He rubbed his bandaged shoulder. “Well, they almost did. A few inches lower and I would have died without ever being with you. I’m not making that mistake again. I’m taking this stupid gown off, climbing in that bed, and having my way with you. Do you have objections?”
I giggled, thinking of the night I said much the same. “I do not have objections.”
“Good.” The gown was off in a flash and the gorgeous, naked king of the sea stood in all his glory, unmarred by injuries. On the contrary, he looked like a warrior fresh from battle.
I pulled him down, caressed his mouth with my tongue and then plunged inside. “You’re my warrior,” I murmured as we broke apart. “My knight.”
“What should I be careful of?” He climbed on my bed—hands and legs on either side of me.
“Making me come so hard I crack a rib.”
He hissed. “Damn. This is going to be rough for you, then.”
Carter swallowed my laugh. Lips connected, he pushed my gown up to my chin and made short work of my underwear.
Kisses dotted a path between my breasts, gentle as they passed over my stomach.
Excitement thrummed beneath my skin. I’d been waiting for this for so long. Carter forgiving me. Loving me. Making me his.
Both of us banged up in a hospital didn’t enter the picture I had, but our love story had been a wild roller coaster. This was almost fitting.
I sucked in a sharp breath as he tasted me. “I’m going slow.” His husky drawl tightened my lower belly. “Taking my time. Any objections to that?”
“There will be no objections for the rest of the night,” I said quickly. “That is blanket permission to have your way with me.”
He chuckled, and was still chuckling as he entered my folds, sending sweet vibrations through my body.
I fisted the sheets, head falling back as he kept to his word. Licking, tasting, and rolling his tongue through every inch of me. I’d never been eaten out so thoroughly before—usually because I was impatient as hell.
“Dammit, Carter,” I hissed. My back arched off the bed, riding a wave of pleasure and pain. His tongue was slowly fucking me in a way that was undoing me thread by thread. “Why haven’t we done this before?”
“You were stubborn.”
“You were stubborn!”
“Are we seriously fighting while having sex?”
“I—” A moan escaped me. Carter added a finger to the party, continuing his achingly languid exploration. “We are, because you’re impossible.”
“Will this make it up to you?” He crooked his finger, hitting that spot, and my eyes rolled up in my head.
“You’ll... have to do that a few more times to earn forgiveness.”
“Then I’m not doing it with a finger.”
Rising up, he rolled the condom on and positioned himself at my entrance. I opened my arms, wrapping in his firm, warm weight as he carefully lowered on top of me.
“I love you, Belle,” he whispered. “I loved you even while I hated you. I was hard, unyielding, and angry, but you steadied me. I needed your balance then, like I need it now.”
“You have it, Carter.” Groaning, my body tightened as he pushed in. Carter rained kisses on me as I relaxed, opening myself fully to him. “You have me.”
He started pumping—unhurried and deliberate strokes that withdrew to the tip and then connected us as one. Hushed moans, whispers, and promises filled the room.
He lowered his head, taking my hardened nipple in his mouth, and flicking it in pace with his gentle thrusts.
I said I could do this, but this hurt more than a little. My ragged breaths rocked my sore ribs and my knee hurt wrapped around him. Still, I’d lose my mind if he stopped.
The sweet taste of him. Peppery, cinnamon grapefruits. And the rightness of the first boy to make my heart skip a beat, filling me whole. Together it dragged and swept me under while the pain buoyed me, letting me hold out longer than I could before.
My rising orgasm came slow, fought through hurt, demanded to be earned, and was all the more special as it wracked my body, sending showers of numbing pleasure that beat everything else back.
This was me and Carter. The way we were now, had always been, and would always be.
“That hurt,” he whispered. “Didn’t it?”
“A little.” I drew him down next to me. “You can make it up to me the next time. And the time after that. And the one after that.”
“I look forward to it.”
Carter moved down, running his hands over me and dropping kisses in their wake.
“Have you ever had that feeling?” he asked. “That you’re on the edge of something huge. One of those times when you know your life is about to change.”
“Yes.” I reached for him, desperate to have him in my arms again as he kissed my toes.
“This is one of those times, Belle. I’m going to build that firm—I know it. I’ll be your husband—I know that too. Right now, I can see our story as if it’s already been told.”
He sank on top of me, capturing my lips.
I can see it too.
Carter Knight came to me. Our fate was sealed now. Our love story written in the stars.
I would never walk away from him again.
NATHAN
“Thank you for helping, Nathan.” Mrs. Lewis-Adler smiled at me over the suitcase. The two of us were packing up Belle’s room. “It warms my heart to meet the caring, sensitive man you’ve become.”
“That means a lot coming from you,” I said. “Considering how Belle and I ended.”
She waved that away. “Why concern yourself with endings when new beginnings are so much better? I have a feeling you and I will be seeing a lot of each other,” she said. “Let’s have a fresh start.”
“I definitely hope we’ll see a lot of each other. I hope you see me across the dining table. Standing with Belle before a preacher, and in a few Adler-Princes.”
Laughing, she came around the bed and hugged me. “I do too.”
“Nathan.” Hendrix stuck his head in the room. “Your grandfather is here.”
“What? Why?”
“Mrs. Desai asked him to come,” he replied. “I’ve shown him to your room.”
I hesitated—part of me holding out hope Hendrix would say he was kidding.
He didn’t.
“I’ll be right back, Mrs. Adler.”
“Take your time.”
I walked one door down and pushed into my bedroom. The colonel stood in the middle of the room, eyeing the shattered pieces of beer bottle I had yet to pick up.
“Rosalie said you were doing well this summer,” he said by way of hello. “Seems she was mistaken.”
“I have been doing well.” I lightly closed the door. “Haven’t touched a drop in weeks, but I’m surprised to hear you were concerned. I didn’t get that impression since you didn’t bother to encourage therapy, rehab, or even talk about my issues at all except to highlight why they prove I’m a failure.”
The colonel’s blank expression didn’t twitch. “I was not concerned. It was your problem and yours alone to deal with. When will you learn no one is responsible for you but yourself?”