Chapter 17 #2
He held her gaze as he made love to her—and that's what this was, she realized.
Not just sex, not just fucking, but the physical manifestation of everything they felt for each other.
Every thrust said I love you. Every roll of his hips said I'm staying.
Every brush of his lips against hers said you're mine and I'm yours and nothing will ever change that.
"Arlo." His name came out like a prayer. "I'm close—"
"I know." He shifted slightly, angling his thrusts to hit the spot that made her see stars, his pubic bone grinding against her clit with every stroke. "I can feel you tightening around me. Come for me, Ivy. Let me feel you."
She came undone beneath him—a slow, rolling orgasm that started in her core and spread outward until every nerve ending in her body was singing. She clenched around his cock in waves, pulling him deeper, and he groaned at the sensation.
"Fuck—so good—" His rhythm stuttered, his control finally slipping. "Gonna come—"
"Inside me." She pulled him down for a kiss. "Fill me up. I want to feel you for hours."
He buried himself to the hilt and came with her name on his lips.
She felt him pulsing inside her, his cock jerking as he emptied himself deep in her cunt. The sensation was intimate beyond measure—this man, who'd killed for her and built for her and promised to stay, giving her the most vulnerable part of himself.
Afterward, they lay tangled together, his softening cock still inside her.
Neither of them wanted to break the connection—not yet. She could feel his cum warm inside her, could feel the occasional twitch of his spent cock, and the intimacy of it made her chest ache.
"When?" she asked.
"When what?"
"The claiming. When do we do it?"
"After Messer's handled. After this is finished and we're not looking over our shoulders anymore." He pressed a kiss to her hair. "I want to give you a celebration, not a wartime ceremony. Want you to remember it for the right reasons."
"And Mae?"
"What about her?"
"She's part of this too. Part of us." Ivy lifted her head to look at him. "If you're claiming me, you're claiming her. That's how this works."
Something moved across his face—emotion he couldn't hide, didn't try to. "I know. I want that. Want her to know she's mine too, in every way that matters."
"Have you thought about... officially? Legally?"
"Adoption?"
The word hung in the air between them.
"Only if you want it," she said quickly. "Only if—"
"I want it." His voice was rough, raw. "I want to be her father. Real father, legal father, the man whose name she carries. I want her to know that no matter what happens, she has someone who chose her. Who would choose her again, every time, without hesitation."
Ivy's eyes burned with tears she didn't try to hide. "She already knows that. She's known since you made her that first horse."
"Then let's make it official. When this is over—when Messer's gone and we're safe and the future starts being something we can plan for—let's do it right. The claiming, the adoption, all of it."
"All of it."
"Together."
"Together."
She kissed him, soft and certain, sealing the promise with something deeper than words.
This was what she'd stopped believing in. This was what Mae's father had proven impossible—a man who stayed, who chose them, who saw the package deal and said yes with his whole heart.
And now she had it.
Had him.
Had everything she'd been afraid to want.
"I should probably sleep," she murmured against his mouth. "Big days coming."
"Probably."
Neither of them moved. His cock was hardening inside her again, and she squeezed around him experimentally.
"Again?" He groaned. "Woman, you're going to kill me."
"What a way to go."
He laughed—actually laughed—and rolled them so she was straddling him, his cock fully hard now and buried deep inside her.
"Ride me." His hands found her hips, guiding her. "Take what you need."
She did.
She rode him slowly at first, savoring the fullness, the way his cock stretched her in this position. His hands roamed her body—cupping her breasts, pinching her nipples, sliding down to where they were joined so his thumb could circle her clit.
"That's it." His voice was strained with pleasure. "Use me. Take your pleasure from me."
She braced her hands on his chest and picked up the pace, rising and falling on his cock with increasing urgency. The sound of flesh meeting flesh filled the room, obscene and perfect.
"Arlo—I'm gonna—"
"Come." His thumb pressed harder against her clit. "Come all over my cock."
She shattered, her cunt clamping down on him as pleasure exploded through her. He grabbed her hips and thrust up into her, chasing his own release, and seconds later he followed her over the edge with a groan that echoed off the walls.
She collapsed onto his chest, both of them panting.
"Okay," she managed eventually. "Now I should sleep."
"Now you should sleep," he agreed.
But even as exhaustion pulled at her, she felt his arms tighten around her—possessive and protective and permanent.
"Arlo?"
"Mm?"
"Whatever happens with Messer—however this ends—I need you to promise me something."
"Anything."
"Come back to me." Her voice cracked on the words. "Whatever it takes, whatever you have to do, come back to me and Mae. We need you. I need you."
His arms tightened around her, and his cock—still buried inside her—twitched with renewed interest.
"I'm coming back," he said. "Every time. No matter what."
"Promise."
"I swear it on everything I am."
She believed him.
They fell asleep tangled together, bodies intertwined, his cum drying on her thighs, the conversation about claiming and family and forever settling into their bones like something that had always been true.
The claiming conversation had happened naturally.
Because they'd both known where this was leading from the moment he walked into her diner and refused to look away.