I undressed her slowly, revealing each new inch of flesh and then gazing at it as though I were unveiling a perfectly preserved Renaissance painting.
Except that Daphne was more perfect than any painting. She was warm flesh and blood.
She was mine.
All mine.
When she stood before me naked, I feasted on her with my eyes. Such pure beauty. Her dark braid fell over one shoulder, curving over the swell of her breast. Her pink-brown nipples were hard and taut, protruding from their fleshy mounds. Her belly was flat with a slight sexy curve. I trailed my finger over it, imagining it swollen with my child.
Then the triangle of darkness between her legs, and the paradise that lay between them. The paradise that had brought us where we stood today. Two people who loved each other and who had created another person from that love.
Yes, it was too soon.
Yes, we were too young.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes, to all of those things.
None of it mattered, though, because this woman was my soul mate. Fate had brought us together, and destiny would keep us together. We would make a family for our child.
I removed my own clothes a bit more quickly than I’d removed hers. I could think about serious and loving topics all I wanted, but I couldn’t deny my ache to be inside Daphne’s body.
Her eyes widened at my hard cock.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yes, of course. I just can’t believe it didn’t hurt.”
“It won’t hurt this time either. God, baby, I want to go slow, but—”
She lay down on my bed. “It’s okay. Take what you need.”
I groaned as I lay down next to her and spread her legs. I stroked her soft folds to make sure she was ready.
Oh, yes. She was ready.
I rolled on top of her, bracing my arms on the bed to hold my weight, and slid gently into her heat.
“Ah…” I groaned. She was the perfect glove for me. Without a condom, I felt every ridge, every crevice, inside her. Sensation coiled in me. Each slide of my cock rippled through my whole body.
I was seventeen again, this time losing my virginity to the girl who was my future.
Nothing had ever felt like this—being inside Daphne. Being inside the woman I loved with no barriers to my pleasure.
I pulled out and thrust back in, savoring her welcoming warmth again. Again. Again.
I wouldn’t last long. I knew this, but it didn’t matter. This was the first of many times I’d make love to the mother of my child.
The first of many.
The first of so damned many.
“Baby, I’m sorry. I have to come.”
“No, wait. I’m… I feel something… Oh!”
The walls of her pussy clamped around me, and that was the end for me. I thrust hard, and my cock released into her. Each pulse brought me closer to her, and her own climax sent me through the roof.
We rode the stars together, our bodies slick with sweat, and when I finally came down, I rolled off her, turned my head, and gazed at her flushed body.
So fucking beautiful.
Emotion lay thick between us, and before I knew it, words popped out of my mouth.
“Marry me, Daphne. Marry me, please.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
Daphne
Marry me.
The words I wasn’t sure I’d ever hear came tumbling from Brad’s lips.
Who would want me? I was a mess. I’d spent a year hospitalized, for God’s sake. I still had nightmares of things I couldn’t remember when I woke up.
Sometimes, I felt I’d never be whole.
But lying here in Brad’s arms, I was. I was whole. Did love make a person whole?
My therapist always said healing must come from within oneself.
I believed that. Truly I did, and I rose each morning looking for the best and brightest things each day had to offer.
One of those best and brightest things was the man whose arms I now snuggled in.
But…married at eighteen?
That wasn’t me. That was never me.
I smiled and kissed his moist cheek. “Yes. I’d love to marry you, Brad. I want to give our baby a proper home with a mother and a father who adore him.”
Brad smiled and pressed his lips to mine. “We’ll do it at the ranch. Next weekend.”
I jerked upward. “Next weekend?”
“Well…yeah. It’s perfect. You can move in here with me and finish the first semester. Maybe the second, too, if you’re up to it. What’s the due date?”
What’s the due date? Yeah, Kathleen had told me.
“May third.”
“That’s perfect. We’ll arrange for you to take your second semester finals early, and…”
His words stopped making sense. They swirled around me, like blurred images made of sound waves.
I’m getting married. I’m moving in with my boyfriend. I’m having his baby.
Married. Moving. Baby.
“Daphne!”
Brad gripped my shoulders.
I met his dark gaze. His eyes. His gorgeous brown eyes. They steadied me. Brought me back into focus.
“Are you listening to me?”
I nodded. “It’s a lot to think about.”