“Will you marry me?” Evie’s eyes open wide, and I experience a flicker of panic. “It’s not my raging hard-on talking, I’m serious. Marry me. Let’s ditch our old families and set up a new one. Bigger”—I thrust inside her—“better”—I thrust again—“and more rewarding than anything that came before.”
“I’m not ditching my brother.”
“Fuck, no, you don’t have to, I don’t know what I’m saying.” My cock plunges into her again and I feel the drag of her nails across the skin of my back, melting away every inhibition I’ve ever felt. “Wait, yes, I do. I want you. Let’s go ring shopping and I’ll buy a diamond the size of a kiwifruit to put on your finger. Let me haul you up the aisle and I’ll spend the rest of my life worshipping at your feet.”
Then my tongue ties as I find a new angle inside her, one that makes her eyes roll back in her head and her mouth loll open, defenceless against my kiss.
I lay a trail of tiny pecks along her jaw, tugging her hair back to do the same to her throat. My mouth fastens onto the gorgeous knobby outcropping of her collarbone, sucking at the tender skin until I make her moan.
Then I move again, bending my spine like it’s rubber, exploring her left breast, then swapping for her right, my tongue rolling across her hard nipples, feeling how the movements make her arse clench and her inner muscles squeeze around my needy cock, her little panting breaths making me shudder with ecstasy.
A sound comes out of her mouth, and I tilt my head, ear straining to pick out the word I’m desperate to hear.
“Yes,” she whispers as I feel her muscles flutter, then pull hard along my length, milking me until I thrust up into her as far as I can, my cock straining then exploding inside her, pumping cum into her waiting body while her fingers cup my jaw, her happily exhausted face staring down at me, eyes bursting with love and acceptance.
I revel in each sensation, memorising every moment, a treasure to store deep inside as armour against the difficult times I know are waiting in the future.
And as much as it feels like she’s mine in this moment, there’s a deeper truth at work; that from the very first moment I pinned her against the wall in a burning building, every single part of me has belonged to her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
EVIE
“You wouldn’t understand,”I tell Maddox, holding onto his arm for balance as I totter on the world’s highest heels. “But for one night, I’d like to be able to kiss you without needing a footstool.”
“They are footstools,” he laughs, trying to push me off balance, a feat that doesn’t take much effort. “It’s just for some strange reason you’ve strapped them to your soles.”
“How about the tall people in the room stop making fun of those who weren’t blessed with their natural gifts? Hm?”
“If you only understood the burden. With great height, comes great responsibility.”
And he sweeps me off my feet like we both knew he would, lifting me like I weigh nothing at all, nuzzling into my hair until my skin is zinging at the contact.
We’ve been living together for three weeks and neither one of us has grown used to the novelty yet. The dorm room at school was nice, but the house has a completely different feel. It’s likewe’re embarking on our real lives instead of just playing, helped by the three carat diamond engagement ring on my finger.
The important bit is our commitment to become one another’s family, but I won’t lie, the bling isnice.
“This hairstyle cost three hundred bucks and four hours in a salon chair,” I remind him. “If you mess it up, I’ll sic Dahlia on your credit card.”
“Threats again?”
“More like promises.”
But I let him continue to his heart’s content because I’d rather feel good than look pretty. And when he draws back far enough to see my face, all I see is admiration in his eyes.
“Are you going to take me to the car or just stand here, holding me in midair?”
A plaintive bleat comes from the backyard, and he freezes. “Shh. Aroha can detect movement.”
“I should probably see what she needs.”
“Don’t you dare,” Maddox says, striding out the door with me, hooking it with his foot so it slams shut behind him. “I don’t mind tearing apart a few hundred bucks’ worth of hairstyling, but if you walk in tonight smelling of goat, folks really will draw the line.”
“Mm-hm.”
He sets me on my feet next to the car, then opens the passenger side, making sure my dress is safely tucked inside before he slams the door and walks around to his own. “You’re sure you want to go?”
“We’re going,” I say, ignoring the question entirely. “Dahlia would never let me forget it if we waste these tickets, and since she’s still the only girl at Tiaki who talks to me, I’m not about to throw her friendship in the trash.”
