“Feel that?” I whisper, my jaw tight as I bury myself to the hilt. “This is what you would’ve been walking away from. What we would’ve lost.”
I’ll never get over how good this feels with her.
How perfectly she takes me.
“Faster,” she begs. “Please fuck me faster.”
I wrap a hand around her throat, lowering my lips to hers and kissing her like she’s everything I’ve ever wanted and more than I ever thought I could have. She claws at my shoulders, trying to pull me closer, and I give her everything as I pin her down and fuck her into the wooden stairs. Desperate to make her understand this isn’t just me taking her, it’s me giving her every part of myself in return.
“Anytime you forget this,” I murmur, my lips brushing her ear, “anytime you start to doubt what we are, I’ll fuck this perfect little pussy until it remembers. Until it aches for nothing but me.”
“I don’t… I won’t. You’re everything to me.” Her eyes flutter as I thrust harder, hitting that spot inside her while my hand rests against her neck—not controlling, just connecting.
“Yeah?” I pant, forehead pressed to hers. “Then promise me you’ll never walk out on me again… because I love you, Piper. I fucking love you.”
And just like that, she breaks.
Her whole body tightens around me, her nails marking up my chest as her orgasm rips through her. Her scream turns to a sob, and I catch it with my mouth while fucking my love into her like it’s the only way I know how.
The roar that tears out of me is feral, more animal than man, as I slam into her one final time, cock buried to the base, breeding her, and filling her with everything I am. My hand leaves her throat and finds her waist, then slides around to her back, drawing her close until there’s no space left between us.
“Say something, darlin’… Please.”
I don’t know why the words slipped out when they did. Maybe it’s because we’re never more vulnerable than in moments like this, when the only language left between us is touch and wanting.
“Say it again,” she breathes, so softly I almost miss it. “Please… tell me again.”
I bring my hand to her face, my thumb finding the curve of her cheekbone, tilting her chin until her eyes meet mine because if she’s going to hear this, she’s going to see that I mean every word.
“I’m in love with you, Piper. I always have been.”
A single tear slips from the corner of her eye, tracing a path down her cheek, and I lean in and kiss it away.
“I only tried to leave because I thought I was protecting you.” She holds back the tears that threaten to fall, her bottom lip trembling as she fights through the words. “I didn’t want to be the thing that broke you. I couldn’t make you choose because I knew it would tear you apart.”
“So you were choosing for me?” She nods, and I shift us carefullyon the step, settling her in my lap so she’s facing me, her legs wrapped around my waist. “You would never not be my choice. Not in this lifetime, not in any that come after.”
Her fingers slide into the damp hair at the back of my neck, and her forehead tips forward to rest against mine, our breaths mingling in the small space between us.
“I thought I was doing the right thing, but leaving you wouldn’t have fixed anything. It would’ve hurt you, and I can’t do that. I could never hurt you like that. You have to believe me, Christian.”
God, I’m gonna marry the hell out of this woman one day.
“I love you so much it scares me sometimes.” She leans in closer, brushing her nose against mine, her eyes wide and shimmering with everything she’s never said until now. “I’ll fight the world for you, Christian. I’ll fight you if I have to, but I’m not going anywhere.”
Chapter 23
Piper
“DoI need to get Callan a gift?”
“Nope,” Christian says, glancing over his shoulder with a lazy grin. “Just your pretty little self will do, darlin’.”
It’s Callan’s birthday this weekend, and according to Christian, it means the bar shuts down early, every rule gets tossed out the window, and everyone shows up ready to drink, dance, and forget about real life for a while.
“We’re not really gift-givers,” Christian explains, leaning against the edge of the dresser in his bedroom with his hands tucked into the front pockets of his jeans. “We’re show-up-anywhere-anytime-of-the-year people. If we need or want something, we just give it.”
I cross the room to the mirror, pretending to focus on my makeup. “So what happens when it’s your birthday?” I tilt my head, catching his darkening gaze in the mirror. “You don’t want me to get you anything?”