Eventually, we made it to my building though we were forced to ride the elevator alongside a pair of men who felt that was the appropriate venue for their disagreement on grocery spending. Zelda gazed up at me with her chin on my chest as we listened, not bothering to pretend otherwise. It was a good diversion from all the emotions I'd experienced since finding Zelda on that pedestal and the way they swirled together, melting and melding into a fervent, boundless desire to keep her—and not simply in my bed, in my presence but in my future. I couldn't imagine the next week, the next month, the next year without her right here beside me, and that was a vast new ocean of emotions I was helpless to handle on my own.
Fortunately, I had Zelda to put me in order.
She led me down the hall, inside the apartment, into her arms, though I required much more than that this evening. With both hands on her waist, I walked her backward toward the dining table. She edged up onto the surface and brought her palms to my chest.
I wedged her legs apart, stepped between them. Unbuckled my belt and drew it through the loops with a swish that vibrated like a warning. "Answer me this, my moonbeam bride." I leaned in, my hands flat on the table and my mouth a breath from hers. "Will I fuck you before the vows or after?"
She closed the distance between us, nipping at my bottom lip. "Does it matter?"
"It does." I slanted my lips over hers, sighing into her mouth as I tasted her tongue. "It matters if you're walking down the aisle full and wet from me or waiting until after you're mine."
Zelda hummed for a moment, her eyes shut. "I know which way you want it."
I unbuttoned my shirt, unzipped my trousers as I watched her considering it—and what a strange, strange thing it was to speak this way about a marriage we'd never discussed yet accepted without hesitation. "Is that right? And how do I want it, love?"
"You want it before." A feline smile curled her lips and sparkled in her eyes. "You'd want to keep a secret like that while everyone watched us say very polite and chaste things to each other."
I could see it as if it'd already happened. Zelda alone in some quiet, cloistered room as she waited for the ceremony to begin. Me sneaking inside without a word. I'd skim her panties down and her dress up, and I'd fuck her from behind while she clutched her bouquet. I'd use those panties to mop up the mess I'd made between her legs, then I'd tuck them in my breast pocket.
Certainly, grooms were entitled to keep up the tradition of something borrowed.
Zelda shifted her hand to my gaping trousers, stroking me over the fabric. "That's it, isn't it? I can see you thinking about it."
I tore her sweater over her head, tossed it behind me. The bra followed. Rucked her skirt up to her waist because I intended to use it for leverage. "The bite mark I'll leave on your thigh will be my something blue."
"That's not the kind of wedding gift most brides receive," she said, lifting up her bottom to help me free her of those panties.
"It's a fine thing you're not most brides, love." I bucked into her hand, my entire body tensing, tightening as I dropped my head back and let loose a snarling sound. "There's a condom in my back pocket. See to that for me."
I thrummed my knuckles down her breasts, snaring her dusky nipples while she opened the packet. She sawed her teeth over her bottom lip as she sheathed me, her mermaid eyes clear and focused on each deep, twisting stroke.
"Zelda," I rasped, the table biting into my legs as I edged closer.
"Yes, Ash?"
I smoothed my hands up her thighs. "Open for me. Show me what's mine."
With a starved gasp, she settled back on her elbows, her legs parted wide. She was luscious and ripe, her folds blooming like a summer rose. "All yours."
These words, they were dangerous. They made promises—promises I intended to keep. "Good girl," I said, taking hold of her ankle. I set her foot on my uninjured shoulder and raked my teeth up her shin, and my chest was tight like I'd forgotten how to exhale. "Keep your eyes open, Zelda. Pay attention. I'm going to fuck you just like this after I marry you."
The first thrust was like my first ever, new and raw and overpoweringlyright. As it was, that rightness threatened my ability to stand unaided, inhale properly, and last through the next thirty seconds.
"Oh my god," she whispered, her hands stretched flat on the table. "God. You feel like you're in my throat."
It was her lips I focused on as I fucked her, plump and barely pink. Lips I loved seeing wrapped around my shaft, pressed to my skin, parted on the most beautiful cries of pleasure I'd ever seen. I focused on those lips because if I glanced down to watch my cock moving inside her, I was certain to come on the spot and say something irrevocable while I did it.
Something likeI'm falling for you.Falling so damn hard.
To stave that off, I pressed two fingers to her ass and grinned while her entire body shuddered.
"I'm right there," she panted. "Right there."
Honestly, this came as a massive relief. There was no way in hell I'd leave my girl wanting but my body wasn't interested in long, thorough loving right now. This moment existed for the purpose of possession. Loving would come later. We had all night for that.
"Right there, right there,riiiiiiiightthere," Zelda continued.
I lashed an arm around her waist, yanked her up. "You're not there yet," I snapped.
