By the time the sun started creeping over the desert horizon, the two bottles of lotion were empty, the candles had burned down to nothing, and the marriage was no longer on paper.
It was written into her skin.
Into mine.
Into the way she whispered my name when she thought I was asleep and the way I kissed the diamond on her finger like it was a vow I’d die to keep.
She was my wife now.
And the desert could try to come for her again.
It would have to go through me first.
CHAPTER 18
SIENNA
The desert airwas still warm even though the sun had dropped behind the mountains two hours ago. I stood barefoot on the wide wooden deck of the house Mason had finished building on his forty acres, a glass of cold white wine in one hand and the new platinum-and-diamond band on my left ring finger catching the last streaks of sunset.
Six weeks since Vegas. Six weeks since I’d signed my name next to his on that cheap chapel paperwork and then spent the next twenty-eight hours letting him fuck me senseless in a penthouse hot tub until the word “marriage” stopped feeling like a legal shield and started feeling like something alive under my skin.
I was addicted. I didn’t care about bets, cat calls or who broke first.
To the way he looked at me when he thought I wasn’t watching. To the growl in his voice when he called me “wife.” To the thick, heavy stretch of him when he buried himself so deep I forgot every reason I’d ever had for running.
Speak of the devil.
The sliding door behind me opened. Mason stepped out wearing nothing but low-slung gray sweatpants and that lazy,dangerous smirk that always made my thighs clench. His chest was still damp from the shower, ink and muscle gleaming under the string lights Regan had insisted we hang along the railing.
“You’re thinking too loud again, wife.”
I turned, letting the silk robe I’d stolen from his closet slip open just enough to show the lace edge of the tiny white thong Regan had packed in that “voodoo” gift bag. The same one I’d worn the night we got married. I’d been saving it.
“Am I?” I took a slow sip of wine, letting my tongue catch the drop on my bottom lip. “Maybe I’m just wondering how long it’s going to take my husband to come over here and remind me why I agreed to all this.”
His eyes darkened. That was all the warning I got.
He crossed the deck in three strides, plucked the glass from my hand, and set it on the railing. Then he backed me up against the thick wooden post, caging me with his arms on either side of my head.
“Careful, Sienna,” he rasped, voice gravel-rough. “You keep talking like that and I’m gonna bend you over this railing and fuck you so hard the neighbors hear you screaming my name.”
“We don’t have neighbors for three miles.”
His grin turned feral. “Exactly.”
He didn’t kiss me gently. He never did when I pushed him like this. His mouth crashed down on mine, tongue sliding deep, claiming, tasting the wine I’d been drinking and the dirty little promise I’d just made. I moaned into it, fingers threading through his damp hair, tugging hard enough to make him growl.
He shoved the robe off my shoulders. It pooled at my feet. The cool night air hit my skin and my nipples tightened instantly under the thin white lace bra. Mason’s big hands cupped my breasts, thumbs dragging over the stiff peaks through the fabric until I was arching into him.
“These tits,” he muttered, dragging his mouth down my throat. “Been thinking about them all fucking day.”
He yanked the bra cups down and sucked one nipple into his hot mouth, hard. I cried out, back bowing. He switched to the other, biting just enough to sting before soothing it with his tongue. My hands fisted in his hair, holding him there while heat pooled low in my belly.
“Mason… please…”
He dropped to his knees right there on the deck, hooked his fingers in the thong, and ripped it down my legs. No patience. No teasing. He spread my thighs wide and buried his face between them.
“Oh fuck—” The words tore out of me as his tongue dragged through my already soaked folds. He licked me like a starving man, long, filthy strokes that ended with his lips closing around my clit and sucking hard. Two thick fingers pushed inside me, curling instantly against that perfect spot that made my knees buckle.
