He lies down beside me, fingers gentle as he brushes my hair from my face.
‘Again?’ he says, voice rough.
I cradle his jaw and hold his searing gaze. ‘I. Love. You.’
He kisses me again, soft and savouring, eyes still locked on mine. A kiss full of rediscovery. Of newfound feeling. Of the shared love Sadie spoke of, now overflowing.
He strips my clothes as I strip his. Mouths breaking apart and coming back together. Again and again.
‘I love you too,’ he murmurs, his mouth trailing over my lips, my neck, my collarbone, my breast… His fingers slide between my thighs as his tongue gently laves my nipple, and I arch back, a soft cry escaping.
‘That’s my girl.’
He smiles against my skin, his tenderness undoing me as completely as his gruffness ever did.
I pull him back to me, kiss him deep, and whisper, ‘I want you with me.’
I don’t wait. I roll him onto his back and straddle his hips, my gaze hooked in his as I take him.
He’s mine.
All mine.
We move together, our rhythm building in perfect harmony. He grips my hips, filling me completely, but it’s the love in his eyes that finally tips me over.
Warmth floods every vein, every muscle drawing tight until?—
‘You’re mine,’ I cry as I shatter, wave after wave tearing through me.
‘And you’re mine,’ he grits out, head thrown back. His release hot and deep and fierce – and my God, it feels different.
Everythingfeels different.
The words land harder now. Our bond feels more certain.
And hope flares, reckless and bright, that this might be it.
Our baby’s beginning.
A family neither of us ever dared imagine, starting right here.
He gathers me into his arms as I collapse against his chest.
‘Tell me again…’
I lift my head and look at him – at the man who’s always been there for me, and the man I love more than life itself – and I see it. Not just the need for the words, but the need to believe them.
That someone could love him.
That I could.
‘I love you, Axel Black. Always and forever. You’re stuck with me now.’
He smiles as he breathes deep. ‘Guess it’s lucky I love you too.’
It really, really is. Maybe wish cakes are allowed icing after all.
Because being loved by him feels like the greatest wish of all.
