The Favor

He stared down at me, a whole array of emotions flickering in his eyes so fast I couldn’t identify a single one of them. He swore under his breath, buried his face in my neck, and began fucking in and out of me. Hard. Fast. Brutally. Like he couldn’t get deep enough.

I clung to his nape, moaning and scratching at his skin, loving every savage thrust. He went so deep it hurt a little, but I didn’t care. Liked it. Especially since every stab of his cock hit my sweet spot, rubbed my clit, and made his balls slap against my ass.

After being teased for so freaking long, I was excruciatingly close to coming. I could feel my pussy tightening and spasming around his cock. I knew his own release was creeping up on him, because I could feel his shaft begin to swell and throb. “Dane—”

“Come for me.” He sank his teeth into my neck, and I was gone. “That’s my good girl.” He fucked me through my orgasm, ramming harder, faster—almost feral. Then he punched his cock deep inside me and exploded.

The strength seemed to leave us both, and we sagged. The weight of his body made it hard for me to catch my breath, but I didn’t care—I liked having him so close. So I breezed my fingers through his hair, lightly scratching his scalp.

Finally, Dane let my legs slip from his shoulders and down to my sides. He kissed his way up my neck and over to my mouth. His tongue swept inside and tangled with mine, tasting and savoring.

Pulling back, he brushed my bangs away from my face. “Love you, baby girl,” he said, his voice low and soft. “You told me you don’t need the words, but you deserve to hear them. I don’t want you to ever be unsure of what I feel for you. I need you to know deep down to your bones that you’re the most important thing in my world. I need you to know I could never love anything or anyone the way I love you.”

My eyes stung, and my nose tingled. I had not expected that declaration. Hadn’t been prepared for it. I didn’t need to ask him if he was sure—Dane would never have said those words if he didn’t mean them. “Right back at you. I don’t know when it happened. I just know that it’s true and it won’t change.”

“Same here. I haven’t done anything at all to deserve you, but I’ll never give you a reason to regret being mine. Not ever, Vienna. You can count on that. On me.”

“I know, and I do. You were the best fake husband ever, so I have no doubts that you’ll make the best real husband ever.”

A low, rumbly chuckle vibrated his chest.

I gaped. “You just laughed. Sort of.”

He nuzzled my neck. “It was a cough.”

“It was not. Don’t worry; I’ll keep it between you and me.”

“That I coughed?”

I play-punched his shoulder. “You laughed. I heard you.” And I was determined to make sure it happened again. He deserved to have a home filled with laughter—not fear and anxiety the way his childhood home had been. I tilted my head as something occurred to me. “Are you going to want a bigger house when we have kids?”

His brow pinched. “Why would we need a bigger house? How many kids are you planning to have?”

“We won’t need a bigger house unless you think you can’t cope sharing your space with noisy little people.”

He shrugged. “I’ll manage. You didn’t answer my question. How many do you want?”

“Two or three.” Or maybe four.

“All right. We’ll get started in a few years. I want to have you all to myself for a while first. I’m not ready to share you yet.” He nibbled my lips with his own. “I’m greedy and selfish when it comes to you.”

“You don’t hear me complaining, do you?”

He skimmed his hand down my neck, over my breast, and down to my waist. “I love this dress on you. Do you remember the little black dress you wore on our first date?”

“I remember.”

“I want you to wear it for me one night. I sat opposite you in the restaurant hard as a steel fucking spike. I kept picturing you bent over with that dress hiked around your waist. You’ve no idea how close you came to getting fucked in the car on the way home.”

I would never have guessed he’d been going through the same sexual struggle as me. “Who says I’d have let you fuck me?”

One side of his mouth hitched up. “You’d have let me. You were just as hot for me as I was for you.”

Totally true. “Oh, I was, was I?”

“Yes, you were. Which made it even harder to keep my hands off you. But I knew that if I touched you like that even once, there’d be no going back. And I was right.”