Chapter 16

~ Declan ~

 

I picked Ever up the following day without knowing what the men had decided once I left. None of them had bothered to contact me to let me know what happened, and I wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good or bad thing. I figured even if they didn’t tell me I’d be able to tell if they’d cheated once they see the tattoos at the reveal. There was no way they’d be able to fake their responses to those images.

“Hey, babe,” I offered with a smirk as she opened the door looking a little frazzled.

“Where are we going again?” She asked as she turned away from the door, leaving it open so I could enter. I followed her inside and shut the door behind me.

“Nowhere special, casual dress is fine.”

“Casual dress,” she repeated. “I inked a tattoo on one of the Joker’s guys today,” she admitted before running back into her bathroom.

“You did what now?” I followed her once again, not angry, because I knew she worked in a shop that had no club affiliation, and therefore she’d have to deal with any clientele who walked through the door. Granted, she could have turned him away, but she was so green in the tattoo world she probably also didn’t have the ability to turn paying clients away just yet.

“He just wanted some chick’s name tattooed on him. I convinced him not to use her name, and instead asked him what he liked best about her.” I snickered at that thinking about the answer most bikers might give.

“You didn’t draw a pair of lips sucking a dick did you?”

She laughed as she poked her head back out of the bathroom and nearly ran right into my chest. “No, nothing like that. Apparently, she’s sort of nerdy and has a dirty librarian look to her that he can’t resist. It was sweet, so I gave him this really cool book where the ink was bleeding out and dripping down into his heart.” She pointed right over her chest where she must have inked it. “It was really sweet, and he let me take a picture of it to put in my book.”

“That’s fantastic, babe. Sounds like it was a badass tattoo, and one he won’t regret as much as if he had her name put there and things didn’t work out.”

“That’s what I figured.” She glanced up at me then, her hand stroking my chest absently as she watched me. “You’re not angry with me for inking the enemy?”

“Why would I be mad at your for doing your job? The shop doesn’t have an affiliation, babe. You’re free to ink whomever you choose to. Just be careful, because I’m sure some of them will know who you are to the club.”

“Yeah, he mentioned that he knew who my father was, but he didn’t say anything bad. Just thought it was cool that I was working there on my own merit instead of over at Aces. Once he we were done, he told me he was damn glad I was working here, because I managed to keep him from doing something completely stupid and he got to walk away with a kick ass tattoo in its place.” She beamed at me, obviously proud of the work she had done, and the praise she’d received, no matter where it came from. I pulled her in close and kissed her senseless then, because I couldn’t resist. Her smiles, which I was seeing more of as each day passed, were something I couldn’t resist.

“Where are we going today?” Her words came out as a breathless question, and I just smiled, because what I was going to show her was going to blow her mind. I just wasn’t sure if she would freak out and run on me, or if it would turn out to be that thing that sealed our fate and glued us together forever.

“We’re going to my house,” I explained and I watched as confusion swept over her stunning features.

“Is your family going to be there?”

“My family?” Now it was my turn to be confused.

“Yeah, you know, your mom, dad, brother?”

“What the hell? Why would you want to know if they would be at my house?”

“I don’t know. I just wanted to be prepared for whatever I was walking into. You know the last time I saw your dad, not counting the ink I gave him; he wasn’t exactly nice to me. And your brother is… well, he’s just an unknown at this point.” She bit her lip, worrying it needlessly between her teeth.

“We’re going to MY house, Ever, not my family’s house.”

Her nose scrunched up along with her eyebrows as she watched me. “You have your own house?”

“Where did you think I lived?”

“I don’t know either at the clubhouse or with your family.”

“I’m almost 25, Ever, I don’t live with my family, and no one could possibly survive living in the clubhouse for more than a couple weeks unless they were certifiable.”

“Oh,” she popped off the word, completely surprised by the knowledge that I had my own home. “I didn’t realize,” she continued on and I just stood there taking in her reaction, and wondering what it was about my home ownership that was throwing her. It didn’t take long to find out, as her mouth seemed to keep running with the thoughts flitting through her head whether she meant me to hear them out loud or not.

“It’s just, I guess I don’t know you as well as I thought I did. How could I not know you had your own home? That’s weird right? It never occurred to me to wonder where you went at night when you left me. I just thought since the club was calling you away, that’s where you would be.”

“Most of the time it is,” I informed her as I pushed a piece of hair back behind her ear. “I bought my home while I was away in the Army, and when I first moved back I started working on renovating it. I haven’t actually spent more than a couple nights there because of it.”

“You’re renovating a house that will be your home when you’re done, but you never spoke of it?”

Ah, I was starting to see where she was going with this. She thought I’d kept it a secret for a reason, and I had. It was a secret I was keeping for this night in particular, the night when I was ready to give her everything and have her know exactly what being mine meant. “Come on, Ever, allow me to introduce you to my home. It’s what I had planned for tonight.”

“Okay,” she spoke quietly as she took my hand and allowed me to guide her out of her apartment and down to my Harley. It never got old feeling her legs slide over the leather seat and lock in place on either side of mine. In fact, my bike felt empty – damn near lacking – whenever she wasn’t with me now. Once she was settled I still had to touch her, pretend to pull her closer by grabbing hold of her thighs and tugging even though I knew she couldn’t possibly get closer. Her warmth radiated through me and her light vanilla perfume enveloped me, tantalizing my senses.

“Ready?” I called back to her. Her hands squeezed tight around my waist, digging into my flesh and making me wish I didn’t have plans to take her anywhere, because now the ride across town seemed too much to endure before my hands would be free to roam along her body again.

“I’m ready when you are, Deck.” She whispered the words in my ear just before I started the engine, and the way she said them made me think she wasn’t just talking about being ready for the ride.

~ Ever ~

We turned on to a road I hadn’t actually been on since I was a young girl. A boy too uncaring to notice what he’d done had dashed my dreams the last time I had come down this road. I should have known then that J-Bird would end up causing me insurmountable trouble since he was the one to shatter my girlhood dreams. Oddly enough, Deck stopped his bike in front of the exact spot it had happened too. When he killed the engine and tapped my thigh signaling me it was time to get off. I did so without question as I glanced around. There were exactly three houses on this part of the road. Two were across the street from where we parked. The other one… I couldn’t even bring myself to glance up at it, because it had once meant something to me. It had been a dream I’d had.

Once off the bike, and having secured the helmets, Deck turned to me and smiled. “Well, what do you think?”

“About what?” I asked dumbly.

Deck smirked. “About my house,” he teased and then lifted my chin with his finger and pointed my face toward the house I had dreamed of as a young girl. When I saw it, it was as if I were looking upon my dream come true instead of the old dilapidated house it had been back then.

“This is the house I used to dream about,” I mumbled.

“I know,” he whispered into my ear.

“What do you mean you know?”

“You were about, what? Thirteen, maybe,” he answered his own question as I stood there wondering what he was getting at. I was here, sitting up on the porch behind the mess of vines that had grown up there. It was the perfect spot to get away. I heard you and Jay as you came closer. He was just humoring you while he waited for Toby to finish messing around with the girl across the street.”

“Toby was across the street that day?” I glanced back over my shoulder at Deck, who now stood behind me with his arms wrapped around my waist.

“Yep, the little shit was nailing Emory Ward back then.”

“She was 17,” I informed him scandalized.

“That she was, which made your big brother a damn God among boys at your school. Not that anyone would ever tell you why, I guess.” I just shrugged.

“What does this have to do with that?” I asked pointing at the house.

“See, I was sitting here that day, thinking of what I would do to the house if I could buy it and fix it up. I had all these ideas, but then I saw you and Jay walking up to it so I hid back behind the vines and listened. You were telling him that one day you would buy this house. Then you explained how you would fix it up and paint the outside a cream color instead of white, and the shutters would be blue, because it was both bright and cheery while also being calming.” I laughed nervously, because I remembered saying those exact words, and so damn dreamily too. “You told him how you would fix the gardens out here, and what you would do to restore some of the insides that you had peeked at before.” I listened and I could picture every bit of it as if I were seeing it for real.

Something was dawning on me as he spoke about my past conversation with his brother. I wasn’t staring at a dilapidated old house any longer. It had been fixed up. Those vines were no longer a burden on the porch. The cream colored porch that matched the house with blue shutters and blue trim, just like I said I wanted it.

“You told him that one day it would all be yours along with two dogs and all the babies you would raise here.” He squeezed my waist then and I turned in his embrace.

“You painted it the way I said I would?” I asked, my voice breaking a bit on the end of the question.

He nodded his head at me. “I did, because after I heard your words it was the only way I could picture this place.”

“Your brother told me how stupid I was that day,” I reminded him. “He told me that no man would ever buy me this house, because it wasn’t worth fixing up, and should just be torn down to make way for something better.”

“I heard him,” Deck answered me. I knew he was an idiot then too. I have to tell you, I hate that he dashed your dreams that way, but I’m glad he was too much of a tool to see that your dreams were as beautiful as you are, and worth cherishing and making come true instead of stomping on them.”

Shit. I was going to cry, again. This man had a way of bringing all my emotions to the forefront. Before I could choke out any more questions, Deck was moving on with his explanations.

“I’m not done the renovations, but I thought maybe from this point forward you could help me with all the things on the inside. I have all the basics done in there. The wiring and plumbing are all updated, but most of the fixtures, painting, and flooring all need to be chosen and installed.”

“You want me to help you with the house?” My voice had a wistful quality to it that I couldn’t hide even if I’d wanted to.

“I do,” he answered simply as he rocked me gently back and forth where we stood in each other’s arms on the sidewalk in front of the house I’d always dreamed would be mine one day. “It’s more than that though, Ever.”

“What do you mean?”

“I told you that you were mine, and I was yours. I don’t just want you to help me renovate the house. I want you to help me make it a home.”

“You want…” I started, and then choked on the rest of the words that got lodged in my throat. “What?”

Deck smiled softly at me, and then leaned in to plant a gentle kiss upon my lips. He spoke without moving back so that each word was a puff of breath caressing my lips. “I want this to be our home, Ever. Yours, mine, and eventually all of our children and two dogs, if you still want them. If you’ll have me?”

The last was a question, and one I had no problem answering. “Of course I want you,” I told him before I slid my own lips against his and nipped at first the bottom, then the top. “Are you sure about this though? There’s…”

“I’m sure.” His words were firm and unyielding. “I’ve never been more certain of anything, Ev. I want you here with me. It doesn’t have to be right away. Maybe after I get the toilets reinstalled, eh?”

I laughed at that, which was what he intended. “Yeah, I bet that’ll be a big help so the bushes don’t end up over fertilized.” My face immediately flushed, because I’d forgotten I wasn’t just talking trash with one of the guys for a minute. Jesus, I was talking to the man who had just taken me to my dream home, and asked me to be a part in making it just that – with him. And here I am talking about shitting in the bushes. Ugh!

“That was really gross,” he teased, and then grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him straight up the walk and to the front door of my very own childhood dream.

“Where are we going?”

“Inside so I can show you were the working toilet is in order to save my poor bushes from your baser needs.”

I groaned while he chuckled. I should have known. He was a biker after all. No one had a worse, or better depending on your perspective, sense of humor than a man in a kutte. They were, after all, the type of men responsible for shaping my sense of humor over time. I was beginning to think that hanging out with my brother and Jay so much when we were younger probably didn’t do a lot to make a girl that normal men would be attracted to later on in life.

Luckily for me, it seemed I had a not-so-normal man completely smitten with me. Finally thinking it to myself made me smile. “I would kill to know what just put that smile on your face.”

I grinned bigger, but I didn’t tell him. “I wouldn’t be a woman without my mysteries,” I explained as he shook his head and rolled his eyes.

“Damn, I’d hoped you missed the bus on all that bullshit. I guess I’ll just have to find a reward system for when you give me each of your secrets.” He waggled his eyebrows and shot me a goofy crooked smile, but even his playful side did things, in combination with his words, that I didn’t completely understand about myself yet. Namely, the tingles that seemed to travel straight down my spine and settle in my lower belly with a fire I hadn’t really ever felt before except when Deck was kissing me.

I don’t know what triggered him, maybe it was the look on my face or the pheromones I was giving off, but Deck’s eyes suddenly glazed over and he pulled me into him, searing my lips with his in a kiss so heated I was surprised our clothes didn’t just melt off. “I was planning on dinner,” he mumbled against my lips.

“Not that hungry,” I informed him before devouring his mouth once more. I let out a startled gasp as Deck lifted me, causing me to brace myself by throwing my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist as he stomped through the house with me along for the ride. I have to admit, as eager as I had been to see the inside of the house, none of it registered. The only thing I was aware of was Deck’s hard body beneath my softer one, and the fact that his hands were holding me up by the firm grip he had on my ass.

Once we made it up the stairs and into the room at the end of the hall with the open door, I finally took note that there was actually furniture in here. Of course, I only noticed after Deck tossed me onto the unmade bed. He stripped off his kutte and laid it across a large, overstuffed cream chair that had a blue chenille blanket draped over it. That snapped me back to reality a bit, and I turned to glance around the room I was in. It had to be the master, and it was everything I’d ever dreamed my bedroom would look like as a grownup. The entire color scheme from the outside of the house had been transferred to this room seamlessly. It was done in smooth creams and brilliant blues, the aesthetic of it all taking my breath away.

“Deck,” I whispered in awe. He glanced around too, possibly seeing his room through my eyes as he did so. “This is gorgeous.”

“I’m glad you like it, because I plan on keeping you here forever now that I’ve got you here.”

I turned to him and lifted my hand, crooking my finger at him. He responded immediately by stalking towards me slowly. With each step he had removed his shirt, then kicked off his boots, and by the time he was by my side, standing in front of the bed, he had unbuckled his belt and his pants were barely hanging on once the button was popped and the zip tugged on a bit. Deck’s muscular abs were on show for me, and they did that thing where they seemed to point down into his pants. No doubt, it was nature’s way of saying ‘the best is yet to come,’ because it seemed like I was about to unwrap a prize I never fully understood that I wanted until now.

So slowly, I almost hadn’t noticed – since I was hypnotized by his body – my boots were removed from my feet. They clopped down onto the floor with a thud that finally drew my attention to the fact that Deck was undressing me now. His fingertips ghosted up over my jeans, and higher still until he bundled the bottom of t-shirt into his fists and tugged. I knew he was asking permission to remove the shirt, and I nodded my head ever so slightly while maintaining eye contact, giving him all the permission he needed before he tugged the shirt up and over my head. I was left in my white lace bra, jeans, and socks now. Deck didn’t linger on my upper body, though his appreciation was noted when his eyes soaked in every detail as he licked his luscious, full bottom lip.

Instead of lingering there his hands trailed back down my body, tightening and needing along my thighs and then my calves until he got to my feet, where he gingerly removed my socks. He smiled when he saw my toenails were painted a pretty lilac color. It was probably the girliest thing about me in that moment, aside from the blush that was heating up my chest, neck, and face as he took my clothes off while watching me so intently. “I like this color on you,” Deck mentioned as he pulled my other sock off too.

When they were both discarded on the floor along with my boots he ran his fingers back up my jeans-covered legs, and to the waistband, tracing his fingers gently over the skin of my belly just above where my jeans remained fastened. “Ever, I don’t want to rush you into anything. If you’re not ready…”

“Deck,” I called his name so that his eyes would find mine. I watched as they trailed slowly up my body, becoming more of an inky black than their normal blue as they did so. I reached out and touched his shoulders, running my hands up, scraping the nails across his exposed flesh as I did until my fingers were buried in his hair. The hair he’d grown out since leaving the Army was now a few inches long. I tugged there, pulling him toward me, wanting him closer. As I pulled he stumbled forward a bit, tripping over my boots or the ends of the blanket that were dangling on the floor. It didn’t matter, because the result was him landing so that his upper body hovered over mine and his face was right there where I’d wanted it. I took advantage of the situation and reached forward just enough so that I could lick his bottom lip before I sucked it into my mouth. The groan he emitted, plus the shudder as his muscles rippled over me let me know exactly how he felt about my bold move.

“I’ve been ready, Deck. I’ve just been waiting for you to catch up.” When my words sunk in, he leaned back, and then laughed as he moved in such a way that his jeans slid down his hips and fell to the floor to pool around his feet. He had on black boxer briefs that didn’t hide the fact that he was excited to be with me.

“You’ve been waiting on me, huh?” He started tickling my sides as he asked the question.

“Yeah, you kept kissing me, and then running away at the end of the night. At first I thought maybe you didn’t like girls that way, but then I thought, maybe he’s a virgin too,” I teased knowing full well neither of things were true. Deck had always been more discreet with his relationships when we were all growing up, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t heard rumors about his prowess from people who did know some of the girls he’d been with back then. Besides, he’d confessed about how he almost got engaged with another girl while he was in the Army. That thought twisted my stomach a little until I felt his hand ghosting back over my abdomen and then up around my back.

Before I knew what was happening my bra was gone and Deck’s mouth was hot and wet on my right breast, sucking my nipple into his mouth with a fervor I hadn’t anticipated. I sucked in a breath, and then released it on a moan as he suckled harder while gripping my other breast in his hand, kneading the flesh there that more than filled his hand. He came up for air with a pop as he released my nipple from his mouth and grinned at me. My eyes had to refocus on him after rolling up so hard in my head, but when they did and he knew he had my attention, he asked, “Did that seem like I prefer boys?”

My entire body was shaking with anticipation as I shook my head, no, while at the same time tormenting him further. “I don’t know, I think even gay men probably like to play with boobs. It’s a thing.” His answering grin, and the twinkle in his eyes gave him away a moment before my jeans were unfastened and ripped away from my body leaving both of us in just our underwear. Deck was in his boxer briefs that were like a second skin and me in a tiny scrap of white lace that did nothing to hide the evidence of how turned on I was. Deck leaned back in, hovering over my body once more, which was an entirely different experience when I could feel the heat of him so much better without that layer of clothing. I could also feel his thickness settled against my thigh and the rough touch of the hair on his legs as they rubbed across the smoothness of my own. Equals and opposites again, setting my body on fire. Then he rubbed his nose from my shoulder to my neck, scenting me as if he were a wild animal about to mark his mate.

“And now, does it seem as though I prefer boys?” His teasing words were a husky whisper against my sensitive skin of my neck just below my ear. My entire body broke out in shivering gooseflesh, a complete contradiction to the damnable fire spreading through my center. I couldn’t formulate words as a response. Instead, my legs twined around his hips and upper thighs, tugging him closer to me, and I think they were moving on their own accord, because I had no clue what I was doing here. Another throaty groan from Deck made me think the action hadn’t been wrong.

The movement centered his hardness over me in such a way that had those flames building higher and higher, especially after he flexed and pumped his hips a bit. “Jesus, fuck,” Deck hissed. “Ever, I don’t want to rush,” he started to say, but I fused our mouths together again before he could finish. I didn’t care if it was rushed, hurried, slow, fast, or more of this delicious torture. I only knew the pleasure I felt every time he moved on top of me, the singing heat coursing through my body like a symphony, the tingles that erupted everywhere he touched me with his hands, the weight of his body that made me feel so safe and even loved. Everything in concert made me want more of it all, but especially more of Deck.

Before I was even conscious that I was doing it my feet were pushing at the underwear still keeping me from feeling all of Deck’s body against my own. He took the hint and reached down long enough to divest himself of the briefs. He didn’t go so gentle with me though, instead he grabbed hold of the fragile lace panties I’d been wearing and ripped them off. I’m sure I would feel it later, where the fabric attempted to put up a fight on one hip while giving up the ghost on the other. In the moment it was just one more amazing sensation in an overload of sensory input.

“Deck,” I whimpered as I felt him for the first time, hot and hard against my center.

“Shit, baby, you’re driving me crazy. I almost forgot,” he rolled off of me and leaned over to grab the drawer open on the bedside table. He pulled out a string of condoms and tossed them down beside me while keeping one of them in his hands and ripping the foil wrapper open with his teeth. I didn’t even get to see him put it on because I was trapped in the lust filled look in his eyes. He was just as lost to this as I was. For a brief moment, I worried that I wouldn’t be good enough, that my inexperience would send him running when it was all said and done. Then he ran his hands down my body, and the awed expression on his face told me that wasn’t possible.

“This might hurt you, baby, and I don’t want you to have a bad experience with me.” I was shaking my head, trying to deny his words, because even a little pain couldn’t take away from everything else. “Shh,” he whispered into my ear, and then he dipped lower, licking, sucking, and kissing every sensitive piece of flesh from my earlobe to my neck, then down my throat, and across my collarbone. His lips travelled further down, taking a few moments to worship both of my breasts, spending equal time suckling from each nipple before heading further south. His hot breath and warm kisses peppered down my sternum to my belly button where he dipped his tongue in and swirled it around making me giggle as it tickled. I felt his grin against my belly as he continued down further. My breath was held as he moved lower. I had obviously never experienced this even though my best friend Erin had given me a blow-by-blow detailed description of the first time it had happened to her. I hoped Deck didn’t bite me the way Erin’s ex-boyfriend had done to her.

It was a needless worry though, because Deck definitely knew exactly what to do to make it feel like heaven. It was as if someone had given him a manual to my absolute pleasure, and he studied the damn thing like it was the bible. His tongue lapped at me, flicked in all the right places, he sucked, and my body exploded in the first orgasm that I ever had that wasn’t self-induced. I cried out, head thrown back, and back bowed up in ecstasy as Deck held my lower half down with his arms wrapped around my hips as he continued to lick me until I came back down to earth. I hadn’t even realized my hands were on his head, tangled in the shaggy strands of the hair he’d been growing out.

“Sweet, so fuckin’ sweet,” Deck hissed across my skin as he began to climb up my body in the sexiest maneuver I’d ever seen. The muscles in his shoulders and arms popped and rolled as he moved while taking sweeping, heated licks up my body. When he finally moved all the way above me and looked down into my eyes the only thing I could think was desire. It was written all over his face. His eyes nearly dripped with it as he leaned in and kissed me, forcing me to taste myself on his lips and tongue. One of his arms kept him perched right beside my shoulders while his other hand travelled down my body, fingers cleverly swirling around my clit. “You’re so fuckin’ sweet, baby. Are you sure?”

“Deck, please,” I murmured and he didn’t need any other reassurance, because he had me built up to yet another climax with what he was doing to me with his fingers. The moment I started tipping over the edge Deck pumped into me, taking the last of my innocence with him. I’m sure there was a stinging sensation, but it was over-shadowed by the orgasm that had been rippling through my body. He seated himself fully in me, and then both of his large hands were framing my face as he leaned in to kiss me while our lower halves stayed perfectly still. The fullness I felt was like nothing I had ever imagined when I thought about what this would be like. It was as if our being connected had completed me somehow. The missing part of myself was back, and it was Deck. Not just the points of us that were connected physically, but all of him, and all of me together.

I moved my hips, lifting them off the mattress, and pushing further into Deck’s body. He stiffened momentarily and then he started pulling back, and just as I was about to protest the move and the emptiness that was left behind he shoved back in all the way, and bumped a part of me deep inside that sent a zipping tingle through my lower half. My inadvertent moan must have spurred him on, because then he started going faster and harder until I was screaming out, once again, as another orgasm rolled through my body. I hadn’t expected that at all, because Erin had warned me that my first time would be miserable. This was not that. It was the complete opposite of miserable. It was unforgettable in the best of ways.

Even though I had climaxed again for the third time that night, Deck had yet to blow, and continued to move in and out of me with a rhythm that seemed impossible to me. My legs wrapped around his hips and my arms around his back, trailing my nails up and down his skin as he rested his head in the crook of my neck. “Ever,” he hissed out, and a few moments later he was tipping over the edge of pleasure too, chasing his orgasm, and pulling me with him once more.

It took a moment for both of us to come back to ourselves, but the minute Deck did he was running his finger over my kiss-swollen lips. “Are you okay?”

“I’m perfect. That was perfect,” I told him, causing his face to bloom in the large genuine smile I loved so much.

“Good, I need you to stay right here, okay?” I questioned him with my eyes only, and nodded my head. I was pretty sure my bones were all liquid and wouldn’t support me just yet anyway. I watched as Deck stood, holding onto his manhood as he did. It took me a minute to clue in to the fact that he had to deal with the condom, but even that fleeting thought left me as I watched his naked, scrumptious ass move and flex as he walked across the room to a door on the opposite side from the bed. I assumed it was the bathroom, and was proved right moments later when I heard the toilet flush. That made me giggle, because it reminded me of our earlier conversation about the bushes.

Deck came back into the room, smiling and holding a washcloth. “What’s so funny?”

“I was thinking of how you just spared the bushes outside,” I laughed.

He continued to grin as he climbed up on the bed from the bottom and moved to where he kneeled between legs, looking at the place where no one else had before. The same place I was starting to feel a definitive ache. “You sore, babe?” I wondered briefly if he wanted to go again, but it didn’t seem that way since he wasn’t hard. Instead, he moved his hand, covered in the washcloth, between my legs, and proceeded to clean me up. It was only then that I realize there was blood mixed with all the lubricant I’d produced. “Oh no, your sheets,” I cried out, worried he’d be upset that I’d just ruined the gorgeous set of blue sheets. Then, I just thanked the universe that the cream comforter hadn’t been underneath me instead.

“Don’t worry about those sheets, baby. I’m not.” He moved back off of me once he had me cleaned up, and I watched again as he ducked into the bathroom. This time I heard what sounded like a drawer or cabinet being opened, and when he came back I realized I hadn’t been wrong. He carried a pill bottle with him. “You’ll probably want to take a couple of these for now to help with the ache.”

“How did you know there was an ache?” He smiled at me then and traced over my brow with his fingers.

“I’m not a small man, baby, and this was your first time. Even though the orgasms dimmed the initial pain, there’s going to be some discomfort now.” He climbed in bed beside me once I’d taken the pills along with drinking down half a bottle of water he’d handed me. “I just want to keep you here with me a little while longer before we have to get up and feed ourselves. You okay with that?”

This man, who had given me the best first time sexual experience I’d ever heard of, was asking to cuddle me afterward? “Of course,” was the only answer I could come up with, because who would turn that offer down? I snuggled into Deck’s side as he wrapped an arm around me and kissed the top of my head.

“I love you, Ever,” he told me. My heart literally skipped a beat at his admission, and I tipped my head up to see his face then. He planted a small kiss on my lips and when he pulled away it was to see the smile he’d left on my face.

“That’s a good thing, Deck, because I’ve fallen in love with you too.” He squeezed me tight then, and I closed my eyes to enjoy the warmth and love I was enveloped in. My eyes didn’t end up opening again until morning when I felt Deck’s lips drag across my neck to whisper in my ear, “Good morning, Love.” There went my heart again. It was lost in the best possible way.