Banding my arms around her, she clings to me, and the sounds of pleasure coming out of her are all I hear. Sighs, breaths, quiet moans. They turn me on even more as our bodies begin to work together, moving in a way I know I’ll always want with her.

“God, I love you,” I release on a ragged exhale and slide deeper inside of her.

Moving to kiss me, she mumbles over my lips, “I love you.”

I notice her hands are still clenching my shoulders, so I reach up and take one of her hands in mine, lacing my fingers with hers, pressing our hands into the mattress. She begins to sway her hips up to mine as she starts moving with me. Her body is so tight around me that it takes a lot for me to hang on and not let go. I watch her beneath me, her body against mine, completely exposed to me, and I don’t think I could fall any more deeply in love with her. I’m not sure how that would even be possible.

We take our time with each other, making love, lingering in the moment. When she closes her eyes, she constricts her legs to my hips, and I know she’s close. I also know that she’s never had this before.

“Relax, babe,” I tell her because I want her to feel every piece of what I’m about to give her.

She has her hand braced tightly around the back of my neck when her breathing falters. I kiss her, simply resting my lips on hers, as I continue to ease myself in and out of her, feeling every part of her around me. Her hand jerks in mine, and I lift my head to tell her, “Open your eyes. Stay with me,” wanting to be sure that I’m all she sees.

Locking her eyes with mine, her body is damp with a sheen of sweat, and I give in to the intensity that has been building inside of me when I hear her let out a whimper. It doesn’t take me long to get to where she is, so when I say, “Baby, let go for me,” her hips buckle, and she clamps her hand strongly around mine as I watch her lose herself, face flushed, panting out soft moans. I can’t hold on when I feel her walls tighten and spasm around me. Dropping my head onto hers, I moan her name as I come hard, feeling the impassioned throbs with my release, giving myself in a way I didn’t know was possible for me.

We lie here, bodies pressed together, breathing labored, as we both come down. When I finally lift my heavy head to look at her, the tears are back. Afraid that this has had some negative effect on her, I ask in utter worry, “God, baby, what’s wrong?” as I wipe her tears.

She takes a slow moment before giving me words that almost break me.

“Being with you . . . that’s all I want.”

This is a lot. My emotions are all over the place, but they all lie within her heart. I keep myself inside of her, never wanting to leave, and when I lay my head against hers, I quietly confess, “You’re the only one I’ve ever done that with. You’re the only one I’ve ever made love to.”

I didn’t think there was anything I could give her that would be new, untouched, and only hers—until now. She’s the only one that will ever have me like this. And finally experiencing sex in this way, I’ll never want it any other way.

Watching her sleep right now, hair draped over the pillow, face soft, lips slightly parted—she’s beautiful. I could stare at her for hours when she’s this peaceful, but I know she’s going to wake soon, so I go ahead and slip quietly out of bed and head into the closet. I knew I wouldn’t give her the necklace on her birthday. She probably would have resisted, so that’s why I held off. But we’re alone now, and it’s not her birthday anymore.

I take the necklace out of its box and go into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me. I set it in between the two sinks and then brush my teeth before I get back into bed. Wrapping myself around her, my movements start to wake her, so I feign sleep as she begins to stir awake. I lie there, still, as she slides out from under my arm, and I can hear her close the bathroom door a few seconds later. I roll over and wait for her to come out. Listening to the water run, I wonder if the gift is going to irritate her when she made it perfectly clear she didn’t want me to get her anything.

The door opens, and Candace walks out with a sly grin, holding the necklace up in front of her.

“What’s this?” she questions, knowing very well what it is, but I play into her and say, “Well, it’s definitely not a birthday gift, because that was two days ago.”

Her laughter is a relief when she hops up into bed and hands me the necklace to put on her.

“I love it,” she says as I clasp it on, and she doesn’t need to say anything else about it. She’s read the scribed words. She’s accepted it without hesitation. That’s all I wanted.

Crawling over her as she lies on her back, I drop kisses along the chain. “Do you know how beautiful you are?”

“Mmmm,” she hums.

“You were amazing last night,” I tell her when I start removing her clothes because I need her again. We were both so cautious last night, and now, seeing her naked and having her calm, I want to give this to her again, and she lets me.

As we remain wrapped up in each other after making love, I stroke my hand through her hair lazily, enjoying her as our breathing slows back down.

“How are you feeling?”

She’s in a tranquil state when she responds with a simple, “Happy.”

That one word makes me smile. That’s all I ever want her to be—happy. I begin to laugh when I think about the other surprise I have for her.

“What’s so funny?” she asks with a grin of her own.

“I have something else for you.”

“Besides the necklace?”

“Besides the necklace,” I say.

She squints her eyes at me, and I defend, “I promise, you’re gonna like this better. It’s not a trinket.”

That smile of hers grows and she sits up, clutching the sheet to keep herself covered, and her modesty is adorable. Leaning over, I open the drawer to my nightstand and then hand it over to her.

“I don’t know what to say,” she says as she keeps her eyes on the Hop N Bounce box, which holds the deflated ball.

“I have a pump out in the garage if you wanna take it for a spin around the living room,” I tease.

Setting the box down on the bed, she crawls to me, sheet still clung around her, and gives me a kiss.

“You’ll never know how much I love you.”

After spending most of the morning in bed with Candace, I decided to run into work so that I can take the night off. Candace called Jase and went to spend the afternoon with him and Mark. I told her I’d be back at the loft around six tonight, but that quickly changed when one of our vendors stopped by today with a shipment only to inform me that the bar is now on COD with them. When I started digging through the backlogged bills, I discovered that Michael has been missing payments.

This is the second time this guy has fucked up, and I’m done. Walking into his office, the place is a disorganized disaster. Digging through his files, I find the ones that I need, and I spend the next few hours scouring through all of our various vendors’ invoices, checking them against the bank statements, and then having Mel double-check the inventory.

I can’t be having things fall through the cracks like this. I need to seriously start thinking about what’s gonna happen to this bar if I wind up moving after Candace is done with school, but leaving it in Michael’s hands isn’t gonna happen. I need someone I can trust.

“Max,” I call out while Mel and I are buried behind the bar as I help her check the last shipment.

“Yeah, boss.”

“Get Michael on the phone. Tell him to get his ass up here,” I shout over the band. I’ve been so busy, I didn’t even realize how late it is or that Mark is here with the guys, but they’re already on stage playing.