Chapter Thirty-two – I Swear #2
“I demand you start expecting it,” I said, voice rough and low.
“Yeah?” She cupped my cheek, and I leaned into the warmth of her stroke. “And what about you, Parker? What do you expect?”
“You’ll always be able to tell me no, Fallon. I’ll never expect you to say yes. But tonight, I want to taste you. Every single inch of you. To watch you climax around my tongue and my fingers before I take you up and over again while I’m buried deep inside you.”
She pressed a hand to her chest as if the words had hurt. It rose and fell at almost a frantic pace. She tossed her purse aside and pressed herself against me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and set her mouth on mine. Strong. Hard. Fast.
I met her pace, her demands lick by lick, but I wasn’t going to let her take this at her normal Fallon speed. I was determined to savor every single second of our first time together. I placed my lips on her neck, nipping and sucking as I found the dress’s zipper and slowly tugged it down.
My hands slid into the opening at the back, gliding over silky skin before pushing the material over her shoulders.
I eased back enough that the dress dropped to the floor, leaving her in nothing but a thong and her cowboy boots.
Her bare nipples were hard and straining.
A delightful feast just waiting for me. I dipped my head, lapping at one and then the other, and she moaned.
That same enchanting sound I’d heard this morning.
I picked her up and set her on the bed before returning to my worship of her.
I started with the hollow at the juncture of her ear and neck, making my way down to the sharp cut of her collarbone, the gentle valley between her breasts, the taut slope of her stomach, and the indent of her belly button, delighting in the birthmark I found right at her pelvic bone.
As I placed a kiss there, her hands tightened on my necktie, forcing me to meet her gaze. Something flashed in them. Humor mixed with longing and a surprising dash of hurt that had my hands freezing.
“Are you saying yes, Parker?”
My endorphin-overloaded brain couldn’t follow her thoughts.
Her hips pressed into mine, and a hand cupped me through the tuxedo pants.
“You feel like you’re saying yes , but I could have sworn you once told me you’d never say yes to me. That you would never break. Never ring a bell and give in.”
I rested my chin on her stomach, despising I’d hurt her so deeply.
“I claim self-defense, Ducky. I’m sorry I hurt you to save myself from breaking a promise I never should have made.
But you have no idea how close I was to shattering that night.
” Her eyes turned stormy. “Or how much I hated it when I woke to find you gone. I thought I was protecting you, but instead, I sent you careening back into that loser’s arms.”
Goddamn tears flooded my eyes.
She brushed at my lashes, fingers rubbing the dampness.
“Show me what you would have done if you hadn’t denied us both what we wanted.” Her voice was low and sexy and sent a pulse to my dick that was almost my undoing.
And I did just what she demanded, gliding fingers and tongue over the slopes and valleys, and embedding the love I felt into every touch.
I indulged myself in studying and learning her, pursuing her pleasure until she was panting and her hips were thrusting.
I sucked on the scrap of silk at her core, and she mewed. The sexiest sound I’d ever heard.
“I need you inside me, Parker, and you’re wearing too many clothes.”
“Say it, Wife. Say the word I want, and I’ll gladly remove the penguin suit.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Kermit? ”
I bit her thigh, and just like with the pinch, I wasn’t exactly gentle.
She had the audacity to laugh once again, which made my determination grow.
I knew how to buckle down and get what I wanted. I could be unrelenting.
I dragged the tiny excuse for panties over her hips, trailing kisses over her skin as I revealed everything below them. I removed her boots and then stepped away from the bed to feast on the portrait she made with her hair spread along the pink satin of the bed linens, chest heaving.
As I stared, her hand settled low on her stomach, a protective motion.
I twined my fingers with hers, settling over the little bean growing inside her.
That’s what it would look like at this stage if I remembered right from the parenting books I’d read.
I’d get to watch this child grow while inside her, and I was surprised at how much that excited me.
How much I truly wanted to be a part of it all.
I’d watch over this baby and be the best father it could ever have.
I’d trained to accept nothing less than the best from myself.
The idea of not being a SEAL for much longer stabbed me in the gut, but it wasn’t as severe as it should have been, because I had something even bigger and more important waiting for me, something filling that vague emptiness I’d been fighting.
Fatherhood. Marriage.
Love.
All kinds of love.
“Parker?” Fallon’s brows furrowed together.
I leaned in and kissed her stomach softly. “I want this baby, Fallon. I want it almost as much as I want you. She isn’t an obligation or a duty. Neither are you. You’re both my purpose. My life. My loves.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she sat up, grabbed my face, and kissed me. Then, she murmured against my lips, “Your words are almost enough to take me over the edge by themselves, Parker. I don’t want that. I want to go over with you inside me. As one person. One unit. Our own little team. ”
I stripped out of the tuxedo as fast as possible. She watched while I did, taking in every inch of me, including the one part that was straining to make her mine.
“I’m clean, Fallon. I’ve been tested, but do you want me to wear a condom?”
She stared at me for a moment. “All my tests came back negative from the ER, and I don’t think I can get pregnant twice.”
For a moment, it took the magic from the air—the reason she was pregnant.
But I refused to let any of that ugliness bleed into our night. So I joined her on the bed, resuming the caressing and worshipping I’d started and forcing her to focus on only the beauty in this room with the two of us coming together.
As my fingers danced and glided along her skin, she writhed, arching into me, gasping for air, and making a slight humming sound I wanted to hear on repeat for the rest of my life.
“Now, Parker,” she demanded.
I stopped, whispering in her ear, “Say it, Wife.”
“Bae, I’m going to be really unhappy if you don’t finish what you started soon.”
“Say it, and we’ll both be far more than happy. We’ll be ecstatic.”
Her eyes flashed, that last, defiant piece of her refusing to give in.
And I wanted her to keep that fierce independence, but I also wanted her to know she was safe to let go.
That it was okay to let someone else drive.
To have control. Here, she could give in, and it didn’t make her less. It only made us more.
She turned her head, bit my shoulder, and dug her fingernails into my hips as she pressed our cores together. “Parker…”
It was the most erotic beg I’d ever heard. And I almost caved. I almost thrust into her and took what was mine so I could give her what was hers.
I bit her ear, nipped at her neck, and allowed my fingers to slide inside that wet heat.
Taunting. Tormenting. Taking her up yet again but never over the edge.
When I could almost feel the quiver of her around my fingers, I stopped once again and whispered, “Say it, Wife. ”
She slammed her palm down on the mattress. “Fine.” Amber eyes met my steel ones. It wasn’t the desire I focused on. It was the complete and utter love as she finally caved. “Husband.”
I pushed into her in one hard thrust. She gasped in pleasure, her inner walls already clenching.
“Hold on, Wife. We have to catch the wave before we can ride it to shore,” I said.
I’d never felt anything like this. My senses were on complete overload.
The scent of her and me and the flowers.
The mix of colors from her and the room.
The warm flicker of the candles. The sound of skin sliding and the panting of breaths.
It all twined into something unworldly, bigger than either of us.
A power that filled the room as two became one. As souls touched. As hearts joined.
When she reached the peak, when she was already crying out and chanting husband as I’d promised she would, I lost all control.
I was nothing but sensation, raw and wild and beautiful.
And as I went over the peak, slamming into her one final time and letting go, I was blinded by love and light and hope.