“Is sex always like that?” Carly asks, once I disengage our bodies. I pull her to my side and hold her carefully, letting my fingers brush through her hair.

“It will be for you,” I vow to her. “It will be better.”

“Now you’re bragging,” she says. She has the biggest smile on her face. It radiates, even with her eyes closed. She’s satisfied and happy and I gave that to her. For some reason, I have the strongest urge to strut in pride.

“You’ll see, baby. You’ll see,” I tell her, kissing her forehead. I regretfully pull away, needing to tend to her before we fall asleep.

“Where are you going?” she whines, and I was smiling before, but now I really am. She doesn’t want me to leave her.

“I’ll be right back,” I reassure her, then walk to the far corner of the room where the bathroom area is. I grab a washcloth and heat it with hot water, squeezing out the excess.

“You’ve got the nicest ass,” she says and I look over my shoulder to find her propped up on the bed, staring at me. She’s so pretty she takes my breath.

I’m a lucky son of a bitch.

“Thanks.” I laugh, walking back to her.

“And your hair. I’m so jealous of your hair. I never used to like when a man wore his hair so long, but on you it looks really good.”

“Glad you approve.”

“I mean really, really good.”

I laugh at that; I can’t help it.

“Oh my God! You’re hard again. How can you be hard after what we just did?” she asks, her eyes large as she watches my cock bounce as I walk.

“Because I want more of you,” I tell her with a frank honesty I’ve never shared with another woman.

“Can we? Again? So close together? I thought men needed time to… recover?”

“We could, but we’re not going to,” I say as I make it back to the bed. I lean on the foot of it, positioning myself and then help hold her legs apart.

“We’re not?” she asks and her voice is laced with so much disappointment, I feel the urge to fuck her to show her just how much I want her. “Stone! What are you doing?” she cries as I maneuver the hot cloth against her pussy.

“Making sure my woman is cleaned up and taken care of,” I answer. She hisses gently as I probe a little more. “And that’s why we aren’t going to do anything else tonight.”

“It only hurts a little,” she grumbles.

“Trust me, Carly. If I take you again, it will hurt a lot. We need to wait.”

“Okay,” she whispers, studying my face. I push my hair back and return her stare.

“Okay? Just like that?”

“If you say we need to wait, we need to wait.”

“I wish you would have told me you were a virgin, Carly. I would have made it better for you.”

Her face colors as she listens to me, but she doesn’t look down. She keeps her gaze focused on me.

“If it got much better it might have killed me,” she says with a smile.

“You’re good for my ego. I need to talk to you about something,” I tell her, tossing the cloth across the room. It lands on the floor, but close to the hamper.

“You need to get that off the floor. It could ruin the wood,” she chastises.

“If it does, I’ll fix it. I’ve got something more important on my mind.”

“That sounds serious,” she says, worry starting to show on her face in place of the happiness that was there earlier.

“It is, but nothing bad,” I hasten to reassure her, wanting her smile back.

“What is it?”

“I know you said you were on birth control, but I think after what just happened, we need to get married as soon as possible.”

“I… Umm… I said that?”

“Yeah, in our letters. Don’t you remember?”

“Right now I can barely remember my own name,” she says and suddenly she’s avoiding my eyes.

“Carly, we need to get married. If there’s a chance I got you pregnant, I want you to have my last name.”

“I’m not sure I’m ready to get married,” she argues obstinately.

“You came out here to marry me, Carly,” I remind her.

“But we need a little more time to get to know each other,” she whispers.

“I was just inside of you. I’d say that means we know each other pretty damn good. The fact you’ve never let another man between your legs except me says a fuck of a lot, Carly.”

“I’m too tired for you to try and be logical,” she grumbles, clearly pouting.

“Marry me, Carly.”

“When?”

“I’ll call around tomorrow,” I tell her and she nods her head reluctantly. “The words, Carly.”

“I’ll marry you,” she whispers. Those three words soothe an ache inside of me that I hadn’t realized was there. At the same time, it makes me aware of something else, something that I want just as much. I want to hear Carly tell me she loves me.

“Good,” I tell her, sliding into bed beside her. I roll to my back and pull her over top of me, settling her against me.

“You realize being on birth control is supposed to keep you from getting pregnant?” she grumbles against my chest.

“It does, but nothing is one hundred percent effective. Would it be so bad if you had my child, Carly?”

“I think it’d be better if we spent time getting to know each other first,” she hedges, and though she’s probably right, it doesn’t mean I like it. I didn’t plan on it, having kids right away, or even demanding that Carly marry me immediately. But the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of both. I need to make Carly want it too—maybe even make her want to throw her birth control away.

I decide to make that my goal. I kiss the top of her head and close my eyes, listening to her breathing.

“Get some sleep, baby,” I tell her. Slowly she relaxes. I know the minute she drifts off to sleep and I follow her seconds later. A few after that I’m dreaming of Carly carrying our child, and it’s the sweetest damn dream I’ve ever had.