“Hey.”

He looked me over like I was mirage. Like I’d disappear at any moment. “Hi.”

I laughed. “Look at us, just filled with all kinds of things to say.”

One side of his mouth quirked up, and he stepped to the side. “Come on in.”

I had to duck my head to smile, because he didn’t seem at all concerned that I showed up at his place at two in the morning. He treated it like it was a normal social call and couldn’t be happier to see me.

“I got your gifts,” I said, tugging at the bottom of my shirt, to showcase the words.

“Good.” He ran his hand over his head and gripped the back of his neck. “I uh . . .Hoped you didn’t just throw them in the trash.”

When he looked down at me with his icy-blue eyes, I saw the hope and fear swirling in them. I wondered what he saw in mine. Fear, hope, love, fear.

“I wanted to bring you something too.” Holding the wrapped frame, I watched his large hand grip it and my heart pounded a million pumps per minute. It raced with so many emotions, all of them fighting for supremacy, making my body tremble as they all fired off inside me.

He motioned for me to follow him to the couch where we sat. He pulled off the paper and stared at the picture, swallowing, but not looking up at me. Did he get the importance?

“This was where I fell in love with you. In my bed that night you took me home and made love to me. I wanted you to have a memento of the moment you changed my life, too.”

“Juliana . . .,” he whispered, his mouth opening and closing. I couldn’t read his eyes, but the fact that he wasn’t smiling at me with adoring love, pulling me into his arms and never letting me go, made me rush to get it all out just in case he’d changed his mind sometime today.

“I get your fears. I get that you finally found a brother in Jack. I get that you’re scared of losing that again.”

He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. “Do you pity me now that you know my story?”

“I could never pity you.” I reached out and rested my hand on his. He turned his palm up into mine, holding onto me tight. A flicker of hope ignited in me. I needed him to know I respected and loved how open he was with me. I wanted him to know he wasn’t alone in his fears.

“My fears are of always being thought of as a little girl. That I’d always be thought of as weak and unable to stand alone. I’m scared of never knowing my true potential if the people in my life hold me in a tiny bubble against my will.”

He set the photo aside and grabbed my other hand, scooting closer to me. “I’m sorry for all the times I called you a child. I did it to keep distance between us. For months, I thought too much about the woman who snuck into my room in Jamaica. And I knew that I needed to remove temptation from myself. That, and I didn’t want to just fuck you, and ruin the relationship with someone I called family for the first time in a long time.”

I licked my lips, pulling his eyes to my mouth. I wanted him to kiss me. Instead, he scooted closer, our legs brushing, and lifted a hand to my cheek, running his thumb along my wet lips with a groan. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and I struggled to remain looking at his face when his abs rippled on the exhale. But he held my gaze again and the way his lips tipped on one side, kept my attention.

“It was one of the only times I’d underestimated you. Showing up at my door in that lingerie, forcing me to see you. And damn I couldn’t have looked away even if I was on fire.”

I bit my lips between my teeth and looked down, trying to hide how happy his words made me.

“One of the times?” I asked, picking up on that part.

His eyes turned serious again. “I underestimated how much I would fall for you. I underestimated your ability to break my walls down.”

“I want to say I’m sorry, but I’m not. You were the first man to not treat me like a child who couldn’t make decisions on her own. And even though you called me Mini MacCabe, you never looked at me like you saw my brother.”

His nose scrunched up. “Fuck no, I didn’t.”

We both laughed and it felt amazing to hear the sound mixed together again. He waited until my eyes met his again and I couldn’t look away from the fire starting to burn there.

“I’m not sorry for loving you. You scare the shit out of me. But I’m not sorry for falling in love with you.”

I swallowed hard against the knot in my throat, but his words made my chest feel like it was filled with too much of everything.

“I love you, Juliana. I love how strong you are, how quirky you are, how smart you are. I love it all. I want you to be my family. And if Jack can’t get over it, then that sucks, but you are worth it.”

My chest shook with the first cry. Tears fell down my cheeks and he moved both palms to cup them and wiped the wetness away. He held his forehead to mine and whispered over and over, “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry. I love you. Please don’t cry.” I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and felt along the strong muscles I’d missed so much. His large body beneath my smaller hands, all of it so much more than I ever thought I’d feel again.

We were going to do this and I almost giggled through my tears with how happy the realization made me. Taking a deep breath, I sat back and wiped at my cheeks.

“Right here, right now. Let’s make a pact. I will understand that you are a stubborn old man with a busy, dangerous job. But I promise, that I will be your family.” Swallowing hard, I pushed on to give him my word, no matter how much the idea hurt me. “And if it doesn’t work out, I will still be your family.”

A sheen slipped over his eyes, making them seem brighter than before. He cleared his throat and it moved me that such a large, strong, island of a man could show so much emotion just from me telling him I’d always be his family.

He went to open his mouth and I held up my hand, needing to say one more thing. “Unless you cheat on me or you’re a giant dick-hole. Then I will fuck up your world.”

He chuckled and I held out my hand, wanting to shake on it. He slipped his long fingers along mine and cradled my palm, just holding my hand, not shaking it yet.

“I will respect that you are a woman who is independent and loves fiercely. I will understand that you are stubborn and that I will have to earn the right to protect you.” I opened my lips, but his free hand covered them. “Not because I think you need it, but because I love you.”

Smiling, I nodded and we finally shook on it.

It didn’t last long before he tugged me into him and finally pressed his lips to mine. The kiss started slow, mimicking all the promises we’d made to each other. Slow enough to relearn the curve of each other’s lips, the way the other tasted.

However, like all the other times we’d touched, our sparks exploded and lit a fire within us, and soon we were pushing our tongues deeper, trying to get closer to the other. Our hands searched and pulled and tugged. Our breaths picked up and matched our frantic movements.

Shane’s hands moved to my bottom and tugged me across his lap to straddle him. His lips worked down my neck, sending chills over my body, as his hands worked under my shirt. They skated past my belly until they reached the curve of my breasts.

He growled when he discovered I hadn’t worn a bra.

“Fuck, I love you.”

He cradled my breasts in his hands and wrapped his mouth around a tip over the shirt, sucking hard, pulling moan after moan from my throat. I ground my core over his growing erection, desperate to feel more through my thin leggings. He nipped at me with his teeth before pulling back and whipping my shirt over my head, tossing it across the room.

I curved my body around his head as he latched on to my nipple and flicked his tongue back and forth, torturing me. Scraping my hands up his back, I gripped his short hair and tugged his head back, giving myself access to his lips.

Lifting up on my knees, I reached my hand between us, groping for his dick. He groaned when my fingers brushed the head over his thick sweatpants, but I wanted more. I wanted all of him. My other hand joined the first, and did their best to tug the material as far as it could go. He got the hint and lifted his hips to help me pull the material past his ass. His thick cock stood proud along his stomach, his heavy balls resting over the waistband of his pants.

“Oh, god,” I breathed, pulling back to fall to the floor on my knees, immediately dragging my tongue up the sensitive back of his penis, just to suck on the head.

I teased and sucked and licked, taking him as deep as I could go, then going further, gagging on him. Each time, a moan would rip from his chest. I massaged his balls, rolling them in my hands, pressing my fingers to the skin behind them.

But I didn’t want him to come in my mouth. I needed to feel him inside me, so I pulled off with a pop and stood between his spread legs.

Holding his stare, I turned, peeking over my shoulder as my thumbs slipped into the waistband of my leggings and I began to tug them down. I kept my legs straight the whole time, letting him see every inch of me as I bent over to get my pants completely off. When I turned, he’d already worked his pants off and grabbed a condom from the side table drawer. He leaned forward and gripped my hips, jerking me harshly to him, until I fell, supporting myself on the back of the couch.

“Ride me, little girl. Fuck me.”

My pussy clenched at his words, so dirty.

I lifted one leg on either side of him and reached down to grip his cock, positioning him at my opening. I tried to ease down slow, torturing us both. But he gripped my hips and thrust up at the same time he shoved me down. I cried out in pleasure, watching him roll his head back against the couch, biting his lips.

He pushed me all the way down until his balls rested on my ass. We held ourselves there a moment, enjoying the feel of coming together again, knowing we did so on an equal playing field.

Coming together as two people who loved each other.

He lifted me to where just the tip of him rested inside me before plunging into me again. And again.

Over and over he fucked me harder, getting deeper. Sucking on my breasts, biting at my lips, swallowing up my groans of pleasure.

“Let me see your rub your clit.” I did as I was told, letting my fingers slip over the bundle of nerves, barely hanging on. “I want to watch your hand working between us as I suck on your tits. I want to feel your pussy clenching me so tight, making me come inside your tight wet cunt.”

It was too much. His words mixed with my fingers, the way he reached deeper each time, the feel of his tongue rolling around my nipples only to bite at them. It was too much, and in two more thrusts, I came. My head fell forward, and I moaned in his ear. My hands held on to his shoulders, feeling lost in the storm. But his fingers delved between us and he dragged out my orgasm with each swipe, with each thrust until he was groaning into my chest, holding himself inside me as he came.

I held him to my breast, his cool panting breaths sending chills across my sweaty skin. He kissed my chest and worked his way up my neck, nipping at my jaw before whispering in my ear. “I love you.”

My smile could have lit up all of Cincinnati. The man I loved, seated deeply inside me, loved me in return.

What more could a girl ask for?

“Does this mean you’ll hold my hand at Sunday brunch? Will you let me sit on your lap?”

He held me close, but pulled back with a wicked glint in his eye. “It may mean I get punched in the face again, but I would like nothing more than to claim you as mine for everyone to see.”

“I love you.” I wanted to say it over and over. Forever.

“I love you too.” And I wanted to hear that over and over.

Forever.