He quickens the motion, and I can feel myself reaching the tip of climax, but then he stops and I whimper softly.
Ruin sits up on his knees and unbuckles his belt, hastily shedding his pants and all that remains between us. I reach down and take his throbbing, hard erection in my hand, excited by his size and beyond ready to feel him deep inside me once again. He hisses through his teeth, probably shocked by how cool my hands are, but he shudders when he inhales and I give him a teasing squeeze.
“Oh, my heart. No, don’t do that. I want this to last. I want to make you sing. And I want to savor every note that passes your lips,” he says.
He licks his fingers before guiding his hard cock between my legs and stops at my opening to kiss me. Locked in a drugging kiss, Ruin thrusts deep inside me. A moan rips from me as I feel him stretch me fully. He pulls back and thrusts again, hips rising and falling as my own rise to meet his. Each thrust brings me right back to that edge, and I squeeze myself around him, wanting to take more, as much as he can give.
Ruin quickens his pace, and I’m done for. Pleasure, warm and throbbing, erupts from my core. I tighten and ride the wave of it as he thrusts his way to climax. He grows stiffer and takes my mouth with his again as he fills me completely. Bodies spent, I lie under him for a time, enjoying his weight as he catches his breath beneath the towering trees.
It’s as if we’ve been transported back in time, to when the rest of the world didn’t matter, only moments like this. Stolen moments shared in private between us under the clouds. Eventually, Ruin rolls over, and I cuddle up in the crook of his arm. He runs a thumb lazily over my bare arm, our legs and feet intertwined and resting on the cool grass at the brook’s edge.
“Damn,” he says.
“Damn,” I reply, and we both laugh.
He tilts my chin up and kisses me so gently, as if I were the finest porcelain on the verge of breaking. It’s enough to kick-start my heart again.
“You really are my everything. I mean it,” Ruin hums as he caresses my cheek. I roll over onto my stomach, and Ruin pushes my hair from my shoulder to plant kisses there. A tear slips free from my lashes. Having Ruin in my life is, hands down, the sweetest gift this world has ever given me.
Ruin grins that devilish grin I love so. “My Virtue, my heart. Missing you all those years nearly killed me.”
I choose my reply carefully. “My love for you never dimmed. It only grew. I can see it now. The truth. You sacrificed yourself to that jail cell to protect someone who had no one else to protect them. Your father made it worse, my father tried to ruin us, but nothing could.”
“Not even God can stand between me and my love for you.”
I grin at the sincerity in his words.
“I would still be lost without you.” I linger in his warm embrace, savoring the mix of earth and aftershave about him, and I feel completely safe and wanted. Placing my forehead against his shoulder, I enjoy this moment as if it is the last of its kind, but I also know it is only the beginning of many more to come. “I love you more than my next breath, Ruin Lautner.”
We share another deep kiss, and for a second, I want to push him back to the ground and have a round two. Before I can even entertain the thought, Ruin steps back.
“Now, now. We’ll have plenty of time for another romp later. First, it’s date night.”
“Oh,” I say and grin, waiting to hear what he has planned.
“I made us reservations, and if we’re lucky—” he waggles his eyebrows and hips, which is just about the funniest thing I’ve ever seen him do, especially all tatted up and muscled as he is “—we can nab a dark corner booth and have a Ruin and Virtue make-out session for dessert.”
I can’t stop the giggles that pour forth as Ruin winks at me. “And land ourselves in jail for indecent exposure? Sounds interesting,” I add, raising my brows to signal I’m game for his plan. My heart sings, knowing I have my other half back.
Ruin tickles my sides, and I cry out in surprise. “They’ll have to get through me to get you cuffed! No man will ever take my lady! Not today, not ever.”
I laugh and push him back down to the ground to straddle him. As I dip down for a kiss, my hair cascades around us to frame his face, and I follow the soft rust-colored stubble shaping his jawline.
I never stood a chance; I fell helplessly hard for Ruin from the start. And I wouldn’t want it any other way. I kiss him again, murmuring against his lips. “You have my heart forever and always, even if itruinsme.”
Epilogue
Avalee
One Month Later
I lookat the glittering set on my left hand and sigh. My father didn’t attend the ceremony, but my mother did. She was even the one to walk me down the aisle and give me away. It was a quiet affair, with just my mother and the Maysons in attendance, but I think both Ruin and I agree it was perfect as such an intimate celebration.
Mother promises to talk to Father about how Ruin is innocent of the crimes against him from long ago. She even danced with him at the reception.
Now, we’re house hunting. The super-expensive security system he was going to install was stalled when we found a few issues with the old house that wouldn’t be easy or cheap to fix. So, we decided selling was the best option. Plus, we want to start our lives fresh in someplace new. Somewhere we can grow and start a family. Stormy runs ahead to check out the backyard of the three-bedroom, two-bath home as Ruin and I take a tour. I can already see us in the master bedroom and imagine the squeals and laughter of our children filling the home.
“What do you think?” he asks me.
