Chapter 24 #2
“Wait, that means you’ll be here for four years? You won’t be flying around the world?” Her heart started beating hard in her chest. Could it be?
“Right here, with you,” he said, his voice dropping to the intimate level reserved for promises made in their private moments. "I want this to be permanent, Riley. I want us to be permanent."
Her breath caught in her throat, the words hitting her with the force of something she'd been hoping for without quite admitting it to herself. "We’d be a permanent thing?"
Talon shifted, turning her to face him more directly while his free hand came up to touch her face with a gentleness she loved.
"Yeah," he said, the single word carrying more significance than most people managed in entire speeches. "Because I’m going to marry you."
The proposal was unpolished, unplanned, and delivered without ceremony or elaborate preparation, but it landed with the impact of their absolute truth. This wasn't a man who spoke carelessly or made commitments he couldn't keep. When Talon said something, he meant it.
Riley felt the world narrow to the space between them, the desert evening fading into background noise. Marriage. Partnership. A life built around shared values, friendship and love built on those unshakeable foundations.
"Are you sure? You hunt down terrorists and criminal conspiracies or train people to do it, now. I ensure environmental compliance. Neither of us exactly leads a stable, predictable lifestyle. Are you sure you want me to marry you?"
Talon's thumb brushed across her cheek, the simple gesture somehow more intimate than any kiss they'd shared.
"I’m sure. Positive," he said, his voice carrying the kind of quiet confidence that had made her trust him with her life from the moment they'd met.
"We make our own kind of stability. We build something that works for who we actually are, not who we think we're supposed to be.
We'll make it work, Riley. I’ll do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes.
We can figure out the logistics because the alternative is unacceptable. "
Riley searched his eyes, seeing in their green depths the same fierce certainty that came through absolute commitment.
And looking into those eyes, she realized that she trusted his judgment about their future as much as she'd learned to trust his judgment about everything else.
Completely and without exception. A slow smile began to curve her lips, starting small but growing into something fierce and certain.
"Yes," she said, the word emerging with surprising strength considering how her voice had been shaking moments before. "Yes, I'll marry you."
Talon's hand tightened over hers, and his other hand slid around to cup the back of her neck, drawing her closer until their foreheads touched in a gesture that was somehow more intimate than any kiss could have been.
The generator's hum, the distant insect chorus, the soft whisper of desert wind through sagebrush, all of it faded into nothing, leaving only the two of them and the promise they'd just made to each other.
The desert evening wrapped around them like a prayer. One that was vast and patient and eternal. It bore witness to the rare kind of commitment that was precious and strong enough to survive whatever chaos the world might throw at them.
She whispered, “What happens after four years?”
Talon’s hand slid over hers, his grip firm. “We’ll deal with that then. We’ll do whatever it takes, babe.”
“You should take me back to my apartment.” She lifted her face toward him, offering him her lips. He didn’t hesitate to kiss her before taking her hand and leading her back to the residential building and her apartment.
The cool air of the bedroom kissed her overheated skin as she took off her clothes.
Her eyes were on Talon as he removed his weapons.
She unzipped her pants as his shirt came off.
The expanse of his shoulders, his muscled chest, and the treasure trail that made its way past his waistband mesmerized her.
He was magnificent, and if anyone had told her that she’d fall in love with a man like him, she would have laughed.
She’d assumed she’d marry someone in the company.
A guy trying to get ahead by taking her on. It was what her father had always said.
Talon cocked his head and walked over to her. “What happened just now?” He tipped her chin up. “You okay?”
She shook her head. “I … I went somewhere in my head that I shouldn’t have.”
“Where?” He leaned down and kissed her neck, which sent chills through her entire body.
She gasped a bit before she answered, “My father said I’d end up with someone who was trying to climb the corporate ladder. I was a way closer to the top and to him.”
“Your father was wrong again. You’re not a tool for anyone to use. You’re an amazing, brilliant woman.” He kissed her shoulder. “You’re an obsession, a craving, an addiction. You are my everything.” He kissed up her neck after each word, ending up at her lips.
The feeling of utter devotion washed over her. The man could make her soar with his words and his touch.
Her bra’s fastener flicked open, and his rough fingers slid her bra straps off.
Her hands moved to his pants. The buttons slipped through the loops easily, and her hands found his shaft.
The heat and softness of his skin were in direct opposition to the hard length of him.
She dropped down to her knees and licked the head of his cock.
His hands slipped to her ponytail holder and pulled it out.
She took him into her mouth and swirled her tongue around the cap, paying attention to the vein underneath the tip of his cockhead.
He grabbed her hair as a rush of hissed air came from him.
“Damn it. So good. Too good.” His hips moved forward a bit, and she took more of him.
She wasn’t an expert in the sexual department, but she’d read enough romance books to know what men liked.
She couldn’t take him all the way without gagging, so she licked the base of his cock as she held his balls in her hand.
Without thinking about it, she licked lower and then sucked one of his balls into her mouth.
Talon’s grunt and the way his legs shook were all the response she needed.
She moved her attention to the other one.
She loved the smell of him. The intimacy and vulnerability he was allowing her.
Lost in the entirety of the sensations, she was surprised when he bent down and lifted her up off her knees. “Did I do something wrong?”
“God, no. But I want to be in you when I come. I was too close.” He kissed her before she could wipe her face, but he didn’t seem to mind.
They moved closer to the bed, and he lowered her onto the mattress.
With a gentle tug, her khakis were off. She lifted onto her elbows and watched him step out of his clothes. She licked her lips, still tasting him.
“Woman, you’re going to kill me.”
“Death by sex?” She smiled.
He leaned over her and grabbed the waistband of her thong. It snapped, and he threw the material across the room.
“The only way I want to die,” he growled and dropped to his knees, kissing the inside of her thigh. “So beautiful.”
She dropped to the mattress, her elbows had no chance of supporting her when his mouth covered her, and his tongue and fingers started an impossible tempo that hit her clit with an urgency that made her pant.
She reached down to his thick, short hair and tried desperately to wrap her fingers in it, but all thoughts went out the window when her core clenched and she gasped.
A thousand stars sprinkled the darkness of her closed eyes.
The spasmatic clenching in her core was too much and not enough at the same time.
She was gluttonous when it came to Talon.
When he lifted, she pulled him up the bed to her. They shifted so they were on the bed, and he covered her. “So fucking beautiful, and you’re mine.” He slid into her, and when she lifted her hips, he seated inside her. Wrapping her arms around him, she pulled him down for a kiss.
“You’re mine, too,” she reminded him and kissed him, taking the lead, letting her tongue explore his mouth.
When they broke, they were both panting.
He braced himself on his elbows over her and stared at her as he moved in and out of her.
They didn’t speak. For her, it would have ruined the connection between them.
The promises their eyes expressed. The beauty of the man over her and the heat that smoldered so hot it engulfed her.
This moment, this man, and this emotion were everything she never thought she’d have.
Her orgasm ripped through her, shattering with a tightness that snapped deep and hot.
She knew Talon had finished; his breathless scream as he finished was the exclamation point on the love they shared.
She held him, panting as he lay on top of her.
He made a move to roll, but she held him tight.
“Not yet.” She wanted to feel his body against hers.
She needed to feel the weight of him, the weight of them together.
It was perfect, and it was true. She kissed his shoulder. “I love you.”
He lifted and looked down at her. “I know. And you know I love you.”
“I do.” She blinked back tears. “I know.”
They laid together in comfortable silence as full darkness settled over the desert.
Riley's head rested against Talon's shoulder, while stars emerged through the window in patterns undimmed by urban light pollution. The stars stretched across the sky like a river of light, ancient and constant and somehow reassuring in its vast indifference to human concerns. They’d talked over the day’s events.
Talon helping her to process everything.
"My father's going to prison," Riley said quietly, the words emerging without conscious decision.
Talon’s voice rumbled under her ear, "Twenty-five years minimum under federal sentencing guidelines for this kind of material trafficking.”
“He could die there."
Talon's arm tightened around her, offering comfort without trying to minimize the complexity of the situation. "How does that make you feel?"
Riley considered the question, surprised to find that the answer wasn't as simple as she'd expected.
"Sad," she said finally. "Not for him. He made his choices, and he'll face the consequences.
But sad for … what we could have been. What we should have been.
The father-daughter relationship that existed in my imagination but never in reality. "
She was quiet for a moment, processing emotions that felt too large and complicated for easy categorization.
"And relieved," she added. "That it's over. That I don't have to carry the weight of his expectations anymore or worry about what other horrible things I might discover if I keep digging. That I can finally stop trying to earn love from someone who was never capable of giving it."
Talon pressed a kiss to the top of her head, the gesture gentle and unhurried. "You did the right thing. It cost you, but you did the right thing. That matters."
"Does it?" Riley asked, genuine uncertainty forcing the question. "Sometimes doing the right thing feels a lot like destroying everything you used to believe in."
"That's because the things you used to believe in were built on lies," Talon replied, his voice carrying the kind of hard-earned wisdom that came from years of operating in morally complex environments. "Breaking illusions hurts, but it's the only way to build something real."
Riley nodded, feeling the truth of that settle into her bones. The pain of the past few years wasn’t meaningless suffering. It had been the necessary process of tearing down a life built on false foundations so something authentic could take its place. Which was what she had with Talon.
"What happens now?" she asked, though she thought she already knew the answer.
Talon's smile was visible in his voice. "Now, we figure out how to coordinate our schedules and get married."
Riley laughed, the sound carrying genuine humor for the first time in weeks. "You realize that isn’t as simple as it seems, right? Weddings can be daunting."
"Yeah," Talon said, his voice warm with affection and something that might have been anticipation. "I'm sure my mom will have ideas about it. She didn’t get a fancy white dress or the big reception."
“I’ve never dreamed of either of those things.” She sighed and leaned against him. “Do you think she’ll like me?”
“She’ll love you.” He lifted her hand and kissed her palm. “They’ll all love you.”
“All?”
“I should probably tell you just how big my family is.” She leaned against his chest and listened to him describe his family as the desert night stretched around them.
The future was vast and full of possibilities that neither of them could fully imagine yet.
But for the first time since this whole adventure had begun, Riley felt like she knew exactly where she belonged.
Right here, in the space between chaos and justice, building something permanent with a man who understood that some fights were worth whatever they cost.