“I’ll tell the guard.” He flipped off the switch, leaving the bedside lamp the only light in the room, then shut the door behind them.
I pulled out my phone to shoot a text to Norma saying that JC was going to be fine and that I’d call her in the morning. Then I looked at the man I planned to spend my life with. The man I was sure I’d lost. “You better not have gotten the room emptied so that you could give me more of your talk of backup plans.”
“I got the room emptied so I can give you more of me.” His tone was full of innuendo.
I chuckled as I ran my finger across his collarbone. “How much more of you?”
“All of me.” He lowered his voice. “Especially the hard parts.”
No matter what else was going on with my emotions, he could always make my stomach flutter. “Will we still get married?”
“As far as I’m concerned, we’re already married.”
“But we can make it official? I don’t care if it’s in Vegas or at City Hall. I just want to be yours.”
He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. “Anything you want. Come up here with me.”
“I am up here with you.” I stretched across him, my attention on his bandage. He’d been sitting forward the whole time I’d been in the room, I realized, not letting his back touch the bed. “How long will you have to wear the sling?”
“Only a couple of days so that the stitches aren’t ruptured.” He leaned up and kissed my jaw.
I winced as my mind flashed back to the look on his face when he’d been shot, the way he’d fallen in front of me. I was pretty sure I’d have nightmares about that for years to come. “Does it still hurt?”
“Like a mother. I need you to distract me. Take off your panties and get up here.”
I narrowed my eyes, not sure if he was playing around or if he really wanted what he was suggesting. “There are people just outside the door.”
“People nearby turns you on.” His wicked smile dissolved into a serious expression. “Get up here.” He said it in his commanding voice. The one he used when he bossed me around during sex. The one I could never say no to.
I didn’t hesitate any longer, standing to remove my panties. I wasn’t feeling particularly aroused—not yet, anyway—but I understood that he needed this. He needed me. I needed him as well. We needed this familiar way of ours. Needed the intimacy and support. Needed to feel as united as possible when we’d almost lost everything.
After I’d tossed my panties aside, I pulled down his sheet, exposing the long, lean muscles of his torso and the tattoo that decorated half his chest. The Japanese letters that read, “The current age of existence is but a brief moment in the current scope of existence” had influenced him to live for the now. I, instead, took it to mean that everything would pass away. The bad, the awful, the situation that seemed impossible to overcome today—all of it meant nothing in the grander scheme of things.
And so what did have resonance for all time?
Love, I decided. Only love.
I swept my fingers down the design and then gripped the waistband of his briefs. I lowered them down, releasing his cock. He was already half-erect, and he grew thicker under my gaze. Just watching him harden for me got me wet.
With my lids half-closed, I climbed onto the bed. He sat up straighter, an awkward move with the use of only one arm. “Are you sure you can do this?” I asked.
“You’re going to be doing most of the work. Stop stalling and get on me already.”
I straddled his lap, gathering my skirt at my waist, and hovered over him. With his good hand, he rubbed his cock up and down my folds until I was wet and he was fully hard. “You’re so goddamn beautiful,” he murmured when he lined up his head at my entrance.
I bit my lip and sank down onto him. Slowly. Enjoying him more than teasing him. Letting myself feel every single centimeter of his shaft along my walls. He made me feel so full, so filled. So utterly complete.
Shifting my weight to my knees, I began to pulse up and down along the length of him. My tempo was even but laidback, and selfish. He generally preferred to race us toward release, and while I generally preferred whatever he gave me, this was what I needed to give him right now—attention he could luxuriate in. Patient adoration. Tenderness. Love.
He dug his fingers into my ass, pulling himself closer to me. “You’re so fucking tight in this position,” he groaned.
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I can feel you everywhere. All through me.”
“I want to be everywhere inside you.”