Page 32 of Too Late

I let her words sink in.

I let her explanation massage the ache in my chest until I can breathe again.

I slowly slide my hand away from her throat, down her neck.

Fuck.

I’m being paranoid.

Why would I ever think she’d dream about another guy when she sleeps next tome? She wouldn’t cheat on me. Shecan’t.She has no one else. It would be the worst mistake she ever made and she knows it.

I need to get her out of this house. Away from all these people. I’m more certain now than I was ten minutes ago that I need to make her a mother. Make her a wife. Give her a place of our own where other men are never around to make me this fucking paranoid.

Sloan leans forward and reaches to the hem of her shirt, pulling it over her head. She tosses it on the floor and then pushes me back against the headboard, sliding onto my lap.

And just like that, I’m hard again.

She presses her breast against my mouth and offers herself to me. I take her nipple in my mouth again and I give her what she wants. I suck herharder. So hard it hurts her. I want her to feel the ache my mouth left on her for the rest of the fucking day.

She wraps her hands in my hair, pulling me against her as she moans and says my name. She says,“Asa.”

She says itthree times.

Myname.

I grab her hips and lift her slightly until she’s positioned right over my dick. I bring her back down until I’m buried inside her, almost certain I’ve never been this deep. God, she feels good. It feels so good when I don’t hate her.

I didn’t like how it felt to hate her.

“You’re mine, Sloan,” I say, dragging my lips up her neck and to her mouth.

She whispers, “Yours, Asa.”

I slide my tongue in her mouth until she moans, and then I pull away from her. I grip her throat again with my right hand and guide her hips up and down with my left. She winces a little when I squeeze her throat, and it makes me wonder if I hurt her neck earlier. I move my hand and can already see a handprint. There’s even a little bruising.

Fuck. I did. I hurt her a lot more than I intended to.

I lean in and kiss her softly on the neck, giving her a silent apology. Then I look into her eyes as she rides me. “I want to marry you, Sloan. I want to make you mine forever.”

She doesn’t say anything right away. Her whole body stiffens, and she stops moving against me. “What?” she asks, her voice shaky.

Fuck.Did I just propose?Surprisingly, that thought doesn’t fill me with dread. I grin and rub my hands down her back, gripping her ass. “I said marry me, baby. Be my wife.”

I lift her off me and push her onto her back. I slide back inside of her, relishing the fact that I don’t have on a condom. I move in and out, savoring every sensation while she stares up at me, speechless.

“I’ll buy you a ring while you’re at school today. The biggest one I can find. I just need you to say yes first.”

A tear falls out of her eye and that’s when I know for sure that she loves me. The thought of spending forever with me just made her cry.

God, I love this girl.

I speak between thrusts, staring straight down at her tear-filled eyes. “I love you, Sloan. So fucking much. I need to hear you say yes.” I groan, feeling how close I am to finishing. Finishinginsideher. Experiencing something with her that we’ve never experienced together before. I kiss the side of her head and then lower my mouth to her ear. “I need to hear you say yes, baby.”

She finally releases a quiet “Yes.”

That word makes me so goddamn happy; it only takes one more thrust for me to come. And I release inside her. Inside myfiancée.

I hear her gasp as I’m finishing, but that’s the only noise she makes. Seconds pass as I’m trembling above her, but she’s quiet. Probably from the shock of what just happened. She hasn’t moved or spoken because she wasn’t expecting a proposal. Especially in the middle of the night. Or the morning. I have no fucking idea what time it is.

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