I felt strong hands lifting me up, cradling me tenderly. I squeezed my swollen eyes tight and sobbed all the harder. For a second, I thought those arms felt like Joe’s… I could almost catch the scent of him…

“Maggie,” he groaned…

Words I’d never thought to hear again… sweet and anguished and full of love… I opened my eyes and felt my chest fill with air again. “Maggie… my darling… my heart…”

He collapsed onto the bed, half beside me, half on top of me. He moaned my name as if in a delirium, but his eyes were clear, bright and blue… He looked at me, desperate, and crushed me to his chest.

“I thought I was mad,” he said harshly, his lips ravenously taking mine. I met him with a passion that matched his own. I tangled my limbs with his…

“You were gone…,” I gasped out against his hot mouth. “I searched…

I thought you were dead… You saved us all… and I thought I had lost you…”

He leaned his face into the softness of my breasts, and I cradled him. “I was lost, until now…,” he answered. He reached his hands under the sheets and ran them over my flesh, as if to reassure himself I was real. I pushed his shirt open and pressed my face against his muscled chest…

There were a thousand questions… how and why… But as I listened to the steady beat of his heart, none of them mattered. “I love you,” he said softly. “From that last moment until the storm took me… I could hear you, sweetheart. I could feel you.”

“I followed you as soon as I could,” I said, stroking the hair back from his eyes. ‘I didn’t know where to start… I just knew I had to find you.”

“You’re the most obstinate and maddening woman I’ve ever met, Maggie. I don’t think you’ve ever met a line you didn’t have to cross.” His voice was broken and harsh. “You could have gotten yourself killed…”

He reached down and slipped off my underthings. Then he shifted to strip off his jeans and shirt. “But I need it all, sweetheart.” He pulled me to him with that familiar sizzle of flesh on bare flesh. “I need your skin… your maddening, delicious skin.” He cupped my ass and used the curve of my belly to cradle his cock.

“You need to rest,” I argued, pushing uselessly at his chest, even as my body responded. “You’re hurt… this isn’t the time…” I touched the bandage on his arm.

He chuckled softly as his mouth tasted the hollow of my throat… the curve of my shoulder…

“Ahhh… no… That’s where you’re wrong…” He licked at the skin underneath my breast and moved slowly upwards… He looked in my eyes and my skin tightened… tingled. “A very wise woman told me there is no perfect moment. There’s only now.” He teased my nipple with his rough thumb. “And I plan to be ever so gentle…”

He touched every inch of my skin tenderly, exploring as he moved, finding every tiny mark and bruise. He kissed them all, one at a time, making sure he didn’t hurt me. He dragged his lips between my breasts and down my belly… he flicked his tongue over the top of my mound, spreading my lips with his fingers…

He enveloped my clit with his mouth, his tongue… he let my pussy lips close around his lips and he rocked his head back and forth. His tongue pushed on me, creating the friction I needed so badly. And his lips sealed against mine formed a suction that left me aching for the heat of his cock. It pounded against my leg impatiently as he took his sweet time, making easy circles against me until I was frantic with desire. I reached down and took his girth in my hand, pumping his length…

Fair is fair, I thought darkly. I gathered his dripping slickness in the palm of my hand and spread it over the velvet head of his cock. Two more strokes and his entire length was slippery. I pushed him to the very edge as he pushed back. We battled bravely, each secure in our own approaching victory…

By the time he touched the tip of my clit with the head of his cock, I was so sensitive and desperate, I spread my legs wide and lifted my hips. He groaned as he slid his length into me… His mouth was against my ear, his breath harsh and demanding…

“You didn’t… answer… my question…,” he said, between long, deep, maddeningly slow thrusts.

“God… oh, my God…,” I moaned as my only response. He was pulling my climax up and out of me… it hovered over me like a sweet promise. I took his ass in my hands and shuddered as he drove himself deep…

“I asked you… to marry me, Maggie,” he panted with the heat of his own need. “I never heard your answer…”

“God, yes,” I gasped into his lips. “Only you…,” I panted. “It’s only ever been you…”

He groaned in pleasure and took the curve of my shoulder in his teeth. Brilliant sparks of flame ignited behind my eyes, and I felt his body stiffen. What was gentle before turned into a fury of hard, driving passion. He took me with every ounce of his strength and I met him, thrust for thrust, demand for demand. We drove each other on in a fury, sweat made our bodies slick and mingled with the slippery gush of my own juices. I felt his ass tighten… his balls were hard against me… “Maggie…,” he called out and I felt his cock stretch my walls beyond imagining… “My love…”

My climax hit, and I felt his cock explode in response. He pumped his seed inside me, so thick and hot, I could feel it spilling underneath us. His mouth took my mouth, his chest to my breasts… we drove our hips into a frenzy that burst like fireworks and lit the whole world. Then a scatter of sparkling trails spread and trickled down… every nerve was alive… tingling and bright… And as our breathing finally began to slow… and our bodies to relax… the fire eased to a deep and penetrating warmth. His head rested heavily against my chest… I sighed, complete… and the world slipped away…