“You,” I tell her, urging her off my chest so she can look in my eyes. “Are the only one I want. I’m not going to insult you and tell you that’s how things started out. The sex has always been amazing with you, but those first couple times were about me and my lack of feeling like a whole man. It was an outlet, something that made me feel better. I was inconsiderate of what it meant for you, and blind to what it could mean for me. There isn’t a single soul around that would put up with the shitty moods I had like you did. You were there for me during the worst part of my life, and I need you around when things get better, too.”
She looks away, and it chips away a little at my soul.
“Look at me. You’re Brynn because you’re the most compassionate woman I’ve ever met. There are no calculations in the things you do. You don’t help people in case it may benefit you. You’re Slick because you’re a badass Marine who I know will always have my back no matter how things turn out between us.”
She falls back onto my chest, and although I feel like she’s only doing it so she doesn’t have to look me in the eye right now, I allow it.
“This is fucking messy. We’re going to have to field comments from the people we work with. Knowing Cerberus, there’s probably some official form we have to fill out because at the end of the day, they’re a company and need to protect themselves from liability if we break up. But that’s not going to happen because I can’t imagine spending a fucking day without you. That’s fucking messy. Nothing about this is clean and easy. You’ll scream coming on my cock, and people we respect will hear that. There’s no way around the shit we’ll have to deal with, but we’ll make it out the other side if we stick together.”
She chuckles against my chest and hope blooms deep inside of me.
“I have spent more nights than I can count fantasizing about you, and that shit happened long before I got hurt. Us ending up like this, I think, was going to happen whether we were stuck together in Albuquerque or not. I don’t want to be down the fucking hall from you when you belong in my fucking arms.”
I roll my shoulder to get her to look at me, but when she doesn’t, I roll her to her back, trying and barely resisting the urge to roll my hips against her naked flesh.
“What do you think about all of that?”
“You’ve said a lot tonight. It’s a complete change from how you normally act.”
“I feel a lot tonight. Before, I avoided you because I didn’t want you reading exactly how I felt. And I mean, yeah, I want nothing more than to slip inside of you. I dreamed so many times about those little moans you make, what your face looks like when you come, but I respected you. I knew it would be crossing a line.”
“You don’t respect me now?”
I can hear the humor in her voice. “I want to do so many disrespectful things to you right now.”
She kisses me back, but it only lasts a second before she resettles her head back on the pillow.
“So you’re mine, right?”
She bites her lower lip. “Are you fucking with me? Is this some sort of game to you?”
I shake my head instantly. “This is me being completely vulnerable and asking the question that’s been haunting me for weeks. Brynn Sullivan, are you mine?”
The silence kills me, my heart threatening to give out while waiting for her answer.
Ugly suggested a grand gesture on the way back from the bar, and I’m wondering if I fucked this up, thinking only me is enough to get the response I want.
“I love you, too. I’m afraid you’re going to change your mind.”
“That’s never going to happen. Trust me?”
She doesn’t hesitate to nod with a smile.
“That’s my girl.”
She initiates the next kiss and God, do I want to get lost in it, but I promised myself on the way back in here, that I’m not leaving anything unsaid.
“Kincaid wants to know if we’re at the point in our relationship where we’ll be building a house and moving in together.”
She freezes under me, every muscle in her body locking up. “What?”
“He said he has six new guys coming soon, and construction on the clubhouse won’t be done in time. He’s hoping he can have our rooms to house them.”
“Six guys?” she asks.
I narrow my eyes at her. “Yeah, he said it’ll be a year before I’m ready to go back in the field and he needs that many to carry the workload until I can go back.”