“Ask me again and I’ll say yes,” she promised.
He fucked her in deep, long strokes. “I’ll ask you every day,” he grunted, “every hour,” his promise punctuated by the slap of his skin against hers.
Still inside her, he rolled her over so she was on top of him, his hands on her hips guiding her up and down, up and down in a slow rhythm. He sat up, his cock still buried deep within her, the new angle driving his length into her front wall over and over. She clasped her arms around his neck to steady herself as her orgasm began to gather low in her belly, and kissed him, a meeting of lips and tongues and teeth.
“You are my home,” he said against her ear before falling back on the bed. Adoration shone from his eyes as he watched her ride him.
One hand slipped lower over her belly, slipping through the tangle of curls on her mound and easily finding her plump, stiff clit. He plucked and twisted, flicked and circled, until she began to contract around him. Her orgasm tore through her, a raw force she was powerless to control, a moment she would live in forever, especially when she felt Liam’s cock kick and swell as it pumped his own release deep within her, heat searing through her belly.
Liam stilled within her, and she leaned down, dropping her head to his chest, their skin misted with a fine sheen of sweat from a bone-deep orgasm. His softening length slipped from inside her, and he cupped her face in his hands, kissing her temple, her closed eyelids, her jaw.
“Ask me again,” she said.
“Come home with me,” he murmured, his thumbs caressing her cheeks. “Make a life with me.”
“Yes.”
Epilogue
2 ½ years later
Providence, Rhode Island
Liam paced the hallway of the converted mill building, grumbling to himself. Even the sunlight streaming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows couldn’t soften his foul mood. His phone rang and he paused beneath a poster of last year’s production ofCarmento dig it out of his jeans pocket. At the sight of his wife’s name on the screen, he smiled – despite his determination to still be mad at his team – and answered.
“How’d it go?” he asked.
“I aced it. I know it,” Min answered.
“I knew you would. Congratulations, contessa.”
“Don’t congratulate me yet,” she said. “Until I see it in writing, I won’t believe I actually have my master’s.”
“Now you’re free – no more exams.”
“At least until the fall,” came her reply.
Liam chuckled, running a hand through his hair. “At this rate you’ll be a student forever.”
“I can’t let you be the only doctor in the family,” she joked. “How are auditions going?”
He scowled, wandering over to the windows to look out at the city below him. “Noah kicked me out of my own audition room!”
“I’m sure he had a good reason,” she replied, the audio hiccupping as her phone switched from Bluetooth to handheld.
“He said I knew one of the auditioners and they wanted to ensure an impartial casting decision.”
“Sounds reasonable to me.”
He sputtered, turning away from the window and pacing again, each frustrated shoe fall echoing in the high-ceilinged space. “It isnotreasonable! I’m surprised I don’t know every damn auditioner. It’s not like the classical music scene in Rhode Island is all that large. And if they’re going to kick me out of the room every time I know one of the auditioners, then –“
“Love, take a breath.” He paused and took her advice, noticing the sound of Min’s heels clicking along as she walked on the other end of the phone. “I’m sure you and Noah can work out a system to ensure an impartial decision while still keeping you involved. You trust him, right?”
“Yes,” he grumbled.
“Then what’s this really about?” He sighed, running his hand through his hair again. “And stop tugging on your hair. You can’t show up at my mother’s looking like you have sex hair – again.”
He smiled, despite himself. He loved how well she knew him.
