“I didn’t say yes because of the license.”
“I know.”
“I said yes because I love you so much it scares me.”
He brushed his thumb across her cheekbone. “Good thing I’m not going anywhere.”
“Neither am I,” she whispered.
Outside, the snow finally began to fall. Thick, silent flakes floated past the window, covering everything in pure white.
Inside, Kip let herself drift into a restful sleep, safe for the first time in years, anchored by the steady beat of her husband’s heart against her own.
CHAPTER 18
Trace woke in the hush before dawn, the way he always did, alert, every sense tuned in to his surroundings. At one time, it had annoyed him, but not anymore. Here on out, all his senses could focus on the woman beside him. The room was still dark except for the embers in the fireplace, casting a faint red glow across the bed. Across her.
Kip.
His wife.
She lay on her stomach, one small fist tucked under the pillow, the other arm flung toward his side of the bed like she’d reached for him in her sleep and refused to take no for an answer. That wild mane of hers spilled fire everywhere. Some of her dark red strands stuck to her damp cheek, some twisted around his own forearm where she’d wrapped herself around him in the night. The quilt had worked its way down to the curve of her ass, baring the long, delicate line of her spine. Even in the dim light, he could make out faint bruises blooming along her shoulder blades where his mouth had been. His marks. Proof.
He couldn’t breathe right when he looked at her like this.Thirty-four years he’d walked this earth half-empty, and he hadn’t even known it until she looked up at him with those big hazel eyes and called him Daddy in that soft, trusting voice. Now she was his wife. living under his skin, carved into bone.
Kipling Renee Harper Daniels.
He’d kill for her. Die for her. Burn every bridge, every inch of ground between here and hell if that’s what it took to keep her safe. To keep her smiling. She’d be right here in this bed every morning until they were both old and gray. The rightness of it settled in his gut.
She made a breathy little sigh in her sleep, stirring his cock to life. Just a breath, and he was already hard and aching. He shifted closer, the mattress dipping under his weight, and dragged one rough knuckle down the slope of her shoulder.
Her skin was like silk, and hot from where he’d had her pinned beside him most of the night. She leaned into his touch without waking. Like her body knew who it belonged to, even when her mind was lost in dreams.
He couldn’t wait another heartbeat.
Starting at her temple, he lowered his lips to brush the fine wisps of hair there, tasting salt and sleep and something else that was all her. Another kiss at the corner of her closed eye, then the delicate hinge of her jaw.
She stirred, lashes fluttering against her cheeks, and he claimed her mouth with slow, coaxing licks along the seam of her lips until she opened for him. She let out a sleepy, welcoming hum that went straight to his balls.
“Trace,” she breathed, morning making her voice husky and small.
“Morning, wife.” He said it against her lips, the word rough with possession. Then he took her mouth deeper, his tongue sliding against hers until she arched up, her delicate fingers twisting in his hair as if she was afraid he’d vanish.
But he didn’t plan on going anywhere without her again. Not ever.
He ran his tongue down the column of her throat now, open-mouthed and deliberate, pausing to suck hard at the spot just below her ear that always made her gasp. The sound she gave him was filled with need, sending shots of fire down his spine.
He took the kiss lower, dragged his mouth over one breast, before catching her nipple between his teeth and holding it just firmly enough to make her back arch toward him. Flicking it twice, he closed his lips around the turgid bud and sucked until it stood tight and aching. She whimpered his name like it hurt to feel so good.
Her hands clawed at his shoulders, nails digging tiny half-moons that would mark him later and make him grin all damn day. She was urging him lower, hips already rolling against his thigh.
The way she begged without words almost had him coming in the sheets.
Then her silence broke. “Please, Daddy. I need you.”
Being the good Daddy he was, he gave his little fox exactly what she needed.
He tasted his way down the center of her body, tongue tracing every rib, every inch of skin he’d wanted to claim last night and planned to claim again every day for the rest of his life.
