Epilogue Seraphina
Epilogue
Seraphina
Bali, Indonesia
“A girl could get used to this. Staring up at the stars next to the man I’m going to marry.” I held up my left hand, wiggling my fingers, eyeing the marquise diamond that winked back at me.
“Good. Get used to it.” He laced our fingers together, brought our hands to his mouth, and brushed his lips over my knuckles. “At least, the being-in-bed-next-to-me part. I don’t know how often I can afford to whisk you away like this, but I’ll—”
“As long as we’re together, I don’t care where we are.” I rolled onto my side, and he did the same, our clasped palms becoming the only wedge between us.
“And what about when I’m operating? This time off we have right now is only temporary. Once Alex is cleared, I’ll be spinning up again.”
“While I’ve loved spending these last several weeks together nonstop so we can really get to know each other, I’m ready for the next stage of our relationship.”
Planting roots. Buying a house. Making babies.
“You are?” The doubt cutting through his tone cut me, too.
Damn his father for abandoning him.
“Of course.” I pulled my hand free from his to remind him I’d said yes to his proposal last night. “This wasn’t a gift. And my answer was my promise back to you that I’m in this until death do us part.”
“No dying on your part.”
“Or yours, mister.” I fisted his shirt. “That’s a direct order.”
“I love when you tell me what to do.” He playfully lifted his brows.
“Not as much as you love telling me.” I licked my lips, and before I knew it, he had me pinned beneath his hard frame, and he braced himself over me, holding himself up with those strong arms of his.
He rolled his hips forward, letting me feel the heavy weight of his cock and that he was ready to go again.
I dragged my fingers along the ridges of his muscles as he slanted his mouth over mine, kissing me softly.
A blur of wonderful memories in the last three weeks flipped through my mind.
From DC to our visit with Owen and his family in Charleston to express our gratitude once again for his help. Off to Switzerland next, in style on one of Carter’s private jets. We stayed in a suite at his hotel, all expenses paid by him.
Ryder had asked me one morning while having breakfast in bed at the hotel, “ Give me your bucket list place to visit. You know, if you were to start a new list. ”
I jotted down the first place that came to mind, and after a quick trip to California, he brought me here, to my bucket list spot. Dropped to one knee last night.
That’d been the easiest yes to ever leave my mouth. Not stubborn for a second on that one. He’d been ridiculously romantic and even shed a few happy tears.
Talk about the proposal of all proposals.
“You asked my dad for permission, didn’t you?” I whispered, breaking our kiss when the realization hit me. He’d asked to see where I grew up. Then we visited my parents and brother at the cemetery, and he requested to have a moment alone with my father.
Ryder lifted his head and stared down at me.
“I’m taking it that Dad said yes?” The man was so freaking thoughtful.
“Both him and Martín did.”
Now I’m melting. I reached around and linked my wrists behind his neck, urging his mouth to mine.
“And now I need you to truly believe me when I say I’m all in.
Not because of the ring. But because of you.
Our connection.” Tears pricked my eyes as I stared at the man my family had sent to me to save me in so many ways. “Not going anywhere, got it?”
His brows drew tight; then he shifted to his forearms, bringing himself closer, and I thought it was to thrust inside me, but instead he whispered in my ear, “ Te amo, hermosa. Por siempre y para siempre .”
My hands went around to his back as I held on to him, linking my ankles together in preparation for what I hoped would come soon—him filling me. “I love you, too. Forever and always,” I repeated, meaning every word. “Learning Spanish, are you?”
He kissed my forehead before his mouth hovered over mine. “I’d like our kids to be bilingual.” He smiled against my mouth, and with that statement, he officially had me in a puddle. “I need to know what they’re saying, you know?”
“Sooo, you want kids with me, do you?”
“Just with you, yes.” He teased my lips open with his tongue, arching against me. “Maybe take some time for ourselves first. I’m obsessed with my future wife, and I’m not ready to share her with anyone.”
I laughed, rotating my hips to taunt him back. “ Yo también estoy obsesionada contigo .”
“And that means?”
“Guess you better hurry with your Spanish lessons and figure it out.”
He flipped me around in one fast movement so I was now straddling him. “I’m highly motivated to become fluent real fast.”
He positioned himself at my center, then held on to my hips, waiting for me to lift up and push down, taking all of him.
Resting my hands on his chest, I did exactly as we both wanted, gasping at the connection once our bodies joined as one.
He buried his fingertips deeper into the flesh at my sides while I rode him. Grinding hard and fast. Chasing the sweet surrender that only this man could ever give me.
“ Sí, sí ... sí, ” I cried out, coming hard.
A sexy smile crossed his face. “That one I know.”
Ryder
Fargo, North Dakota
“You’re going to get us in trouble, silly. We have to behave.” My beautiful fiancée fisted my shirt, arching into me despite her mild reprimand.
I brought my mouth to the side of her neck and kissed her there before moving my hands up into her hair.
I had her pinned to the wall in the hallway upstairs in my mother’s home.
“Just stealing a minute with you. It’s Christmas Eve, and I need an early gift.
I promise to give you one, too.” I thrust my hips forward, letting her feel how hard I was.
She chuckled, holding the back of my head while her other hand rested at my side as I continued to nuzzle her neck, on the verge of giving my girl a hickey. “Your mom is old-school, so ...”
My mother wouldn’t let us share a room until a wedding band was on my finger. Seraphina, of course, was polite and wanted to be respectful of my mother’s wishes. I, on the other hand, wanted to “fuck around and find out.”
I’d stolen every moment I could with her in the forty-eight hours since we’d arrived, and I was currently using Alex and Reed to distract my mom in the kitchen. I’d assigned them both the task to keep my mom busy for at least fifteen minutes.
From the sounds of it, the plan was working. Reed was trying to help prepare dinner, and my mom wasn’t having it.
“We have to stay on the nice list.” Then why was she rubbing up against me?
“Oh, but naughty is so much more fun,” I teased.
She was quick to surrender. “Mmm. True.”
That’s my girl.
“I barely survived Thanksgiving here not sharing a bed with you, and that was only two days.”
“Exactly. We’ll never make it five.” I sure as hell wouldn’t. “Just give me a few minutes. Please?” I wasn’t above begging.
“What if she catches us?” She bucked her hips forward, as horny as I was.
Unable to stop myself, I hooked the waistband of her leggings to the side. I had to check if I was right. The moment my hand made contact with her clit, she buried her face at the side of my neck and nipped me right back as I’d done to her.
She wasn’t wet; she was soaked.
“Come on. Be bad with me.” I dragged her arousal over her sex before freeing my hand from her pants.
“Ughhh, you better not get me in trouble, I swear.” She pulled away, slapping my chest, but I’d take that as a yes.
I stepped away, lifted her in the air, and spanked her ass on the way to my old bedroom.
I ignored the shrine my mom had set up of my hockey trophies, along with photos of my games from back in the day, not needing to collide with those memories right now.
“Quick and against the wall,” I decided, loving that position with her since it was a reminder of our first time together.
I set Seraphina down and grabbed a towel from my bathroom so I could return to my mission of getting my woman off before we joined everyone to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
I unbuckled and unzipped my jeans as she removed her leggings and panties.
“Feel like a teenager,” she said with a laugh as I hoisted her up against the wall by my door, guiding her ankles around my back.
“Nothing wrong with feeling young.” I licked her lips open and positioned my head at her center, waiting for her to take control of my cock from there.
Reaching between us with her free hand as my fingertips dug deep into the flesh of her ass cheeks while I held her up against the wall, she gave us exactly what we both needed, and I groaned in relief the second I was inside her, my balls already tightening and ready for release.
She brought her mouth to my shoulder, stifling her moans as I took her hard. My thighs and ass muscles, and just about everything else, clenched as we made love.
From the corner of my eye, I spied my trophies on the dresser, shaking—and fuck, if they fell, my mom would hear.
I tried to slow my movements, but when it came to her, that was impossible. I only knew one speed: All. The. Fucking. Way.
Feeling her climax and tighten around my cock was my cue to allow myself to explode inside her. We could’ve made triplets with that had she not been on birth control. Because fuck me ...
Panting, I rested my forehead against hers as the relief I needed chased down my spine. Also, we had mission success with nothing falling to the floor.
“Mmm. I have a feeling you’re going to convince me to do this again while we’re here.”
“You know it.” I kissed her softly before offering her the towel.
“Give me a second to clean up.” She went into my bathroom, and once I was zipped up and buckled, I went over to the dresser.
My stomach knotted at the memories in front of me. I hadn’t touched a hockey stick in seventeen years. Would it be like riding a bike? Would I even know what to do with a puck anymore?