He buried his face in her neck, breathing in her scent, his heart pounding hard against hers, echoing.
“Whoa,” she whispered softly against his hair as her hand threaded through it.
“Indeed,” he replied, his voice hoarse with breathlessness, his body still recovering.
With a final deep breath, he propped up on his arm and met her smiling eyes. He leaned forward, placing a soft kiss on her nose, and then on her forehead. He should roll from his place on top of her, but he wasn’t ready. Their connection… It was more than just a coupling, but what a coupling it had been. It was as if her guard had been completely lowered, and he didn’t want that to change.
She had let him in.
Quite literally.
And he didn’t’ want that shuttered expression to return. Not when she looked at him.
Never when she looked at him.
“Now it’s my turn to mention how you’re terrifyingly silent. She narrowed her eyes playfully.
“This.” He kissed her nose again. “I want this. Just… think about it. Will you?” Emerson wasn’t sure what he was saying, but he knew enough to understand that offering a proposal of marriage wasn’t something one did after sex.
It was something one did with a fully clear mind, with intention, not a spur of the moment.
With forethought.
He didn’t ever want Jaxsen to think he had spoken out of turn or simply in the heat of the moment.
But he also didn’t want her to thinkthiswasn’t significant and had been done with more than just today in mind.
But tomorrow.
And the day after that.
And years down the road.
She regarded him with a curious gaze but simply nodded. “Very well.”
He kissed her then, his tongue mating with hers as he memorized her unique flavor.
A few kisses later, he moved apart, his body immediately missing hers as they separated. She arched her back slightly, and then twisted to her side and rose from the bed, giving him a glorious view of her backside, round and curved.
“I’ll just lie right here and enjoy the view,” he replied with a teasing tone.
She glanced over her shoulder and grinned.
He watched with unrelenting interest as she dressed, and only when she needed her buttons refastened did he finally rise from bed to assist her.
He reached for his breeches first.
“Ah, nope. You had your view. I need mine. Fair is fair,” she teased, and handed him the buttonhook.
He replied with a smile and tossed his breeches to the bed, striding toward her. “I’m at your command, my lady.”
“Oh, I could get used to that.”
He laughed as she gave him her back.
“As if you don’t boss me around already,” he taunted.
“You still need bossing.”
