by Ella Miles
“But I don’t care about any of that. I don’t care that everyone else will tell us this is stupid. That we don’t even know each other. We already know more than most people do about each other when they get married. And, what we don’t know, we will learn. I feel like I’ve waited all my life for a woman like you, not even realizing that you were that woman all along.
“Forgive me for being stupid, and marry me?”
I bite my lip to keep myself from spitting out an answer that is rushed and not what I actually want. I’m a planner. I plan everything in my life and then watch as all my plans get thrown out the window when reality hits. I didn’t plan on Carter. Or any of this. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t say yes.
He opens the box, but I can’t look at it. I can’t process anything that is happening. This is too fast. Or maybe it’s not fast enough, considering we’ve known each other all our lives. Whatever it is, my mind is too one track focused for me to think about anything other than needing his cock inside me.
I don’t have time to look for a condom. I’m on the pill, and he’d better be clean, or I’ll kill him later. I grab on to his shoulders as I lower myself onto his cock.
“Fuck me,” I whimper against his lips as I look deep into his eyes, letting him know that what I need right now is him. We can talk marriage later.
I move up and down as his hands grasp on to my hips and ass, moving me harder.
“I love you, Victoria,” he says as he fucks me harder.
I stare into his eyes, trying to remember this moment forever, as he fucks me harder and harder. Because, no matter what our future holds, this is a beautiful, unplanned moment that we can never repeat. We aren’t just fucking. We are changing our future together. No matter if I say yes or no, this moment, right now, will remain with me forever.
“I love you,” I say in a whimper as he brings me close to the brink.
“Come, Victoria.”
I don’t want to come. I want this moment to last forever.
But forevers don’t last. Forevers are not infinite. Forevers are only as long as we pretend that our problems don’t really exist.
“Come, Victoria. Marry me. Be mine forever.”
I dig my nails into his back. I bite my lip. And then I come, pulsing hard around his thick cock, as I let out, “Yes, Carter. Yes.”
14
Carter
She said yes. Of course, she said yes while my cock was deep inside her as she was coming, but it still counts. And, now, she’s passed out against my chest, still almost completely naked.
I don’t want to wake her—ever. I want her here, in my arms, forever. Especially if she’s naked.
But the driver is going to stop soon, and we need to get dressed.
I lean down and softly kiss her on the forehead. “Victoria, you need to wake up.”
She moans and wraps her arms tighter around me in the cutest way possible.
My lips hover over her ear. “If you wake up, we might have time to fuck again before we get there.”
Her eyes shoot open.
I grin.
“You’re lying,” she says, hitting my chest.
“Yes, sorry. You need to get dressed. We will be stopping soon.”
“What am I supposed to wear? You ripped my dress, remember?” she says, yawning and stretching.
I point to a bag sitting on the floor toward the front. “I brought a couple of your other dresses for you to change into.”
“You knew you were going to rip my dress off me?”
I shrug. “I hoped. It was so fun the first time.”
She gets off my lap and grabs the bag. She begins digging through it to find another dress to put on. “You are going to owe me, like, a million dresses by the end of this, aren’t you?”
I kiss her on the lips. “More than a million. And there is no end of this.”
She nods. “You’re right. We should be optimistic.”
She pulls out a white dress that I was hoping she would choose and begins putting it on. She looks gorgeous in white, and if I can find some sort of wedding chapel, maybe I can convince her to elope tonight and not wait any longer.
Now that she’s said yes, I don’t want to wait. I’m a man who knows what he wants and doesn’t doubt himself. I know I want Victoria. Forever. And forever needs to start as soon as possible. Tonight, if I get my way.
She pulls a dark blue shirt out of the bag and tosses it to me. We both get dressed while the limo continues driving to our destination.
Victoria runs her hands through her hair. “I look like I was just fucked.”
“And is that a problem?”
“It is if anyone sees us together and puts two and two together.”
“Let’s not worry about Lily or any of our other problems tonight. Let’s just enjoy tonight.”
“Fine, but I still look like a mess.”
“A hot mess.”
The car stops, and Victoria immediately goes to the window, trying to look outside.
I grab her hand and pull her back to me. “No peeking.”
She pouts. “Well then, show me where we are.”
The driver opens the door, and I get out before I hold out my hand to help her out.
Her eyes immediately dart around. “Um…you brought me to a neighborhood? I thought we were going on a usual date, like dinner and movie or something.”
I tighten my grip on her hand. “What fun would that be?”
“The normal amount of fun,” she teases as I lead her up the stairs to the house.
“Please tell me we aren’t meeting your long-lost parents or something. I’m not ready for that.”
I laugh. “Nope. I met them years ago. They were horrible people. Not quite as horrible as my foster parents, but still pretty bad.”
“I’m sorry,” she says, stopping, her brows furrowed in a look of genuine concern.
I stroke her cheek. “Don’t be. I’m not. Family has never been important to me.”
She frowns and fidgets with the hem of her dress. “Then, why do you want to get married if family isn’t important to you?”
I sigh. She’s going to ruin every surprise I have planned for her today. “Just come inside with me, and then we can talk.”
She wants to fight. I can tell from the fierce stare I’m getting, but she relents and follows me up the stairs to the front door. I reach into my pocket and pull out the key.
She inquisitively looks at me, but I don’t answer her unspoken question yet. I put the key in the door, unlock it, and push the door open.
I hold the door open for her, and she walks inside the large house.
“Wow, this house is beautiful,” Victoria says, looking at the quaint home.
I take her hand and lead her to the back of the house, out the French doors, and out onto the large patio. Twinkle lights hang overhead, already on, and large trees and flowers cover most of the yard.
“It’s so peaceful out here,” she says, standing on the patio, looking out over the large backyard, which has a pool where I plan on fucking her later.
I get down on one knee and pull out the box that I snatched back up after Victoria found it in my pants pocket.
She grins this time, unlike the last time when I took her completely by shock. I wouldn’t change it for anything though. I loved hearing her say yes with my dick inside her.
“Victoria, I love you. I don’t have any family, and I never thought I needed one. Not until you and Logan. Logan has always been a brother to me, but for some reason, I could never make you my sister. That’s because I’m meant to be your husband, not brother. I already think of Sailor as my niece. And Amber as a sister. I want us all to be together to figure out whatever our problems are—together.
“This house is ours if we want it. It’s big enough for us all to share when we are in town. I think, after Amber recovers, it would be good to get her out here to live with Logan and us when we are here. This house is so peaceful and beautiful.
“But, if that’s not what you want, then I will find another solution. Because your family is my family now, and I will do anything for them.
“Now, I’ve already asked you this once, albeit not in the most romantic way.”
I open the box, revealing the large diamond. “Marry me.”
“Yes,” she says behind her laughter. “It’s crazy, but I’ll marry you.”
I put the ring on her finger before grabbing her in my arms and twirling her around.
“You have to promise me some things though if I marry you.”
I laugh, putting her down but not out of my arms. “Of course you have demands in order for you to marry me.” I sigh. “Let’s hear them.”
She thinks for a minute with a goofy smile on her face that I love. I love that she has demands. I love that she doesn’t just say yes without having her own needs met.
“One, we get this house, no matter if my family wants to live here with us part-time or full-time or whatever. I love it.”
“Done.”
“Two, you have to promise me that you will respect my decision if I decide not to have kids. I don’t know what I want right now. I love Sailor, but I already have enough people to take care of in my family. And I love my career. I’m not ready to give it up yet.”
“Done.”
“Three”—she twists her fingers deep into my hair—“you will never stop fighting with me.”
I frown. “You want me to fight and argue with you? Seriously?”
“Yes, fighting with me makes both of us better. It ensures that we will never get bored. It will push us if we have to compete over the same clients in our careers.”
“Or we could work together?”
She laughs. “How well has that been working for us so far?”
“Good point.”
“Promise me?”
“We will have a lifetime of fighting and arguing about everything.”
“Good.”
“Are you done?”
She smirks. “You think I have only three demands?”
“I think I want to kiss you, so you’d better hurry up.”
“Four…” She takes her time, thinking really hard, while my patience for not being able to kiss my fiancée grows strong. “Four is, you have to take me down to the pool and fuck me.”
I grab her ass and lift her up. I begin running down the stairs toward the pool. “Thank God we think so much alike.”
“Shut up, and kiss me.”
Her hands grab my neck as she forces my face forward to kiss her. Her tongue pushes deep inside my mouth as I push back equally with my own tongue. We are perfect equals who will challenge each other in life. I want exactly what she said she wanted.
I try to pay attention to where I’m walking. But I can’t focus on anything but her lips, her tongue, her body. I need all of it. Fast, slow. Hard, gentle. I need her in every way possible.
I take another step and don’t feel anything beneath my foot. I try to lean back to keep from falling, but I can’t stop us once we’ve started moving. We fall into the water, still clothed and still grasping on to each other, desperate for a kiss.
We come up for air at the same time. I expect her to be pissed or to be full of giggles over what just happened. Instead, we continue kissing right where we left off. Deep, passionate, I will never let you go type kisses.
I grab the hem of her dress and pull it up over her head until it is off her body.
“Damn, you look hot,” I say, biting my lip, as I stare at her in the pool with the twinkle lights shining down on her.
“And you look far too clothed.”
I take my jacket off and throw it onto the side of the pool. She helps me remove my shirt, and then I push my pants and boxers off, not caring if they make their way out of the pool or not.
“Better?” I ask.
“Much,” she says, undoing her bra and pushing her panties off before she dives under the water.
Damn it. I forgot how much of a good swimmer she is.
I dive under after her, chasing her across the pool. She stays under the water when I finally catch her. She used to swim, so I’m sure she can hold her breath for hours. I can’t.
I kiss her hard, convincing her to come up for air to get another kiss. She does. When we get to the surface, I grab her and push her against the wall of the pool, kissing her hard as my cock pulses at her entrance.
“I want every day to be like this,” she whispers against my lips.
My cock thrusts inside her, stretching her wide. “It will. Always.”
I fuck her hard against the edge of the pool. And she fucks me right back. As much hate as we had toward each other, I wouldn’t change anything because it created this perfect kind of love where we are truly equals who fight for what we want in this relationship.
“Thank God you brought extra sets of clothes,” Victoria says, naked, as she climbs out of the pool to scoop up our clothes.
I frown. “I disagree. I think it would have been better if I hadn’t bothered with clothes. I much prefer the view when you’re naked.”
She laughs and scoops up our wet clothes. My phone falls out of the jacket pocket and bounces on the concrete.
“Sorry,” she says, wincing.
I laugh. “The water probably destroyed it anyway.”
“I’ll try to fix it,” she says, running into the house with my clothes and phone, which I’m sure is unfixable. I stay in the pool, planning on doing a couple of laps and then going inside to try to convince Victoria to have sex in one of the rooms in the house before I take her to a late dinner.
I do a couple of laps, loving that this could be my new life. Married to Victoria. Waking up to sex, then a couple of laps in the pool, and then off to my dream job. How could my life get any better?
On my third lap, I feel something hard hit my head. I stop swimming and look up to see Victoria still dripping wet but with a new dress on, which is getting wetter by the second. But that isn’t what matters. I look at Victoria’s face, and I know something is wrong.
“What’s wrong?”
She holds out my phone.
“I told you it wasn’t fixable.”
She shakes her head, looking at it. “It works just fine.”
I raise an eyebrow, not believing that the phone works.
“Your assistant, Ruby, called.”
“Okay,” I say, not understanding why Ruby called or why it would make Victoria upset.
“You got me fired. All those times I thought I had done something wrong. I hadn’t gotten enough clients. I hadn’t worked hard enough. I’d worked too hard. I’d demanded too much money.”
I shake my head. “No, let me explain.”
“Every time I was desperate to do a job I loved to take care of my family, you took it away from me. Every. Single. Time.”
Victoria’s face is bright red, her nostrils are flared, and she is trying to hold back the tears in her eyes.
“Victoria, it wasn’t like that.”
She throws her hands up. “How was it then? Tell me because I don’t understand it. Were you that threatened by me? Is that why you did it? You hated me that much? Has this all been just one big game to you? Or were you pretending to love me to gain some forgiveness?”
The tears fall freely now, mixing with the anger steaming off her cheeks.
“Victoria, I’m sorry. I—”
“You’re sorry that you are actually in love with Lily and just pretending with me?”
“No!” I swim to the edge and jump out of the pool, running toward her. “I love you, Victoria. That’s always been the truth. Lily is nothing to me.”
“Then, what?”
I take a deep breath. “I had to win at all costs. That was always who I was. When I heard there was a new woman in the game who was starting to beat me out for some clients, I felt threatened. I couldn’t allow you to win. So, I got you fired.”
“But it was me! I know we used to hate each o
ther as kids, but really? You would do this to me? To Logan?”
I wince. “I didn’t know it was you.”
“How could you not?”
“I always thought of you as Tori, not Victoria. I never connected the dots until—”
“Until I said to call me Victoria, not Tori?”
I nod. “I was going to tell you.”
She laughs harshly. “Sure you were.” She throws the phone at me and then begins running inside.
“Victoria, wait! Let me explain more. I was an ass. I would do anything to win. I didn’t care about anyone. That was before I knew you and loved you. I’m sorry.”
I chase Victoria through the house and then outside. I don’t care that I’m naked. I can’t just let her go.
I catch up to Victoria just as she is about to climb into the limo.
“Please, just stay. Let’s talk. Tell me how I can make this better.”
“You can’t.”
“I’ll do anything.”
She shakes her head. “No, you won’t. You’re selfish and cruel and savage. You won’t do anything for me if it means having to give something up for yourself.”
I don’t have words. I can’t come up with anything to say that will make her stay. Nothing that will make this any better. I can’t fix this. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to fix this from the look on Victoria’s face. So, I let her go. I watch her climb into the limo and close the door. I watch the driver drive her away while I stand in the driveway, naked.
“You look like death,” Lily says to me when I walk into her office a week after Victoria ran out on me.
“I’ve been sick for a week. What do you expect me to look like?”
“Happy, cheerful, sexy, ready to work.”
I groan. “I don’t think I can be any of those things ever again.”
She laughs. “Oh, stop being so dramatic, Carter. You have a cold. You’ll survive.”
“No, I won’t.”
She rolls her eyes. “I’ll have to have my makeup team work on you, too, to make sure you look good for our appearance tonight.”