“Is that so?”I pull her closer, my lips finding the soft spot below her ear.“What exactly were you expecting, Tiger?”
She inhales sharply, her fingers curling into my hair.“Conviction.”
I draw back just enough to meet her eyes.“Never again,” I say, and I mean it in the way only a man on his honeymoon can.“You’re not spending another night without me in this bed.”
Her reply comes out throaty and warm.“Prove it.”
For a heartbeat, everything inside me stills—the prayer still lingering in my chest, the vow I just made outside, the new responsibility I’ve been half breaking under.
Then it all channels into one thing:her.
Her hands go to my jaw, my neck, tugging me down, and the look on her face—open, wanting, completely unafraid—hits with more force than any blow I’ve taken in the field.
My last coherent thought is a prayer I don’t speak aloud:Thank you for this gift I don’t deserve.
And then her mouth finds mine again, and thinking stops entirely.
THE END
