Page 10 of Endless Love: Novella

She curled my wet hair around her fingers, holding my head close to her neck. Warm breath tickled my ear before her tongue danced over the lobe. “Lucian,” she rasped as she moved with me, sliding up and down the tile wall.

“So good,” I gritted out, fighting the urge to let go. The temptation was almost too much—the promise of release and losing myself in this woman who had given me everything worth possessing. “Fuck, Poison. You feel so good.”

“The feeling of you inside me, it’s…” She trailed off, her head falling back. I pressed my mouth to her throat, took it as the offering it was, and felt how her pulse pounded under my tongue, the vibrations of every moan, every sigh.

It was like two of us becoming one. I didn’t know where my body stopped and hers began. I only knew I needed more of whatever this was. I needed it for the rest of my life.

She opened her eyes and looked into mine, her gray orbs swirling with lust and pleasure. “I love it when your cock is buried deep inside me,” she whispered, thrusting her tongue inside my mouth in a deep, all-consuming kiss that almost made me forget to move. Her teeth grazed my bottom lip, then she sucked it hard, drawing a long groan out of me as I slammed into her again.

“Oh, God,” she breathed out, dragging her nails over my back, the sting from the water making me groan through my teeth. I thrust into her harder, driving deep the way I knew she needed it—the way we both did.

“Yes…yes…f-fuck me, Lucian.” She held my head close and whispered in my ear, “Harder. I-I I’m almost…”

She didn’t need to tell me. I knew she was almost there, her cunt clenched around me as she sank her teeth into my shoulder. “Let go,” I growled out, almost crushing her between me and the wall with every unforgiving stroke. She let out a high-pitched whimper between helpless gasps, and I relished her sounds of pleasure—pleasure I was giving her. “Let me feel you fall apart around me. Cream on my cock, Poison.”

“I… oh fuck… Lucian!” She bit my shoulder again at the last second, stifling what would’ve been deafening in the shower stall otherwise. The tingle in my spine and the heaviness of my balls wouldn’t be ignored. I closed my eyes, letting go, filling her.

By the time I finished, my ears were ringing, while Ivy’s breathless whimpers faded until she let out a soft chuckle and touched her mouth to my sore muscle. “Sorry,” she whispered, kissing the spot where her teeth had dug in hard. “I don’t know what got into me.”

“Last I checked, it was my dick,” I reminded her. She only rolled her eyes at my corny joke, then sighed in what sounded like disappointment when I slid out of her pussy. I understoodthe feeling all too well. There was always a sense of loss when I left her.

Without saying a word, I pulled the showerhead down from the mount and trained it on her sensitive flesh. She leaned against the wall again, eyes closed while I cleaned her up. “We’re going to have to hurry now,” she whispered, running her fingers through my wet, tangled dark hair. “I hope nobody minds us being so late.”

“I doubt anybody will.” Who wanted to follow a rigid schedule at a time like this, anyway? I never did understand that. An itinerary was one thing, but filling every minute with activities? Especially with the mood everybody was probably going to be after last night. I would just as soon have skipped out on fishing.

“Either way, we better move. I need to try on more dresses today with everybody else. It’s such a shame.” She sighed. It wasn’t the first time she’d said it since we stood in silent shock along with everybody else last night, staring at what used to be an impressive storefront.

Once I finished cleaning her up, she rewarded me with a deep, long kiss that almost made me consider going back for round two. The refractory period was a real thing, though, so I settled for kissing her back and returning the showerhead to its place. “Come on, if you can walk,” I teased, earning a laugh.

We wasted no time drying off, and instead of taking the time to dry her hair, Ivy opted to rub the towel over it, then clipped the nearly platinum locks in place. “If anybody asks, we overslept,” she whispered after we finished getting ready, and even though it was only us in the bedroom, she blushed. “I mean, your parents are down there. Hell, mybossis down there.”

“I’m sure Dad doesn’t think of himself as your boss all the time. I mean, after us being together for two years? Besides…” Ireminded her as we left the guest room at the far end of the east wing, “… last time I checked, we’re not working right now.”

“You know what I mean. It’s weird.” She was still a good girl at heart and always would be. Put her in a conference room in front of a team, and she was tough as nails. Woe to anyone, man or woman, who thought they could intimidate her into silence. Yet, put her in a real-world situation like facing her boyfriend’s parents, and she turned into a blushing virgin.

With a grin, I said, “I hate to tell you, but as far as I’m concerned, we have a lifetime of that to look forward to. And I’m not going celibate anytime soon.” She was giggling when I pulled her close for a quick kiss before we descended the winding staircase.

A lifetime. There was a point in my past when I would have choked on the word. I couldn’t have imagined tying myself down, even after witnessing the commitment between my parents—unusual in our world, where marriages so often broke or were only an act presented to the public. Yet, from the beginning, it was clear to me that Ivy was it. That finding ‘the one’ was more than a myth pushed by the wedding industry. We’d talked so many times about our future like it was a done deal—one of those things two people understand instinctively.

At the sound of laughter coming from the kitchen, Ivy pulled me up short in the foyer. “What’s going on?” she whispered. It sounded like everybody was in there, friends and family, parents, the entire group. And it was deafening. I shrugged, took her by the hand, and lead the way.

“There you are!” Mom shook her head at me when we reached the group. For some reason, she was holding a glass of champagne. Everybody was.

“What did we miss?” I asked, looking around while my Aunt Lourde thrust a champagne flute into my hand.

“We’re not going through the whole song and dance again.” Sienna laughed. She was beaming, clearly over the moon with happiness. “Long story short, we’re engaged.”

Ivy let out a screech, grabbing Sienna’s hand to ogle the diamond solitaire sparkling on it. “Are you kidding? When? This is amazing!”

I turned to Noah, who lifted a shoulder. “We weren’t going to tell anybody, but it seemed like the right time.” Clearly, he was right. I had expected everything to be dull and depressing this morning, but instead, there were happy tears and smiles.

“This is so terrific.” There were tears in Ivy’s eyes when she looked up from Sienna’s ring. “I am so, so happy for you.”

If she only knew. But no, that would go against the point of keeping it a secret. My thoughts went to the box sitting in my safe at home. A box that had sat there for months, ever since we started planning the trip to Europe in July. I had been thinking about proposing for ages, practically since we first got together as a couple. I had known she was the one for a long time, no question about it. I couldn’t imagine life any other way.

Was she thinking about us now as she pumped Sienna for the details of Noah’s proposal? Was she wondering if our time would ever come? It was almost enough to make me want to end her torment and ask her then and there, but she deserved the whole thing. Me on one knee in a romantic situation. She deserved the fantasy.

“I hate to break this up, but we do have somebody waiting for us at the marina.” Colton patted me on the back on his way past, muttering close to my ear, “Maybe next time, wake up a little earlier so you can get off without holding us up.”

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