That evening in his old bedroom, Aaron wrapped his arms around Natalie’s waist. He’d made it all the way through dinner barely touching her. He was starved for the feel of her warmth against him. He was an addict and there was no going back.

“You know, there used to be a rule about having girls in my bedroom when I lived here before.” He nuzzled his beard against her cheek until she leaned to expose the tender skin of her neck. He helped himself to a taste.

“Well, since we’re getting married in two days maybe they won’t mind.”

“Can’t believe you’re really going to be my wife on Sunday. I want you to be sure. It’s really quick. I don’t want you to have any regrets.”

She spun in his arms and laid her head against his chest. “I have a lot of regrets, Aaron. I’ve done and said some awful things in my life. But I will never regret this. I told you I’m tired of waiting on us to get to be together. The farm is so beautiful and it means so much to them. I can’t wait.”

“Our wedding isn’t for them, baby. It’s for us. It means the world to me that you want to do this for them, but…”

She kissed him. Their tongues tangled, each one anxious for the other. Another remnant of doubt erased from his mind.

“I’m just going to kiss you every time you think I don’t want to do this.”

“You are really, really bad at punishments, my sweet little Domme.”

“I’m serious. I was never one of those girls who dreamed about a big fancy wedding with a dress that looks like a cupcake swallowed her whole and dozens of people I barely know watching me walk down the aisle. That entire scenario makes me want to gag, honestly. This is perfect.”

“As long as this is what you want, I couldn’t be happier. Is there anything you want to talk about before you vow to put up with me for the rest of your life?” He needed to make certain she knew what that might mean. “I’m still not quite the way I’m supposed to be.”

“For me, you’re completely perfect.” She rose up on her tiptoes to plaster her mouth to his again.

Until the moment he’d slipped the engagement ring on her finger, every kiss had been seeking, asking questions, a test of sorts. She’d shattered the invisible bounds her uncle kept her in, even after his banishment. She’d forgiven Aaron for his transgressions. Now, their kisses were full of answers and promises of what was to come.

She stepped back, her eyes full of wanton heat. Her tongue darted out over her lips. She whipped her shirt over her head. Her breasts were full of heat. Those perfect peach nipples pressed to the lace of her bra.

A moan tangled in his throat. “Keep going.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Jesus. The things you do to me, Nat.”

Keeping her gaze locked on him, she toed out of her boots and slipped the button on her jeans from its enclosure. His eyes widened as she shimmied them down her short legs.

“Holy fuck,” he panted as she revealed a light pink g-string that covered nothing at all.

“Holly made me get it. Now I see why.” She giggled. “Don’t drool, honey.”

One step forward and he crushed her body to his. His hands dove down the slight elastic straps of those panties that should’ve been illegal, and unabashedly groped her ass.

She pressed her pussy to his cock still bound behind far too many layers of cloth. Gripping her ass, he thrust against her until she whimpered. “Shh, we have to be quiet, baby.”

“Oh God, I want you,” she panted.

“I’m gonna give you all of me, over and over again.”

“Now.”

“There’s my impatient girl.” Lifting her up, he half-tossed her on his old bed.

“Now who’s being impatient?” That impish grin did him in.

Tearing off his clothes, he lifted her feet and dispensed with her socks. He trailed long, languorous kisses from her calves up her thighs. When she spread her legs for him, he paused reminding himself never to let that feeling of being offered heaven from an angel become insignificant.

His cock throbbed out its need. Reaching her hand up she stroked him. He choked back a growl. Suddenly, she sat up. A desperate shudder quaked through him as her lips circled his head and her tongue cleansed him. “Hungry, baby?”

“Yes.” Slowly, deliberately she slid her mouth down his cock, tasting him.

“It’s all for you. Take it.”

She sucked with more vigor. His hands dove to her hair, tangling in the long strands. He allowed himself one lengthy moment of ecstasy before he pulled back. “Tonight, I want to come deep inside of you.”

She reclined, offering herself to him like a delectable feminine feast.

Working quickly, he popped the clasp of her bra and dispensed with it. Her nipples visibly throbbed out a needy call for his attention.

For the moment, he ignored them. Moving his hands to her panties, he gently slipped them down her legs. “Naughty little panties make me want to do all kinds of naughty things with you.”

“Good.”

He brought the scrap of satin to his face and inhaled the soft spicy nectar of her.

A breathy moan escaped her throat.

“Shh,” he reminded.

She shifted so he could pull down the soft worn sheets and blankets. He wanted her comfortable and safe. Needed her warm and hungry all for him.

His fingers trailed up her inner thigh. Her heat invited him to her core. “All for me,” he whispered as he gently opened her.

Her eyes fluttered closed. Her mouth parted on another slight moan.

“You’re so hot and wet for me, baby. How long have you been thinking about this? How long have you needed me to take care of my girl?”

“I never stop thinking about it. I always need you.”

He took her mouth with his own and pressed his fingers fully inside her, conducting an assault on her body.

Instinctively, he moved his fingers right where she needed them. He knew precisely where to go. She jerked her head away gasping for breath, and rocked against his hand. Back and forth to the rhythm she needed.

“Feels so good right there doesn’t it. I know. I know right where my baby needs me to touch, needs me to suck.” He spun his tongue over her right nipple as she arched her back. Her fevered pulse was alive in her clit and her nipples. Her entire body honed in on his touch. Perfection.

Her jaw tensed. Heat streaked from her breasts to her pussy. Her body begged for release. Giving her the friction he knew she required, he captured her gasped groan of his name in his mouth.

Unable to draw this out any longer, he left her only long enough to grab the condoms from his bag. The next moment, he was on top of her, penetrating her fully in one long fluid thrust.

She bucked against him, anxious for his fullness. His mind spun. Every heartbeat timed itself to hers. He pressed further, taking every centimeter all for himself, in the bed of his youth.

His worlds collided and then as her eyes opened and her body accepted him so fully he could no longer tell where he stopped and she began, his worlds aligned. Every regret, every mistake, the penitence he owed, it all dissolved in the heat of her gaze. “I love you so much, Nat.”

“I love you, too.” She wrapped her arms over his back drawing his scars to her body, the only antidote to his pain.

And there in that room, in that home, in her body, he found the sanctification he’d so desperately been seeking. In her devotion he baptized himself. Every tainted memory of his life before was washed away.

She trembled. He clung to her as they came together two halves of a whole.

They’d been all over each other every available moment for the last week. Something about that night was different. Natalie sighed as she lay naked in his arms with soft flannel sheets scattered around them.

“That was amazing,” she whispered in the darkness.

“It’s always amazing with you, but that was something else, something beyond amazing.”

“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking, too.” She traced the loops and lines of the wings tattooed on his chest. The man who protected her, loved her, and worshipped her was also the man who made her fly. They were getting married in two days. She had no doubts.

“Can I ask you something I’ve been wanting to talk about?” His voice trembled.

“Of course.”

“Do you want to have kids?”

Natalie considered that. “I love my nieces and nephews. I just never thought about it. That seemed like part of that happy ending I was never going to have.”

“It kills me when you say that. Like physically hurts me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, baby. I’m sorry for everything you endured that made you think even for one second that you didn’t deserve a happy ending.”

“Do you want to have kids?” she asked him.

“Yeah. Some of our own and maybe some that aren’t ours.”

Realization formed in her mind and crystallized in her heart. “You want us to be foster parents?”

“Only if you want to. It might be tough. Kids like me, we aren’t always so easy to love.”

“Yes. I want that. Oh my gosh, that’s perfect. I never even thought of it but that would mean so much to me.”

“You know, a lot of times when kids get removed from their homes it’s because of…”

“Things like I went through or things much worse. I know. That’s part of why I want to do this so badly. Believe me, I get making yourself unloveable to protect yourself. I can relate to that. How do we do it? How do we foster?”

“I have to ask Dec if I’d even be a candidate. We might have to wait until the PTSD is no longer such a factor in my life, but someday, I’d really like to do for kids what the Campbells did for me.”

“Me, too. I want to use what we both went through for good. It will never be worth it but that isn’t the point. There are kids that need the kind of help we can give them.”

“Hey, Nat?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for being you, and for loving me, and for giving me a happy ending.”