Once she’s gone, I move to the couch with Lily. She makes the most tempting moaning noise when I wrap my arm around her and pull her close. I lean down and kiss the top of her head, taking the time to inhale her scent, her realness, heraliveness.

“I love you,” I tell her.

She gasps and looks up at me. “Don’t just say that because?—”

“I’m saying it because it’s true,” I tell her. “As soon as I heard your voice when that bastard had you, I knew it was true. I knew I started loving you the instant I saw you outside The Row. You’re the best person I’ve ever met.”

“I love you too.” She puts her hand on my leg, squeezing, digging her nails like she wants to tether herself to this moment.

I smirk. “Don’t just say that because?—”

She leans up and kisses me passionately. I’ve been resisting the urge to grab her and own her all day. With the security team around, it was easier. When she went to be with her friend, it was convenient. With her mom sitting right there, it was hell.

Now, just us, I can’t hold back anymore. I growl and press myself against her, lying on the couch. She falls back, wraps her arms around me, then bites my lip.

“Sorry,” she murmurs.

I smirk. “You don’t have to apologize to me … ever. Is something wrong?”

“Do you think we should go into the bedroom?” Her eyes sparkle with something like danger. “You know …”

She laughs when I stand up and bring her into my arms simultaneously. The laugh is one of pure relief and delight. It’s a laugh that flips the bird to death, to the bullshit the mob tried to pull, to the crazy adventure we’ve been on together.

She feels perfect in my arms, her curvy body sculpted for me. I nudge my bedroom door open with my elbow and carry her to the bed. When I place her down, she sits up right away, grabbing the front of my shirt and pulling me into a kiss. I sense the nerves in the movement, her desperation to be as close to me as possible. Maybe it’s the virgin thing making her move so fast.

I can’t overthink it, though. The second I feel her body against mine, I know she wants this, needs this, as badly as I do. I slide my hand down her body and between her legs, pushing my hand against her sex through her jeans.

“Fuck,” she gasps, letting her head fall back. “That’s so sensitive. So hot.”

“You’re so goddamn hot,” I groan as I rub the outside of her pants quicker. I’m sure I can feel her heat and her wetness through the fabric. She shifts her hips as I rub her, and then she bites her lip, staring at me.

“What?” I say, pausing.

“I don’t want any clothes between us.” Despite everything we’ve shared, that gorgeous blush still creeps across her face and neck. “I just want it to be us, nothing else, nobody else, just us …”

I stand up and reach for my shirt. “Then you better show me your perfect, curvy, naked virgin body.Now.”

She makes another ball-tingling gasping noise as she sits up and tugs on her clothes. I tear mine off quickly, my manhood springing up with glistening precome on the end. She wriggles out of her clothes and sits naked on the bed, her tits bouncing as she lets out a shudder of anticipation.

“You’re so big,” she murmurs, reaching forward and sliding her hand up and down my length.

I look down in awe, completely captivated by her hand stroking precome to my base and then back to my tip. Her thick, gorgeous tits drive me wild. I can’t take the motion of her hand for more than a few strokes until I begin to lose it.

“I need your tight virgin slit,” I groan. “Fuck. Your legs are glistening already.”

“You make me so wet,” she moans, her hand still pumping.

With a groan of pure hunger, I lean down on the bed, laying my naked body against hers as gently as I can. She wraps her arms around me, squeezing her fingernails against my back as I reach down and grip the precome-slick base of my dick.

When I guide my tip to her slit, her moan is almost enough to finish me straightaway. Her heat kisses my head like she’s trying to make me erupt. I slide in as slowly as I can, even as instincts scream at me to grind deeper, to push further.

Before I glide in, she grabs my face with her hands. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs.

“What’s wrong?”

“Before we … you know, I have to know.”

“Know what?” I growl, struggling to hold myself back, struggling not to push in, keep going, claim her as mine now and forever.