“Good.” I lift her, and she wraps her legs around my waist. “Good girl.”
She glances at my lips, then shakes her head. “I’m not falling for this. I’ve let one man control my life for far too long to just jump into the arms of another one. I’m done with being used for my name.”
“I’m not your father.” I grip her ass with one hand and use my other to turn her chin so she’s looking dead in my eyes. “I’m not trying to use you for anything,Sole. I don’t want you for your father’s territory. He forfeited that the second he came after Amelia.”
She nibbles her bottom lip but doesn’t respond. I can almost hear her trying to think it through and find some weakness in what I’m saying. But there isn’t one. I’m telling her the truth, just like I always will.
“I don’t know if this helps, but …” I make ahmmmsound. “Let me phrase this in a way that won’t get me stabbed.”
“Too soon.” She leans away from me.
I pull her back. “Even if you ran away like you planned. Far, far away. It wouldn’t matter. Your father’s holdings belong to Grant and me now. With or without you. That’s the way this works. To the victors go the spoils.”
“So I’m a spoil then?” she retorts.
“No.” I turn and press her against the Land Rover. “I feel like I’m saying this all wrong. What I’m trying to say is that I want you just as you are. No strings to connect you to the Alderones. Besides, you won’t have that name for much longer anyway.” I lean in, and this time she doesn’t move away.
“You want me.Me. Not an Alderone?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.” I kiss the tip of her nose. “I’m part of this life. Grant and I—it’s what we were born for. But you don’t have to be involved in any of it if you don’t want to be. You can be an interior designer or an astronaut or whatever the fuck you want to be. All I ask is that you stay with me, marry me, let me love you. And if you tell me you can’t stay, no matter what, I’ll go with you.”
Her eyes water as she stares up at me. “You mean it?”
“Every word.” I move closer, my lips so close to hers. “I didn’t know love until I met you. Now I’d do anything to make you happy,Sole. I live for you.”
She throws her arms around my neck and hugs me tight. I stand there holding her, finally able to breathe again.
When she sniffles, I pull back and look into her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Everything. Nothing.” She laughs a little. “I just agreed to marry you, then I killed my father, and now I’m in love. None of it makes any sense.”
“Wemake sense.” I kiss her hard, showing her how much I mean what I’ve said. I’ll always protect her, always fight for her. I keep kissing her as I carry her back into the house and up the stairs.
When I get to our room, I put her on the bed and run my hands down her body. “I need you,Sole.”
“I need you, too.” She pulls at my shirt.
I tug it off, then strip her down to nothing and run my hands all along her warm skin. “Don’t ever take this away from me,Sole,” I growl and cover her body with mine.
“Please, Fenton. I need you.” She spreads for me, and I slide between her thighs, my cock notched at her entrance.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” I kiss her throat.
With a thrust, she pushes my head inside her hot, wet cunt. I can’t stop myself. I surge all the way inside her, feeling every bit of her as I groan.
I give her everything, all of me. Our bodies slap against each other as we work out the terms of our hearts’ surrender. She moans, her legs spreading even wider as I reach between us and thumb her clit. It’s messy and rough and absolutely perfect, our bodies working as one until we both hit the peak.
She arches and comes, her tits jutting into the air. I claim a nipple in my mouth as I shoot inside her, her pussy milking me as I thrust so deep it sends tremors of pleasure up my spine. This is the way we’re meant to be. Together, unraveled and raw.
“Fuck, I love you.” I claim her mouth again.
When I come up for air, she pants and smiles. “I love you, too.”
I love the sound of that. When I pull out, she protests, but when I flip her then put her on her knees, she gives me a questioning look.
I rub her round ass. “You were going to run from me,Sole.”
Her eyes widen. “You’re not going to—”