He pressed in a little farther, easily sliding in, dropping his mouth to hers. “Say it again,” he growled against her mouth.
“I love you—”
He entered her in one swift stroke and stole the words he loved right out of her mouth. The intensity he’d always felt burned between them, but this time it was sweeter. Passion dripped from her mouth into his, and he took every little bit of it until she was panting. Ready.
He shifted his hips, slow and hard, claiming what belonged to him. What he knew now had belonged to him from the day he met her. This wasn’t about pleasure, not for him. This was about marking her as his. Always his. He held her tight, pressing his weight into her, thrusting hard until his deep grunts matched her moans.
Until she dug her nails into his arms and gasped, “Go faster.”
“Faster, hmm?” He thrust. Hard. Teasing her. Wanting her to beg for him.
She gasped, her eyes huge. “Please. Faster.”
Holding her tight to him, he slowly withdrew, her inner walls squeezing, begging for him to return. “Before, I would have loved to win this game between us,” he told her, pumping his hips light and slow as she trembled in his arms. “Now I only want you to win.” Pinning her to the bookcase, he unleashed himself into hard-and-fast thrusts that had her eyes growing wide and her breath vanishing.
Until she screamed her climax, breaking apart around him, and only when she got all she needed from him did he follow her.
Chapter 16
“The donation you made was very generous,” Sharon, a therapist at HappyHouse, a safe haven for abused women and their children, said to Elise a few days later.
“I’m happy to do it,” Elise answered honestly. She’d wondered what to do with the money from the show at Phoenix. It had felt wrong to keep it, but she didn’t want to simply rip up the check either. So she took out twenty thousand for the Phoenix case, giving Penny half and depositing the other half into her bank account. After that, she’d done some research to find the best place to donate the money, and now, looking around at the kids smiling and playing with toys in this place where life wasn’t full of rage and violence, she knew this was exactly where the money needed to go.
“Here, come, let me show you where your money will go,” Sharon said. Elise followed down the hallway, and Sharon explained, “In this wing, we’ve got rooms set up for the mothers and their children. But as you can see, we’re short on bunk beds for mothers who have more than one child.”
The tour continued, and Elise learned about all the things the money would help support, and something broken inside her heart healed. She couldn’t change the past, but she’d made good on the future. And this, this would have made her mother very happy.
By the time Sharon finished, Elise felt lit up inside. She returned the hug Sharon offered her and said, “Can I come by sometimes to volunteer?”
“We’d love that.” Sharon smiled. “Anytime. Just call before you’d like to come.”
Elise hadn’t expected her night at Phoenix to help her as much as it would help others, but as she said her goodbyes to Sharon, she felt…light. That a heavy burden she didn’t know had been there was gone now. Zoey had once told her that Phoenix was life changing, and Elise realized she was right. It had changed the course of her life forever, making things better, stronger, happier.
When she left Sharon behind and went outside, she spotted Archer leaning against his truck, and her breath caught at his smile.
She stepped into his waiting arms, and he kissed the top of her head. “Everything go well?” he asked.
“So well.” She slid her arms around his back, the move feeling so natural now, like she’d always embraced him just like this. “It felt exactly right. That money is going to go a long way here.”
When he leaned away, he was smiling at her. “You’ve done a good thing.”
She nodded and smiled in return. “All I keep thinking is how good of a place this would have been for my mom.” Where there was once deep pain, there was only a sad, dull ache that her mother had missed out on so much of her life.
Archer gave a slow nod of understanding. “It’s good the city has this.”
“It is.”
He dipped his chin and gave her a slow, easy kiss before he asked, “Can I take you somewhere?”
“Always.”
He had the passenger door open for her, and soon they were on their way, staying quiet on the drive into the Brooklyn Heights area. “Please tell me you don’t have another case for me,” she asked with a laugh, not knowing anyone in his neighborhood. “I need a little break from Phoenix business.”
He chuckled. “It’s not a case.”
She noted a playful sparkle in his eye before he pulled up to an elegant pre-civil war brownstone row house. A wrought-iron railing and fence surrounded the front, with mature trees lining the sidewalk. She exited the truck, pretty sure this house, or one similar, featured in a movie once, but she couldn’t place the movie.
“What do you think?”
She glanced sideways, finding Archer with his hands stuffed into his pockets. “What do I think of what?”
He gestured to the building. “I bought it.”
“You bought this house?”
He nodded. “Yesterday, and my apartment will be going on the market in a few days.” He took her hand, tugging her forward, striding up the stairs, and opening the door a moment later.
She went in first, gobsmacked at the gorgeous foyer with the glistening hardwood floors that led to a curved staircase and a sitting room on the right with an old white brick fireplace. “Holy, wow, it’s gorgeous.” She turned back to him, catching his sheepish smile. “You never said you were looking to move.”
He gave an easy shrug. “When it’s time, it’s time.”
“I guess you’re right,” she said, making her way to the staircase and running her hand up the smooth, shiny railing. “It’s absolutely stunning.”
“I’m happy you think so, because I’d like you to live here with me.”
Surprised, she smiled at the warmth in Archer’s voice and turned around, only to find him on one knee, a little black box in his hand with a sparkling oval diamond ring inside. Feeling like her soul began to leave her body in shock, she met Archer’s emotion-packed eyes.
“You don’t need to say yes now.” He hesitated and then gave a soft smile. “I know this is fast. You don’t even have to wear the ring. But this is where I’m at, madly and hopelessly in love with you, and I want you to know it. I want us to end up here. Together. With you as my wife, and down the road, our children running up and down those stairs behind you.”
Time stopped.
She forced her feet to move, and while she felt the tingle of unease that happy things couldn’t possibly last, she pushed it aside. Loving Archer was the easiest thing she’d ever done in her life. She didn’t want to fight happiness anymore; she wanted to welcome it. “You’re right. This is where we end up. Together.” She lifted her hand, holding it out to him, and laugh-cried at the surprise on his face.
“You’ll marry me?” he asked, his voice rough.