In a way, I think maybe he does. I feel stronger in his arms, braver, like, so long as they're around me, I can safely catch fire because he'll never let me burn up like my family did. He'll never let me suffer that same awful fate.
Eventually, he slows the kiss, pulling back to rest his forehead against mine. His hands run down my back, his touch soft.
"I wish I could lie to you and tell you that you'll never lose me," he murmurs, his voice gritty. "I wish I could make my will reality so you never have to feel loss again, but we both know it'd be a lie, baby girl. Loss is inevitable."
"I know," I whisper.
"What I can tell you is this: I retired because the future I saw for myself wasn't the SEALs. It was you. Even when I thought I didn't stand a chance, I was planning for you, praying to God to end up right here with you. And I don't intend for that future to end anytime soon." His voice is firm and deep, making me shiver. "I fully intend to spend the next fifty years of my life being the man at your side. And when it's my time to go, it'll be with a smile on my face because you were mine."
"I…I want that, Jasper. I want it so bad," I admit. "I don't want to get to the end of my life and realize the only defining part of it was what happened when I was thirteen. I want it to be you. I want it to be us. I want it to be…" I trail off, struggling for words.
"Love," he says for me.
I nod gratefully. "I want to be the girl brave enough to reach for love with both hands, so that's why I'm here. That's why I came. I wanted to tell you…"
"What?"
"That I love you," I say, my voice shaking. "I've loved you for a long time. And I think part of me always knew you felt the same way. I was just scared to face it." My fingers drift through the hair at his nape. "I'm not afraid anymore, Daddy."
"Jesus," he groans, tipping me backward to kiss the taste from my mouth.
I cling to him, kissing him back the same way, right up until my back hits the sofa and his body covers mine.
"I need you," he rasps, his hand raking up my thigh, taking my skirt with it. "I need to be inside you when you say it again."
"Yes," I gasp, arching for him, opening for him.
He doesn't bother removing my panties. He just tugs them aside, his thumb rolling over my clit.
Heat rushes through me in a flood, and I gasp, arching into him.
"That's it," he croons, lining up at my entrance. "Light up for Daddy just like that, baby girl."
I don't light up. I go supernova, gasping his name and clinging to him as he sinks inside me so slowly I think I might not survive. Maybe I'll just shatter into the sound of his name and the shape of his love.
My hands claw down his back as he unravels me little by little, whispering in my ear how much he loves me and how good I feel, how perfect I am, and how he's right here.
"Daddy has you," he croons, rocking into me. "I'll always have you, Sarah."
It's impossible not to believe him when I've felt the way he loves me, when I've seen it. Even when I wasn't ready to face it, even when he wasn't mine, it was always right there, written in the damn stars as if he could force the world to bend around it.
"I love you," I whisper when I'm right on the edge, seconds from falling.
His body shudders on top of mine before he groans, sinking deeper. He drives into me wildly, fucking me without restraint, as if I've snapped every bit of it.
I cry out his name, my body clamping around him as I shatter apart, falling for him—always for him.
He groans, following me over, his cock pulsing inside me as he spills into me, shuddering and gasping, every muscle quivering.
He's beautiful like this—fierce and gorgeous and mine. Finally, he's mine.
"What memory do you want to make first, baby girl?" he asks a little while later, cuddling me on his lap.
"Probably telling Olive about us." I peek up at him. "I feel bad that I've been keeping it from her."
"Don't," he growls. "She knew all along. I asked her not to harass you about it. I knew you needed some space to process and work through things in your head."
"Really?"
