Marriage isn’t something I was interested in before Nina. It was never something I contemplated because I had never met someone who I wanted to share my life with.
Now I have, and she doesn’t want it.
I’ve had women throw themselves at me, giving anything for a date. Yet the woman I want to give my world to doesn’t want a part of it, or at least not yet.
She lies asleep in my arms, her head on my chest as her breath fans out over my heated skin. It’s ten to eight, and I know I need to wake her. I just don’t want to. Everything seems better with her locked tight in my arms.
“I’m coming in.” The door rattles and then a thud. “Guys, come on!” Megan, I think, shouts from the other side of the door.
Nina jolts awake, looking up at me and then to the door. “Time is it?”
“Almost eight,” I tell her, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear.
“Nina! You have my strappy sandals. I want my strappy sandals.”
She grins up at me then slides from the bed. I watch as she walks naked around our room, her skin smooth and taut. She is fucking perfect. Dropping down to her knees, she unzips her suitcase, and I pull myself up the bed to watch her, grabbing a pillow and covering my semi.
She opens the door, and a hand reaches in to snatch the shoes. “Thank you. Filthy whore.”
She slams the door and spins, leaning back against it with her eyes gently closed.
I love that she doesn’t hide from me.
“I need to shower. Do I have time?” she asks.
“No. But I need a shower too, and guess what?”
She cocks her head to the side. “We are having a shower?”
“Come here.”
“Nuh-huh.” She holds up a finger as I rise to my knees. “We are showering, but separate.”
“That’s stupid,” I protest, dropping the pillow.
“Is it? We know what will happen if we shower together.” She eyes my growing length. “We will never make it to dinner.”
“Well…” I launch the pillow at her. “Put some damn clothes on then.” I stand, my erection only getting harder the more wound up I get.
“Walking around naked expecting me not to want it,” I mutter under my breath as I stalk into the bathroom.
Leaning into the shower, I turn on the spray and wait for it to warm up. She follows in behind me, sliding past and into the heat.
“You’re such a child when you don’t get your way, you know that?”
I step into her, taking her chin between my thumb and finger. “I always get my way.” My free hand finds the back of her knee, and I lift it, wrapping it around my waist and sliding home in one deep thrust. “Always,” I whisper against her lips.
She may have told me no, but the look in her eye tells me she knows.
She will marry me.
Even if I have to drag her down the aisle myself.
* * *
“Better late than never!”Elliot shouts as we walk across the decking hand in hand.
We cross the small path to the outside seating area. It’s spread out on the patio, and the area is littered with lights that Scarlet insisted would set the mood.
