“You are.” Deke gently worshipped her mouth. “You are.”

“Feel like demonstrating that?” She lifted her hips to him in blatant invitation.

“God, yes.”

Kimber nipped at his shoulder, kissed her way up his neck.

“I’m still on the pill, but if you’d rather…condoms are in the nightstand.” They were really going to do this, just the two of them. He hesitated, fearing the nasty sideswipe of panic. But it didn’t come. “Whatever happens we’ll handle it together, right?”

“Yes.”

The reassurance in her voice went straight to his chest, where he felt all damn mushy. The rest of him…taut, tense, every bit rigid. Everything from his shoulders to his toes was juiced with adrenaline. Nerves. Anticipation. He’d never needed and feared something so much at once.

“For three days, I’ve been thinking about nothing except how you’d feel inside me.”

Then she lifted her legs high on his hips. Damn, her pussy pressed right against his cock. And she was wet. Oh, hell. Deke started to sweat. His heart took off like a jet trying to reach new speeds. He’d thought about her, too. Obsessively. What would it be like to finally take her alone? Claim her as his very own?

Kimber nipped at his lobe, sending a new shiver across his skin. “You’re going to feel so good. I’ve missed you. I look at you and I ache.” Yeah, he knew exactly how that went. He reacted to her the same way. He was reacting that way now, so damn hard he could swear most of the blood in his body had flooded the same nine inches of flesh. He grimaced, then probed until the head of his cock held right against her entrance.

Shit. Sweat poured off of him now. Deke swallowed. Kimber had to feel the heavy pound of his heart against her chest, couldn’t miss the harsh grip of his fingers on her hips. He meant to ease off, be gentle…but every muscle in his body was wired.

“I can’t wait to have your hard length inside me, stretching, driving me insane.” Didn’t she know her words were only ramping him up more? He was going to lose the last threads of his sanity if she went on like that.

“The feel of you deep inside me…” She groaned. “I need it.” It was all he could do not to groan with her. Yeah, he remembered. How the hell could he forget how perfect she felt all around him? Not in this lifetime.

She lifted to him again, and the head of his cock eased inside her. Oh, damn. Oh, wow!

“Then you nudge that one spot, and I scream for you. Every time, you make me come apart.”

Just like those hot words of hers were doing to him—dismantling his reserve, his hesitation, arousing him past thought. His head swam with her scent, her whispered come-ons, and the feel of her pussy trying to latch onto his dick. He couldn’t stand it. God, he couldn’t hold out. Couldn’t wait…

Deke gripped her hips and slid home in one delicious, endless thrust, sealing their bond. All the way to the end, as tight against her cervix as he could.

He drew in a shuddering breath at the wild sensation that pounded at him. Tight, wet, hot, silken, perfect; Kimber was everything. What he didn’t feel was panic or worry about being responsible for whatever happened. As she cried out underneath him, Deke realized that he wanted to take care of her. More than anything. The very thought of doing that felt almost as good as making love to her.

As he retreated then sank deep again, Kimber moaned once more. Around him, she tightened.

Home. His.

“Hush, and I’ll make you come now,” he murmured, fitting his hands underneath the firm cheeks of her ass and lifting her tighter against him.

Then he took her mouth, filling it with his kiss at the same time he filled her sex with his cock. Slowly. Even, measured strokes. Oh, hell yes! Friction was definitely his friend. His best damn buddy, in fact. Every rasp of his flesh against hers was like an electric charge running through his body. All the sensations burst through him, short-circuiting any thoughts he might have had. It was all body, baby. The ever-tightening clasp of her sheath, her nails in his back, her bucking hips under him, her breathless begging in his ear. The way his heart wrenched at each one.

The thrill of knowing he was pleasing her.

Moments later, she cried out… His name. That was it, and in the same sentence with God. Her words were a litany, a plea. And he felt her pulse down on him, milking him, melting him. He careened out of control, racing toward the finish line too rapidly to stop. Deke grabbed her, his arms tightening around her, like a lifeline. She was his lifeline.

Damn, he felt like a volcano. The pressure brewing in his balls stopped his breath.

The amazing pleasure stunned him. After years of shared sex, having Kimber to himself completely was like a revelation. An amazement. He almost expected the heavens to part and start singing or some shit.

Instead, ecstasy ripped through him with such force, he thought his body would explode into a billion pieces. He clutched her, cried out for her, emptied himself inside her in a series of jolting spasms that devastated him. Changed him. Forever.

Under the hard protection of Deke’s body, Kimber clasped him tighter. He’d already owned her body tonight. There was no question he owned her heart. Tears seeped from the corners of her eyes.

Still panting, he raised his head. Sweat clung to his temples, rolled down his neck.

Veins bulged, muscles bunched. He looked so big and invincible. Except when he opened his eyes and looked down at her. Every vulnerability lay bare in those dark blue eyes, and her heart opened for him even wider.

“Hi,” she murmured.

“Hi.”

“That was…beautiful. You moved me.”

He grunted. “Yeah, I’m really trying not to cry like a baby here.” Kimber couldn’t help but laugh as her heart lit up. Had she ever been happier?

“Just the two of us, was it difficult?”

“Not as much as I thought it would be. Once I convinced my mind it was you and I focused on how I felt about you…everything was all right.”

“It was perfect,” she corrected with a caress of her fingers up his cheek.

“It was.”

“You know, when I came to you for help, I was a girl stupidly chasing a boy for some silly daydream that didn’t exist. You gave me something real. You treated me like a woman, taught me about sex, showed me love. Thank you.”

“Thank you. I put you through hell, and I hate that. But you still healed me and cared about me. You didn’t give up on me. I love you so damn much, kitten. I always will. You going to marry me someday?”

Clearly, the question surprised her—pleasantly. “You going to ask someday?”

“Yeah.” He brushed auburn curls away from flushed cheeks.

She pressed a soft kiss on his lips and teased, “I don’t know. When I first asked you to teach me about sex, you said there would be no emotional bonds.” Deke snorted. “I was an idiot. I need the bond between us. It’s essential like air, baby. I’ve got to have it.” He pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “I—I’m hoping you still want to have babies with me someday.”

She nodded. “I’m glad we can, that you never, um…”

“Had a vasectomy? I really thought about it. Hard. But Luc was right; I didn’t because I couldn’t give up on the hope of someday being a father. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I didn’t want the past to have that kind of power over me for the rest of my life.”

“You took a huge step tonight in letting go of the past. Would it be too weird if I told you I was proud of you?”

A flash of tears glossed across those denim blue eyes. He did his best to blink them away. “Nah. Hell, I’m proud of me, too,” he joked. “And now you’re mine. All mine. Just mine.”

Under him, Kimber smiled. “Yours. Always.”