Dani

I was asleep when he came in. It was two o’clock in the morning, and I heard my apartment door open and close, his quiet footfall. I knew exactly who it was.

I rolled over in bed. “Cav?”

“It’s me.” His voice, in the quiet of my apartment, gave me a thrill. I moved to sit up, but he said, “Don’t move.”

I couldn’t see him in the dark; he was just a shadow. He came into the bedroom, dropped a bag on the floor. Kicked off his boots. Then I saw him pull his shirt off over his head, his skin beautiful in the shadows.

I pushed the covers down, off my body.

“Do not move,” he said again, his hands dropping to his belt, unbuckling it. I sucked in a breath as he pushed everything off and kicked his clothes across the floor.

I had put on pretty lingerie, because I was hoping for him: a pair of flimsy panties and a bra, pale pink trimmed with black lace. Now I felt the panties go damp between my legs as Cavan crawled onto the bed with me. I wanted to see him. I reached for the bedside lamp.

“What did I say?” he said, his voice rough.

I paused. “Not to move.”

He came over me, resting on his arms. This close, I could see his face, the gray eyes, the cheekbones, his soft tousled hair. His beard was soft against my palms when I cradled his face.

“You’re here,” I said, amazed. In bed with me, his scent, his incredible body. I wasn’t alone. Six months. Six months.

“You’re stuck with me for good now,” he replied.

His skin was naked and hot against mine, and it distracted me for a minute, until I remembered we’d talked just over five hours ago, and he was driving, not flying. “How did you get here all the way from Colorado?”

“I wasn’t in Colorado,” he said. “I’d just crossed the border from Idaho. I’ve been traveling back for two days.”

My lips parted. When had he told me he was in Colorado? Yesterday? The day before?

“I wanted to surprise you,” Cavan said. He pressed his hips against mine, his hard cock against my wet panties. “Surprise.”

Oh, yes. This. I couldn’t help it: my legs fell open by reflex, my hips tilting to press against him. I bent my knees to grip his hips, and I watched his gaze go unfocused when he felt how hot I was. “Jesus, Dani,” he said softly.

I ran my hands down his shoulders, over his back. “I wore nice black lace for you,” I said.

“I don’t need it.” He bent and brushed his lips lightly against mine. “Though I appreciate the thought. Take it off.”

Every part of me was on fire: it was him, always him. I slid my hands down and grabbed his ass. I had to agree that naked was better, especially when the naked one was him. “I missed you so much,” I said.

He ran his thumb over my mouth, watched with dark eyes when I touched the tip of my tongue to it. “Six months,” he said. “Good God, you’re beautiful. I’ve been going out of my fucking mind.”

He leaned down and kissed me. The best kind of kiss, Cavan’s kiss, the one that made me so crazy. I opened my mouth and let him do anything he wanted, while I dug my nails into him impatiently. I needed him inside me, right now.

As if agreeing with me, he pushed my panties aside with his fingers and rubbed my soft, hot flesh, making me moan. He was such an expert at touching me, finding every secret place while he broke the kiss and put his lips to my neck. He lowered his mouth to my flimsy bra and sucked my nipple through it, still rubbing me. I’d touched myself night after night while he was away, picturing him, but it had never been anything like this. It had never been half this good.

He sucked my other nipple, hard, leaving the thin fabric soaking wet against my nipples. “My sexy wife,” he said, his breath on my neck again, his thumb moving over my clit. “Always so fucking hot for me. I’ll never get enough.”

I gripped his hair. “Fuck me,” I begged him. “Please.”

He didn’t bother taking the panties off. He just pressed the fabric aside and pushed the head of his cock against me, sliding it in an inch, rocking it in and out of me, rubbing me slowly. “This,” he said, his voice low and intense, “is mine.”

“Yes,” I said. “Yes.”

“You’re mine,” he said.

This time, the words didn’t scare me. They were simply true. “Yes.”

“Fuck, it’s exquisite,” he said, sliding a little further in to me, pushing my pussy open with the blunt head of his cock. “I dreamed about this every night. What it feels like to fuck you. It’s like nothing else in the world.”

“Do it harder,” I gasped.

He kissed me, and then he withdrew. I was going to complain, but he pushed my panties down and threw them away. Then he came over me again, my legs wrapping around his waist.

His arms flexed as he pushed into me again, slow and unstoppable. “This,” he said when he was all the way inside me, pinning me to the bed. “I thought about this every night. Fucking you. Watching you come.”

I leaned up and kissed him. “I’ve been dying for you,” I said, the words coming out half a moan as he moved inside me. He felt so good. “It never went away, not for a minute. It’s you I want.”

It was. Everything else was cleared away now: my guilt, my confusion, my helplessness, my memories of McMurphy. It was all gone, and there was just me and him. I wanted him even more than I had on the morning when I’d agreed to marry him. And I knew my heart better now.

He kissed the side of my neck and moved in the slow, rhythmic way he had, making me feel everything like it was the first time. Making me feel him. “It’s always been you I want,” he said against my skin, rocking into me, making me light up.

“Cav,” I begged, arching up against him. “I can’t—it’s been so long—”

“I know,” he growled, as crazy as I was. “Get there, baby. Nice and hard.” He picked up his pace, his rhythm, pounded me faster. God, I was losing my mind. “That’s it,” he said, listening to the sounds I was making. “Fuck Dani, fuck. Get there. I need to feel you come.”

I did. I twisted beneath him, my body arching and jerking, and he pounded me through it until he came, his cock deep in me, his fingers digging into my hips.

When he rolled off me, I followed, kissing his neck, tasting his skin. I’d never let him go. “I love you,” I told him.

He bent down and kissed me, slow and sweet this time, and then he broke the kiss and brushed his mouth against mine. “I love you too,” he said. “I always have.”

I ran my foot against the back of his leg, my arms around his neck. “Round two,” I said.

I felt him smile against my skin, but his body didn’t lie—he was far from finished with me. “You don’t want to talk first?” he asked.

“Six months of talking, Cavan,” I said, pulling him down to me again. “We can talk later. We have plenty of time.”

“We do,” he said, and kissed me.