"I love you."
Strong hands slid beneath my a.s.s, holding me to his mouth. "More."
I groaned out something. It must have been enough. He didn"t stop or speak again. David attacked me. There was nothing easy about it. His mouth worked me hard, driving me sky high in a matter of moments. The knot inside me tightened and grew as his tongue laved me. Electricity streaked up my spine. I don"t know when I started shaking. But the strength went out of me and my back hit the mattress once again. I fisted my hands in his hair, fingers gripping at the short, gelled strands.
It was almost too much. I didn"t know if I needed to get closer or get away. Either way, his hands held me to him. Every muscle in me tensed and my mouth opened on a soundless cry. Fireworks filled my mind. I came and came.
When my heart eased up on the hammering, I opened my eyes. David knelt between my legs. His jeans had been pushed down and his erection grazed his flat stomach. Dark blue eyes stared down at me.
"I can"t wait."
"No. Don"t." I tightened my legs around his hips. One of his hands remained beneath my a.s.s, holding me high. With the other, he guided himself into me. He didn"t rush. We were both still at least half dressed, him on the bottom and me on the top. There was no time to waste. We were too needy to wait and do this skin to skin. Next time.
He entered me so slowly I couldn"t breathe. The only that mattered was feeling. And G.o.d, the feel of him thick and hard pushing inside of me. The perspiration on his bare chest gleamed in the low lighting. The muscles in his shoulders stood out in stark relief as he began to move.
"Mine," he said.
I could only nod.
He looked down on me, watching my b.r.e.a.s.t.s jiggle beneath my top with each thrust. Fingers gripped my hips hard. Mine clutched at the bedding, trying to find purchase so I could push back against him. His expression was wild, mouth swollen and wet. Only this was real, me and him together. Everything else could come and go. I"d found what was worth fighting for.
"I love you."
"C"mere." He picked me up off the mattress, holding me tight again him. My legs were braced around his waist, muscles burning from how hard I"d been holding on. I wound my arms around his neck as he sat me on his c.o.c.k.
"I love you too." His hands slid beneath the back of my top. We moved harshly together. Our furious breaths mingled into one. Sweat slicked both our skins, the fabric of my shirt sticking to me. The heat gathered low inside me again. It didn"t take long in this position. Not with the way he ground himself against me. His mouth sucked at the section of skin where my neck met my body and I shuddered in his arms, coming again. The noises he made and the way he said my name ... I never wanted to forget. Not a moment of it.
Eventually, he laid us both back on the bed. I wasn"t willing to let him go so he covered my body with his. The weight of him pressing me down into the bed, the feel of his mouth on the side of my face. We should never move. In the best-case scenario, we"d just stay like this forever.
But actually, I did have something I had to do.
"I need my bag," I said, squirming beneath him.
"What for?" He rose up on his elbows.
"I have to do something."
"What could be more important than this?"
"Roll over," I said, already urging him in that direction.
"Alright. But this had better be good." He relaxed and let me roll him. I scampered across the mattress, trying to tug my skirt back down at the same time. It must have looked a treat because David came after me with snapping teeth.
"Get back here, wife," he ordered.
"Give me a second."
"My name looks good on your a.s.s," he said. "The tattoo has healed very nicely."
"Well, thank you." I finally got off the mattress and set my pencil skirt to rights. In the month we"d been apart, I"d ignored my ink. But now, I was glad it was there.
"That skirt"s coming off."
"Just wait."
"And that top. We have a lot more making up to do."
"Yes, in a minute. I"ve missed my topless cuddles."
He"d dumped my bag on a blue velvet wing-backed chair by the door. Whoever had decorated the condo had done a h.e.l.l of a job. It was beautiful. But I"d check it out later. Right now I had something important to do.
"I bought you a present today, after we talked at the studio."
"Did you now?"
I nodded, searching my bag for the treasure. Bingo. The fancy little box was right where I"d left it. With it hidden in my hand I walked back to him, a wide smile on my face. "Yes, I did."
"What have you got in your hand?" He climbed off the bed. Unlike me, he stripped off his jeans. My husband stood before me naked and perfectly disheveled. He looked at me like I was everything. As long as I lived, I knew I wouldn"t want anyone else.
"Evelyn?"
For some reason I felt suddenly shy, awkward. Any money, the tips of my ears glowed bright pink.
"Give me your left hand." I reached for his hand and he gave it to me. Carefully I slid on the thick platinum band I"d blown my savings on that afternoon, working it past his big knuckle. Perfect. I"d walk all winter and freeze my a.s.s off, happily. David meant more to me than replacing my c.r.a.ppy old car. Given the money I now owed my parents, the timing wasn"t brilliant. But this was more important.
Except the ring covered half of the second last E from his Live Free tattoo. s.h.i.t, I hadn"t thought of that. He probably wasn"t going to want to wear it.
"Thank you."
My gaze darted to his face, trying to judge his sincerity. "You like it?"
"I f.u.c.king love it."
"Really? Because I forgot about your ink, but-"
He shut me up by kissing me. I kind of liked his new habit of doing that. His tongue stroked into my mouth and my eyes slid shut, every worry forgotten. He kissed me until not a single doubt remained as to how taken with his ring he was. Fingers fussed with the b.u.t.tons on my top, slipping it off my shoulders. Next the band on my bra loosened.
"I love my ring," he said, his lips traveling over my jaw and down my neck. My bra straps slid down my arms and my b.r.e.a.s.t.s were free. Next he started in on my skirt, wrestling with the zip and pushing it down over my hips. He didn"t stop until I was every bit as bare as him. "I"m never taking it off."
"I"m glad you like it."
"I do. And I need to get you naked right now and show you how much I like it. But then I"ll give you back your ring. I promise."
"No rush," I murmured, arching my neck to give him better access. "We"ve got forever."
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.
We"d planned to meet Amanda, Jo, and a few other friends at one of the local bars the next night. My insides were in a permanent state of upheaval. Excited and nervous and a hundred other emotions I couldn"t begin to process. But not doubtful. Never that. I"d talked to Ruby about continuing on with the extra shifts at the cafe and she"d been delighted. It turned out her distraction the previous day had been on account of her finding out she was pregnant. My dropping out of college couldn"t come at a better time as far as she was concerned. Eventually I"d go back to school. I liked the idea of teaching, maybe. I don"t know. There was time.
The bar was one of the smaller ones, not far from our new home. A four-piece rock band on the small corner stage played grunge cla.s.sics interspersed with a few new songs. Jo waved us over to a table out of the way. Meeting David was obviously big for her. Puppies jumped less.
"David. It"s so great," she said, over and over. That was about it. If she started to hump his leg I was stepping in.
Amanda, on the other hand, needed to turn that frown upside down. At least, unlike my parents", her protest was silent. I appreciated her concern, but she"d just have to get used to David being around.
David ordered drinks for us and settled into a seat pulled up beside me. The music was really too loud for conversation. Soon afterward, Nate and Lauren arrived. A fragile peace had emerged between my brother and my husband, for which I was profoundly grateful.
David shuffled closer. "I wanna ask you something."
"What?"
He slipped a hand around my waist, drawing me closer. I did the job better by simply planting myself in his lap. With a warm smile, his arms wound around me, holding me tight. "Hey."
"Hey," I said. "What did you want to ask me?"
"I was wondering ... would you like to hear one of the songs I wrote for you?"
"Really? I"d love to."
"Excellent," he said, his hand smoothing over the back of my simple black dress. Worn because it was his favorite color, of course. Also, I"d strongly suspected the v-neck would appeal to him. Tonight, I was all about pleasing my husband. There"d no doubt be times in the future when we needed to kick each other"s a.s.ses, but not tonight. We were here to celebrate.
Lauren led Nate out onto the dance floor and Amanda and Jo followed, abandoning us to our private talk. I honest-to-G.o.d had the best brother and friends in the whole wide world. All of them had taken the news of the plan going boom with calm faces. They had hugged me and not one word of doubt over my sudden change in direction had been voiced. When Lauren recounted her version of how David stood beside me at dinner, I"d even caught Amanda giving him a nod of approval. It gave me great hope.
I"d even called my mother earlier. The conversation had been brief but I was glad I had. We were still family.
David had eventually given me my ring back the night before. Turned out his list of things to do to me was long. He fed me ice cream in bed for breakfast while the sun rose. Best night ever.
It felt right having the ring back on my hand. The weight and fit of it were perfect. As promised, his own had stayed put. He"d been proudly showing it to his brother when I"d stumbled out in search of coffee at midday. Once I"d been caffeinated, David and Jimmy had moved me into the condo. Mal and Ben had been busy at the studio. Nate and Lauren had helped move me too once David and Jimmy finished signing everything Divers-related she could find. Despite her protestations that she"d miss me, I think she was also looking forward to having the apartment for her and Nate alone. They were good together.
"I"ve got something else I want to ask you, too," he said.
"The answer is yes to everything and anything with you."
"Good, because I want you to come work for me as my a.s.sistant. When you"re not working at the cafe, I mean." His hand rubbed down my back. ""Cause I know you wanna do that."
"David ..."
"Or you could just let me pay the college money back to your parents so that"s not hanging over your head."
"No," I said, my voice determined. "Thank you. But I need to do that. And I think my parents are going to need to see me doing that."
"That"s what I figured you"d say. But that"s a lot of money for you to make, baby. If you take a second job we"re never going to see each other."
"You"re right. But do you think that"s a wise idea, us working together?"
"Yeah," he told me, blue eyes serious. "You like organizing and that"s what I need. It"s a real job and I want you for it. If we find it starts to interfere with us then we"ll make a new plan. But I think mostly it"ll just mean we spend more time together and have s.e.x at work."
I laughed. "You promising to s.e.xually hara.s.s me, Mr Ferris?"
"Absolutely."
I kissed him soundly on the cheek. "Thank you for thinking of it. I"d love to work for you."
"If you decide to go back to college, then I"ll get Adrian to find me a replacement. Not a big deal." He pulled me in against his chest. "But in the meantime, we"re good."
"Best plan ever."
"Why, thank you. Coming from you, that means a lot."
David"s gaze wandered over to the bar where Mal, Jimmy and Ben were hanging out, keeping a low profile. I hadn"t known they were joining us tonight. Jimmy had been steering clear of clubs and bars. "About time they got here," he murmured.
Next David turned to the band, rocking out in the corner. They were just in the process of winding up a solid rendition of a Pearl Jam cla.s.sic.
"Wait here." David rose, taking me with him. He placed me back on the chair and signaled to his bandmates. Then he made his way toward the stage. His tall figure moved through the crowd with ease and the guys fell in behind him. En ma.s.se, they were pretty d.a.m.n impressive. No matter how low-key there were trying to be. But I got the distinct feeling they were about to make their presence known. Once the band finished the song, David called the singer over. Holy s.h.i.t. This was it. I bounced in my chair from excitement.
They talked for a moment, then the singer brought the guitarist into it. Sure enough, the man gave his six string over to David"s waiting hands. I could see the look of surprise on both their faces as David"s ident.i.ty finally sunk in. Jimmy gave the singer a nod and stepped up onto the platform. Behind him, Mal was already high-fiving the drummer and stealing his sticks. Even grim Ben smiled as he accepted the ba.s.s guitar from its original owner. The Divers took to the stage. Few in the bar seemed to realize quite what was going on yet.
"Hi. Sorry to interrupt, folks. My name"s David Ferris and I"d like to play a song for my wife, Evelyn. Hope you don"t mind."
Stunned silence broke out into thunderous applause. David stared at me across the sea of people as everyone swamped the dance floor to get closer.
"She"s a Portland girl. So I guess that makes us in-laws. Be gentle with me, yeah?"
The crowd went bats.h.i.t crazy in response. His hands moved over the strings, making the sweetest mix of rock and country music possible. Then he started to sing. Jimmy joined him for the chorus, their voices melding beautifully.
I thought I could let you go I thought that you could leave and know The time we took would fade But I"m colder than the bed where we lay You let go if you like, I"ll hold on Say no all you want, I"m not done Baby, I promise you Did you think I"d let you go?
That"s never happening and now you know Take your time, I"ll wait Regretting every last thing I said The song was simple, sweet, and perfect. And the noise when they finished was deafening. People shouted and stamped their feet. It sounded like the roof was coming down on us. Security helped David and the guys move through the crush of people. More had arrived as they performed, alerted to the show by texts and calls and each and every sort of social media. A tidal wave of fans swamped them as they pressed through. A hand wrapped around my arm. I looked up to find Sam beside me with a grin on his face. We got our a.s.ses out of there p.r.o.nto.
Sam and the security men cleared a path for us to the door and the waiting limousine outside. They were well prepared. We all bundled into the back of the limo. Immediately, David pulled me onto his lap. "Sam"s going to make sure your friends are okay."
"Thank you. I think Portland knows you"re here now."
"Yeah, I think you"re right."
"Davie, you are a f.u.c.king show pony," Mal said, shaking his head. "I knew you were going to pull something like this. Guitarists are such a bunch of posers. If you had an ounce of sense, young lady, you"d have married a drummer."
I laughed and wiped the tears from my face.
"Why the f.u.c.k is she crying, what did you say to her?" David pulled me in closer. Outside people banged on the windows as the car slowly started moving forward.
"Are you okay?"