“Why do you think I wrote you a letter in the first place?” Her question soft, words that feel like a confession and petals. Hope blooms bigger and brighter in my chest.
“Because you caught a glimpse of a lonely man who needed someone to see him.”
There’s no bitterness in my words, just the version of reality I spun for myself over the last year. Considering I was in the dark about who she was, it was easier than letting myself think she might feel something for me.
“No,” she murmurs. “I was a teenager when I saw you for the first time. It was a classic crushing on the older boy situation. I don’t know why that day was different, or even what it was, but you had this little smile on your face, and I just thought you were the cowboy for me.”
She sighs and drapes herself on the bed dramatically and I can’t help but grin down at her. She’s so damn beautiful.
Laughter isn’t something I’ve had a lot of in the last few years. With Arden, it feels like days of laughter, of smiles, of love, are ahead of us.
“I watched you go through some horrible things,” her face is serious and she reaches for me. Her touch doesn’t make me want to run from the reality of those things. “I saw your commitment to the land, to Sagebrush. It left me in awe.”
“Arden,” I grunt her name, my throat tight.
“Not sure what changed a year ago, but I found myself writing you a letter and mailing it,” there’s a wistful note in her voice. “I think sometimes writing them was just as much for me as you. I hated the thought of you out here alone. No one should be alone.”
“I’m not alone anymore, Sunflower.” I kiss her softly, needing the connection. When I pull back, my lips brush hers with every word, “With you, I want it all. I want to slide my ring on your finger and marry you. I want to fill this house with laughter again, real laughter. I want to make this place a home with you. I want a family. I want you.”
When a tear slides down her cheek, I brush it away with my thumb. “I’d really like that, Ford. All of it.”
“We might have already gotten started on the baby part of the plan,” I remind her, my lips curling into a sinful grin.
It’s the first time either of us has acknowledged it out loud.
Arden blushes and I wrap an arm around her waist and pull her flush against my chest. My cock throbs between us and she wiggles her hips slightly, a smile tugging at her lips.
“I love you, Arden, my Sunflower. I love you and I’m ready for this and making our lives something to be proud of. I’m all in,” I vow.
“Okay,” she breathes out. Her eyes slide closed for a second and when they open again, her navy depths are filled with conviction. “Then I’m ready to see where this life takes us. Together.”
I roll my woman until she’s on her belly. After grabbing one of the pillows, I pull up her hips and stuff it underneath, wanting her to be comfortable.
My hand slides over the soft globe of her ass. Fuck, my woman has a nice ass. When I smack it playfully, she gasps and looks back at me with surprise.
But she doesn’t tell me to stop or that she didn’t like it. I’m fairly sure lust flares in her eyes.
Something to explore later.
When I hold the globes of her ass open, letting me see all of her, she squirms. But from the way her breathing picks up, she likes it.
And she’s already so wet for me.
“Are you ready for me, Arden?”
My voice is gruff as I remember walking to the front door to hear the vile shit my mother was saying. The fact that she was saying it to Arden, the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life worshiping, was too much.
“Yes,” She moans, her back arching and pushing her ass up a little bit more. “I need to feel you inside me, Ford. Please.”
The way she’s begging me, the little whine in her voice, has pre-cum leaking from the crown of my cock. I position myself behind her, my larger body looming over her in a way that’s almost obscene. When I slide the head of my dick through her slick folds, we both moan at the contact.
When I push inside, the glide of it smooth and hot, my muscles tense when I’m buried all the way inside of her. I plant my forearm near her head and angle my body over hers in a way that lets me go just a little bit deeper.
“Oh,” the word is a held out note of a moan from my woman and my cock throbs in response. Her pussy clenching around me makes my eyes damn near cross. “You’re so deep,” she gasps the words, her hips rising and pushing back against me.
I lean forward, the heat of my chest blanketing her back. “I am deep this way, Sunflower,” I growl the words against the shell of her ear. I nip at the lobe and her pussy clenches and she keens. “I’m so deep I’m going to guarantee you get pregnant with my baby.”
Her entire body shudders and then I have to move. I start out slowly, needing it probably even more than she does. She’s so fucking tight and I have to roll my head back on my shoulders and clench my eyes shut for a few moments because I don’t want to embarrass myself.
