She laughs, and her body arches against mine. Her head falls back, and she lets out the most amazing happy squeal. I was above her, but she pushes me back against the pillows. I’m on my back watching her hold her brow and shake her head.
“It’s like a dream,” she says. Then she catches my face in both hands again and kisses me. I can’t help laughing now. “Do you remember how awful you were in Montana?”
“Hang on,” I try to act offended and fail. “You came at me out of nowhere.”
“You are literally the man of my dreams, Stuart Knight.”
“Don’t forget,” I say, smoothing both hands over her cheeks, sliding her brown hair back. “You’re the woman in mine, too.”
“Would you make love to me again?” Her lips curl as her hand moves down between us. Her fingers wrap around my cock, and my body immediately responds to her touch, hard and strong.
“With pleasure,” I say, before kissing her lips, her chin, her neck, making my way down her torso to the place I know will have her screaming my name.
Epilogue: Proposition
Stuart
Mom’s on the phone, and I don’t like the agitation in her voice. “He’s getting too old to run the ranch by himself. He needs your help.”
Mariska’s head is on my chest, and as far as I can tell, she’s still asleep. I thread my fingers through her long, wavy brown hair and glance around our king-sized bedroom.
When I came back to Princeton from Montana last January, this place was for sale. So what did I do? I bought the identical, overly plush three thousand square-foot condominium I’d given my partner Derek Alexander hell for buying. It’s actually right across the hall from him.
Traveling back to my reason for doing it, all of my arguments were bound up in this beautiful woman whose body is held close to mine. I wanted Mariska to have a palace. I wanted her to be protected by two layers of security if I’m ever out of town on a job. I wanted her to feel like a queen.
It more than paid for itself last spring when we had to hide a former client, Star Brandon, from a blackmailer we feared might try to kidnap her baby girl Cami.
Still, none of this is who I am. I couldn’t be more of a fish out of water in this place.
I try to keep my voice even so I don’t wake my sleeping fiancée. “I need you to stay calm. It’s not good for your heart to get so worked up.”
“My heart is fine,” Sylvia counters. Who ever said our mother was gentle never met her. “You promised to go with me this summer. I want you to consider how much you love being there and think about your future.”
A loud breath exhales through my lips, and I rub my forehead. “We’ll stay a month. Six weeks at the most. But I’ve made commitments to Derek and Patrick here.”
“You hate being there, Stuart William. Don’t tell me you like it.”
“I’ll do what makes sense for Mariska and me.” My voice is sharp, that old alpha-dog coming out, and as much as I love my mother, as much as her heart attack scared the shit out of all of us, I can’t not be who I am.
She immediately softens. “That’s all I’m asking you to do.”
Irritation fans in my chest at her quick surrender. It’s almost like she was just trying to get me worked up. “We’ll see you in a few days.”
“I love you,” she says before disconnecting.
My arm lowers too hard, and the beautiful girl on my chest sits up. Her eyes glow like the sunset, and a sexy smile is on her lips.
“Stuart William?” I love her soft voice. “It sounds like your mother has a bee in her bonnet.”
I laugh as desire bubbles in my chest—my anger momentarily forgotten in the light of this gorgeous creature who agreed to be mine. Lifting her in my arms, I turn us so her back is against the mattress.
“My mother wants us to move from the penthouse suite I’ve given you here to a horse ranch in the toughest wilderness in the continental U.S.”
Leaning down, I kiss her neck, inhaling her jasmine scent. She hums a satisfied sound, threading her fingers in the sides of my hair. “We have some amazing memories at that horse ranch.”
Lifting my head, I look into her eyes. She’s everything I love, and at the same time, she’s quite a bit younger than I am.
“Bill’s house is nice, but when the winter sets in, it’s pretty isolated. You sure that wouldn’t bother you?”