Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 112056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
I melted into the mattress as his hips thrust once, his cock waking up, hardening under his body’s need for a perfect trio of releases.
“Will you marry me?” he asked again, his body swelling with every heartbeat. “Answer me. I need you to answer me.”
“Yes,” I whispered into the pillow, shock and amazement sending lightning bolts inside me.
“I didn’t hear you.” He thrust again, his fingers digging into the same pillow I’d whispered into.
Turning my head, I looked at him over my shoulder. I fell in love with the black fire in his eyes—the need for me to become his and the overwhelming lust and affection he always carried.
If I married Elder Prest, I would never want for anything. I would never be unwanted. I would never be hurt. It was him I wanted—not his money, his assets, his business.
Just him.
“Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
He swooped down and captured my mouth, kissing me deep and arching my neck to accept his lashing tongue. “Thank fuck for that.” His hips worked faster, digging into me in all the right ways. “Now I can finish this and ask my final question.”
I had no control over what he wanted. After his proposal, I existed in the highest of heavens, and I had no way to float back down.
I let him ride me, consumed with the prickly heat rapidly building in my core.
Rolling onto his back, Elder brought me with him until I lay on his front. His large hands clasped my hips, keeping us joined while my breasts jiggled with every rock. We moved to the same beat, our breathing wild, our skin damp, and when that third orgasm found us, Elder wrapped his arms around me and squeezed so tight; pulling me into his chest, he hugged me as if he could never let me go.
When the shockwaves stopped battering us, he once again nuzzled my ear and asked his third question softly, gently, fearfully. “We’ve adopted an animal. What do you say about adopting a child?”
Epilogue
______________________________
Elder
PIM WENT DEATHLY still.
I scrambled upright, disengaging with a wince and spinning her to sit on my lap and face me. Naked and sticky, joined together in the most intimate of ways, Pim cupped my face with shaking fingers. “What?”
I didn’t know if I was right to ask. It was probably a stupid, stupid idea. But I needed her to know I was on board with the idea. That we had more than we could ever need. That we had help and trusted staff and a lifestyle that could be offered to countless others with no effect to us if we didn’t want it.
The more I thought about an unknown baby or child being abused or lost and unwanted, the more my OCD latched onto the injustice and grief.
Tess Mercer was right.
Sometimes, saving a life was better than creating one. And we had the ability to save multiple—if Pim could open her heart to the idea of sharing the colossal amount of love and fierce protection I knew existed within her.
Cupping her nape, I brought her forehead to touch mine. “You can say no, little mouse. You can say—”
“Yes.” She wound her arms around my neck, holding me close. Tears cascaded from her stunning green hazel eyes, drowning my heart and making me swallow thickly. “My answer is yes.”
I fractured at the sob hiding in her voice. I kissed her, licking away her tears. “Truly?”
She pulled back, more moisture tracking down her cheeks. “I’ll never give up hope that one day I might have a miracle and fall pregnant, but I’ve been thinking about it, too. We’re young, we haven’t been together all that long, but I just know in my heart it’s the right thing to do.”
I nodded, swallowing again as her entire being lit up with the purest kind of love. “I’ll get in touch with Mercer. See if we qualify.”
She smiled. “I think we’ll qualify.” Pim climbed off me, pulling my hand as she scrambled off the bed. “Come shower with me. Then we can write the email together.”
I couldn’t deny this woman anything and slid to the floor, narrowly missing Spot as he shot from beneath the bed and attacked my ankle with a fake growl.
Showering together calmed my rapid heartbeat and soothed the sudden nerves in my belly.
As we dried off, grabbed the laptop, and climbed into bed naked, my fingers shook as we opened a new document.
In one instant, Pim had agreed to marry me, irrevocably agreed to take my last name, share in everything I owned, and become family on paper as well as in heart. Not only had she given herself to me, but she’d also agreed to become mother to someone who needed a second chance.
Someone who had been saved just like her.
I already thought of her as my wife.