I bend down and kiss her between her shoulder blades.

“You all right?”

“More than all right. I’m dying here. I want you in me.”

The vibrations of my silent laughter rumble deep in my chest. Never would I have thought my sweet Calla would turn into a woman of such power and confidence. When it came to sex back then, she was never the aggressor. Once we got into it, she would ride my dick like it was her last day on earth, but she never spoke her mind. Not that I cared. I’ve always loved her for who she is. This new wild side of her I fucking crave.

My eyes are so heavily lidded that I can hardly see straight. I want in there. I want to hear her scream.

I remove my finger. I have no idea if she’s lubricated enough, so I reach over and grab a condom from the nightstand. Her head lays flat on the pillow. One glimpse of the gleam in her eyes and the smirk on her face is all I need. I rip the packet open and smooth the latex over my cock. I take a deep breath, aligning it with that beautiful little hole.

She winces when the tip pushes in slightly. I hold back just a little until I feel her body relax.

“Let me know if it’s too much, baby. We can stop at any time. I’m more than happy to slip inside your tight pussy. The choice is yours.”

Her ass squirms and my dick gets harder.

“Take me, Cain. I’m not scared at all. I want this with you. I want everything with you.”

I inhale deeply again, only this time it’s not for fear of hurting her; it’s those words. Fuck, those words mean as much to me as when I hear her say ‘I love you.’

I drive myself in inch by inch. Once I’m fully sheathed, she nearly shoots off the bed. I’ve never felt anything so tight on my dick in my life. I could come right now.

“You all right?” I tenderly ask.

“Yes, but if you don’t move that big dick of yours, I’m going to spank your ass,” she grumbles.

And there she is. My hardcore control freak. The woman who has changed in so many ways. I have no damn clue how I can even move in and out of her when she’s this tight, gripping me like a pair of damn pliers. I’m not going to last more than two minutes.

“You’re so tight, babe. Play with yourself. You feel so good I’m not going to last long at all.”

Her hand glides down. Her breathing matches my own; hard, heavy, and loud. My movements start to pick up.

“Cain!” she cries out.

Her hands move fervently on her pussy. I hear how wet she is. How close she is. A few more pumps and she screams my name as she comes.

The way she yells out my name is so outrageously engaging to my soul that I come hard. Gripping her hips, I still myself. I never want to come down from this high. Never want to leave this bed. And I never want to go another day without her.

***

We ended up having to eat BLTs instead of the dried up, burnt chicken we neglected. We laughed hard when we looked at it after I brought it into the house.

“You’re walking funny,” I observe, an hour after we’ve gotten cleaned up.

I’m serious. She is. I know she’s sore but too stubborn to admit it.

She also has another one of my shirts on. We’re in our room packing so we can leave early in the morning. I want us to be in New York by nightfall.

I swat her ass.

“Go run a bath and soak for a while. You don’t need all this stuff. Your dad has all your clothes. Go.”

“Join me,” she coaxes.

“I need to make one quick phone call and then I will,” I promise, tossing the last bit of stuff into my bag.

I watch her retreat into the bathroom and wait to hear the water start. I snatch up my phone and walk down the hallway completely out of her earshot.

“Cain. Is everything all right?” asks Cecily, sounding out of breath on the other end.

“Everything’s great. I need a favor.”

I hear the smile in her voice.

“Of course.”

“Well...” I scratch the back of my neck. “I never bought Calla a wedding ring. I have no clue what the hell to do. I thought maybe you might be able to help me, maybe get someone to come to Salvatore’s house so we could look at some.”

I hesitate, her silence making me nervous.

“Hello. You still there?”

She clears her throat before speaking.

“Well, I would love to help, but I’d like to show you something first, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure,” I say, more out of confusion than anything else.

She must catch it in my tone. She knocks me back when she speaks again.

“I have my mother’s wedding rings. They’re stunning. I think Calla would love them.”

I’m in shock. Family means everything to all of us. She would love to have those rings. Hell, I would love to put them on her finger.

“That’s perfect. Those would mean the world to her.”

“I think so, too,” she agrees. “I’ll get them out of the safe. We can get them sized and cleaned up.”

A deep hole has just been filled in my heart. There are a few more demons I’ve been holding back from her, ones that are intimate, and that up until now, I have kept to myself. It’s time to finally let go of my past. But first, I have to go make sure my girl is okay.

“I can’t believe how fast this fills up,” Calla says when I help her into the tub and sink down behind her. My lips go straight to her neck, my arms circling her waist.

“Nothing but the best for you.”

I nuzzle into her neck. She has her hair piled on top of her head, her neck exposed. I love that spot on her neck just as much as she does.

She slumps down further into the water. My lips leave her neck, giving me the perfect opportunity to answer the question about my tattoo I’ve been avoiding.

“The other day you asked me about my tattoo. Do you remember?”

“Yes, and you evaded it very smoothly,” she remarks.

I hold back my laugh. I should have known she wasn’t fooled.

“You may think I’m crazy for getting it, but my reasons are my own. You and I have been with others...”

I hate the fact we both have. There isn’t a damn thing I can do about it, so I continue on.

“...but no one has ever seen that tattoo but the person who put it on me, myself, and now you.”

She goes to speak, but I press down on her stomach and she halts.

“Listen. Not only has my heart belonged to you since the first day I saw you, my entire being has, including my dick. What you and I had back then meant more to me than anything. I never had any type of real, honest love until I met you. I grew up with a father who I know loved me in his own way, but who lied and deceived me my entire life. I know my mom loved me before she died, but I was so young, I barely remember her. We were young. We fell in love. That love never once died for me. The whole time you were gone was spent cleaning up the mess my father made of this place. I turned it into something I wanted. Something as honest as possible, given that everything I did behind the scenes was illegal as hell.

“But you... I needed to have a part of you with me. And well, that’s where I decided to put it. It was either there or over my heart. It felt too sacred for me to put it over my heart. I put it the one place I always wanted you to be. And I don’t mean that in a dirty way. It’s just that, every time we made love back then, it meant the world to me.”

I wait while she absorbs what I just told her, wondering if she thinks I’m fucking crazy. Finally she sits up, straddling my lap. Tears stream silently down her face, a look of love and admiration in her eyes. I let out the breath I was holding. Her tiny hands cradle my face.

“That’s the most beautiful thing I have ever heard,” she whispers.

“You think so, huh?”

“I know so,” she affirms, leaning down to brush her lips over mine.

I kiss her longingly.

“One more thing and then I’m done. No more secrets.”

“These lips have never touched another woman. Only yours.”

Her shocked expression leaves me tense.