"Damn right." He thrusts up to meet me, as much as his position allows, driving deeper with each stroke. "This pussy belongs to me. This body belongs to me. You belong to me, Vivian, and I'm never letting you go."
"Yes—" The pressure is building again, impossibly, a third orgasm coiling tight in my core. "Don't stop. God, don't stop?—"
He doesn't stop. His thumb works my clit while I ride him harder, faster, my rhythm going ragged as the pleasure overwhelms everything else. When I come this time, it's with his name on my lips, my pussy squeezing his cock so tight he can barely move.
"Vivian—" His voice breaks as he follows me over, his cock pulsing inside me, filling me with his release. His whole body shudders, and he pulls me against his chest, holding me close through the aftershocks.
We stay like that for a long time, tangled together on the couch, the fire crackling beside us. His softening cock is still inside me, and I can feel our combined wetness between my thighs. I should probably move. Clean up. Let him rest his shoulder.
I don't want to move ever again.
"I love you." His voice is rough, sated. "I know I say it all the time now. But I spent five years not saying it to anyone. I'm making up for lost time."
"I love hearing it." I press a kiss to his chest, right over his heart. "I love you too. Even when you're being overprotective and grumpy."
"I'm never grumpy."
"You're frequently grumpy. It's part of your charm." I lift my head to look at him. "I wouldn't change a single thing about you."
"Not even the part where I proposed while bleeding out?"
"Especially not that part. It was very romantic."
"It was insane."
"It was both." I kiss him softly. "Just like us."
He shifts us so we're lying lengthwise on the couch, my back against his chest, his good arm wrapped around me. The fire has burned down to embers, casting the room in warm orange light.
"When do you want to get married?" he asks.
"Soon. I don't need a big wedding. Just you and me and the people we love."
"We could do it here. On the mountain. In the spring, when the wildflowers are blooming."
"That sounds perfect." I lace my fingers through his. "Mrs. Vivian Cross. I like the way that sounds."
"I like the way everything sounds when you say it."
I smile and settle deeper into his arms. Outside, the stars are coming out, scattered across the sky like diamonds on velvet. The mountains are silver in the moonlight, silent and eternal.
I came here running for my life. I found something worth living for instead.
"Thank you," I whisper.
"For what?"
"For protecting me. For training me. For loving me even when I was stubborn and scared and impossible."
"You're still stubborn and impossible."
"But not scared. Not anymore." I turn my head to kiss his jaw. "You made me brave, Deck. You gave me a home."
"You gave yourself those things. I just helped you see they were already there." He tightens his arm around me. "Go to sleep, Vivian. We have the rest of our lives to figure out the details."
The rest of our lives.
I fall asleep with those words wrapped around my heart like a promise.
