Temporary

“You had to be the oldest intern there,” I joked.

“I was,” he admitted. “And the drunkest most times but that was 100 percent Reece’s fault. However, I did learn a shit ton from his family. Talk about a messed up family tree but loyal as fuck. Reece introduced me to Dillon Buchanan, his west coast cousin and that guy is a fucking shark. Everything I learned, how to pick out distressed corporations, how to parcel them out and sell the pieces…I learned from Dillon. Like I said, I had a knack for numbers and I was good at reading people. Within the first two years, I’d hit my first million. After that, I started Belcorp and the rest is history. I always like to tease Dillon, saying that the ‘student has surpassed the master’ but he doesn’t find it as funny as me. But then, to be fair, of those Buchanans, Dillon had never been the comic. Now his brother Nolan, who is a twin, by the way,…” he paused as if realizing he was veering off track and finished, “anyway, that’s how I made my fortune.”

“It’s like a fairy tale for men,” I quipped, rising to brush a kiss across his dry, abused lips. I smiled against his mouth. “You need to drink more water. You’re dehydrated as fuck.”

He laughed, rolling me beneath him. Gazing down, he shook his head, wonder in his eyes. “I’m still not convinced this isn’t a hallucination,” he admitted.

I stared into his gaze, falling that much deeper into the depths of those baby blues, then opened my thighs and wrapped my legs around his torso. His cock pressed urgently against me as I reached between us to grip his length firmly. “Does this feel like a dream?” I murmured with a ready smile.

He groaned and thrust against my palm, the sensation of hard iron sliding beneath the silky sheath of skin. “If it is, I don’t want to wake up.”

“You’re not dreaming, baby,” I promised, guiding his cock inside me. I gasped as my pussy swallowed him to the hilt, reveling in the sensation of being split apart by this man. Each time was better than the last. God, I was so addicted to everything he was and would ever be.

And it had nothing to do with the money — even if I’d made the realization too late.

What mattered was now, not what came before.

With blinding clarity I understood why Gage had been so cold, so detached when he’d felt the exact opposite. Fear of loss had motivated his cruelty, not a true desire to hurt me.

I also knew this man would never hurt me again. Everything was out in the open, no more mystery.

The excruciating pleasure of being in Gage’s arms…I couldn’t put into words.

Gage thrust slowly, moving with fluid grace, building that sweet pressure deep inside. I clawed at his back, loving how hard his body felt against mine, the solid length of him complementing mine so perfectly.

I never knew how soulful sex with the right person could be until I met Gage. The act was more than just body parts slapping together, grunting and groaning in unison. It was so much more than ‘getting off’ could ever.

It was…fucking cosmic.

I would forever follow this man to the ends of the earth if he asked me to.

I would open my body to him without reservation, with complete trust.

We would explore the world together and I would capture our adventures with a million photos, from selfies to epic landscapes.

I wanted to fuck under the stars, lost in each other yet connected to the earth.

I wanted to visit sacred places, hands clasped together as we learned about different cultures.

I wanted to share exotic foods — even if it meant squeezing my eyes shut with a YOLO attitude and just going for it because I was a horrifically picky eater.

I wanted to laugh and cry; debate and joke — all with this maddeningly complex and incredible man.

I wanted to lie around on Sunday mornings, drinking coffee in our underwear, watching cancelled sci-fi series filled with bad acting and worse hair styles.

I wanted babies with eyes like his and smiles like mine. Or vice-versa.

I wanted it all.

And the absolute best part was…we could have it all.

I’d found the proper lid to my misshapen pot — and, you know what, it fit abso-fucking-lutely perfect.

Epilogue

“Are you sure you don’t want to have a huge, fancy wedding at some exclusive beach somewhere?” Gage asked, his worried expression contrasting with my happy-as-fuck-let’s-do-this attitude.

“I am so sure. Crowds freak me out and I just want to be your wife so marry me already, you chicken,” I teased.

“What about your family?” he persisted. “I don’t want them to hate me before they’ve even met me.”

“My sister will love you because she wants me to be happy; my parents will love you because you have a steady income. They’ll get over the wedding situation, I promise. Especially after we send my parents on a booze cruise to make up for our eloping.” I winked, only half-kidding. “No seriously, they’ll be estatic that I am finally ready to turn in my Fuck Up Club membership. After everything I’ve done, eloping will seem tame in comparison.”

His brow rose playfully. “Is there anything else I should know about my future bride?”

I made a show of checking my watch, saying with a shake of my head, “Too late to ask questions now. Let’s just say…there may or may not be an outstanding bench warrant in my name for something that was a complete misunderstanding.” At his look of concern, I shrugged and added, “Hey, they were our rival high school and honestly, they shouldn’t have left their mascot unattended. It’s not my fault that Jingles the Goat wandered from his pen and accidentally got eaten by a mountain lion.”

“You had a hand in the death of a farm animal?”

“I said accidentally. Besides, I did feel really bad. Truly.”

“Any other deep, dark, demented secrets you need to get off your chest before we do this?” he asked.

I smiled sweetly. “Nope.”

“Okay, then.” Eyes sparkling, he turned to the Justice of the Peace, nodding. “You heard the lady…help me make an honest woman out of her. Marry us before either one of us discovers more skeletons falling from the closets. Or, she discovers I’m truly just an asshole and I’ve tricked her into loving me.”

I giggled, that cat was out of the bag a long time ago but he was my asshole, so it was all good.

Besides, he wasn’t actually that bad. Gage had spent so much time hating himself for not taking that bullet instead of his brother that he’d never allowed himself any slack.

It was always all work and no play because he hadn’t felt he deserved anything good in his life but that bullshit mentality was over.

At my suggestion, we had Dustin moved to a private plot in New York where we would live part-time so that his little brother would always be near and once that happened, Gage started to smile more. That haunted look began to fade and the real Gage started to appear.

And the real Gage was fucking hilarious. If he wasn’t making me cum, he was making me laugh. Oh, and he could grill like Guy Fieri.

Now, you tell me why I would hesitate to lock that shit down?

Exactly. I wouldn’t — and I’m not.

We said our vows, quick and painless. Gage slipped a simple white gold band on my finger — I didn’t want anything more — and then we sealed the deal with a really hot kiss that made the clerk squirm and clear her throat.

“Are we married?” I asked, tremulously.

“We are fucking hitched,” Gage replied, beaming, looking very much like a kid who’d just scored a candy platter of Willy Wonka proportions. Suddenly, he scooped me up into his arms, shocking a startled squeak from me.

“What are you doing, you lunatic?” I asked, laughing.

“I have to carry you over the threshold, right? It’s like, a tradition.”

“Gage…we are in the court clerk’s office,” I whispered, noting with flushed embarrassment that we were creating an entertaining spectacle. “Put me down.”