by Bethany-Kris
A bit of nervousness settled in Mac’s gut.
He wasn’t entirely sure why.
He adored this woman.
Loved her entirely.
Melina was everything, and more, he could have ever wanted in the person he chose to spend the rest of his life with. But they were driving in a car, going forty across a bridge, with cars all around.
It wasn’t romantic.
Would she even want that?
Roses, a big night out, and all eyes on her when he asked?
Was that Melina’s thing?
Mac didn’t think so—he didn’t think this was exactly right, either.
He felt silly.
“Mac?” Melina asked when he stayed quiet.
“What do you want after today?”
“I don’t know what you’re asking me.”
Mac sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. “You know, like kids or do you want to go back to school?”
Melina quieted for all of three seconds before she said softly, “Kids.”
He wasn’t sure if that was a confirmative reply or not.
“Yes, you do, or no, you—”
“Maybe … someday,” she interrupted. “Is this about the whole wedding thing?”
Mac’s head whipped to the side, and he took in the confusion on Melina’s features before his gaze was back on the road. “What wedding thing?”
“Your mom said something about a wedding—Neeya mentioned a wedding. Is there something going on that I don’t know?”
Somehow, Mac managed to laugh that off without the strain in his voice showing too much. “No, that is just people voicing their wishes.”
“Oh.”
A bit of sadness colored up the word.
Mac couldn’t have missed it if he tried.
That sign he’d been waiting for—the one that told him Melina was ready for that question, if he decided to ask it—was glaring at him right in the face.
“But it’s not just what they want,” Mac said, giving her another look.
Melina was already back to staring out the window, her attention gone from him. He knew that was just her way of hiding her disappointment. “It’s fine, Mac. It’s not something people do just to please other people.”
“Melina.”
She didn’t look at him.
Mac reached out to touch her thigh.
Again, nothing.
“Doll,” he said, firmer than before.
Melina blew out a breath. “What?”
“Would you look at me?”
“For what? There’s nothing to say.”
But there was—and hurt filled her voice.
She could hide a lot of things from everyone else, but the woman couldn’t hide a fucking thing from him.
Never.
“Melina.”
When she looked away from the window, Mac slowed his car to a stop, forcing the vehicles behind him to stop, too. Horns honked, and cars tried to maneuver out around their car to get past.
It didn’t work, and it only left them gridlocked in a traffic jam on the middle of the bridge.
Mac didn’t give a fuck.
He was far too busy staring at his girl.
“We should move,” Melina said as someone else honked their horn.
“I have other shit to do.”
Melina rolled her pretty brown eyes. “I wouldn’t want you to do it—ask me—just because someone else wanted you to.”
“There is no one else who ever had any opinion to voice about you that was important to me—except you, that is.”
“Mac—”
He pulled the black velvet case from his pocket, quieting whatever she was getting ready to say. Opening his palm flat, he held the jewelry box up for her to see.
The horns kept honking.
Cars kept inching forward.
Mac never moved.
“I’ve had it for months,” he told her, “just sitting there waiting …”
Melina’s gaze flicked between the velvet box and Mac’s eyes. “Waiting for what?”
“Apparently, nothing—I was being stupid and overthinking shit.”
Humor danced on her beautiful features. “Oh?”
“I do that a lot with you. I never really know what you’re thinking, even if I act like I do. But I love that, doll, because you keep me on my toes. You make me better—you’ve got my back.”
“Always,” Melina whispered.
Mac popped open the top of the velvet case, showcasing a princess-cut, two-carat diamond nestled in a crown of smaller stones on top of a white-gold band. Melina chewed on her bottom lip, a smile growing as she took the engagement ring in.
“You are—by far—the best thing to have ever graced my life. And I am—by far—the luckiest man because you picked me. Marry me, Melina.”
“That didn’t sound like a question. You’re supposed to ask, Mac.”
“I didn’t really have to ask,” he murmured.
Melina met his gaze again. “Because you knew I’d say yes.”
“You still have to say it, doll.”
“Was there ever any doubt?”
Mac grinned. “Not now.”
Melina just stared at him, quiet and still.
“Do you want me to make a bigger show of it?” he asked. “Shout it from the rooftops—better yet, the roof of the car?”
“What?” she asked, laughing.
Mac pushed the driver’s door open, already turning away and stepping out of the car. He ignored the blaring horns and the drivers giving him the finger as he had quite literally stopped three lanes of traffic on the bridge.
“Hey, asshole!”
“Mac!” Melina shouted from inside the car.
She scrambled out on her side just as Mac jumped up on the hood of the car, and then up to the roof. He spread his arms wide, looking down at Melina while people shouted and honked.
“Mac, get down!”
He did—on one knee.
Melina’s eyes stretched even wider.
“Say you’ll marry me, doll,” Mac said as loud as he could, ready to shout it, if that was what she wanted. His hand outstretched toward her with the velvet box in his palm. “Make me even luckier—happier. Say you’ll be my wife.”
“Yes. Now get down!”
Mac did, flipping the cars behind him off as he caught Melina around the waist and pulled her in for a kiss.
The ring was a perfect fit.
Just like his girl.
Mac’s eye caught the sparkle of Melina’s engagement ring as she lifted her left hand for what seemed like the millionth time to look the diamond over. The piece caught the shine of street lights as they passed, and her smile grew wide.
“Do you like it?” he asked.
“Love it, Mac.”
“I thought you would.”
Melina shot him a grin from the side. “Who knew?”
“Only one person,” Mac answered.
“Really?” Melina made a face. “Even though everyone felt like they had to mention something about us getting married?”
“Yep.”
“Who, then?”
Mac chuckled. “My sister. And that was only for sizing purposes.”
Melina let out a laugh, and as Mac pulled the car into the underground garage that belonged to their building, he took in the sight of her happiness. Because it was, after all, one of the most beautiful sights. With her eyes shut, a huge smile, and joy lighting up her features, he couldn’t think of anything else he would rather see in that moment.
“Love you, doll.”
She quieted instantly at his soft proclamation, her smile softening. “I love you, too.”
“Do you have a date in mind?” he dared to ask.
Melina looked over the ring again as Mac parked the car in their allotted spot. It was a corner section, blocked off from sight by one cement wall and his Challenger on the other side.
“Soon,” was all Melina said.
Mac cocked a bro
w. “How soon?”
“I don’t … think I want to wait. I know what I want.”
He couldn’t have stopped his smirk from forming even if he tried. “Oh?”
“Yeah.” She gave him another sweet smile. “I want you. Soon, Mac.”
“Soon …” he trailed off, reaching out to hook a single finger in the collar of her dress. “But for now, I know what I want.”
Melina leaned into his touch, and Mac let his palm wander over the smooth, delicate column of her throat, under her jaw, and over her cheek until his fingers could thread into her hair. He pulled her a little closer, watching the flickers of love and lust color her irises as her lips curved sinfully.
“And what is it that you want?” she asked softly.
“Right now, I’ll settle for another kiss, doll.”
Melina gave him what he wanted, leaning over the middle console to grab hold of his shirt and clench tight as her lips fell on his with brutal force. Mac answered the roughness back with his own, nipping at his girl’s bottom lip before his tongue struck against the seam of her mouth, demanding that she open up for him.
She did, and he took that chance to deepen the kiss, their tongues warring, their mouths never breaking apart even as she climbed over the middle and fell into his lap.
Mac groaned long and hard as Melina’s legs widened around his, the skirt of her dress pulling up around her thighs. He could feel that scrap of satin and lace keeping her sex covered grinding against the bulge beneath his pants.
His erection was damn-near painful.
He’d been semi-hard for hours and ignoring it.
Mac couldn’t do that anymore.
“Doll,” he mumbled against her lips, “we’re at home. Let’s go—”
Melina’s fingernails dug into his pec, making him hiss. “Too far.”
“Melina …” Mac swallowed hard when her other hand palmed the length of his erection through his pants, firm and insistent. Jesus. “I can’t do a fucking thing to you in this car except let you ride me. Let’s go upstairs.”
“Right now,” she demanded.
That breathy, high tone did him in.
Her desire was his unravelling.
He had no control when she sounded like that.
Mac never had.
“Fuck,” Mac said in a half-snarl, letting his hands fall to Melina’s waist. She was shifting her hips in just the right way that let her barely-covered pussy rub against his length. Each and every time she did that, his nerves snapped like crazy. “Lift the fuck up, then.”
Laughing airlessly, Melina did what she was told without question. Mac fumbled with his belt and pants for longer than he wanted to, but he eventually got the offending articles undone and pushed down enough for Melina to free his cock from the confines of his boxer-briefs.
When her hand closed around him, and her fingers tightened to his pulsing base, Mac’s air rushed from his lungs in a painful breath, his hips jerking up into her hold.
“So hard,” Melina murmured, her hand stroking him slowly. “I missed feeling you. In my hand, my mouth, and my pussy. I missed that, Mac.”
She stroked him again.
Firmer.
Harder.
Still slow, though.
Too fucking slow.
Achingly slow.
“Don’t play the tease right now, doll,” Mac warned. “You will regret it later when I get you upstairs, bend you over, and fuck you to the point you’re about to come only to stop. And I will stop again and again until you are sobbing and begging to come. Do. Not. Tease. Me.”
Melina’s gaze snapped up to meet his, desire dancing in her eyes. “Promise?”
Jesus.
This woman would kill him someday.
Mac would welcome that moment with open fucking arms.
Threading his hands into her wavy hair, Mac pulled Melina down for a bruising kiss as he growled against her lips, “You know it.”
In the darkness of the car—the only light provided was from the illuminated dashboard—Mac caught sight of just the sliver of Melina’s lace and satin thong as she lifted her skirt higher, and one of her hands disappeared between her thighs.
Above him, her lips parted with a shaky sigh.
Pure bliss.
That was what she sounded like as she touched herself.
“Are you wet for me, doll?”
“Mmm,” she hummed back.
Mac let her continue with her hand between her legs as he kissed a path over her jaw and down her neck, his teeth nipping every so often, and his tongue striking out to soothe the bite right after. He could hear the sounds of Melina’s fingers sinking into her sex—wet, noisy sounds that made his cock ache even more.
She trembled when his fingertips ghosted over her thigh and in between their bodies, her hand still on his cock stuttered in its movement.
“Keep going,” he told her softly.
Sliding his hand further in between her thighs and under the lace trim of her thong, he slipped a finger in with her two already fucking her pussy. It stretched her a little wider, filling her fuller. Melina whimpered, her pelvis grinding harder into her own hand and his. Mac pulled his hand away a bit, just enough to start circling her throbbing, hot clit with the pad of his fingertip as her own fingers started moving faster.
“You going to come, doll?” Mac asked. “Fucking your fingers on my lap while I touch you, yeah? Are you going to come and then ride me?”
Melina answered him back with a whine that seemed to claw its way out of her throat. All of her sounds were like life to him—electric, even.
He’d not forgotten what she sounded like, of course, but he missed it.
Constantly.
Melina fell into his chest, shaking and panting her way through an orgasm with his name right on the tip of her tongue. “Mac.”
He slowed his hand between her thighs when he felt hers stop, and wrapped an arm around her back, letting his hand tangle into the hair at the nape of her neck, keeping her rooted against him.
Just for a second, he wanted her closer.
Still.
Free and happy.
Mac always wanted her like that.
Melina didn’t let him keep her like that for long, though. Her head lifted and their mouths crashed together as she shifted her hips and positioned his cock along the seam of her wet slit. There was no warning before she dropped down—just the hitch in her breath and her wide, blown-out pupils as she watched his face while she sunk down his length.
She was heaven around him.
A tight, hot heaven that took away his breath and blinded him.
Sensation ran on overload as her fingernails scored over his neck and her fingers dug into his thigh.
“Shit,” Mac managed to say through his clenched teeth.
Melina’s forehead found his as his hands met her waist. The waves of her hair created a barrier of sorts, locking them into a staring contest as she began a slow, smooth rhythm on top of him. Her hips lifted and lowered, her pelvis rotating every time she came down on him, grinding her clit into the muscles of his groin.
“And this,” Melina mumbled quietly
Mac pulled her harder onto his cock with her next movement, making her shiver beautifully. “This?”
“I missed this.”
God, he did, too.
Melina’s hand slid from his neck to his jaw, her thumb stroking his skin in the tenderest way. Mac turned his head, kissing the skin of her palm and feeling the engagement ring on her finger brush his cheek.
Her rhythm never stuttered.
He felt fucking weak.
But she didn’t even slow.
He shuddered, her name falling from his lips like a prayer.
She was Godlike to him.
And he already worshipped her.
She was getting married.
She was getting married.
Even thinking the words twice did little to dispel her current reality. Melina looked down at the sp
arkling engagement ring Mac had given her two months ago. It was even more beautiful now than the night he’d given it to her. A symbol of his love and his commitment to her. Even now, on the threshold of starting their new life together, she was still amazed.
A year ago she had been struggling in more ways than one. Coping with the illness of her father and doing her best to survive in a profession that changed people in the worst of ways. Things hadn’t been easy and more than once, she’d wanted to give her burdens to someone else, but there’d been no one else to take them. Now she had someone.
Mac.
There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that the man would crawl over broken glass for her or deal with any threat that came her way. He’d proven that in his own quiet, unassuming way more than once. And now he was about to prove before God, la famiglia and those who mattered to him, just how important she really was to him. Tears threatened to fall but with sheer force of will she held them back.
Today was a happy day.
Today was the day that little girls dreamed of when they grew older.
It was the day women dreamed of even as they grew older and were faced with the harsh reality that life was not the fairytale they’d grew up believing it to be.
Melina had been one of those women.
Until Mac had proven her wrong and dared to make her believe in happy endings again.
Now they were about to start living one of their own.
If only … Shaking her head, Melina pushed those thoughts away. There was no point in dwelling on the past. On things that could never be. But still, a part of her wished that things could have been different.
Standing before the full-length mirror in the room that served as her bridal chamber, Melina smiled at her reflection. Her long, glossy hair was curled, pulled atop her head, and secured with pins. A thin silver and diamond studded diadem was the centerpiece of her veil.
And her dress.
Her dress was something she might have never picked for herself, but there was a first time for everything. The gown she wore was cream and made of lace. Off the shoulder with small sequins around the bodice and a tapered waist that trailed down to a long train. It was beautiful.
She looked like a bride out of a glossy, couture magazine. From the ornate headpiece she’d reluctantly allowed Neeya Pivetti to talk her into choosing, to the long veil embedded with more Swarovski crystals than she could even dare to count, she looked every inch a princess.