The turn. A pair of aces are showing on the table now.
The river. Now winning doesn’t feel so far away, the six working with the pair of sixes I’m holding.
Quincy’s eyes come up to meet mine and she nods toward my cards. “This was your idea, so you show yours first.”
“Full house,” I turn my cards over to show my pair of sixes. and nod toward the pair of aces on the table, “sixes and aces.”
She makes a humming sound and my heart stops beating in my chest. “Looks like I’m staying,” she muses and turns one card over, an ace.
I blow out a breath, my heart racing as I stand and practically leap over the fucking table between us. My woman is up in my arms, my mouth taking hers in a brutal kiss, before she even has a chance to yelp in surprise.
The way she melts against me is fucking everything. “Damn right you’re staying,” I growl against her lips. “Even if I lost, I wasn’t going to let you go.”
My words are my truth. A promise.
Quincy looks up at me from underneath her lashes. My hands move over her body as I stride toward the bed. We can figure out the details later.
Much fucking later.
“You’re mine,” I murmur, “all mine.”
Her arms wrap around my neck, her fingers playing with the hair at the nape of my neck. “Does that mean you’re mine?”
“Fuck yes,” I grunt, “I’ve been yours since the moment you walked into that poker game.” She smiles up at me as my hands find the globes of her ass and squeeze. Before I lay her down, I pause, needing her to know, needing to say it. “I’m all in, Quincy. I love you.”
It feels like the quiet confession reverberates through the room, echoing and bouncing back in a way that makes me want to run. I’ve never known love, not unless it was wrapped around pain, abandonment, and manipulation.
Her delicate fingers glide over my beard until she’s cupping my jaw in her hands. “Hawkins,” she shakes her head slightly, “I have no idea how you managed to get past all my fears and worries, but I fell in love with you.” My eyes widen as she takes a deep breath and lets it out, “I love you too.”
My control completely shatters.
I’m growling and grunting as I strip her, not giving a fuck when I hear the fabric keeping her from me rip in my hands. It only makes me want to get her naked for me faster.
She’s just as bad with the way she claws at me.
The moment I have her completely bare, I drop her to the bed. She starts to move, but I level her with a look that has her freezing in place while squeezing her thighs together.
“Open your legs,” I grind out, “let me see my pussy.”
Her legs fall open as I shed the last of my clothes and wrap my hand around the base of my dick. I stroke slowly as I look down at her. Then I’m crawling over her and sliding inside of her tight, wet heat.
Our moans fill the room, our bodies moving together. The rhythm feels so damn right that a lump forms in my throat. Emotions I’ve spent my life running from hit me in a way which makes me crave them instead of fear them.
So much gratitude.
So much fucking love.
We come together, both left panting with huge smiles on our faces. Because this is real. And she’s staying.
Much later, after my woman has fallen asleep on my chest, I slide out from underneath her, my curiosity not allowing me to let it go.
I didn’t notice at the time, but my woman never showed me both of her cards. And I have to know.
Walking straight to the table, still exactly how we left it hours ago, I turn her other hole card over.
An ace.
My eyes slide closed and I fall even deeper in love with my woman. My Old Lady.
