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“Good girl.
“This is my favorite birthday ever,” he murmurs against my skin. “What? It’s your birthday?” “Mhmm. For another two minutes, at least. New Year’s baby, freshly twenty-seven. Feels a lot like the first day of my life, though.” “Happy birthday,” I breathe, heart pounding at the feel of him pressed against me, his fingers dancing down my hair. “What did you get?” His palm settles in the curve of my lower back, his whisper pressed to my ear. “You.”
“Ah,” he whispers, thumb tracing my lower lip. “I was worried my cock wouldn’t fit in there, but now I see. Perfect mouth, just like the rest of you. You’ll have no trouble, will you?”
“But one look is all it took to know you had to be mine. I don’t deserve you now, but I’m gonna spend the rest of my life making up for that, and when I die, I’ll be a worthy man.” He tilts my head back, mouth hovering a breath from mine. “Tell me I can have you, gorgeous. Because it’s you or no one.”
“This pussy was handmade by the gods.” “Gonna be destroyed by one too.” His thumb traps my lower lip. “Destroyed for anyone but me.”
“Such a big dreamer.” “Big cock, big dreams.”
“Fu-u-u-uck. There’s my good girl, taking my cock.”
“Because my heart stopped when I saw you. Because when you turned to walk away, my body said I think the fuck not.” Sweat trickles down his temple, and his mouth takes mine in a searing kiss that has me trying to crawl inside him. “Because never in my life have I felt the way I feel right now, inside you, like I’m exactly where I’m meant to be. I don’t know why, but I know every time I look at you…brain just keeps screaming mine.”
“Come on my cock, and you won’t come on another for the rest of your life.” His grip on my throat tightens, a ferocity in his gaze that dares me, dares me to try to find this feeling anywhere else. “That’s a promise.”
“You wanna be a mom one day?” he asks as he tries—and fails—to fix my dress, the mess of hair on my head, and I think it’s wild he’s asking me this when he still hasn’t asked my first name. “One day,” I manage, gasping as I stumble, legs officially giving up the fight. Emmett catches me around the waist, pressing his whispered words to my mouth. That’ll be the second-best day of my life, right after the day I make you my wife.”
There was Cara Hunter, the woman who was happy and capable of doing it all on her own. And then there was Cara Brodie, the woman who’d never need to do anything alone again, but with the man who reminded her day in and day out that she could. I was unstoppable before Emmett. With him, I’m indestructible.
“Don’t let the voices win,” he whispers, pressing his forehead to mine. “They don’t know you the way I do. They don’t know your fight. My loud girl doesn’t let anyone else dictate the rules. Me and you, Care? We build our own rules.”
Everything stopped. Everything went silent, and slowly, so damn slowly, my heart started beating all over again, one quiet thud at a time. I had to have her. I have to have her.
“Oh, of course. One-of-a-kind ring for my one-of-a-kind queen.”
“As far as I’m concerned, we were both virgins when we met. We saw the light together.”
Who needs sunshine when you have Emmett Brodie?
Behind closed doors, when he’s all mine and I’m all his? I love to give it up. The control, the attitude. Love to let him fuck it right out of me, watch that feminism leave my body as I wave goodbye to it.
“Maybe I’ll fuck this hole right here, fill it with my cum and watch it drip out of you. Rub your pretty little cunt, get you all worked up, but stop right before you can finish. Your pussy will be clenching all day, empty, searching for me.” His mouth moves up the inside of my thighs, trading kisses for soft bites, the lash of his tongue. He pauses at the top, spreading me wide. “That what you want, gorgeous?” “No.” My head shakes desperately. “God, no.” “Then lose the fucking attitude and ask me nicely.”
“Then I’m yours, and you’re mine, and there’s nobody else, not one single person, who could change that.”
“I’m going to marry you, Cara. I see my future as clear as day.” “Yeah? What’s it look like?” Emmett cups my cheek, resting his forehead against mine. “It looks like you.”
I remind myself that she’s a galaxy, and I’m just the moon lucky enough to be in her orbit. She holds my whole universe in her skies.
“There’s only one you,” I murmur, forehead pressed to hers as I set her back on her feet. “And somehow, in this whole world, you’re mine.”
“I love you, Cara. And I don’t care that it’s only been three weeks, and maybe you think I’m a little crazy. I’ve been crazy since the day I took one look at you and told myself you were it for me, and I’ll be crazy for the rest of my life, because there’s nothing sane about the way I love you.”
“Well, you know what I always say. A good man can’t be stolen. He knows who his heart belongs to, and no amount of promises of backflips on his cock will have him straying.”
I am who I am because of you, Cara. Because you love me in ways I didn’t know existed. Because everything made sense the first time we kissed. Because I found a home in your eyes, your arms, and your heart. Because with your hand in mine, I can breathe. How fucking lucky am I?
“All I want to do is spend this life loving you. Marry me, Cara. Please.”
“Watch your fucking mouth when you’re talking about my wife.”
She loves without limits, without fucking conditions. She loves people for who they are, exactly where they’re at, and that? That’s exactly why I love her. Baby or no baby, that woman is my goddamn wife. My family. And I won’t stand here and let you disrespect her.”
“I’m fine, Carter! I’m just—I’m just …” He stops in front of me, every inch of me trembling as he takes me in, a version of me he’s never seen, never known. Small and broken, like the three words I whisper next. “I’m not okay.”
“Do you hear me, Cara? I was existing before you. But since you? Since you, I’ve been living.”
“Breathe,” he whispers. “Breathe, baby.”
“Breathe, baby. Breathe with me. Because I can’t breathe without you.”
“I want us to have a baby, Cara. But if you’re my one good thing—if this love is the only precious thing I get in this lifetime—that will always, always be enough for me. Do you understand? You are enough for me, and I will spend my days treasuring this immaculate gift I’ve been given.”
You’re my life, Cara. My yesterday, my today, and my tomorrow.
“I’m sad, and I think I will like some space right now,” he murmurs, then hangs his head, starting a trek up the staircase. He stops halfway, taking a seat on the step, dropping his chin to his hands, huffing another award-winning sigh. He sits there for all of thirty seconds before he lifts his head and shouts, “Cara? Wanna come have space with me?”
Love isn’t easy. It’s not supposed to be. But loving you, firefly? Loving you is the easiest choice I’ve ever made, and I’ll choose you for the rest of my tomorrows.”
