Chapter Twenty-Nine
When they arrived back at the house, Harper clung to the bear while Emmett led her inside. Once they were in the kitchen, he took it from her hands and set it down on the counter.
"I love the bear, Emmett. That was such a lovely thing to do—to come and surprise me like that."
"I shouldn't have told the others to pretend they'd left, though—I was thinking about having you to myself, not about how you'd feel if you thought you'd been abandoned."
"I know. And don't apologize. It did hit me hard for a moment, but then you were there." She rested her hands on his shoulders and pressed a kiss to his lips. "In the past, whenever I thought I was all alone in the world, I was right. This time, with you, I wasn't."
"And not just this time. From now on, Harper. You're not on your own anymore. You have me, and you have the girls." He turned to look at the bear and smiled. "We want to be a family with you—we want you to be our Mama Bear."
"Proposal accepted." She bit down on her lip when she realized what she'd said. "I mean, I know it wasn't a proposal…"
Emmett took hold of her hands. "It kind of was, though, in a roundabout way. But what I'm proposing is more than just marriage—it's family. I'm asking if you want to become part of ours—the heart of it."
"Oh, Emmett, yes. There's nothing I want more."
"Then welcome home, Mama Bear."
He closed his arms around her, and she melted against him, running her fingers up the back of his neck and through his hair. He shuddered, and she leaned back to look into his eyes.
"Are you all right?"
He grinned. "As a matter of fact, no. I have a problem, and you're both the cause of it and the only one who can help me with it."
She raised her eyebrows, and he caught her hand and placed it over the front of his jeans. He was hard, and she could feel the heat even through the denim.
She grinned as she traced his length with her fingers. "You're calling this a problem?"
His eyes drifted shut for a moment before he opened them. "I hope not. But we never really talked about this part. And I…"
She took his hand and headed for the stairs. "There was nothing we could do while you were so banged up." She looked back over her shoulder at him. "But now you're better, we're home alone, and I don't think it's a problem at all."
He chuckled as he followed her into the bedroom. The floorboard creaked under her foot and she tensed for a moment, then laughed. "I never could figure out how to avoid that one spot, but I guess for tonight at least, I don't have to worry about it."
He closed the door behind them and stalked toward her. "Tonight you don't have to worry about a thing."
He started to unbutton his shirt, and she took over when she saw how shaky his fingers were. "I'm nervous, too," she told him.
He cupped her face between his hands and kissed her deeply before leaning back. His eyes shone with mischief. "I'm not nervous, Harper. I'm… desperate. I've wanted you for so damn long, and there was nothing I could do about it until now."
As he spoke, he unbuttoned her blouse, then pushed it back off her shoulders before shrugging out of his shirt. She unhooked her bra and let it fall to the floor.
His gaze dropped to her breasts, and his hands came up to hold them. Her eyes closed and she leaned her head back as he teased her nipples with his thumbs.
"You're beautiful."
She ran her hands up his chest to his shoulders. "So are you." She glanced over at the bed, and he took her hand.
"Remember my one condition?" he asked.
"That I share your bed with you?"
"Yeah, not just for fun, but… Harper, I want to go to bed with you every night for what's left of my life. Sure, I want to make love to you, but I want to talk about our days as, too, laugh about the girls, and just… be together."
"I think you know how badly I want that, too. But you know, we keep talking about conditions, and…"
He held his hand up. "We're on the same page again. It hit me too—we keep talking about conditions, but in the end, there aren't any. This—what I feel for you, it's unconditional, Harper. I love you, simple as that."
She reached for his buckle. "It's the same for me, Emmett—no conditions, just love."
"Then let me love you."
He moved surprisingly fast for a man whose ribs and shoulder were still healing, and in just a few moments they were both naked on the bed.
He propped himself on one elbow and looked down into her eyes as he trailed his fingers down her cheek. "If this first time isn’t great, will you bear with me? It’s been a long time for me and…"
She sat up a little and pushed him so that he lay on his back and she was looking down at him. "We’re going to be great together. Don’t you doubt it."
She loved the way his eyes filled with relief.
"In fact, since you’re still healing, maybe I should do most of the work."
He cocked an eyebrow. "And what might that look like?"
She ran her hand down over his chest and stomach and paused before she went lower. "Something like this."
He closed his eyes when she curled her fingers around him. He was thick, hot, and hard. She licked her lips at the sight of this beautiful man laid out naked before her as she tightened her grip and began to pump her hand up and down the length of him.
He rocked his hips in time with her and breathed her name. The look of pleasure on his face was so gorgeous that she wanted to make this time all about him. She crawled down over him and ran her tongue from the base to the tip of him.
The sound he let out sounded like nothing more than a strangled growl. Before she knew what was happening, he’d caught her arms and flipped them both. Now she was looking up into his eyes as he hovered above her, his knees spreading her thighs wide.
She smiled. "Neat move - how did you pull that off, and why? Are you telling me you don’t want my mouth on you?"
She loved the feeling of power that swept over her when he visibly shuddered at her words.
"Jesus, woman, I want your mouth on me - don’t ever think I don’t. But if you’d... I’d have... and..."
She chuckled. "And it would have been amazing."
"Yeah, but only for me. I want this first time to be for both of us."
She had to laugh when he winked and added, "But I’m not saying that the second time, you couldn’t..."
She laughed and pushed at his arm. "All right then. So... here we are."
"Here we are," he echoed as he lowered his weight onto her. "I maybe should have let you carry on. I don’t know if I can hold myself up for long enough."
"Then don’t try. I can take your weight - I can hold us both up. Or if you want, we can flip again. I’ll take the top."
He ran his hand down her side and she squirmed underneath him, then gasped when his hot, hard head nudged at her entrance.
"Or we could stop talking about it and just..."
She slapped his shoulder. "Are you saying that I talk too much?"
He chuckled as he slid his hand under her ass, lifting her up to receive him. She wrapped her leg around his hips and held his gaze as he pushed inside her.
"Emmett."
"Harper?"
"Please?"
His hand tightened on her ass, and she clung to his shoulders as he thrust his hips and drove deep and hard.
She expected him to settle there for a beat.
Instead, he pulled back and drove deep again, then again and again, setting up a frantic rhythm that made her breasts bounce and the headboard bang against the wall.
She grasped at his arms, desperate to find something to hold onto.
"I’ve got you."
She looked up into his eyes, and her insides felt as though they melted into liquid gold when he smiled.
"I’ve got you, Harper. You can let go."
He was still moving over her, thrusting deep and hard, faster and faster.
Every cell in her body felt like it was waiting for the fuse to be lit.
She continued to look into his eyes and slowly raised her hands above her head, letting them lie still on the pillow.
Her whole body now wide open to him, her whole self surrendered.
He brought his lips down to her and nibbled his way up her neck before claiming her mouth in a kiss that left her gasping.
"Emmett!"
All the tension that had been building inside her started to coil low in her belly.
"Harper," he gasped. "Are you ready for this? I... I’m going to..."
"Give it to me, Emmett."
Something about those words affected him. His gaze locked with hers and he picked up the pace, each thrust of his hips now harder, deeper, driving them inexorably to the edge.
She wanted to bring her hands back down, to cling to him, to urge him on, but kept them above her head on the pillow - still open to him and to all he had to give her.
He dropped his hand between them, and the moment his fingers brushed her in just the right spot she gasped his name as her inner muscles tightened around him.
"Yeah," he breathed. "That’s it, come for me."
Something about him saying those words made her body obey him in an instant.
She clenched down tight on him as wave after wave of pleasure pulsated through her body.
Her orgasm ignited his, and he pistoned his hips desperately until she felt him tense and let go.
He found her gaze and held it as he lost himself in her, and they soared away together, higher and higher, until she felt she might cease to exist.
They peaked together and slowly came back down to earth until they lay spent and panting in each other's arms.
He ran his hand over her hair. "I love you, Harper."
She turned her head to kiss his hot cheek. "I love you, too. And by the way?"
He lifted his head to smile at her and cocked an eyebrow. "Yes?"
"If this is you out of practice, I cannot wait to see how great we are once we’re back in practice."
He chuckled. "I vote that we should set up regular practice sessions—frequent ones."
She pressed a kiss to his lips. "I second that motion."
"I should get off you. I must be crushing you."
She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tightly. "I’d rather you stay right where you are for a while—I’m strong enough to take your weight."
~ ~ ~
Emmett lay awake staring out the window at the big dark Montana sky. He had one arm around Harper while she slept with her chin next to his shoulder. He’d wanted her to lay her head on him, but she wouldn’t do it. She was still too concerned about his injuries.
He’d looked forward to sleeping with her for a long time now. He maybe should have waited longer—he’d be sore in the morning. His shoulder was throbbing, and the ever-present ache in his ribs was sharper now than it had been in weeks. But it had been worth it.
They’d fit together just right. He didn’t have vast experience when it came to sex, but he knew what good felt like—he glanced at her again and smiled.
It felt like Harper. He’d been concerned that she might be too.
.. dominant in bed for him. But it turned out that while she wasn’t exactly submissive, he kind of liked how.
.. empowered she was. She didn’t wait for him to take charge, but she didn’t try to steamroll him either.
It struck him that maybe in bed they’d each learn to let the other lead sometimes. That would help them if it carried over into the rest of their life together—and he was totally committed to them building a life together.
The girls would be back in the morning, and they’d all take it from there.
He hoped that Harper would stay for the rest of the weekend.
Even if not, she’d be back next weekend and would stay then, unless something went wrong along the way.
Even if it did, he knew that they’d keep moving forward.
Sure, they’d run into obstacles that they had to work past, but he refused to believe that they’d hit a roadblock that would stop them.
He leaned down to kiss the top of Harper’s head, and she opened her eyes for a moment and smiled.
"Wow."
He chuckled.
"Wow what?"
She turned onto her side, facing away from him, and snuggled back against him.
"Wow, it’s real. You’re here. I thought I was waking up from the best dream ever."
He kissed the back of her neck, and heat flashed through his veins when she made a little moaning noise and wiggled her ass.
He curled his arm around her middle and pulled her back against him.
"Do you want concrete proof that you’re not dreaming?"
She reached around to stroke him and chuckled.
"Not quite concrete yet."
He laughed with her. "Not yet, but the second you give me the word..."
"The word," she said with a laugh as she turned over to face him. "Prove to me it’s not a dream, Emmett."
He claimed her mouth in a deep, tender kiss and then went about proving to her that not only was his love for her real, but that he planned to keep loving her for the rest of his life.