It’s so quiet I can hear Peyton’s soft breaths. She’s sleeping, and I’m sitting here watching her in awe that this woman is mine. I’m planning to get her a collar as soon as possible. She needs to know that I’m not losing her again. I’m done watching her leave. It’s time she stayed.

My heart started beating with Aurora, and I thought it died with her. With Peyton, she showed me that a ghost can’t take a life. Peyton gave me her heart in place of mine I’d lost, and in the process, I found myself.

I’ve given her everything. She’s all I will ever want. Soon, I want to see her pregnant with my children. I want to keep her locked up in my house while she gives me babies. It sounds so caveman. But it’s true. To see her bearing my children would be a dream come true.

I want a football team. Smiling at my thoughts, I push off the bed and head into the living room. The sun is just peeking through the blinds, and I know she’ll be up soon. In the kitchen, I ensure the coffee machine is on and ready to brew a pot of her favorite coffee.

The scent is heavenly when it begins to drip steadily. I watch it for a moment, lost in the hypnotic movement, I recall the confession she offered me about her own past.

This woman walked into my life one night and never left. Even those moments without her, she was never gone. She’d burrowed her way into my soul. When I didn’t notice, she had ingrained herself inside me and there’s no way of ever getting her out.

Not that I’d want to.

I don’t hear her, she’s barefoot, but I feel her.

“You’re up early,” she says, forcing me to turn around and devour her with my eyes. She’s dressed in my white dress shirt and nothing else. Her nipples are hard beneath the material, and I’m sure her pretty pussy is wet and needy.

“I wanted to make sure you had coffee as soon as you woke up.” She smiles. Her face is angelic, but the look in her eyes is mischievous. My naughty little kitten.

“Thank you. I have so much to do today. Chance is moving to Chicago, so I need to make some space in my apartment.”

“No.”

“Huh?” She frowns, regarding me with confusion.

“Chance can have your apartment. You’ll be living here,” I tell her. There’s no way she’s denying me that. I want her close to me. Every damn day. And I’m not taking no for an answer. If I have to move her in myself and tie her down until she accepts it, I’ll do so.

“You . . . you want me to move in here?” she questions, her big green eyes wide with shock, but she needn’t feel that, because I want her here all the time. Every damn day.

“Why wouldn’t I?” I stalk toward her. Gripping her hips, I pull her to me. Her body molds to mine, flush with my own. “I want to wake up and see you. I want to go to sleep at night holding you. I want to live and breathe you, Peyton Moore.”

Her delicate little hands land on my chest. Her pouty lips crack into a smile, happiness beaming from her like a beacon. My fucking lighthouse. I lift her against me, needing to feel her. Nothing like early morning sex to make my day even better.

When I pin her between the kitchen wall and my body, my fingers trail over her core. I was right -- she doesn’t have panties on, and she’s drenched with slick arousal.

“Always so wet for me.”

“Always.” Her face moves closer to mine, her lips seeking mine for a kiss, but I shake my head. Her face drops into a frown.

“I won't kiss you, Kitten, because that’s not who we are. It’s not what we do. But, I will make love to and fuck your perfect, pretty mouth with my own,” I tell her, whispering the words over her lips. “I want our lips to mold to each other. Our tongues will dance to music only they two can hear.”

She whimpers when I show her what I mean. My tongue fucks into her mouth as my cock slips into her cunt. The tight heat of her walls bears down on my cock, eliciting a growl from me.

I pull back and slam deep inside her body as if I’m part of her. “I’ll use your mouth for my pleasure and yours, Kitten. Our tongues will caress each other. It will be as if two lovers are having an affair so elicit it’s almost violent.”

“Aren’t you the poet, Sir?” She giggles, and I plunge my cock inside her again and again. Her head drops back, her nails raking over the base of my neck, my shoulders. She’s being slammed into the wall by my thrusts, but she’s whimpering like she’s about to come. Her pussy pulses around me, attempting to milk my cock for all it’s worth.

“I want you as mine, Peyton,” I coo in her ear, holding her on the edge of an orgasm that will surely have her passing out. Her lips are parted in a soft moan. “For the rest of my life, I’ll make love to you gently as if a butterfly’s wings are touching your flesh. But I’ll also fuck you hard and fast, until you’re battered, bruised, and bitten with me written on your skin like a poem. Like the lyrics of your favorite song.”

“Carrick, please. Oh, god,” she begs as my fingers find the tight ring of muscle I’m dying to fuck as well. I tease her ass, dipping my finger into her. She’s clawing at me now. Needing her orgasm, but I don’t grant it.

“If you come, I’ll hurt you, Kitten.” She attempts to nod, but she can’t. She’s delirious with need. My body moves inside hers with slow thrusts. I love edging her. Big green eyes shimmer with tears. “Cry for me,” I tell her.

I continue torturing her with my dick. She blinks. Her salty emotion spills down her cheeks, and I lap them up like a feral animal.

“And when I’ve finished using your body like it’s my fuck-toy for pleasure, you’ll be so wrung out on the ecstasy I’ll bestow on your beautiful body, confusion will settle in your mind. You’ll wonder if you need to listen to the angel or the devil that sits on either shoulder. Either guiding you to your redemption . . . or sin.”

“Sir.”

“And I’ll be there waiting. It doesn’t matter which you choose.” My hips move slowly, sensually as I gently fuck her. My cock throbbing, the need to come is burning through me. “I’ll be there for you. I’ll be your redemption and your sin.”

She opens her eyes. “May I come, Sir?” Her question has my hips moving faster. “I need you.”

“Tell me, Kitten. Say the dirty words I know you love to say.”

“Fuck me, Sir. Make me scream your name.” I obey her. I give her what she needs. My fingers pump into her ass while my cock owns her cunt. Her arousal drips down my shaft as I piston into her. “Fuck, yes,” she mumbles. Her body convulsing as I feel her walls tighten.

“Give it all to me, Peyton. Give me everything.”

She does. Her orgasm strikes a match inside me as her body milks me. I empty my seed inside her, hoping with all I am that I’ve given her a baby.

The silence hangs around us. She doesn’t move. Her head is on my shoulder. Her body limp as her legs fall down, and I know I’ve worn her out. My cock softens and slips from her. I walk us into the bathroom. Setting her on the counter, I take her in as she smiles when I look into her forest green eyes. They’re darker here. Perhaps it’s the light.

“You trying to kill me, Sir?” she sasses me playfully, and I can’t help chuckling. That was one of the most intense moments of my life. The words I gave her, the way I took her, it was more than a fuck, it was more than making love. I fed her my soul, and her body accepted it willingly.

“I’d never do that. Just wanted to see how much you can take, Kitten.” I wink. Grabbing a cloth, I wet it with warm water and clean her up. We should shower, but all I want to do is lie with her in my arms while the high of our orgasms subside.

“Those words. What you said . . .”

“It’s true, Peyton. I’ll be your sin. I’ll be anything you want me to be. But I’ll always ensure you’re safe.” She smiles. I lift her bridal-style and head into the bedroom again. Setting her down, I slip under the covers behind her and pull her against me.

“I love you, Sir.”

“I love you too, Kitten.”