Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
THIRTEEN YEARS AGO
We’ve been meeting here for almost two months now, any trace of winter fading into memory, replaced by the kind of green that smells like new beginnings. The air is crisp, tinged with the damp sweetness of fresh grass. The tree that once sheltered us from the cold now watches over something warmer, deeper.
Kat’s hair no longer smells of jasmine.
She’s changed her shampoo since we met.
Now, she wears the perfume I bought her. Musk and roses. Dark, but still sweet—just like her. Every time I breathe her in, it clings to me, lingering on my clothes, my pillow, my skin.
Like she’s marking me.
And when we’re here at our tree, the one with our names carved into its trunk, it isn’t just where we meet anymore. It’s where we belong.
We still meet here more than anywhere else. We talk until the stars become constellations of dreams above us. We bring headlamps and blankets now, sometimes staying so late that I expect dawn to break before we find the strength to leave each other.
It’s still cold at night, but the heat between us keeps us warm despite being half-naked under this blanket.
I slide my hands up the smooth curve of her torso, my thumbs grazing the swell of her breasts, catching on the stiff peaks of her nipples.
A moan spills from her lips. Breathless. Wanting.
I press slow, open-mouthed kisses down her neck, tracing a path only I get to explore. When I take her nipple between my lips, she arches into me, a silent plea for more.
I answer her without words—spreading her legs wider, feeling her through the thin barrier of her panties. I’m so hard it’s painful, so desperate for her I don’t even care that I’m grinding against nothing but the fabric between us.
This shouldn’t be enough.
But it could be. Because it’s her.
My groan pours onto her skin, hungry, restless, reckless.
She laces her cold fingers through mine, arching herself so close it’s like she’s trying to fuse us together.
“Mmm. You’re fucking killing me…” she murmurs, her voice husky, dark with need.
She doesn’t know the half of it.
I grind harder, deeper, feeling the dewy heat of her even through the layers between us. She moves in sync with me until I swear we’re not two people anymore, just raw sensation, just aching need. Then, she grabs my wrist, guiding my hand where she wants it.
“God, you feel good,” she hisses, lifting her hips. Offering. Begging.
I slide my thumbs under the waistband of her panties, dragging them down with slow, torturous precision.
Her bare skin greets the cool night air.
I cup one perfect breast, savoring the warmth, the weight of it in my palm. Then, I sink my teeth into the soft swell of her flesh.
She gasps.
I bite again, harder this time.
I’m starving. I can’t stop.
Her breath catches, but she doesn’t pull away. “Fuck, cowboy…” she moans.
The sound of it nearly undoes me.
I let my mouth fall to her ear and drag my nose along the delicate curve of it. “Does it hurt, Michi ?”
She shudders beneath me. Fucking trembles.
“I like it…” she whispers. Then, bolder, breathier, “I love it.”
Her hand drifts down between us, palm closing around the thick, rigid length of me.
“You’re so hard…” she murmurs, need tangled in her voice.
I growl, pushing my hips forward until my shaft is nestled in her slick heat, sliding along the swollen seam of her pussy.
Fuck.
I don’t even try to stop the rough edge in my voice. “See what you do to me? ”
Her breath hitches. She tilts her hips, coaxing me, daring me to lose myself. “Put it in, Santi…”
Sensations pour in. My cock is hard as fuck and her hips rocking sinful pressure back and forth. Her skin in my mouth. I suck her nipple between my teeth and want to bite her so goddamn hard but I have to stop myself. I could devour her. Ravage her… I’m that wild with lust for her.
Instead, I give her what she’s asked for. I reach over to my jeans and fiddle around until I grab that foil from my pocket. Then, I flip her over.
My body is flush with hers now. I pin her down, lace my fingers through hers, and secure them into the blanket below us. All our skin is touching, we’re connected, her heartbeat rages right through her back and on that tattoo on my chest she created. She’ll stay with me forever.
I want this forever.
“You know I fucking love you…”
My words are so low I’m not sure she heard me right.
But she stills. Her cheek is pressed to the blanket, and her hair covers her face. I brush it off. Her eyes are open, but it’s as if she’s stopped breathing.
“Kat…” Maybe she wasn’t ready for me to say that. Maybe I just fucked this whole thing up. “Are you…?”
She interrupts me. “Say it again.” Her voice is fragile and fierce at the same time. “If you meant it, say it again.”
My words are whispered, but they’re no less mighty. “I love you.”
She closes her eyes. “Nobody has ever said that to me before.”
The words gut me. Because I know she doesn’t just mean romantically. It might be the hardest truth she’s ever spoken. The saddest confession of her life.
I trace the shell of her ear with my nose. “Well, now you have someone who loves you so much you might not be able to handle it.”
She smiles, but a tear rolls down her cheek. “I can handle it, cowboy.” Her bright blue eyes find me in the moonlight. “And I’m going to love you so hard you’ll think I’m crazy.”
I close my eyes, a slow burn of something unstoppable curling through me. “That’s what life is about. Being so ridiculously passionate people think you’re a little crazy. Now I can be crazy with somebody.”
She wipes another silent tear away. Her vulnerability is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
“I’m going to hold on to you, Kat. I’ll take care of you. You’re mine now.”
She laces her fingers back through mine and somehow tugs me tighter against her. “I’ve never been good at telling people how I feel. But you make me want to try.”
“I’m your sanctuary, Michi . I’ll always be your safe place.”
With that, she lifts her hips, asking for more contact, asking to consummate what this is. Our version of always…
I rise on my knees and roll on the condom. I wrap my hand under her hips and drag her ass in the air. She’s irresistible like this. I take her ass cheeks in my hands. I run my tongue from her entrance right up her entire slit, then sink my teeth into her backside, not hard enough to break the skin but hard enough to temporarily brand her.
“Jesus…” she hisses. “Please put it in now…”
I circle my dick around her entrance then put it in just an inch, still wanting to take her ass in my mouth, but she doesn’t hesitate and eases back into me so my cock sinks into her warm insides.
“Shit, you’re tight, Kat… ”
I wrap a handful of her hair around my hand so her head tilts slightly back. I drive inside her, slow, deliberate, making my way in and out, deeper and deeper, long, hard strokes.
I thrust, and she slaps one of her hands on my ass and digs her nails into it. “More.”
I want to watch her face when she comes. I flip her back over and hook her leg over my shoulder, then sink my cock back into her. When I stroke her clit with my thumb, she drops her head back, neck exposed, a perfect canvas for more bite marks.
But she bucks up against me forcefully, urging me to grind harder. I fondle her engorged clit; she’s on the knife’s edge of orgasm.
“Santi…” she cries.
And with that, her clit pulses, her pussy clenches hard around my cock, and I join her by releasing in fast, fierce waves. Every muscle in my body is taut and straining until I collapse to feel the rapid rise and fall of her chest on mine, and my face is in a pillow of glossy brown hair.
She slows. Stills. The silence in her satisfaction is one I welcome.
She’s often quiet after coming, but today, she’s more still than usual. Too still. Even the rise and fall of her chest is invisible with her underneath me.
“Kat?” I lift my head from her sweet-smelling locks and stare at her face, dark and hard to make out with only a sliver of moonlight illuminating it.
She doesn’t answer but covers her eyes. “How will we do it? How will we be together?”
I know she’s talking about her father. He’s a wealthy, powerful man in business. He thinks his success entitles him to more than it does. He treats Kat as his property, and I’m not sure giving her to me will be his idea of a good investment.
When I think about his disapproval, it does things to me. It does things within me that have never happened before. I always prided myself in dismissing other people’s opinions of me, unless they’re my family, but this one… it stings.
I wish it could be different for me and Kat. I’ve kept our relationship a secret. Somehow, I knew she needed that discretion. If she had any fear her dad would find out about us, we might never have gotten to this point.
But now she’s mine, and we’re not living in his shadow forever.
“You’ll have me,” I say; the words spill out, and I mean them. God, I mean them more than I’ve ever meant anything in my life.
Her eyes widen, searching mine for something. Doubt. Hesitation. A lie. But I’m steady, holding her gaze like it’s the only thing keeping her from floating away.
“Come with me, Kat. We’ll figure it out together.” My voice is steady, but my heart is racing. “I’ll build that ranch and get that first winner. We’ll make a life where you can paint and do whatever the fuck you want. I’ll take care of you. I promise.”
Her breath catches. She blinks up at me, her lashes heavy with emotion. “Santi,” she whispers. “I’d live with you?”
I don’t hesitate. “Yes.”
I mean it and yet know how imperfect my answer is.
I still share a place with my brothers. Rio and Enzo are in tech, burning through savings to make it big. Gabriel is always halfway across the world, too closed off to let anyone in.
I don’t have the funds to build that first house on my land yet, and it guts me—the thousand paper cuts of knowing I can’t hand Kat the life she’s used to on a silver platter.
But I will one day.
What I can give her now? Something money can’t buy. Freedom. Loyalty. Love.
“I know I don’t have much right now, Kat,” I admit, my voice rough with the weight of it. “But I promise I’ll give you everything that matters.”
If she comes with me, she’ll have to give up everything—college, the safety net her father’s money provides. He’ll cut her off. I already know it. I also know I can’t let my brothers carry the weight of our family’s dreams alone, even if they’d understand.
Kat would be trading caviar for ramen.
But I’ve never once thought she was in this life for money.
She’s untamed, moved by brushstrokes and wildflower meadows, drawn to the kind of beauty that can’t be bought. Sometimes when I watch her work—so lost in it she forgets the world exists—it’s like witnessing something sacred.
Besides the tattoo parlor, our only date has been this tree. A blanket. Stolen kisses. And somehow, it’s been enough.
But I want more.
I want to build something.
Not just for her, but for my family. My dad won’t be young forever. Our ranch back home has been through hell, and I don’t want him carrying that stress another damn day. I want to give him the peace he’s earned.
Because that’s what we do.
We’re cowboys, but we’re also first generation. Our parents came here with nothing but calloused hands and a dream, and it’s on us to make good on that sacrifice.
And now? Now I have another reason to work my ass off.
Kat.
She has to choose this with her whole heart. Because it’s not just luxury she’d be leaving behind.
It’s her father.
And even when a parent is awful, some part of you still wants them to love you.
I shift against the tree and gather her up, wrapping her in my arms. The blanket shields us from the night, but she’s the only warmth I need.
She’s quiet, curled against my chest.
I tilt my head, studying her in the moonlight.
God, I love her.
And I’m scared. Because this? This is everything.
“ Michi ?” My heart is in my throat. “What do you want from me?”
Her breath stirs against my skin, but she doesn’t answer. Her eyes, wide and searching, hold a quiet war.
I cup her face, guiding her gaze to mine. “If you come here for pleasure, I’ll undress you.”
I drag my thumb over her lower lip, and she shivers.
“If you come here for romance, I’ll kiss you.”
Her breath stutters.
But this is more than that.
I press my forehead to hers. “If you come here to be alive… I’ll love you.”
Her blue eyes blaze, locking me in.
I swallow hard. “I want to be with you.” The words slip out, raw, unfiltered. “If you come with me, it won’t be easy. It won’t be without sacrifices. But I will never let you down. I’ll take care of you. Do you want that?”
She takes a lifetime to answer.
And as much as I love that about her—the way she thinks things through, considers every angle—right now, it’s fucking killing me.
Say yes, baby, say yes.
Finally, she speaks.
“The only place I breathe is here with you.” A gentle smile ghosts her lips. “Yes.”
I crash my lips to hers. It’s a kiss unlike any we’ve shared before—deep, soul-claiming, a promise and a prayer. And when we finally pull apart, breathless, hearts pounding, we make a plan.
I’m going to steal the princess right out of her tower.
And make her my queen.