by Sarah Curtis
And he wouldn’t end it until he made Sadie come one more time for him. But he needed to change positions, or he would never last.
Grabbing her hips, he rolled, keeping them connected. Sadie’s head shot up, her hands landing on his shoulders to keep balance. “Ride me.” He reached up, pinching a nipple at the same time his thumb found her clit.
She moaned and started moving. Up. Down. He watched her breasts bounce, and it was almost his undoing. He surged his hips as she ground down. She arched back, grabbing hold of his thighs, and found a rhythm. He had one hand holding her ass, the other keeping pressure on her clit as she moved.
He was close. So damn close.
“Fuck me harder, baby.”
He squeezed her ass, rolled circles over her clit, and he felt it. She was coming. Her pace quickened, and her movements grew jerky. She tensed before going limp and collapsing forward onto his chest, her breaths heavy and labored.
He grabbed her hips, pumped into her two last times, and found release.
Endless fucking release.
He circled her with his arms, a hand rubbing her back.
Mine.
He’d never felt so content. “I love you.” Three simple words that held so much meaning. So much feeling. Joy. Serenity. Hope. Awe.
And then his girl lifted her head from his shoulder and gave him the smile he loved so damn much before giving him the best feeling of all.
“I love you, too.”
Sadie
“So, what’s in the basket?” Sadie eyed it with interest. She was starving.
They were back in the living room on the blanket, Sadie in Dean’s shirt and Dean in only his jeans, the bare muscles of his chest on full display—a state in which Sadie found it hard to pull her eyes from.
Grinning, he opened the lid, taking out several containers. “It’s all finger foods. Thought it would be easier that way.”
Cheese, meat, crackers, grapes, olives—the basket was endless. Sadie peeked inside. A few containers remained. “What’s in those?”
“Dessert.” He pulled out a stack of napkins and slammed the basket closed. “To be eaten later.”
Sadie mock pouted and reached for a grape. “I suppose fruit is a good second choice.”
Dean snatched a cracker and popped it in his mouth. “I say we lay our cards on the table,” he said after he swallowed.
Sadie raised her brows. “More than you already have?”
“Different cards. Let’s call them tarot cards, as we’ll be talking about our future.”
Sadie’s smile fell as she had a thought. “You’re not from here. Are you leaving California?”
He popped a grape into his mouth. “That depends on you.”
“On me?”
“Already thought about moving here permanently if you don’t want to move to Tennessee.”
“But what about your job?”
“I’ll be transferred. I can sell my house. Buy us something here.”
“You own a house?”
Dean laughed. “Yeah. In a suburb about thirty miles from Nashville. It’s a three-bedroom but small and on only an acre of land, so if you do want to move, we’d need to upgrade once we have kids.”
“An acre! Wait… Kids?”
“Sweetheart, your mouth is hanging open.”
Sadie snapped her mouth closed but quickly opened it again when she repeated, “Kids?”
Dean’s brow puckered. “You don’t want kids?”
“No. No, I do. It’s just…” She floundered, “We haven’t even talked about marriage yet.”
“Something I plan to rectify soon—if you’ll have me.”
“Was that a proposal?”
“It was a promise. For later.”
“Wow. Everything’s happening so fast.”
Dean reached over and took her hand. “Sadie. Nothing’s happening. We’re only talking.” He squeezed her hand.
“Right.” She felt her heartbeat steady. “Just talking.” She grabbed a cracker, covered it with a slice of cheese, and shoved both into her mouth.
“If you do decide to move, my friend’s cousin is a nurse. She can hook you up.”
She waited until she swallowed to say, “As wonderful as all that sounds, I can’t leave my mom.”
Dean shrugged. “Who says she can’t move, too?”
Sadie worried her lip. “I have been trying to get her to sell the house. It has so many memories of Dad and holding on to it hasn’t been good for her. She’s wasting away there. Maybe I’ll have better luck if I move out of the state and drag her with me.”
“Sounds like you want to move to Tennessee.”
She chuckled. “It does, doesn’t it.”
Dean picked up a cracker, piled it with a slice of meat and cheese, and handed it to her. She took it and started nibbling. He made another one for himself and popped the whole thing into his mouth.
“Dogs or cats?” he asked after swallowing.
The random question threw her. “What?”
“Are you a dog or cat person?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve never had either.”
He seemed surprised. “You never had a pet growing up?”
“Not a dog or a cat. My dad was allergic. I did have a fish once, but it died after about a month.”
Dean chuckled. “So, you’re a fish person?”
Sadie wrinkled her nose, and he laughed harder.
“What about you? Dog or Cat?”
“Dog.”
“That was a quick response.”
Dean lifted a shoulder. “Got a couple of black Labs at home. I miss them.”
“What’re their names?”
“Mulder and Scully.”
That surprised her. “From the X-Files?”
He shrugged again. “It’s one of my favorite shows.”
“How did I not know that?”
“We never came across reruns on TV, so I never thought to mention it.”
A frown pulled at her brow. They’d just touched upon a hot topic. “And you couldn’t tell me about your dogs because you were supposed to be starting over in a new town.”
The relaxed expression he’d been wearing morphed, and guilt filled his eyes, and she was instantly sorry she ruined the mood.
He reached for her hand, taking it. “I can’t change how we started, but I can promise from here on out, I’ll be an open book. No more lies.”
No more lies. Okay, here was the big question. The one she’d been dreading to ask because it could make or break them. “And your job, if we go back to Tennessee, will you need to go undercover again?”
An image of Dean riding into a new town pretending to be carefree and single shoved itself into her head. A whole scenario parallel to their own played out in vivid color. And once it was there, she couldn’t unsee it. He would meet another woman, maybe need to get close to her to strengthen his charade. How far would he need to take it? Would he kiss her? More? Sickness filled her stomach.
“Hey.” Dean squeezed her hand again, pulling her from her thoughts. “I know what you’re thinking. Stop.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You don’t know what I’m thinking.”
“Never in my years as a DEA agent and working undercover have I ever hooked up with a woman while on the job. For business or pleasure. I’d never go there.”
Okay, maybe he did. “But you did with me.” She wasn’t sure if that was a statement or an accusation. Her emotions on the subject were still tender.
Obviously not close enough—even though they were sitting so their knees touched—Dean grabbed hold of her and hauled her into his lap. He wrapped one arm around her back, the other over her hips. She wasn’t going anywhere.
“Told you already that you were different. From the start, even though I knew it was wrong, I couldn’t let you go. I couldn’t do the right thing—the ethical thing—and walk away. Deep d
own in my gut, I knew if I did that, I’d be letting the love of my life slip through my fingers, destroying any chance of future happiness. I’d been right—you’re my world. I can’t see my future without you in it. And darlin’, I don’t want a future without you in it.”
She melted into his embrace, but he wasn’t done. “Now, to answer your question. That shit is done. Already informed my boss I wouldn’t be doing any more undercover jobs. I can’t promise I won’t need to go out of town now and again to assist in a raid or a bust because my job is multi-jurisdictional, but I won’t be gone longer than a few days at a time.”
“I’ll miss you.” She didn’t mean for that to pop out, but when she saw the tenderness seep back into his eyes, she wasn’t sorry it had.
“Oh, sweetheart, I’ll miss you even more.”
“Your job scares me.”
“I’m careful.”
“Did you forget you were shot a couple of days ago?” Her eyes narrowed on his temple.
“I won’t be undercover, so I’ll be able to wear protective gear.”
That made her feel a little better.
But only a little.
His smile returned. “Let’s shelve that for now and have dessert.”
“Yes, please.”
But he didn’t reach for the basket. He reached under her shirt instead.
Chapter Seventeen
Dean
“Where are you going?” Sadie mumbled, not bothering to stir. Her eyes were closed, head tucked into the pillow, curled on her side.
“Getting dessert, part two.”
Her eyes snapped open right before she sat up, clutching the sheet to her chest. “Dessert?” She blinked her eyes rapidly as though trying to wake up.
Cute as fuck.
He held back a grin. “I’ll be right back.”
He bypassed the living room going straight to the kitchen to grab a couple of waters from the fridge, snatching the basket on his way back through. He set it on the foot of the bed and climbed in.
He handed her a water.
“Thank you.” She took a long drink before recapping it and setting it on the nightstand.
He reached into the basket and pulled out the only blue, plastic container. “It’s not ice cream, but I hope you’ll still like it.”
His heartbeat tripled in speed as she pried off the lid and tossed it on the bed, the scent of cinnamon making its way to him.
She smiled up at him. “You remembered snickerdoodles are my favorite.”
“With chocolate chip a close second.”
Chuckling, she reached for a cookie.
Then gasped.
Because nestled under the top one was a ring.
Dean had thought about waiting, wanting to give Sadie a little more time to digest they were a them again, but the timing was too perfect to pass up. Besides, now that he got his girl back, he wasn’t taking a chance on losing her again. He wanted his ring on her finger.
“Sadie.” Her eyes shot to him, and his nerves vanished when he read the happiness in their depths. She wanted this. “I feel like I’ve waited an eternity for you, and, sweetheart, you were well worth the wait. I can’t promise there won’t be some bad times along with the good, but I can promise to stand by your side and love you through it all, every damn day, until the day I die. I want you to be my wife, the mother of my children, my partner in life. And when we’re old and gray, I want to sit on a porch swing and watch our great-grandchildren play, with you sitting beside me, wrapped in my arms. So, Sadie, will you marry me?”
“Yes.” She didn’t even fucking hesitate.
Dean plucked the ring from the container. “Give me your hand.”
She raised her left hand, fingers trembling. He slipped it on her finger and brought it to his lips. “Forever.” He placed a kiss on the knuckle of her ring finger.
“Forever,” she repeated, the smile lighting her face, telling him everything he needed to know.
Mine.
Finally.
“What would you have done had our talk not gone so well?” Sadie asked, nibbling on her second cookie, but he noticed her eyes kept straying to the ring on her finger.
His kept landing on it, too. He liked it there. A lot. “You would have gotten the chocolate cake instead.”
Sadie rolled to her knees and tried to peer into the basket. “There’s chocolate cake in there?”
Fucking adorable.
He reached in and pulled out a container popping the lid off and handing it to her.
That cute as fuck line between her eyes appeared when she glared down at it. “These are mini muffins,” she accused with a note of horror in her tone.
Dean suppressed his smile and shrugged. “It was a finger-food theme.”
Skeptically, she sniffed it before peeling off the wrapper and tossing the whole thing into her mouth. Her eyes grew wide, and she brought a hand up to cover her mouth to speak around the muffin. “I take it back. It’s as good as cake. They have chocolate chips!”
Dean couldn’t hold back the laughter. It burst from him as he dove for her, planting his lips to hers in a hard kiss, not caring that her mouth was still full. His body shook as silent laughter tried to escape. He raised his head and couldn’t help but tease, “But not as good as ice cream.”
“Dean, nothing on the planet is as good as ice cream.”
“Not even me?” He tried to sound hurt.
He didn’t fool her because she teased back, placing a finger to her chin, pretending to think about it. “Well…”
“Is that so?” His fingers moved to her ribcage and pressed.
She shrieked. “I take it back! You’re better than ice cream,” she gasped between fits of giggles as he relentlessly tickled down her sides. “You’re better than anything.”
“Better than everything,” he corrected.
She laughed. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”
His fingers stilled, and she fell into a limp heap, panting hard to catch her breath.
He did a pushup and placed a kiss on her still smiling lips. When that wasn’t enough, he nuzzled her neck. The sheet had fallen, exposing her breasts, and there was no way those could be ignored. He captured a nipple between his teeth, and she arched, silently asking for more. More than happy to oblige, he palmed her breast and sucked her nipple deep into his mouth. Her moan shot clear down to his dick and not able to wait for even a second longer, he parted her thighs and sank in.
Sadie
Warm skin and hard muscles under her palms. Lips tenderly grazing her neck as Dean moved above her. His gruff voice whispering in her ear how good she felt.
It didn’t get any better than that.
Dean was on a mission to completely sate her, and he was succeeding.
No, he’d already succeeded.
She’d never had so many orgasms in one day. Scratch that. Dean had given her more orgasms in one day than she usually had in a year. And for a good long while, even those had been self-induced and not nearly as satisfying.
Pressure started to build, a pulsing that had her tipping her head back and holding her breath.
So close.
She rocked her hips and clutched Dean’s shoulders for dear life, digging her fingertips in. Tingles radiated from between her legs, and her whole body started to tighten in what she knew would be a mind-numbing orgasm.
Dean’s thrusts became harder—deeper—as he hit the exact right spot over and over. His breathing grew more labored, and the warmth of his breath hit her ear, sending shivers down her spine.
The tingling became stronger—almost an ache—and she drove her hips up, reaching for it. All her muscles locked, and her toes curled as the pressure exploded, creating shockwaves of pleasure through her whole body. Her pussy pulsed and sucked at Dean’s cock as her vision blurred and her mind went blank.
She sank limply into the mattress, her body completely useless as Dean grabbed her hips and pushed
into her a few last times. She felt his body tense, and he threw his head back, the cords in his neck popping and his Adam’s apple working as he shouted her name.
Sadie stared, burning the image into her memory.
So hot. If she hadn’t just climaxed, that image alone would have sent her over the edge.
He collapsed. She loved the feel of his weight on her but didn’t get it for long. Too soon, he rolled, pulling her with him.
“That’s it. I think you’ve officially killed me.”
A drowsy smile curled her lips. “I know the feeling. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to leave the bed.”
“Not a terrible prospect.”
She lightly chuckled. “We’d starve. Waste away to nothing.” As if on cue, her stomach grumbled.
“Speaking of which.” He partially rolled to his back and reached behind him for his phone lying on the nightstand.
“What are you doing?” She should probably check her phone too. See if she had any missed calls. But it was in her jeans waaay in the living room, and she didn’t have the energy to retrieve it.
“Ordering pizza. We never did get ours last night.”
Sadie yawned and stretched as she listened to Dean place the order—their usual, she noted. Her eyes caught the sparkle of her ring. She still wasn’t used to having it on her finger, and it surprised her every time she got a glimpse of it. She wasn’t a diamond expert, but the thing had to be at least a carat. Square cut, it filled the space between her first and second knuckle and was set in gold with smaller diamonds circling the band.
“It’ll be here in twenty.” Dean tossed his phone on the bed and turned to her.
He caught her staring at her ring and took her hand. “I like it there, too.”
She smiled at him. “It’s beautiful. I don’t think I remembered to tell you that.”
“I know it’s not very practical with your job, but it has a matching band you can wear while working.” He squeezed her hand. “Be right back. I’m going to get cleaned up before the pizza gets here.”
Sadie threw herself back onto her pillow. “And I’m going to lie here like a lump until it arrives.”
Dean smirked and gave her a wink before tagging his jeans off the floor and heading into the bathroom. A moment later, Sadie heard the shower turn on.