Her muscles convulsed around him; she threw her head back and cried out into the night.
He came with her, sinking his teeth lightly into her shoulder as he did.
They stayed that way for long minutes. Then he turned her towards him.
“Never leave me again,” he said gruffly.
She clasped his face between her hands. “Never. Never, never, never!”
He kissed her. And then he was hard again, he needed her again, and he rolled her onto her back and she wrapped her legs around his hips and took him into her.
He rode her, hard and fast.
They came together, flying through the night with the swift brilliance of shooting stars.
Then they tumbled into sleep.
* * *
It was dawn the next time Dec woke. He’d rigged a blanket over the window, but the early morning light managed to slip through the soft weave.
He lay on his back, his arms around Annie. She lay half-sprawled over him. They must have been lying that way for a couple of hours because his muscles felt a little stiff, but he wouldn’t have moved for anything in the world.
He loved the feel of her against him, the whisper of her breath on his throat, the silky drift of her hair against his chest.
He stroked her hair. Her back. She sighed and rolled onto her side. He rose up on one elbow. Her lips were slightly parted and he gave into temptation, bent his head and kissed her.
Even in sleep, her mouth clung softly to his.
God, he loved her!
He knew now that he’d always loved her; he just hadn’t been ready to admit it to himself. Love—the forever kind of love—was scary as shit when you’d lived strictly for yourself for such a long time. Not that he’d never loved anybody. He loved his parents. His STUD brothers. But the one man, one woman thing?
He’d never thought about it much and when he had, he’d been unable to imagine wanting only one woman for the rest of his life.
Dec took a strand of Annie’s dark hair and let it run through his fingers.
Now he couldn’t imagine wanting anyone else.
It still killed him that he’d let hims
elf believe she’d just packed up and left him. Sure, he’d felt her putting up a wall between them, but he should have known she’d never have walked away without some sort of explanation.
He’d been so fucking focused on himself that he’d been blind to everything else. Even at the wedding, during those few moments he’d been alone with her, he should have known something was wrong. She’d had a sad look in her eyes, a sorrow that was almost palpable, but instead of asking her about that he’d asked why she hadn’t told him she was a princess.
Because you never asked, she’d replied.
Jesus.
Such a dumb question, and such an empty answer. Or maybe not. Maybe she’d meant he’d never asked her the things he should have. Even that day, he’d walked away instead of saying Why did you leave me? Why did you run away when you must have known that I loved you?
But she hadn’t known, because he hadn’t told her.
Well, he was going to make up for that omission. He was going to tell her he loved her every day for the rest of their lives. That she completed him. That she was everything he could ever want.
Pathetic male creature that he was, he wanted her now.
Okay. It was time to get away from temptation. She had to be tired. Maybe sore from all the times they’d made love. He had to leave her alone. Get up. See about making some coffee. Check the shelves for breakfast stuff. Crackers. Jam. Was there such a thing as peanut butter in this part of the world?