“From showing you how much I love you, how much I need you.”
She shifted on his lap and Ben tossed back his head with a hiss as she pressed her pelvis against his growing erection. Something primal stirred in him, a need to claim, to prove to her he would take care of her, give her everything she deserved and more.
Ben gripped her hips, grinding her cleft where he was desperate for friction. Her breath came in heated puffs on his forehead as she pulled the shift over her head and tossed it aside until only his trousers and her drawers separated them. “I need you, Rosie. I’ve needed you for so long.”
She nodded and pressed an urgent kiss to his lips. “You have me, you have all of me.”
Ben groaned as she lifted her hips and unbuttoned his pants, allowing his straining cock to push free. The fabric covering her cleft was damp against his flesh and his mind blanked under the onslaught of pleasure, every sensation heightened with the knowledge that Rose washis, and he was hers, and they could find a future together. Because she loved him.
With a whimper of frustration, Rose drove her hand between them and tore at the opening, then took his trembling fingers and slid them through her slickness.
“Fuck,Rose,“ he hissed, his desire made headier knowing how much he loved her, how she had found a way to put his broken pieces together again.
His thumb found her swollen nub and stroked it roughly, urged on by her whimpers and moans. He sucked her nipple into his mouth, teasing the tips into stiff nubs with his tongue and lips until she was writhing, moaning his name amid disjointed pleas.
“That’s my gorgeous Briar Rose,” he growled, sliding two fingers into her silky warmth. “So perfect and pretty when you’re coming for me. Use my hand, now. Make yourself come.”
She held his gaze as she rode him, her stocking-clad legs clamped on his thighs when she cried out and arched her back, gripping his shoulders before collapsing against his chest. As she settled back on his lap, Ben’s cock nudged her entrance and she froze.
“We should still use protection,” she whispered. “I mean, we’re not—”
I want to marry you. The words nearly escaped in a rush, but he bit them back. It was too much, too soon. They would have plenty of time together, years to build a home, a family. Tears of gratitude burned in his throat, robbing him of speech. “Not yet,” he managed.
He hoped she heard the unspoken promise in theyet, the desire that still felt too fragile to name. She was giving him the life that had been stolen away—
No. The life they would create together was altogether different, as he was a new man. Rose would not be a replacement, but a new beginning. A chance to start again.
While he would never admit it, Ben was grateful for Cass’s meddling when Rose found a tin of sheaths tucked in the pocket of his discarded jacket, then scrambled back onto his lap. Ben twisted a thick lock of her chestnut hair and wrapped it around his hand, then sucked air through his teeth as she rolled the rubber over his straining erection.
He couldn’t think as he slid into her heat, the grip of her flesh exquisite around his cock. Ben growled, then released a low oath.
Rose gasped at the same time and folded her arms around him, pulling her chest flush to his. The warmth of her body scalded him, branded him. Whatever came to pass between them, he wouldn’t let her go. She had burrowed into his heart and claimed it as her own, and for once the notion of giving his heart to another didn’t terrify him, but freed him.
“Dammit, I’m not going to last,” he panted against her neck as he drove his hips upward, his thighs trembling. “Ride my cock, Princess, ohgod,Rosie.”
She stilled for the barest moment, then pressed her lips to his, eliminating the need for speech. Their combined motions were sloppy and frenetic, lightning shooting down his spine far too rapidly. Ben tugged at the lock of hair around his fist and she moaned, grinding harder against him as she chased her climax.
She slid her hand back into the space between them and found the place where they joined. Her swirling fingers stroked the base of his cock with each thrust until he was gritting his teeth, clinging to her hips and praying for this moment to last a bit longer—
Her crisis burst around him, her cries filling his ears and rattling his soul as she contracted, squeezing until he thought he would stop breathing. Ben lifted her hips roughly and thrust deep into her, his cock pulsing against her womb as he filled the condom.
When he gathered the strength to lift Rose to standing, he disposed of the sheath and lifted her in his arms, carrying her into his—their—bedroom and laying her across the bed. A bone-deep satisfaction poured through him as he undressed, then removed the remnants of her drawers and stockings. Her eyelids fluttered as he cleaned between her legs with a damp towel, then climbed into bed, pulling her against him.
“What did your fairytales say about this?” Her voice was dreamy, barely reaching his ears. “What happens after the knight tells the princess that he loves her?”
He pressed a kiss to her temple, and his heart was full for the first time in years. “They live happily ever after.”
Chapter 30
Rosesatbackwitha smile of satisfaction spreading across her lips as she pinned the last piece of ribbon in place. Making use of her lackluster embroidery skills, she’d spent the past several hours folding lengths of green and purple ribbon into the rosettes they would hand out before the rally tomorrow. She held up her most recent creation. “How is this one?”
Cass looked up from where she sat at the kitchen table, checking the pamphlet they would distribute along with the rosettes. “Your best yet, but you’re still using too much of the purple.”
Abby, buried under a heap of white fabric she was attempting to sew into bonnets, fixed her lover with a scowl. “You’re being too picky.” She grinned at Rose. “They’re brilliant, Rose.”
Rose beamed. “Thank you.” She would show Ben as soon as he returned home, whenever that would be. As satisfying as their coupling had been the night before, Rose couldn’t ease the tension trapped in her chest. Another telegraph from Violet had arrived that morning, and Rose’s heart had been in her throat ever since.
You need to come home STOP Fern told Mama you planned to stay in New York and she is horrified STOP Who is the man you were with QUERY I am so worried STOP
