Unchained (Hogan Brothers 3)

For the first time, she truly admired him as a virile male. He wasn’t just a boy she crushed on anymore, he was a man she desired. His arms flexed as he reached into the cupboard for dinnerware. While he wasn’t as muscular as Braxton, he had a softer strength to him. One that came from the heart. It was one of the things she loved most about him.

As he turned with their dinner plates in hand and came to sit at the table, her mouth opened, and a question she never thought she’d ask popped out. “Are we going to have sex?”

They spoke about it very briefly at the hospital, but she hadn’t thought any more about the specifics of it. Lochlan was her first everything, and while she knew the semantics of the act, the decision to do something so intimate was terrifying.

His blank stare worried her. He seemed to be frozen in place as he processed her question. Clearing his throat, he finally spoke, his hand reaching for her cheek. “Angel, I told you that when I take you, it’ll be as my wife, not before.”

He didn’t really answer her question. “But we’re going to have sex?”

A small blush fought its way through his tanned flesh as he answered her. “Yes, Sage. One day we’re going to have sex.”

“Okay.” After that, they sat quietly eating their dinner. Sage was left wondering what was wrong with her, changing from such a serious topic to such an intimate one. Watching as he wrapped his lips around the fork, her body lit up imaging him doing that to certain areas of her body.

She had so many questions and desires that she couldn’t concentrate on the delicious food in front of her. “Eat, Sage,” Loch demanded.

His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed. His gaze never left hers, waiting for her to take a bite. Picking up her fork, she did as he commanded only so she could continue watching the erotic way his tongue touched the side of his mouth, licking the small dot of sauce off.

A shiver raced up and down her spine as he smirked. His lip on the one side quirking a tiny bit and a dimple appeared. “You have a dimple.” She sighed. He was making her feel goofy. Not herself.

Is this lust?

The way Sage watched Loch throughout the rest of the evening made his body hunger for her in an uncomfortable way. His dick wouldn’t stop throbbing as he thought about taking her body and melding them into one person.

When she’d asked him if they were going to have sex, he couldn’t have been more shocked or aroused and it was all he could picture now. Her lithe body hidden by long layers of material, nude beneath him as they explored each other.

He finally had to send her up to bed in the spare room an hour ago so he could calm down and not break his promise to take her before she was his wife. His self-control only carried so far before he would snap.

Figuring she would be asleep for the night, he went up to his room, leaving all the lights off so he didn’t wake her. Loch stripped to his boxers and climbed into bed, shocked when he felt Sage’s warm body lying there. Right in the middle, too.

Her arm snaked around his waist before he could move. Her soft fingers splayed out on his hip. The desire to stay with her, hold her through the entire night instead of just when she had her nightmares was strong.

“Please don’t leave me, Lochlan.” Her sleepy voice beckoned to him.

“I won’t. Not ever.”

Quiet surrounded them as darkness enveloped the room, the moon lost behind the clouds as a storm moved in. Lightning could be seen flashing through the windows as thunder crashed on the horizon. Winds whipped tree branches against the house, and with every boom, she flinched.

Lying in his queen-sized bed, he began playing with Sage’s curling hair. Loch confessed, “I was serious when I asked you to marry me, Sage,” wanting to distract her.

“You didn’t really ask me, Lochlan.” A little bit of sass was starting to shine through. “It was more of a demand.”

“I meant it, nonetheless,” he murmured softly, their bodies somehow becoming closer. As if magnets were trying to fuse them together.

“I know you did,” she whispered, only a hairsbreadth away from his lips.

Loch ached to kiss her more than taking his next breath. To feel her soft lips against his own. Her tentative touches mingled with his. “I want to marry you, Sage.”

He could feel the heat of her blush. “But why?”

“So many reasons,” he replied, brushing his lips against hers.

“Tell me”—she breathed—“please, tell me.”

Loch couldn’t deny her if he tried. “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted in a partner. You’re soft, caring, sweet. You don’t hide anything from me. I may not know what you’re always thinking, but your feelings are wide open for me.”

“Do you love me, Lochlan?” He sensed the answer was more important to her than she would ever let on.

“What I feel for you–” He stopped to think of how to phrase it without sounding like the answer was no. “I’m not sure if I know what love is. Sure, I love Ma and my brothers. Soph and Hayes are like sisters. But what I feel for you is so different. It’s more than anything I could ever explain.”