Of all the things he'd ever offered me, it was the first time he'd only offered himself. It was the only thing I’d ever wanted from him, really.
"I know," I said, and my voice caught.
"You do?"
"Of course I do." I pushed aside my laptop and climbed across the desk because it was the fastest way to him. "Who else is going to love me like you do?" I rubbed the palm of my hand across the scruff of his cheek, and he closed his eyes, sighing into my touch. "This isn't how everyone wants to be loved. But it's how I want to be loved. I love the way you love me."
He opened his eyes and brushed a strand of hair out of my face before planting his hand on the side of my neck. "The way I love you brought a rapist into your house,” he said, with both worry and apology.
"And the way you love me brought you there to save me in time. Both last night and ten years ago."
His mouth opened slightly, and I brought my thumb up to trace along his lower lip, silencing whatever regret he meant to share next.
"We can't look back and say ‘what if this happened’ or ‘what if this didn't’,” I said. “We’ve both lived long enough to know that sometimes the good is anchored to the bad, and if we changed a single detail, who knows if we'd be here now? I want to be here. Now."
"I tossed and turned on the sofa last night.” So he had stayed. I should have known he wouldn’t leave me alone. "Knowing you were just in the other room, wishing I knew how to say exactly that."
"You don't have to know. That was my point. You just have to try." My knees were going numb from kneeling on the hardwood of the desk, but I didn’t care.
"This is me trying.” He brushed his knuckles across my cheekbone, and when he did, his fingers were trembling. “I'm going to fuck it up sometimes."
"Just fuck it up with me, not on your own anymore." But I didn't want to talk about failures, because we were always going to fail. That was a given. And maybe—together—we wouldn’t fail sometimes too.
“I can do that.” His mouth hovered over mine, but he had yet to kiss me.
"I love you so much I don't know how to keep it all inside of me."
"Even though I'm controlling and interfering and frequently cross boundaries?" His lips grazed mine, and I wondered how he’d ever managed not to light me on fire with his kisses before this. I was kerosene. I was waiting to be destroyed.
"Do you even know the meaning of the word boundaries?" I teased.
The smile he gave seemed almost like a shrug. "You're moving in with me. I decided already.” He wrapped his arm around my ass and pulled me tighter against his body. “I can't stand thinking about you in another building after last night. I need you close to me, where I can keep you safe.” Finally, he kissed me, likely trying to stifle any objection I might have.
I didn’t actually have any objections. Mostly because I was still stunned by the declaration in the first place.
I pushed off him gently. “Are you...serious?”
"Completely. Except that wasn’t exactly the whole truth.” He paused, watching for my reaction. "I want you with me to keep you safe, yes, but also because I want you in every part of my world. I want it to be our world."
"I always wanted to be in your world,” I said, nodding. I was saying yes.
"Sabrina, you are my world." He studied my face, his hazel eyes warmer than I'd ever seen them.
He kissed me again, tender and brief, but it was powerful in its simplicity, like the single square a pawn moved when it finished its journey across the board and was crowned queen.
"Come on. Let's get out of here before I'm tempted to give Weston another show." He lifted me off the desk and set me on the floor. "The movers should be at my place with your things soon anyway."
"Movers? At your place?" I smoothed my skirt as I sorted out his words in my dizzy love-struck head.
Wait.
I froze, comprehension settling in. "Did you already have movers packing up my apartment?"
He looked mildly guilty. "Is there a wrong answer here?"
I'd just told him I would accept him and how he did things. But surely he hadn't moved me in with him without my permission. Had he?
Wasn’t I kind of hoping that he had?
“The only wrong answer is an untrue one,” I said honestly.
"Then, yes. I’ve had movers packing since shortly after you left to come to work. I didn’t tell you until now in case you were planning to argue about it. I thought it was better the office was empty for that so we could have proper makeup sex when you were done." He gave me his best devilish grin, and if it wasn't a purposeful test, it was a test all the same.
And it wasn't even hard to pass. Because I was only a little bit irritated, and even that was only because I thought I should be.
Mostly I was happy. Completely, overwhelmingly happy.
"You were that sure you were going to win me over?" I asked, teasing him. I reached behind me to shut my laptop, and turned back to where he was waiting.
"If I didn't, I was going to kidnap you."
Damn, he'd make a sexy kidnapper. There would be ropes and blindfolds. I could imagine all the ways he’d violate me…
"Can we pretend that's what happened?"
"You're such a dirty girl." His tone was filled with mischief. He reached his hand out toward me.
"And you're such a filthy man." I put my hand in his, and it fit, exactly. "I guess we're perfect together."
Epilogue
Nine Months Later
She's tight as my finger pushes inside her. Tight and hot and soaking wet.
"Donovan," she scolds, pressing her thighs together, as if that will keep me out. Her cheeks flush and beneath the thin cotton of her sundress, her nipples turn into hard beads. She glances up at our driver in the front seat, but I think she'd rather find he's looking than that he's not.
Her pink tongue flicks along her bottom lip and her lids have fluttered closed as I rub against the wall of her pussy.
Fuck, I want to suck on that tongue. Then I want to wrench her hands behind her back and shove her to her knees in front of me and make her use that tongue on my cock.
"How am I supposed to finish looking over Tom's report when you distract me like this?" Her hands are shaking as they continue to try to hold the tablet up.
"Do you want me to stop?" I should stop. We only have ten minutes or so before we’ll arrive at Pinnacle House, which is not nearly enough time to satiate either of our needs. I shouldn't have even started this. But I'm antsy. Eager. And it's always hard to keep my hands off her.
"No!" She grows more coy. "I mean, your hand is already down there." She spreads her thighs, making room for me to explore, sighing as I do.
"Put down the iPad," I coax, nibbling along her jawline. "We're on vacation now. Tom has things covered at the office."
She mumbles something that I assume is acquiescence since she drops the tablet and succumbs to my ministrations.