Chapter 22 Levi
Levi
A shaky breath flew past my lips. “You really think she’ll like this?” I asked Luke.
“Yeah.” He nodded, scanning around the living room at all the flowers spread around and the flickering tea light candles scattered around every surface. “It’s what they do in the movies.”
I side-eyed him. “What kind of movies are you watching?”
He shrugged. “Good ones?”
I chuckled and checked my phone as another wave of anxiety hit. Tess would be home from dinner with the girls any second. I’d asked them to get her out of the house so I could set all of this up, and Delilah just texted that they were on the way to drop Tess off.
“I don’t know why I’m so nervous. We’re already married,” I said to no one in particular.
I considered the tiny velvet box in my hand and its significance.
Yes, Tess and I were married, but I’d never proposed.
Not in a way that wasn’t a strategy over overpriced coffees.
I never got on one knee and poured my heart out, never slid a diamond on her finger.
And she deserved it. She deserved the world, and I wanted to give it to her.
“Because she’s Mommy,” Luke said simply. “And Mommy’s perfect.”
“Yeah,” I replied with a heavy breath. “She is.”
She’d been nothing short of it in the week that had passed since Luke’s court hearing.
She was unwavering in her support of Luke, helping him overcome what had happened.
She even helped me cope with my own tangled emotions over it.
And on top of it all, she still went to the ranch every day to work.
Claire and Beau offered to let her work from home for a few days, but she refused, telling them she didn’t want Jeremy to affect another part of her life.
The front door creaked open, and my heart slammed against my sternum. The air thickened to the point I nearly choked on it. Luke giggled when Tess’s gasp rang through the foyer. “Shh,” I whispered, holding a finger against my mouth. His shoulders scrunched up, an infectious grin on his face.
“Babe?”
I cleared my throat. “Back here,” I said.
With every click of her heels against the floor, my heart beat faster. When she came into view, her hand flew to her mouth, her eyes widening as she looked around at our living room bathed in candlelight, the floor covered in rose petals. “What is this?” she cried.
I held out my hand. “Come here.”
Her hand was shaking as it slid into mine, her eyes rimmed with tears. “Hi, babygirl.” My voice came out as nothing more than a shaky breath.
She grinned as a tear ran down her cheek. “Hi.”
“Daddy wants to ask you something, Mommy,” Luke said, like I’d told him to.
“Oh?” she squeaked. Her teary laugh rang through the living room as I dropped to my knee.
“Tess…” I swallowed roughly. “I think you know where this is going, but there’s something I want to tell you first.”
She bit her lip and nodded. “Okay.”
“You said last week that I changed your life, and maybe that’s the case, but it’s no comparison to how much you’ve changed mine.
I walked through the world alone most of my life, thinking I’d never know what it’s like to experience true happiness.
It was dark and lonely, and I didn’t think it’d ever end.
” My smile grew. “But then you walked into my office two months ago.”
Tess’s grip on my hand tightened. “That day, I saw how resilient you were. How you didn’t let the things that happened to you harden your soft heart. And the second the door shut behind you, I missed you.”
“Levi,” she cried.
“Your heart is the thing I love most about you, the thing I fell in love with first.” My thumb slid along her knuckles.
My face hurt, I was smiling so hard, just thinking about what I was going to say. “I look at you and the world just…glows, Tess. You and your soft, sweet heart make everything better: brighter, lighter, perfect. And at the risk of sounding cliché, I want to bask in it forever.”
“That is really cliché,” she agreed. “But I love it.”
“And I love you. I love you more than I ever thought possible, and I want to love you for the rest of our lives.” I opened the box. “So will you marry me, Tess? For real this time?”
Chin quivering, she nodded, dropping to her knees in front of me.
She kissed me hard. “Of course, I’ll marry you,” she wept against my lips, kissing me again.
This kiss felt almost as good as our first. Both of them were a promise, a commitment to one another, but this time it was real, the realest thing I’d ever felt.
“Yay!” Luke cheered, jumping up and down around us as I slid the ring on her finger.
Tess gasped, wiggling her fingers, the emerald-cut diamond catching in the candlelight. “Oh, Levi, it’s gorgeous.”
“You like it?”
“I love it.” She grinned before kissing me again. My hand slid into her hair, cradling the back of her head as the kiss deepened. My blood simmered in my veins, and the ring box fell to the ground next to me so I could grab her hip, my fingers flexing against the supple curve.
“Wait.” She pulled back, gasping. Her eyes were hazy with desire. “I need to make a phone call.”
“Wha—a phone call?” She just agreed to forever with me and needed to make a phone call?
She stood up, straightening her dress. She went to her purse, taking out her phone.
“Hey.” She bit her lip and stepped out of her heels, rolling her ankles.
She giggled. “Yeah, y’all were right, he did.
” She glanced over at me, her cheeks tinged pink as her gaze raked over my body. “Can Luke have a sleepover?”
Oh. I could get on board with this. The room grew hotter the longer her eyes stayed locked on mine, and my mind instantly started racing with all the places I’d fuck her around the house once Luke left.
By the time Tess got Luke situated in Anna’s car and they pulled out of the driveway, I was vibrating with impatient need. She yelped when I snatched her inside by her wrist. Her mouth was warm and welcoming as I kissed her. I kicked the door shut with my foot, walking her back into the wall.
“I want you in nothing but the rings I put on your finger in the next thirty seconds,” I ordered against her lips, already ripping my suit jacket off and tossing it to the floor.
She turned around, her eyes like fire as she peered up at me through her lashes. “Unzip me,” she rasped.
I nearly ripped the zipper I moved so fast, sending her dress to the floor in a pool of pink fabric. A breathy sigh left her as I kissed along her shoulder, sliding her bra straps off before popping the clasp.
“Maybe I should fuck you right here,” I whispered against her skin, my hand sliding around her stomach and slipping past the waistband of her panties. “Right up against the wall.”
She shivered, pushing her ass out against me. “Maybe you should.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
A little whimper left her when my fingers met her clit. “Oh God,” she moaned, bracing a hand on the wall. Her rings glistened in the dim light, and my heart soared at the sight.
I moved my hand faster, using more pressure.
She sucked in a sharp breath, her other hand grabbing my wrist. “I’m going to make you come on my fingers,” I whispered in her ear.
“And then I’m going to lay you down on the floor over there where you agreed to be mine forever, and fuck you so well the only thing you can say after is my name. ”
“Yes,” she cried out, her chest heaving.
My chuckle rumbled in my chest. “Oh, that wasn’t me asking, babygirl.
” I slipped two fingers in her soaked pussy, groaning at the feel of her.
She ground her clit into the heel of my palm while I curled my fingers back towards my palm.
My teeth tugged on the lobe of her ear gently.
“Just letting you know what I have planned for my wife.”
Her muscles clamped around my finger, the smacking sound of my palm meeting her pussy drowned out by her shrill moans as she came. “Why does that make me come every time?” she panted, her hand sliding off the wall.
She turned around, and my breath caught in the back of my throat. She was devastating, looking up at me with adoration in her eyes, her kiss-swollen lips begging to be tasted again, locks of dark red hair spilling over her porcelain skin in loose curls.
My breathing quickened the longer her eyes stayed on mine; the effect she had on me was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Something in the air shifted. Gone was the impatient urgency that was just coursing through me, and in its place was something more tender, reverent even.
“Do you know how gorgeous you are, babygirl?”
She stepped towards me, sliding her hands up my chest. I jerked forward as she ripped my shirt open just like our first time, buttons scattering all over the floor.
Wordlessly, she slid her hands over my shoulders, sending my shirt to the floor with her dress and bra.
My pants and boxers joined the pile seconds later.
“Only because you make me feel that way,” she said and took my hand, leading me into the living room.
She looked heaven-sent, surrounded by candlelight, gazing at me like I was the thing she treasured most in this world. The scent of roses and her sweet perfume filled the air in an intoxicating mix that had me dropping to my knees, taking her panties down her legs as I went.
She lowered on top of me, straddling my lap.
My hands slid up her back, savoring every dip and curve of her.
Her head lolled back with a throaty moan as I kissed along her chest. “I need you,” she panted, rolling her hips and drawing a string of moans from me.
She felt so good, so perfect, wrapped around me like this.
I sank a hand in her hair, pulling her head back and tracing the curve of her neck with my tongue. “You have me, sweetheart.”
Tess reached between us, stroking my cock until I shook with need. I was about to beg when she rose up on her knees, notching my tip at her entrance. “I need a condom,” I blurted, almost not remembering our agreement.
“No, you don’t,” she said and sank down.
“Fuck, Tess.” My forehead fell against her chest, my eyes rolling shut at the bliss that shot through me.
She started to move at a torturous pace. My fingers dug into her hips, dragging her against me harder. Our eyes met, and my heart sang, my chest aching with it. “I love you.”
“I love you,” she whimpered, sliding a hand in my hair and bringing my mouth to hers.
I kissed her with everything I had, our mouths moving as languidly as our bodies.
It was electrifying, all-encompassing, life-changing to have her like this: unhurried, raw, exposed.
I’d never had sex like it before, and based on the way Tess was clinging to me, I didn’t think she had either.
This wasn’t lust or even love; it was permanence. A complete merging of two people.
She moaned into my mouth, growing tighter with every thrust we made against one another. “Where do you want it, sweetheart?” I whispered, nearing the edge.
“Where it belongs.” Her response had my cock jerking inside her, about to blow.
My fingers tangled in her hair, our foreheads pressed together. Her every exhale was my inhale, and I’d never felt more connected to someone in my life. Tess moved faster, her movements becoming jerky. “Levi,” she whimpered, her thighs shaking.
“I know, babygirl,” I cooed, running my hands all over her. “Come with me.”
She came with a shrill cry against my lips, her body quaking on top of mine and dragging me with her. I groaned low and deep, spilling inside her. My back met the ground, and she collapsed on top of me, both of us breathing hard.
I stared at the ceiling, trailing my fingers up and down Tess’s spine. “That was good,” she murmured contentedly, breaking the silence.
She shook on top of me from my sharp laugh. “Good? Try euphoric.”
She propped her chin on her hands, looking up at me with a knowing smile. “That too.” I grunted as she got off me to lie beside me. “I think I’m a fan of floor sex.”
My brows raised a fraction. “That right?”
Her fingers walked up my chest, and she nodded. “Mhm.”
I took her hand, bringing it to my mouth. “Noted,” I replied with a smirk.
She propped herself up on her elbow, her hair slipping over her shoulder to the floor. “You really are the greatest thing to ever happen to me.”
My heart skipped a beat, my chest flooding with that light of hers. “Me too, sweetheart.”
I held her close, the future playing out in my mind, the anxiety I felt over the unknown nowhere to be found.
All I felt was contentment. Pure, complete contentment.
And for the first time since we talked in the park, there wasn’t one piece of me that didn’t hope she was pregnant right now.
I was self-aware enough to know that it was insane to feel that way, but I did. I wanted our little family of Hollises—
I sat up quickly and blurted, “I want to adopt Luke.”
Tess’s mouth popped open, her eyes wide. “What?”
“I want to adopt him.” She sat up slowly, still staring at me with that concerned look.
I placed my hand over my heart. “He’s my son here and always will be, no matter what, but I want us all to have the same last name.
You, me, Luke,”—I reached for her stomach and she gasped, staring down at my hand—“and whoever comes next. We’re already a family, and we don’t need a piece of paper to say that, but I want him to know that I’m proud to be the dad he chose—honored—and that I choose him too. ”
“You want to adopt Luke.”
“Yes.”
Tess’s breathing quickened, her eyes becoming glossy. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. A thousand percent yes.”
Tess’s hand covered mine where it rested on her stomach, her chin trembling beneath her smile. “He’s going to lose it when you tell him,” she whispered.
I grinned, a part of me wishing he were here now so I could ask him if it was okay. I was tempted to call Anna or Joseph, but it was too late now, and I knew he’d be asleep.
“Luke Hollis,” Tess said, and something clicked in place in my chest. A missing piece I hadn’t even realized was missing until she’d said it. “It sounds good, strong.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat and nodded. “Just like him.”
And for the first time in my life, everything felt exactly where it was meant to be.
The family I’d always wanted. My forever.