Page 27 of The Gruff Loner’s Bargain

He pockets his phone and wraps his arm around me.

“Just like that?” I ask.

“Like what?”

“You. So convinced you loved me before you even knew me. Your mom’s ring, Landry? What if I had lost it.”

He shrugs. “It’s yours to lose, darlin. And yes, I was already convinced. One word out of your sassy mouth and I was a damn goner. I told you, you’re my forever. I’ll wait as long as it takes for you to feel it too.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

He pales slightly when he looks at me. “You don’t want to love me?”

“No.” I cup his cheek. “What if I don’t want to wait?”

“Then don’t. Let’s love each other too soon. Let’s love each other too much, too hard. You and me. We’ll be a team.”

I nod and pull his mom’s ring off my finger and hold it out to him.

“Make it official,” I tell him.

Her grins and my heart pounds loudly in response.

“Brooklyn, will you marry me?”

“Yes. I will!”

Then he slides the ring back into place.

Applause goes off around us and I realize that we just did that at the busy airport gate.

Landry kisses me then, and I forget everything but the feel of his lips.

This man. He’s the one I want.

So, I will do what he suggested. I will love him too soon, too much and too hard. For the rest of our lives.

epilogue

Landry

a few months later…

“That’s it, darlin, suck that cock.” The water sprays around us in our large glass-enclosed shower. “Goddammit, Manhattan, look at you on your knees swallowing my dick. Do you know how sexy you are?”

She moans around my shaft, her brown eyes looking up at me. I nearly blow, but I’m saving this load for something special today.

“It’s time, darlin’, so stand up and put your hands on the shower wall.”

She does as I’ve instructed.

“I’ve waited long enough. I’m dying to see you grow round with my kid. I’m breeding you today.”

Her lips part as she glances over her shoulder at me. “Why is that hot?”

“Because you and me, Brooklyn, we’re combustible together. Widen your stance a little.”

She steps further apart.