When I press the keys into her hand, her fingers curl around the metal. My voice is a low rumble, “I’m very serious. This is yours. Not the club’s. Yours, Tiny Dancer. Open the door and check it out.”
Her eyes are big and round as she looks up at me. She swallows hard and tries to put on a brave face. But her hand slightly shakes as she goes to unlock the door.
My hand covers hers to steady it and we both feel the lock click open. I watch her face as she steps inside and I flip on the lights. She can see it. I don’t know how I know, but I know.
She can see the room filled with dancers. She can hear the laughter of girls finding confidence through movement. She can feel the joy, the purpose.
“Everton,” she breathes out.
When she looks at me, her eyes are glassy with unshed tears.
“I know it’s a lot and I know you’re going to try and fight me on this. But you need to understand something, Brielle. You’re mine. You’ve always been mine. I can give you this dream, please let me.”
Can she hear the way I’m begging her?
“It’s too much,” she whispers.
“No,” my voice is steel, “it’s not too much. It’s not nearly enough. You don’t understand,” my voice is ragged, “I plan to slip a ring on your finger very soon and make you my wife.”
Her eyes widen and she breathes out, “What the fuck is going on right now?”
My hands cup her face, her skin soft under my calloused thumbs, “I’m telling you that I have loved you since I was a boy and I never stopped. Not even for a day. We had to take different paths, but we’ve found each other again. With all the possibilities of where our lives could have taken us, we’ve been brought back together. I’m giving you the account which linked to our past, to Sagebrush. I get a percentage of the business, and I’ve never touched the money. I never needed to.”
“It should go to Rian,” her voice is fierce and I fall in love a little more with my woman.
I smirk and assure her, “She’s good. My trust was signed over to her and has kept growing. I never needed that either. I’m good with what the club provides for me.”
“I think you’ve lost your mind” her voice is dazed.
But she doesn’t look away from me. She doesn’t try to hide.
“No, I’m just not willing to lose you a second time.” I lean down and press my forehead against hers. “I wouldn’t survive it.”
Her arms loop around my neck and she blows out a shaky breath, but I can feel her steadying. Processing. Taking in what I’ve laid at her feet. And she’s accepted it.
My heart fucking soars. I don’t need the words, even though I’ll soak them up when she’s ready. I know; I can feel it.
“I never stopped loving you either, Everton,” her words are a whispered vow. “Thank you for letting me go, even though it hurt, even though it was hard.”
“Never again,” the words are a baptism. They wash over us with certainty. With righteousness.
“Never again,” she echoes.
This time when I kiss her, there’s a tenderness, a longing which has been satisfied for the first time in far too long. It’s slow at first, but then it builds. The fire between us ignites and blazes with an undeniable beaty.
I pick her up and carry her back to the office without needing to look where I’m going. I’ve already memorized the stepsbecause I plan to spend as much time with her as possible. No matter where she is.
I’m grateful as fuck that the desk was left in the office. I plop her down on it and pull back enough to take in the way her lips are swollen and pink from our kisses. Her brown eyes are half-lidded and filled with desire.
Just how I want her.
Everything blurs as clothes fall away and the room spins with the need spilling out of us with every breath. The moment I thrust into her and the walls of her pussy stretch around me, a gasp falls from her lips.
And everything comes into spectacular clarity.
“Brielle,” I grit out through my teeth, my jaw clenched because being inside of her is too good, “that’s it. You’re so close, I can already feel it. You need to get there, I’m barely hanging fucking on.”
Her fingers curl around the edge of the desk and I grip her hip to hold her in place, to hold her steady.
