I closed the bedroom door and locked it with a quick press of a button.

“I need you,” Shea whispered, her hands on my chest, pushing me against the door.

I let her, then gripped her ass in my hands and lifted her to my eyelevel.

“Not as much as I need you,” I growled against her lips.

It was our first moment alone since they’d been taken three days ago, and the first night that Elliott had felt safe enough to sleep by herself.

My lips claimed Shea’s, my kiss hard, impatient, needing to claim every inch of her all over again.

Her fingers gripped the back of my neck, holding me to her, as if there were anywhere else I would ever want to be.

We broke apart to shed our clothes, fabric flying only to land scattered in a path to my bed. Our bed.

“Hurry,” Shea demanded as I lifted her again, her ankles locking around my back.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I murmured between kisses, my dick jumping as it slid through the slickness between her thighs.

“You won’t,” she swore. “Please, Hudson.” She ended her plea with a gentle bite of my lower lip, tugging it as she pulled back.

“Fuck, Shea.” I groaned, sinking into her kiss again before lifting her higher to suck on one nipple, then another.

She cried out, and I was thankful Maddox had decided to get a hotel while he was here.

I shifted one of my hands supporting her ass, and let my fingers dip between her thighs. “Damn, you’re drenched, baby,” I said, feeling just how wet and ready she was.

She arched her back when I brushed against her clit, then slammed down on my fingers when I slipped two inside her.

“Yes!” She ground on me, her body writhing against mine, all naked and hot and mine.

She was the picture of sensuality, a woman who knew exactly what she wanted from her man and was more than ready to get it.

I positioned my hand so her clit rubbed against my finger with each movement of her hips, until her muscles tensed around me, locking hard. Her breaths were harsh pants against my lips, her fingernails biting into the skin of my neck.

“Hudson!” she cried out as she came, letting go completely, trusting me to hold her upright.

Her gray eyes were soft, glazed as her gaze met mine.

“Now,” she demanded.

I slipped my fingers free of her pussy and led my cock to her tight entrance.

“I love you.” I lowered her inch by inch as she whimpered, taking me to the hilt as I pushed through her rippling muscles.

“I. Love. You.” She gasped between words, already rocking on me.

I brought one hand to tangle in the hair at the nape of her neck.

“You’re mine. Always mine.”

“Always yours,” she promised, kissing me hard. “I love you.”

My tongue moved within her mouth, and it took every ounce of restraint I had, but I didn’t thrust into her, simply stayed seated deep within her, surrounded by her tight heat.

Fuck, I wanted to pound her, to lay her back on that mattress and lose myself in the sweet curves of her body.

“Marry me,” I said for what felt like the thirtieth time. I’d never had a woman ignore so many proposals.

Something about this time must have been different, because she paused, looking into my eyes. “You really mean it, don’t you?” she asked, those gray depths full of awe.

“I’ve meant it every time I’ve asked you.”

My cock twitched, and I silently reminded it that we had bigger issues at hand.

“Hudson…” She clenched around me, her muscles squeezing me like a vice.

“Don’t try to distract me,” I growled. “I want to fuck you so badly that I might die before I get you into that bed. But I don’t just want tonight. I want every night. Every day. Every morning. I want forever.”

Her lips parted. “I’m not an easy person to love. You’ve seen that.”

“I’m not either.”

“I’m stubborn.”

“Hello pot, meet kettle,” I growled.

“I really like sex.” She swirled her hips, and I groaned, pleasure shooting up my spine. Fuck, she felt so damn good. “I’m not sure you can handle how much I might require.”

A corner of my mouth lifted as I brought her up my cock, dragging through her sensitive folds, just to slam her back down. Her cry filled the room, her scent filling my nose.

“I think I can handle you,” I promised.

She said the one thing that she knew would break me, make me forget the question I’d asked.

“Fuck me, Hudson.”

Her command snapped whatever self-control I had. My hands gripped her hips as I moved her on me, thrusting into her again and again.

She was heaven, my own personal Valhalla on earth, the reward for my simple survival.

Maybe I was the reward for hers, too.

She took everything I had and demanded more. “Harder, please, Hudson. God, don’t stop.”

I carried her to the bed and laid her on the soft surface, careful to shelter her head.

“You want everything?”

“Don’t hold back. You won’t break me.”

I didn’t think Hell could break this woman.

Raising her knee, I slid even deeper within her and closed my eyes in sheer bliss.

“Hold onto me,” I ordered.

Then there were no words between us, only moans and touches as I thrust hard and deep again and again, keeping a punishing rhythm until we both dripped sweat, our bodies sliding against each other, our skin sensitive, every nerve ending alive and needy.

She was on the edge, and I let her linger there, only giving her enough to keep her on the brink, but not letting her fall over.

“Marry me,” I growled against her lips, my body screaming for release.

“Hudson,” she moaned, using her feet as leverage to rock back against me.

“Marry me,” I demanded, willing to use any means necessary to bind her to me. “Marry me, and I’ll fuck you like this every day for the rest of your life.”

“Promises, promises,” she whispered, then locked her inner muscles around my cock.

“Shea,” I groaned, but lost myself in her, plunging again and again until we both came, our bodies rippling in the kind of heaven I’d only known with her.

Three days later, Elliott’s team took the ice.

Shea and I sat in the bleachers, ready to cheer her on, win or lose.

The velvet jewelry box dug into my side, reminding me that we had a very unfinished discussion between us. And after the game, I intended to make her understand that I was serious.

I wanted her as my wife. My partner.

Wanted Elliott as my daughter.

I wanted the whole package that was Shea Lansing.

As the clock started the five-minute warm-up period, Elliott’s team lined up in front of the glass.

“What are they doing?” Lukas asked as he took the seat next to me. For someone who claimed to not like kids, he sure found himself at Elliott’s games every second he had free.

“No clue,” Noble muttered from his other side, waving to the coach with a grin.

Coach Ralston shook his head at us.

“Coach doesn’t seem to be a fan,” Maddox commented from Shea’s other side, his arm draped around whatever girl he’d picked up at the bar last night.

The kids lifted their jerseys to reveal shirts underneath. Some were plain white, and others had letters stamped on them.

I read, then laughed.

A-S-K H-E-R.

I looked over to Shea, who was smiling up at me.

Yeah okay, I had this.

I dropped to my knee in front of the woman I loved as her eyes sparkled with unshed tears.

“It’s actually fitting that we’re doing this in a hockey rink. It was the rink that saved me, kept me safe, sane, gave me a home. That’s what you’ve become to me, Shea. You’re my home. You’re everything I could ever ask for in a partner—loving, fierce, smart, sexy, strong, and so damn kind. You’re everything I want as a mother for my kids—our kids, if you want more. You’ve given me everything, your heart, your soul, Elliott. You’ve given me a reason to really live again.”

I took the box from my pocket, the velvet worn at the corner, and I popped the lid, revealing the three-quarter carat antique diamond ring. The mini diamonds that swirled around it reminded me of Shea, delicate, yet strong.

She gasped as she saw it, a single tear slipping down her cheek.

“This is my grandmother’s ring. She wore it every day for fifty-five years. They had the kind of marriage that could conquer a country, and I know we’ll have the same.”

I sensed Maddox smiling at us, thankful that my brother had given his blessing to give Shea our grandmother’s ring.

“So please marry me, Shea Lansing. I’m already the luckiest man on the planet. Marry me and make me an honest one, too.” I grinned up at her.

“Hey! Down here!” I heard Elliott yell.

We both turned to see her smiling up at us.

Then she turned on her skates, and her teammates ripped a Velcro label from her jersey, then stepped away.

Where her jersey had previously read “Lansing,” now different bright blue letters stood out against the white jersey.

It read—PORTER.

“She says yes!” the entire team yelled out in unison.

I stood, sweeping Shea into my arms as the crowd around us burst into applause.

“Yes, I’ll marry you, Hudson Porter,” Shea whispered in my ear before kissing me.

It wasn’t at the Sharks’ arena. There was no jumbotron. No overdone scene. Just a little neighborhood rink, a bunch of kids in their hockey gear, my friends at my side, my brother at my back, and my daughter on the ice.

“You’ll never regret it,” I promised her.

And I made sure she never did.