Page 72 of Fierce Monarch

Seeing it on Mari’s finger felt like a full-circle moment.

We stared at it for another beat longer, then I tossed her on the bed.

I could hear those happy squeals every day for the rest of my life.

Our first kiss knocked me off-kilter. It felt like it always did with Mari, like coming home, but there was something else too. For the first time ever, I believed that I’d get to keep her. That she was well and truly mine. Yeah, I’d share her with the others, but she wasn’t going to wake up one day and wish she hadn’t chosen me.

She asked for forever because she wasn’t going to change her mind.

We were nothing but grasping hands and lingering lips as we tore off each other’s clothes like we were both in a hurry. I needed her naked and mewling under me, needed her pussy stretched around my cock, warm and wet and real.

I needed to claim her the only way I could.

My cock throbbed as she wrapped her hand around it, the glimmer of the ring bright against my skin, and I groaned into her neck. “Don’t tease me right now.”

“I’m not.” She swiped my head through her slick lips before lining me up and tilting her hips until just the tip of me was inside her. “Remind me what I have to look forward to for the rest of our lives.”

Done.

Cradling her close, I slid all the way home, not pausing for a second to let her catch her breath. She’d have all the time in the world for that later. Right now, I had to imprint myself on her body. With each thrust, I whispered all the things I loved about her, hoping my words embedded in her skin so she’d never doubt them, obsessed with how her body clenched with each one.

Mari loved me dirty, but she loved me soft, too.

Sneaking a hand between us, I circled her clit, knowing we were both close. “Greyson,” she warned.

“It’s okay, baby. I’ve got you.”

When she came, clenching around me, she took my breath away. Head thrown back, mouth parted on a sigh, and fingers digging into my arms. It was the sight of that ring on her finger that sent me over, pushing myself as deep as I could go, as if I could brand her from the force of my orgasm. Mark her like she’d marked me so long ago.

For a moment, neither of us moved. Then I realized I was going to crush her and rolled us, not willing to let her move even an inch. Hell, I was still inside her and desperate never to leave. As we caught our breath, I brushed her hair back, needing to see her face. When she waggled her eyebrows at me, I thought I was going to combust. “I’m going to love you forever, baby.”

She grinned at me. “Always?”

“Always.”

She rested her head on my chest, letting me stroke her hair as we both came down from the endorphin high that I knew we’d be repeating soon enough. The longer we lay there, the more I wanted to come clean. “I knew about the deal.”

“Antoni,” Mari guessed, tipping her head up to see me. I nodded and she sighed. “I was too harsh with Dominic.”

I hummed, not agreeing or disagreeing. “He knew better than to hide it.”

“He did, but still. I promise to fix it tomorrow.”

“Secrets are only good if we’re keeping them from everyone else.”

She paused. “I have to tell you something. I’ll tell Dominic tomorrow too, but…I saw Nate. We…talked.”

“Just talked?” Because her voice sounded anything but sure.

“No.”

Ah. I waited to see if any residual jealousy surged within me, but other than concern for her safety, I felt nothing. The longer I spent thinking about Nate’s lies, the less the entire situation made sense. Sure, I’d initially been pissed, but I saw the way he looked at Mari. I’d watched him interact with her, and I’d checked every single second of his time at the mansion while she’d isolated herself from us. He’d never taken a step out of line.

If he truly was a spy, he was a fucking terrible one.

But Mari wasn’t ready to hear that yet.

“That’s where you were last night? With him?”

---