"I can't believe you did all of this for me," I tell him. We're lying in bed back at Gabe's house and I'm looking up at a string of lanterns that zigzag their way across the ceiling and let off a soft glow. After all of the New Year's Eve shenanigans – getting accidentally high and dancing naked around the fire pit in Jez's backyard – it was nice to come back home with Gabe. It's funny, but his house really does feel like home, more a home than I'd ever had in South Hollow, despite being raised there.

I feel like Nate and Angelo are already family, too. The road trip back to Pennsylvania was a chance for all of us to clear the air. Nate admitted that when he found out about Gabe and I, he hated the idea of it because he had a preconceived idea of what I'd be like based on what he knew of my father. I guess the part where I got baked and danced naked in a hippie's backyard disabused him of the notion that my father and I had anything at all in common.

"All of this was supposed to be a surprise to celebrate the last day of the semester." Gabe laughs and pulls me tighter against him. "That didn't work out the way I planned."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't exactly expecting my father to walk in on us screwing on your desk, either."

"It wasn't necessarily the most ideal way for things to happen, but I'm glad they happened, because it made me realize how I felt about you." He kisses the top of my head, and I snuggle closer, pressing my naked body against his as I take a deep breath.

"I missed this," I tell him.

"You missed the sex?"

"I missed the way you smell," I say. "I missed your bed and your sheets, and I missed the sound of Hemy snoring on the other side of the room in his dog bed. And I missed the way you don't let me get more than an inch away from you at night before you're wrapping your arms around me and pulling me tight."

Gabe turns me so that I'm against him as he rolls to his side and spoons me like he does when I'm sleeping with him at night. His arms tighten around my chest, and he feels warm and comfortable and safe. "I missed this, too."

"You missed the sex?" I tease.

"Oh, I definitely missed the sex," he murmurs in my ear. The heat of his breath sends a shiver down my body. His hand cups my breast and my hips go back, pressing against him. His cock stirs, pushing on my ass cheek as he spoons me, and it makes me think of the one thing we have yet to do – the only thing we haven't done yet.

Gabe has claimed every other part of me but that one.

His lips brush against my neck and across my shoulder, and his hand slides down the side of my body to my hips. He grips me tightly against him, definitely hard now. Heat rushes between my legs, and I want him to make all of me his.

"I've missed this, for sure," he whispers, his hand going between my legs. I let out a gasp as his fingers find my clit, and my back seems to involuntarily arch to push my ass more firmly against him.

"I've missed your lessons," I tell him.

"I'm not sure you had anything left to learn. You've become quite the little expert."

I have to bite down on my lip as he rolls his fingertips over and over my clit. "I haven't become adept at everything."

But he knows what I'm referring to, because he's thinking the same thing. His hands are already on my ass cheeks, kneading my muscles and spreading them. His thumb presses against my asshole. "I've been saving this," he murmurs, his voice thick.

"You said you wanted to claim all of me," I whisper. "I want all of me to be yours."

He lets out a low rumble under his breath. "Are you sure you're ready for this lesson?"

Taking his hand, I guide his fingers further between my legs. "Do you feel how wet I am? That's how much I want this."

Gabe growls, his lips near my ear. Then he rolls over, reaching for the lubricant in the bedside table. When he returns behind me, his hand goes to my hip to steady me. He spreads my ass cheeks, guiding the tip of his cock between them, and I flinch at the shock of coldness from the lubricant.

He doesn't enter me, though. Not yet. His hand moves over my breast, his finger teasing my nipple to a little peak until I'm squirming in response to his touch. He moves his fingers down between my legs again, rolling them over my clit until my breath grows shorter and shorter.

"You're mine, Purity," he declares, his voice gravelly. "Once I claim this virgin ass, all of you is mine."

I let out a moan, angling so that he can slip inside me. "I want to be yours."

"Put your fingers between your legs, Purity," he orders.

I rock my fingertips against my clit as Gabe presses the head of his cock to my tight asshole. He works his way inside of me slowly – painfully at first, but he takes his time, pausing when I stiffen briefly to return his hand to my breast. He tweaks my nipple until I relax into him again, murmuring dirty things into my ear because he knows it turns me on.

"You're so tight, Purity," he groans. "You're so fucking tight, I think you're going to break my cock right off."

My body cries out with a mixture of pain and pleasure so intense I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to catch my breath again. I'm simultaneously full and aching.

I want Gabe to take everything I have. I want to give him everything I am.

He works himself all the way inside of me until his balls are pressed up against my ass cheeks and I'm completely filled with him. My breath is ragged and I pause, still and waiting as I try to adjust to him.

He whispers in my ear, asking if I'm okay. "Fuck yourself with your fingers, Purity," he demands. "Reach between your legs. I want you to feel me in your ass while you fuck yourself with your fingers."

Moaning, I slide my fingers between my legs all the way inside until the palm of my hand rubs against my clit.

Now I'm completely filled, almost to the point where it's so much that I feel like I'm going to burst.

"Do you like that, Purity?" he growls. "Do you like fucking your fingers while I take this virgin ass?"

My fingertips find the spot that Gabe seems to hone in on so easily, the spot that almost immediately sets me off every time he touches it. It does the same thing now when my fingertips hit it.

I let out a long groan as arousal courses through my whole body, and Gabe grips my hips as he begins to move inside of me again. Pain courses through me too as he begins to fuck me, but that's quickly eclipsed by overwhelming pleasure.

Soon, I'm too far gone to notice any pain, even though Gabe is thrusting harder inside of me, his strokes longer as he starts to lose control. His cock is so rigid and swollen that he feels like he's going to explode in me.

I hear myself whimpering, letting out little gasps as he brings me higher and higher. "I'm going to come, Gabe," I tell him.

I'm not sure whether I'm warning him or begging him for permission. I don't know what I'm doing because I'm out of my mind with lust, and I'm too far gone to care about whether he tells me to wait for him.

But he doesn't tell me to wait.

"Come for me, Purity," he begs me. "Come for me now, because I can't hold out any longer."

With a long moan, I come for him. He calls my name again and again as he thrusts inside of me, pushing me over the edge. I come in a white-hot flash as he buries himself inside me, his arms wrapped tightly around me as he holds me close.

Afterwards, we lie there together for what seems like forever, not speaking. I listen to the sound of his breathing and know with certainty that there's no place on Earth I'd rather be than right here with him.

"I tried something different, you know," he whispers.

I giggle. "I'm more than aware of that," I say. "I was an active participant in what we just did, you know."

"Not that," he says. "I was stuck on the ending of the book. During Christmas, I rewrote it."

"I didn't even know you'd written the whole thing," I tell him.

"I'm a little superstitious. I didn't want to jinx it."

"By talking about it?"

"With my muse? No way. My editor hasn't even seen the end yet."

"I'm your muse?"

"I hadn't been writing for a while until you came along, so I think it's safe to call you my muse."

"So you're using me for sex and creativity?" I tease. "I'm totally getting a cut of the profits on this book, right?"

"I was thinking you'd settle for the knowledge that you're my artistic inspiration."

I snort. "You thought wrong, buddy. Money, all the way."

He slaps my ass cheek. "You want to read it before I change my mind, or what?"

I give him a mock-exasperated sigh. "Fine. I was hoping to watch TV, but if you're insisting I read your book, I suppose I can oblige."

"That's it. I've changed my mind about the ending. I'm killing off the heroine instead."

"You went with a happy ending?" I ask. "I don't believe it. Now I have to read it."

Gabe pulls me into the shower before bringing me his manuscript and a cup of tea. I stay up late into the night reading it– both the original and the version with the new ending – while he pecks away on something new on his laptop beside me.

When I finish, he looks at me expectantly. "What do you think?"

"I hate it," I tell him.

"You hate it??" he asks in disbelief.

"Well, I hate the new ending. I love everything else about it," I tell him. "But it's just not a Gabriel Ryan book if it has a happy ending."

"You're sucking as a muse right now, just so you know."

"But I'm being a good critic," I inform him. "You should save the happy endings for real life. Definitely kill the heroine in the book."

He grunts. "I never expected a real-life-happily-ever-after, you know."

"Do you think we'll have a happily-ever-after?" I ask.

"I think this is our happily-ever-after," he says, pulling me close and kissing me softly on the lips.