“Trevor told me that family is important to you, and that you came down here mostly for him. Mel, what I said about my family…just because mine wasn’t great doesn’t mean I don’t want that. I love the idea of having a family, even if it means waiting to have one because I want to be sure about it. Because if I do it, I’m going to do it right. I’ll never make the same mistakes that my parents made.”
I need to tell him, even though my stomach is twisting with nerves. He can see it, and he cups his face with his hand. “Talk to me.”
“I—” I swallow. “I was a virgin until last night. I had been saving myself for marriage…and then I met you, and it didn’t feel as important anymore. But…this morning, when you said all of that, I wondered if it had been a mistake. I wondered if I just got carried away and lost myself. Threw away my values.” The look of shock on his face hits me in the chest, and I hold him tighter, immediately wanting to take that look of pain from his face. “I don’t regret it, though. Not at all. But after what you said, about your own family, I started thinking. I realized that I had hoped, that I’d imagined, that I…I don’t know what I was expecting.”
The intensity of his kiss blows me away. Like nothing I’ve experienced, even with him. He presses his mouth to mine and practically drinks me in. Swallowing my breath. It’s a kiss that has me floating on air, high up on my tippy toes because I never want it to end. “I should have known,” he says. “Noticed. I wish I would have. I would have made it better for you.”
“Don’t you dare say that. It was perfect.”
He grins. “Perfect?”
“Yeah.”
Harlan kisses me again, pressing me harder against the wall of the barn. “Last night, when you weren’t used to my size, I was happy that I was bigger than whoever you’d been with before. Knowing that I’m the only person to touch you? Fuck, Mel. That’s everything.”
His mouth crashes down on mine for a moment. “Remember what I told you would happen if you chose fast?”
“Pushing me against the nearest wall?”
He strips my shirt over my head and tosses it to the ground. “I sent your brother to the diner, and there’s a perfectly good wall here. And I need you to tell me, am I the only man to touch these?” He traces my breasts.
“Yes.”
Reaching down, he dips his hand in the paint bucket and smears handprints across them in bright red. Then he spins me to face the wall, and shoves down my pants, leaving those same handprints on my skin there too as he traces downward. “And what about this perfect ass?”
“Only you,” I manage before I hear the sound of his belt and feel the head of his cock pressing against my entrance. I was wet the minute he touched me, and he has no trouble sliding in. And in. And in. Fuck, he’s so big.
Harlan wraps an arm around my waist just like he did when we rode Bean together, only this time, he’s riding me. I hold on to the wall, bracing myself against the thrusts, not prepared for the blistering pleasure that spirals through me. It’s rough and raw and unstoppable.
We’re groaning together, and Harlan’s voice is a growl in my ear. He wraps my hair around his fist and pulls my head back, so he can look me in the eyes. “You’re mine now, Melena. Every part of you is mine. And this pussy is so fucking perfect. So tight. So wet. So ready for me.”
The words along with the friction of his cock send me to the edge. I’m barely holding on, unable to keep quiet, and a few more thrusts send me over into pure, bright oblivion. I shout it out, this new pleasure, and behind me Harlan grunts his own release. He thrusts into me quickly and stills, and I can feel his hot cum filling me. He rests his forehead on my shoulder, panting, as we ride out the waves of pleasure together.
I’m glad I’m not facing him for what I’m about to say next. Even though I feel brave, I’m afraid to see his expression. “I think I’m falling for you.” The words are barely a whisper. “But I don’t know if this can work.”
Harlan pulls out of me and spins me around faster than I can blink. Grabbing my now paint-soaked shirt, he helps me on with it gently, but I can’t ignore the heat in his eyes. “It will work. I’ll prove it to you.”
“You really want that?”
“Fuck yes,” he says. “All of you. In every way. Marry me, Melena.”