CHAPTER 14
NOEL
I don’t know what August and Delaney were laughing about yesterday before lunch, but I’m going to find out. They’ve been acting like two little kids with a secret since their conversation. Every time they start whispering, I’ve tried to find out what they’re hiding, but they clam up the moment I get too close.
If they don’t tell me soon, I’m considering implementing tickle torture.
August will definitely crack then. The boy is ticklish beyond compare.
I’m just desperate enough to try it.
My woman stretches in bed next to me and a satisfied little sound comes from deep in her chest. The sun is going to be peeking over the horizon in minutes, but these early morning moments are ones I live for. I won’t skimp on them, and I don’t allow Delaney to either.
As I slide a hand down her side and soak up the softness of her skin, I contemplate what I’m planning next to show Delaney that staying is the right thing for her to do. I’ve been working on it for the last two weeks, ever since Fletcher and Eden’s wedding.
Maybe it’ll show her just how serious I am about this being her home.
I don’t think she’s caught on to the little questions I’ve asked her here and there, not only about the ranch house she grew up in, but about what she likes and doesn’t like in a house. I’ve been subtle about it.
At least, I thought I was being subtle until Huxley called me on my shit. I had joined him for the morning chores in the barn and he smirked at me the entire time. Once we were done mucking the stalls, I couldn’t take it anymore.
I snapped, “What is up with you? Why do you keep looking at me like that?”
His smirk only widened, and I rolled my eyes with a huff, ready to get back to work and ignore his weird ass. “Oh,” he drawled, “I don’t know, I’m just waiting for Delaney to figure out you’re planning to build her a house even though she hasn’t agreed to stay.”
My entire body froze, and I turned back toward my brother slowly with a menacing as fuck look on my face. I pointed at him, my voice dropping and telling him just how much danger he was in at the moment, “You won’t say a fucking word to her. You won’t tease her. You will keep your mouth shut.”
He held his hands up in surrender, but the smirk was still in place. “I promise I won’t say anything, big brother,” his words were teasing, “but you’re not being as subtle as you think. If she doesn’t figure it out soon, I’ll be shocked.”
“She’s not going to figure it out,” I grumbled knowing he was right. “At least not before the plans are complete and I can show them to her.”
“Noel,” my woman’s sleepy voice pulls me from my thoughts.
She stretches again and presses her perfect ass against my cock which is weeping pre-cum while wondering why the fuck its not buried inside her right now.
I know, buddy, I know.
As much as I’d love to be balls deep in my woman’s pussy, which I know will already be wet for me, I need to talk to her. It feels like time is running out and I’m ready to pull out all the stops to get her to agree to stay right here.
Where she belongs.
“Freckles,” my voice is still husky from sleep as I turn her gently until she’s facing me. “I love you,” I whisper as I kiss her forehead.
“I love you, Noel,” her voice is soft like she’s afraid of speaking louder because then it’ll be real and undeniable.
As if she wasn’t screaming out her love for me last night.
After I take a deep breath, words start to spill from me, “I need you, Delaney. I need you so damn much, I don’t think I could ever express how much. The thought of living this life without you in it scares the hell out of me. I don’t think I could survive not being next to you. I don’t know if that means you’re at my side, or if I’m at yours—maybe both? I don’t care about the terminology. I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth and back if it is what you need. If you want to keep traveling and taking contracts, then we’ll make it work.”
Her green eyes are big and round as she blinks at me a few times while absorbing my words. But now that I’ve started it feels like I can’t stop.
“Even if we spend most of our time out on the road, I want to give us a place to come back to here on Limitless, like Fletcher and Eden have. I’ve been on a recon mission for weeks now and have been finding out everything about your dream house. Then a few days ago I took them to a construction company to have plans drawn up and an estimate put together.”
“You’re planning to build us a house?” Her voice is filled with shock. “Here on the land?”
“Yes,” I breathe while my heart hammers against the inside of my chest. “I want to give you a home here. I want to show you that you are meant to be here with me, with us. You’re part of our family. Will you stay? Will you love me for the rest of your life and let me be with you every day until we take our last breaths?”
Tears fill her eyes at my earnest plea and her delicate hands come up to cradle my jaw. “Okay,” she whispers.
“I just can’t imagine letting you go. I can’t do it.” I shake my head as her response finally filters through the panic at the thought of her walking away from me and I freeze. My entire body locks up and disbelief pumps through me with every beat of my heart. “Did you just? What?” I shake my head, trying to clear it before I rasp, “Say it again.”
The smile Delaney gifts me with is filled with certainty and promises I’m almost afraid to accept because they could be ripped away from me.
But then she erases that fear completely.
“I said okay, Noel Burns.” She leans toward me, her words a vow, “I’m not going anywhere. We can talk about how to move forward with my business. Maybe traveling will work for part of the year, like during the summer. Maybe I only do teleconferences and then short visits to places. I don’t know what it all looks like, but I know there is no way forward without you.”
When a tear slides across her face, my thumb is there to wipe it away. I’m speechless. Utterly and completely speechless.
I blurt out, “Do you want to see the plans before you really commit?”
Delaney’s laughter is light and filled with forever. She shakes her head and then kisses me softly. It’s brief, far too fucking brief.
“I don’t need to see the plans because I had already made up my mind. That’s why I had to talk to August yesterday. I couldn’t tell you what my heart and soul had decided long before my head caught up without making sure he was on board first.”
“He’s okay with staying?”
“He wants to stay,” she whispers. “He feels like he’s home, too.”
I feel like I can conquer the world right now. Instead of implementing a plan of pillaging and destruction, I roll my woman onto her back and loom above her. The giggle that comes out of her shouldn’t be as sexy as it is, but the sound is downright fucking naughty.
And so her. Delaney. My Freckles. Mine.
She’s a contradiction. She’s soft curves but with a spine of steel. She’s learned to survive for herself while putting August first in so many ways. She’s innocent and the most sinful of women I’ve ever met.
“I love you so fucking much, Delaney,” my voice is deep and husky.
Her green eyes sparkle as she looks up at me. She’s a fucking vision with her hair splayed out across my pillow and her back arching like she has to be closer to me.
When our mouths crash together, the kiss between us all fire. It’s filled with teeth and tongue, with nothing being held back or tempered.
She writhes underneath me as her legs wrap around my waist and pull me down until there’s no space between us. We groan at the contact and my cock throbs with the desire to be buried deep inside of her.
I start to slide down her body, but my woman’s fingers thread through my hair and she gives a tug which has me looking into her eyes. “No, Noel,” her tone is demanding. “None of that. As much as I love your mouth on me, I need to feel you deep inside of me.”
“You need me to seal your decision with a nice, hard fuck?” I arch an eyebrow at her, the challenge in my expression clear.
A smirk lifts one side of my woman’s face as her nails slide down my back until she grips my ass. Firmly.
“Are you going to give me what I need, Noel?”
Talk about rising to a challenge. Fuck. I can’t deny her.
I slide into my woman and let out a growl at how tight, hot, and wet she is. Perfect. So fucking perfect.
“Yes,” she hisses, the word drawn out as she arches her back and presses her tits against my chest.
When I start to move, she’s right there with me. She meets every one of my thrusts, her body urging me to give her more and not hold back.
As I slam inside of her pussy, fucking her hard and fast, our eyes are locked together. I can feel our souls binding together and becoming one.
I was never going to let go of her and now I’ll never have to. The fact that she’s staying and is going to live this life with me has the demons of my past squirming in pain. Their death knell echoes through me. I’ve found my place.
There was a time when I wasn’t sure I would ever find it. Not when I joined the military. Not when I came back home.
But I’ve found it now and I’m no longer lost.
My place is with Delaney. That might be on the land of Limitless Ranch. That might be in a camper or RV or whatever as we go wherever she’s needed.
The where doesn’t matter.
What matters is her.
She’s my place, my home, my forward.
I still need to show her the plans for the house because I know her face will light up. We’ll build a home for us to come back to, a safe haven where August will thrive. Even if we have to go on the road, he’ll have family here to take care of him and to keep him grounded.
Then, one day, our family will grow.
My cock throbs at the thought of spilling my seed inside of my Freckles and her making it into so much more. Into a baby I would have never dared to dream of before she showed up in my life. Now, it feels so possible.
Everything feels possible.
As we chase our pleasure, I growl, “I love you, Delaney. One day I’m going to slide a ring on your finger, and you’ll take my last name. One day I’m going to plant a baby in your belly and we’re going to watch the roots we plant in each other’s hearts grow into something strong, something that can weather every storm.”
Tears fall from her eyes, but I know they’re not from sadness. I can feel her joy like it’s a tangible thing.
“Forward,” she whispers, “I’ll always move forward with you Noel.”
I kiss her hard right as we topple over the edge. Together.
Forward.
Forever.