also change my name and disappear. That’s how crazy it made me feel. I couldn’t take it. Whatever this is between us, it’s changed me. I’m lost without you.” Tears prick my lower lids at the thought.
“Lamb.” Ace shifts on the bed so he’s facing me and pinches my chin between his thumb and forefinger. “You will never, ever share me. Got it? I’m yours, and you are mine. There is nothing and no one in this world that could shine brighter than you in my heart.”
“And we will never be apart, right?”
He shakes his head. “No, never. I thought I would come undone when I thought I’d lost you. Or you were hurt. Or whatever. And I promise you will never lose me.” The tone in his voice drops and I shiver at the depth of truth in his words. “I hate every one of these marks on you. You’re mine and I take care of what’s mine.”
He trails a finger over a deep scratch on my thigh.
“I’m sorry.”
“The only marks I want on you are from me.”
“I like your marks. I like thinking people may see them and wonder where they came from. Maybe somehow, deep down, they know someone put them there. It makes me feel safe. Isn’t that strange?”
He pets my hair, his eyes wandering down my naked body. I love how he touches me however he likes, wherever he likes, with no hesitation. His possessiveness would probably make other women feel like he’s some domineering asshole, but they are so very wrong. I feel like a princess. Set on a pedestal and cherished in a way I never imagined.
“Not strange to me at all, Lamb. My marks remind you of who you belong to. They remind you of Daddy’s touch. That even when we are apart, I am never far from you. That you give yourself to me. All of you. The pleasure, sometimes the pain. It’s an honor you allow me all of you. That you show me that trust. I push you, because I love you. So, you can see how strong you are.”