“Oh, my God.” I clamped both hands over my mouth.
My father let out a noise as if someone had punched him in the gut. “Marriage? Bit soon, isn’t it? Even if you do speak very passionately about—”
“Your daughter brought me back to life, sir. In so many ways. I know it’s tradition for the guy to ask the father’s permission, but I wouldn’t survive if you said no, so...I’m telling you that I am going to marry your daughter, and I’m going to give her every penny I own, every island I control, and share every remaining year I have left on this planet with her by my side. You are, of course, welcome to visit at any time. I will cover any ticket cost you require. You may request to come tomorrow, if you want. However, I must warn you. I have an agreement with Eleanor that means she will marry me the moment I can walk unassisted. That day is almost here, sir. And I will not wait.”
My dad choked, coughing no doubt on absolute shock. “What? Walk unassisted? What does that even mean? You can’t just marry her. Is that what she wants? What about her travels and career choices? Her friends? Just a minute here—”
“Sully, give me the damn phone.” I reached for it, but he held it out of grabbing distance.
“All this talk of love and weddings has ensured I need to go kiss your daughter now, Mr. Grace. Please be assured she is in the best of health and is safe and please...forgive me for this.”
“Sully, no, don’t—” I launched at him, Pika and Skittles darted into the sky, but I was too late.
Sully punched the hang-up button.
“Did you seriously just say all that and then hang up on my dad?”
“I did.” He tossed my phone onto the lounger, and with a groan and gritted teeth, he swung his healing legs over the edge of his lounger and pushed into a standing position. Snatching my wrist, he hauled me up with surprising strength. “Come on.”
I looked at my abandoned phone, wondering what on earth I could say to my dad. What would he think? Would he take Sully up on his offer? How did he feel about me marrying this egotistical fool who’d successfully stitched up my heart with every delicious word and sewed me to him for eternity?
Sully looped his arm over my shoulder. Without his cane, his steps were lumbersome and careful, his bones warning him not to exceed too much pressure.
I hugged him and acted as his crutch, guiding him around the dining table. “Where do you want to go?” I eyed up the edge of the deck and the crystal pool of Nirvana, silky and inviting beneath. We were too close. One wrong step and—
“I want to go swimming.” Sully fell sideways, pulling me with him off the deck.
Chapter Forty-One
I WASN’T PROUD OF what happened next.
I didn’t mean to pull Eleanor into Nirvana or instantly paw at her the second we broke the surface.
I’d grown hard while confessing my undying allegiance to my wife-to-be while talking to my new father-in-law. My cock had ached as my mind filled with indecent thoughts the longer I envisioned her as my wife with my ring upon her finger.
I didn’t have any control as I hung up, grabbed my gorgeous goddess, and tossed us both into the pool.
The exquisite sensation of cool water against my sticky skin was a new kind of aphrodisiac—not that I needed any more stimulation.
I was almost out of control.
Clinging to the final shred of my sanity.
The tiny shred of decency so I didn’t take her by force but well and truly mad with every lust I’d bottled up over the past month.
I wanted her.
Christ, I wanted her.
I needed her to cure me.
Sinking to the bottom, I grazed the boulders below with my toes, keeping my shoulders and head above water. Eleanor couldn’t reach, and she kicked against me, trying to swim out of my rabid embrace. Water sluiced down her hair, darkening her coffee strands to obsidian; the moonlight turned grey eyes into glittering galaxies.
She was, in one word, incredible.
“Sully, I don’t know what’s gotten into you but—Oh, God.”
She bowed in my arms as I ran my hand over her breast, undid the knot of her bikini against her spine, then dove my fingers between her legs.
She jolted against me as I shoved aside her bikini briefs and rubbed her clit.
“I need you, Jinx.”
“But we made a deal—”
I inserted one finger inside her, just to the first knuckle, dipping in and out, learning I wasn’t the only one in a constant state of arousal. Her wetness was so much thicker than the pool, so much hotter and sexier and fuck me, I couldn’t wait.
Kicking off the bottom, I swam with her in my arms.
My pinned together ankle hurt the most, followed by the torn muscle of the harpoon scar and a slight throb in my femur and tibia. But the pain was nothing compared to a month ago. I was getting stronger. My heart hadn’t skipped a beat in weeks, and I’d put the weight on that I’d lost.
There was no need to wait anymore.
No need to put ourselves through this torture.
“I’m not going to die on you, Eleanor.” I bit her ear as I found the shelf by the shore and fell to my knees on the gravelly bottom. Turning her around, I ensured her legs also met stable surface before I pulled her back against my chest and untied the strings of her bikini on her hips.
Naked.
Fuck me, naked, and wet and all fucking mine.
“I need you. Christ, I’ve never been so hard in my life.” I ran my throbbing cock up and down her crack. I almost came from that friction alone. I’d never
