One of my favorite things in the world is making this woman melt.
When she was bathed, and rinsed, and her hair conditioned, and rinsed again, he carried her out of the shower over to the bench.
“I can walk, you know.” Her teasing smile held just a hint of nerves, as if she still couldn’t quite find her footing with them and this relationship they were building.
In time she would come to know that his desire to have a woman with submissive tendencies had everything to do with his need to pamper and care for and not much to do with being bossy.
Though he could be a hardass if her safety was in question.
“I kind of figured you could, since you’re on your feet working all day, every day. However, I kind of like toting you around. We both do.”
“Indeed,” Trace said. He used a towel to see to Rachel’s hair while Brandon saw to drying her delectable flesh.
“Like a pet rock?” Rachel’s eyes sparkled, a wonderful sight to see.
“Or a kitten,” Brandon said.
Rachel’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. Brandon laughed out loud. His hand cupped her cheek, and he kissed her.
She opened to him, tilting her head, a sign of acceptance and submission. She tasted like honey and heaven, and Brandon drank from her greedily. She quenched his parched soul when he’d never even known that was something he needed. Brandon lifted his lips and couldn’t resist just a bit more teasing.
“You shouldn’t be surprised,” Brandon said. “You are, after all, my favorite pussy.” Before she could bristle, he met her gaze.
“As long as I’m your only.”
“Absolutely.”
From teasing to serious in a heartbeat, he put all he felt into his gaze and hoped she understood. From the way she melted into him and wrapped her arms around him, he guessed she did.
Brandon lifted her and carried her to the bed. He’d lost track of Trace but found him again in the bedroom, where he’d pulled down the covers.
He laid her down and then came down onto her. He moved them both so that his naked cock found its place between the lips of her cunt. Her hot warm nectar coated him, the biggest turn-on, ever.
What the hell are you waiting for? His thoughts had come full circle. He looked over at Trace, who nodded.
“There are a couple of things we need to discuss right now, before this goes any further.”
Rachel held his gaze. He read trepidation and then courage. God, he loved this woman.
“All right.”
“The first is this. Despite what you said about being certain you can’t get pregnant? If that turns out to be true, that’s fine with both of us. It’s fine with me. Because, baby, the second is this. I love you. I love you, Rachel Cosgrove, and that’s forever.”
The tears didn’t worry him. That she turned her head to look at Trace? That simply filled his heart.
“What he said about number one, and, yes, sweetheart, I love you with all my heart, and that very much is forever.”
“But what if I can’t give you…” She didn’t finish the sentence, but she didn’t need to, not for either of them.
“We have a wonderful daughter, already, in Libby,” Brandon said. He believed that Rachel could indeed still conceive. But his words to her had been real and honest. He’d never grounded his manhood in fathering a son, as he knew some men did. As he believed Buck Cosgrove had done.
He waited until he saw hope turn to joy. Then he moved his hips and slowly, deliberately, thrust his naked cock into her cunt. He couldn’t hold back his moan of pleasure, nor, apparently, could she. When she opened her eyes again, when she met his gaze again, he held nothing back from her—not his love and certainly not his dominance.
“You’re ours, Rachel. Now and forever.”
“Yours.” She looked over at Trace and then back at him once more. “Now and forever. Fuck me, please. Come inside me. Because, from this moment on, there’ll be no one else but the two of you. Not for the whole of the rest of my life.”
As marriage vows go, that is a definite winner. Brandon wrapped his arms around her and mated his mouth to hers. And he began to thrust into her, hard and fast and deep. He took her, and kept taking her, until their rapture consumed them both.
Chapter Seventeen
Her blinders had not only been lifted. They’d been demolished. Rachel knew she was getting sly glances and was causing several of the diners at Lusty Appetites—people she’d come to know and care for in her time here—to greet her with knowing smiles.
Last night she’d been on her first official date with Brandon and Trace. And last night, they’d told her that they loved her.
They loved her!
Only one man had ever said those words to her, and that had been a far different experience than the one that still bubbled in her heart from the night before. Blinders, indeed.
She knew now that Buck’s “I love you so let’s get married” had been far from the kind of declaration she’d deserved. Looking back, she wondered how it was she’d let herself settle the way she had. His statement had been perfunctory at best, and never once repeated.
But then, I never really loved him, either.
That epiphany echoed through her, and she recognized those words as gospel. She had never loved him, but she’d married him anyway—mostly because she knew it would please her parents and ease their worry, where she was concerned.
A person only knows what she knows in this life. Rachel been born a submissive, and agreeing to marry Buck Cosgrove had been an act of submission. I can let that sucker go, that guilt. She was a submissive and loved
