“What are you—” Becca gasped. “Nick?”
“Becca.” Looking up at her beautiful face, he grasped her left hand. “When you walked through my door, you changed my whole life. You gave me purpose when I had none. You brought my family back together when I was so alone. You believed in me when no one else did, including myself. You fought for me and loved me and made me a better man.” Glassy, bright blue eyes stared down at him with so much love. “You shined light on places inside me I thought would never emerge from the dark, and you helped me reclaim my integrity, my honor, and my life.” A knot lodged in Nick’s throat. “You saved me from becoming someone I didn’t recognize, and because of you I have a life worth living. But only if you’ll walk it with me.”
“Nick,” she rasped, her voice thick with unshed tears.
He flipped open the box and pulled out the diamond and platinum round-cut ring. A halo of smaller stones surrounded the center stone, creating what to him looked like a sun. More accent stones lined the band, giving it a classic, vintage look. He’d known it was the right ring as soon as he’d seen it. Slowly, he slid the diamond onto Becca’s ring finger. “I love you with everything that I am, and everything I want to be. Please do me the greatest honor of my life and say you’ll be my wife, my partner, my best friend, my companion. Becca Merritt, will you marry me?”
For a split second that felt like eternity, she looked down at her shaking hand. And then she sank to her knees in front of him and grasped his face. “Yes,” she said, kissing him. “Only you. Always you. Forever you, Nick. Yes.”
“Aw, Sunshine,” he said, sliding his hands into her hair. “You make me happier than I ever thought I could be.”
“I feel the exact same way,” she said, tears finally leaking from the corners of her eyes. “I love you so much.”
He kissed her on a groan, his spirit more buoyant and triumphant than it had ever been. Even more than when their records had been cleared and their honor had been restored. That had been exactly what he’d deserved, but this . . . this was more than he ever knew to want.
Becca’s hands fisted in his shirt as she sucked hard on his tongue, a needy, desperate moan spilling from her throat. The sound shot right to his cock, making him rock hard in an instant and bringing back every bit of the aching lust he’d felt while he’d been doing her tattoo. Christ, if he thought it was arousing to mark her with his ink, it was nothing compared to what it did to him to know she’d just agreed to be his forever. He was fucking flying.
Nick tore open the button to her jeans. “Need in you.”
“Yes,” she said, tugging up his shirt. He helped her pull it over his head. For a moment, they were a whirl of shedding clothes and grasping hands and claiming kisses until they were both naked and panting and hot.
He sat in the chair where she’d been sitting and guided her down to his lap, her back to his front. “Take me inside of you, Becca. Ride me so fucking hard.”
She took his cock in hand and sank down on him in one slow, slick stroke. “Oh, God,” she rasped when he bottomed out inside her. “Needed you so much. All day.”
He grasped her hips, his fingers digging into her soft flesh. “I’m here. Right here.”
Hands braced on his thighs, Becca lifted herself up and down on his cock, riding him until they were both moaning, desperate, shaking. Her nails bit deliciously into his quads, making him do a double take at the big diamond on her left hand. And fuck if that didn’t escalate the urgent ache in his balls—to pour himself deep, deep inside her, and never let go.
She threw her head back, sending her long blond waves cascading down his chest. He fisted a thick column of her hair in his hand, forcing her back further against him until she was reclined against his chest and impaled on his cock. “Want you to come all over me,” he said, reaching around to stroke her. She arched on contact, but Nick held her fast against him as his fingers pressed firm, quick circles against her clit.
The diamond caught the light as she grasped and kneaded her breasts, her movements growing desperate as she thrust forward against his fingers and back against his cock. On a guttural moan, she held her breath and her core fisted around his length until her muscles were pulsing, sucking, squeezing the sanity from him. A high-pitched moan wrenched out of her as she went slack on his lap, and the languid satisfaction of her body made him feel ten feet tall.
“Holy shit,” she rasped.
He smacked her ass. “Kneel on the chair and bend over.”
“Ooh. Yes, sir,” she said as he helped her stand. He grinned as she got into position and looked back over her shoulder.
Gut instinct had him pulling off the bandage covering her tattoo. “I wanna see this ink while I fuck you.” He penetrated her inch by maddening inch, his gaze glued to the words she would wear forever. For him.
Gripping the back of the chair, she peered at the design from the corner of her eye. “You’re so good, Nick. All of you. I’m so lucky you’re mine.”
Her voice lit up places within him that once were so dark. Buried all the way inside her, he leaned over her back and braced his hand on the chair next to hers. Then his hips started to move in small, deep, punctuated thrusts that had her moaning with each stroke and his body screaming for release. As deep as it was, it wasn’t deep enough. It would never be deep enough. “Fuck, Becca. Just want you so goddamned much.”
“You have me, Nick. Oh, God,” she rasped as he banded an arm around her ribs and moved faster. The chair screeched against the floor and their skin slapped against the percussive beat of a grinding rock song.
He clutched her left hand on the backrest of the chair, and the diamond bit into his palm. It was the nail in the coffin of his remaining reserve. On a shout, he buried himself balls deep and came until he couldn’t help but rest his weight against Becca’s back. When his body finally stilled, he wrapped both arms around her and pressed a soft, open-mouthed kiss next to her tattoo. “I love you, Becca. And I always will.”
NICK COULD BARELY keep the smile off his face as he opened the apartment door. Him, unable to hold back a smile. If that wasn’t life doing a one-eighty, he didn’t know what was.