Page 146 of Attached At Heart
No wonder she could sleep so peacefully, knowing the same truths as me.
I wasn’t sure how long we lay on the canvas of the boxing ring, entangled and sweaty and messy, but I could have stayed there all night.
When the rain reduced to a soft patter and the power flickered back on in the gym, I gently shook Delaney, rousing her just enough to quickly clothe her. And then I let her crash into my arms again, carrying her out to my car and driving us home.
She fell asleep against the window.
Garbled words fell from her lips as I brought her into our apartment, carrying her bridal-style like that first night she came here. The first night she came home.
“Baby,” I whispered over the top of her head. “Can you wake up enough to let me wash you?” She buried her face deeper in my chest, and I chuckled. “If you just stand in the shower, I’ll do the rest of the work.”
“That still sounds like a lot of work,” she said, her voice muffled against my shirt.
“Lane, I made a mess out of you,” I pointed out, feeling my cock stiffen again at the thought.
“Mmm,” she hummed as though she liked the thought of that just as much as me. As though she was debating how she really felt about it. Like maybe she wanted to stay like this. Like she wanted to be mine in every single fucking way.
It was painful, the way my body reacted to that.
“Fine,” Delaney sighed eventually, but she wasn’t acting like she was happy about it. She disappeared back into my shirt and then reluctantly slid to the floor once we made it to the bathroom.
I turned the shower on, and once it was warm enough, I stripped Delaney’s clothes off and guided her inside.
Washing her body as she smiled sleepily, her blue eyes twinkling, was quite possibly the most relaxed and at peace I’d ever been. I only had to pretend that just being near her like this, feeling her curves beneath my hands, and seeing her slowly awaken beneath my touch didn’t make me feel like I was just a walking bottomless pit of desire when it came to her.
Lucky for me, Delaney noticed me hardening and slid her hand over my erection, pumping it up and down. And then she turned around and let me fuck her slowly against the shower wall before coming around my cock for the third time tonight.
She slumped against me afterward, murmuring that she loved me, and I didn’t know if I would ever recover from what had happened in the last few hours.
Our tether pulled tighter.
From my heart to hers.
Delaney laughed that she could handle walking to our bed, but I didn’t want to lose the chance to carry her over every threshold the way a husband would, without any pretense or lies. So I lifted her in my arms and walked her through the apartment to our room.
It was our room now.
Our bed.
I’d settle that in the morning, just in case she had any funny ideas about still living out of the guest bedroom.
That was for guests.
But this was her home.
Until we picked out a new one together, somewhere down the line.
Reason and logic told me I was rushing things in my mind, but my heart said otherwise. My heart told me that this was right. The timing was right, everything was right.
“Thank you,” Delaney whispered to me once we were wrapped around each other in bed.
I shook my head. “I don’t even know what you’re thanking me for this time, but you’ve got to stop. ‘Thank you’ is for favors, and absolutely nothing I have done for you has been a favor. It’s all been things I’ve wanted. If anyone should be saying thank you right now, it should be me.”
Delaney’s lips curved in a smile, unfazed by my sharp insistence. Same as usual.
She didn’t say anything for several long moments. We sort of just stared at each other, stuck in a dazed existence. Her mindwhirred, but the pace was slower than normal; I could see it in her eyes, a slow settling of reality.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do if my parents refuse to approve the inheritance,” she said, momentarily sobering.
