Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
TESSA
With the Halloween Festival over, things had gone back to normal. Well, somewhat normal.
With Bryce’s whole family in town, we were doing a lot of entertaining. Apparently, knowing about me for ten years but not meeting me had made the Dixon clan antsy, and they wanted to soak up as much time with their new sister and daughter as humanly possible.
I couldn’t say I hated it. In fact, I freaking loved it. I had a family now, and they were loud and boisterous and fun, and very, very loving. I felt like I’d known each and every one of them for years.
I loved having them around. We still had them for another week, but I was already sad at the idea of them eventually leaving. I was experiencing what it was like to be part of a big family during the day, with the added bonus of having the nights to ourselves.
“I got you somethin’ today while you were at work.” Tipping my head back on the pillow, I blinked the sleep from my tired eyes and looked up at my husband. We’d just finished making love, and he’d worn me out in the very best ways.
“Like a present?” I asked excitedly, suddenly feeling very awake.
“Yeah.” He grinned. “Like a present.”
Sitting up, I tucked the sheet under my arms and held out my hands. “Ooh! Gimme, gimme!”
He shifted with a laugh, reaching over to pull open his bedside drawer. When he came back, there was a small, black velvet box in the center of his palm.
My mouth dropped open, and I looked up at him, speechless.
“Open it, baby,” he coaxed, bringing the box even closer.
My hands shook when I took it, and when I finally managed to flip it open, my lungs deflated completely.
Pillowed inside was the most exquisite ring I’d ever seen. The thin platinum band was covered in a row of tiny diamonds with more surrounding the enormous round cut stone that sat high in the very center.
“Oh my God,” I wheezed, looking up at him with watery eyes. “Bryce, this is gorgeous.”
“This is the ring you always deserved,” he said as he pulled it out of the box. Taking my left hand, he slowly slid it down to the base of my ring finger. “It took me a while to find the perfect one, but I finally did. Now everyone’ll know you’re mine. Do you like it?”
“I love it,” I whispered as moisture hit my cheeks.
Bringing my hand to his lips, he placed a kiss on the ring while looking in my eyes. “Good. That makes me happy. But you know what this means, right?”
“What?”
“It means now you have to get me a ring.”
Launching myself at him, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and peppered his face with kisses. “I’m going to get you the coolest, most badass ring ever, so when everyone sees it, they’ll know you are mine.”
Taking me back down to the mattress, he used his knee to kick my legs apart and settled his hips between, already hard and ready to go.
“Won’t hear me complainin’.”
God, but I loved my husband.
I frantically put the finishing touches on dinner, my eyes continuing to shift to the clock on the microwave.
Bryce was due home any minute, and I wanted everything to be perfect before he came through the door.
All had been going according to plan until I’d stepped out of the jewelry store after picking up Bryce’s wedding ring and discovered that some jerkoff had slashed the passenger tires on my car.
A tow truck ride to the mechanic hadn’t been on my schedule, and it put me way behind, but the guys at the auto shop got my car in and out as fast as possible.
The security system chirped when the front door opened, and I rushed to my purse, pulling out the ring box as Bryce called out, “Baby, I’m home.”
“In the kitchen,” I returned, fidgeting in place as I waited for him to appear.
The second he cleared the hall his eyes came to me and a smile stretched across his face. Then the flickering candle on the table caught his attention. He turned that way and came to a dead stop. “What’s all this?”
I started speaking as I moved slowly in his direction. “Did you know there’s a really great sushi place in Grapevine? I was surprised myself, but I looked it up online, and the place had like a billion five-star reviews.”
His lips trembled with humor. “A billion, huh?”
I pulled one hand from behind my back and tapped my chin. “Well, maybe not that many. But it was still a lot. And Eden swore up and down the place was excellent, so I have faith.”
Grabbing hold of my hips, Bryce pulled me against him and lowered his head, speaking against my lips. “So you were in the mood for sushi tonight?”
“Not particularly,” I answered softly. “But it only seemed fitting that we have it tonight, considering it was what we were eating when you fake proposed to me back in Vegas.”
The green in his gaze flared and his fingers pressed deeper into my hips. “And what makes tonight so special, beauty?”
I leaned back, bringing my other arm from behind me, and flipped the velvet box open.
I’d spent weeks looking at what felt like a thousand rings, trying to find the absolute perfect one for Bryce, and when I found the two-toned black ring with a satin finish and beveled edges, I knew it was the one.
My husband wasn’t about flash or diamonds.
My husband was all man and cool as hell.
This ring was Bryce, through and through.
He stared at it for several long seconds, not moving except to blink.
“Take it out, honey,” I whispered. “There’s something on the inside you should see.”
Etched on the inside of the ring were the words my mother had inscribed on my father’s watch. They were words that had come to define my feelings for Bryce, and I wanted him to have them pressed to his skin every time he wore that ring.
My heart and soul. My other half.
The air expelled from his lungs with a sharp exhale as he slowly turned the ring to read the words.
“So?” I asked, feeling a little nervous. “What do you think?”
Slipping the ring onto his finger, he lifted his head, his fiery gaze landing on me and instantly heating me from the inside out.
“I’m thinkin’ dinner needs to wait, ’cause I need to take my wife upstairs and show her exactly how much I love my gift.”
A shiver worked its way through my body, centering between my thighs and making my panties damp. On tiptoes, I pressed my breasts against his chest and whispered, “Why go all the way upstairs when there’s a perfectly good kitchen island right here?”
“God, Bryce. Yes.”
It was coming, and it was coming fast.
We’d started with me bent over the counter, but my husband had a thing about seeing my face when he was inside me, so we were on the kitchen floor with Bryce on the bottom, one hand braced behind him while the other cupped my breast so he could suck my nipples as I rode him hard.
“That’s it, baby,” he groaned against my skin. “Fuck me. Show me how wild you get for my cock.”
“Like this,” I moaned as the pressure built inside me.
“Christ, do you have any idea how good you feel? Goddamn, Tessa. Nothin’ feels as amazing as your pussy wrapped around me.”
My movements became erratic as the coil in my core grew tighter and tighter. “Close, baby. I’m so close.”
“Give it to me,” Bryce growled, fisting my hair and pulling my face closer to his. “It’s mine, baby. Let me have it.”
My walls clamped down, and I splintered into a million pieces, crying out his name as I came.
My release was still coursing through me when Bryce moved, flipping us over. He drove inside, over and over, prolonging my climax until I thought I might pass out.
“Love you, Tessa,” he grunted as his hips slammed against me. “Christ, beauty, I love you so much.”
“Love you too,” I panted as one orgasm quickly bled into another. God, I didn’t think I’d ever get enough of him. Enough of this.
Ten seconds later, he drove in deep and let out a carnal bellow from deep in his chest, flooding me with his own release.
We were still breathing heavy a minute later when he pushed up to his forearms, looking down at me as he brushed a strand of sweat-damp hair from my forehead.
“Love my ring, honey,” he murmured before going in for one last kiss. “And the fact that you gave me those words . . . Those mean everything to me, Tessa. You mean everything to me. You’re my heart and soul, baby.”
Reaching up, I dragged my finger across his stubbled jaw. “And you’re my other half.”