I tilt my head to the side. “Is that what that was?” I eye her hand. “An almost engagement?”
She takes a big sip and then digs the base of the flute into the sand. Reaching back into the basket, she pulls out what looks like a black box.
“I mean, kind of. Not really? I have something for you. It might not look like a big deal to you, but uh, I bought it instead of putting first and last’s month rent down on an apartment. If you don’t say yes, I’ll be living with Marissa for the rest of my life.” She opens the recognizable red box and there’s the same ring I bought her, but bigger. “It was an almost engagement because it wasn’t equal yet. Now we’re fifty-fifty. What do you say?”
Setting my glass aside, I pluck the ring from the box and slide it on my finger.
“I say, yes. One thousand percent forever.”
The box falls to the ground as I take her head in my hand and force her lips to mine. Euphoria on all fronts. Aara’s tears slip onto her cheeks and I taste the salt in our kiss. This shared moment means so much and also falsifies everything that tried to keep us apart. Honest meets honest. Bravery honors bravery. And love? The real kind. That never goes away. A warm, tingling feeling spreads over my body as she glides into my lap, straddling my hips. Aara’s hands entwine in my hair as she deepens the kiss—more tongue and force. I give it back to her in the same. That’s the satisfaction in our match. She will always be next to me. Never behind or in front of.
“I’m so glad you said yes.”
“Did you think I’d say no? I already asked you, Aara. My feelings were never in question. When I said I love you the first time I meant I’ve only loved you. You’re it. I’ll never love anyone else.”
“You’re perfect, Luke. I love you so much. Also, I have a confession,” she says, tongue tracing a path up my neck to my ear. She presses her body down on my lap, and when I peek, I see her dress has ridden up, no panties. Just pussy. A breath lodges in my throat.
“Confess then, sinner.”
“I canceled the reservations because I wanted to be here. At your house. Alone with you. So I could have sex with you all night. I was confident we’d end up right here, right now, and well, let’s go inside. Right now.”
Standing up, I carry her back into the house, abandoning everything save for her lips. By the time we stumble into the living room, the kissing has turned violent. A passion so fervent, it scares me. What’s sex if the feelings behind it don’t scare you a little? Everything about my emotions when it comes to Aara terrifies me. The cold metal on my ring finger a foreign, welcomed feeling. I set her on her feet and she pulls me toward my bedroom. Her eyes a siren call, leading me to my greatest temptation I get to have at my beck and call.
She pulls the dress over her head and tosses it aside. She’s bare for me, and I come unraveled, scrambling to take off my clothes as quickly as possible.
“What do you say? Make this official?” she says, popping one hip to the side, lids slipping over her eyes.
“We gonna SEAL this deal, you mean?”
“That was an awful joke, Hart.” Aara licks her lips, stepping to the edge of my bed. “But I forgive you.”
“Dagger wouldn’t forgive me if I missed the opportunity to make that joke,” I explain, striding forward, covering the same space in far less time. “Jokes aside, now. I’ll only fuck you right now if I’m the only man you’ll ever fuck as long as you live.”
“That’s the point.” Aara drags a finger down the center of my chest, over my abs and then closes her fist around my cock. I close my eyes as she begins pumping her fist. “This is the start of the rest of our lives.”
She drops to her knees and puts my dick in her mouth while she continues moving her hand. I watch as she laves my balls with her tongue, popping one in her mouth and then the other. The lightheaded feeling hits when she returns to my cock and slides it down her throat. When tears form in the corner of her eyes, she pulls back and uses her hand and the spit to stoke a frenzy.
“Get on the bed, Aara.”
She follows my command, but she keeps my hard-on clutched in her hand like a leashed dog. She lies down, pulling me on top of her. When I’m between her legs, I bury my face in her chest and kiss her pink nipples, lightly sucking the honeyed skin on her neck. I tease the tip of my dick at her silken entrance. I groan when my bare skin meets wet flesh. “It’s okay, Luke. It’s just us now. You don’t need a condom. Kiss me.”
This time, I obey, lifting my chin to press my lips against hers. I want to believe her, that it’s just us now and forever, but Chantal scarred me beyond recognition. “Aara,” I say her name, a plea. “I don’t know.”
She grabs the sides of my face and looks me in the eye. “Let’s do this right now. Worst-case scenario. Tell me.” Aara lifts her hips, forcing the tip to dance once again with her dripping center.
I lose my brain for half a second before I answer. “Pregnancy.”
“Open your eyes.”
I do. “I’m on birth control. You know what else? Worst-case scenario comes true. I want your babies, Hart. Eventually. Right now, it’s just practice.”
This would be the cruelest hoax in the world if she was tricking me. This is how it happens, I realize. But Aarabelle isn’t any other woman. She’s the first woman who has truly loved me. She’s a woman who has far more to lose than I would. It feels unnatural. Like I’m doing something illicit, but I let my hips fall a little bit. Her pussy is tight and soaking wet. It grips my head, the bare feeling at once overtakes me. It’s exhilarating rapture.
I groan as I tuck my head into her neck. “You mean everything to me,” I say. It’s muffled, but I know she heard it because she’s telling me she loves me on repeat. Over and over, bucking her hips, asking for more. This is the final step in the claiming of my heart. I give it to her. In one solid thrust. Bare sex feels a million times better than sex with a condom. But it’s more than just a barrier, it’s a mental breakthrough. No walls. Nothing keeping us apart. I have nothing else to give her. She has it all.
I kiss her when her moans drive me to fuck her harder. The kiss is teeth and heaven, and everything in between. “You’re going to make me come,” I rasp against her mouth.
Aara takes my head into her hands and keeps our lips locked. She meets my thrusts and she bites my bottom lip as she comes, a fucking assault on my cock in gripping waves that are uncensored. I hang on until she tilts her head back, arching her neck, and screams out in ecstasy.
