Page 94 of The Wedding Engagement

It was as if all his life’s choices had brought him to this one moment. The heartbreak he’d felt last year was a memory so distant that it seemed like someone else’s. Everything that had happened had been meant to be, a path that had led him into Liv’s arms, and now he was where he belonged—inside Olivia Holland not only physically but emotionally. She’d let him into her head, to places no one else had been allowed. And he hoped she’d let him into her heart too.

She was calling his name again and it was so hot, he couldn’t stand it. Then she began to tighten around him as her second orgasm crested, and it was all he could do to hold on through her climax before he came himself.

The intensity of it stole the breath from his body. It wasn’t just that this was the best he’d ever had; there was something more to it. Something deeper. A connection that only strengthened the more she let him in, the more vulnerable they were with each other.

He kept his eyes on hers, trying to anchor himself in the moment, getting lost in the sea of her eyes. Wave after wave of warm ocean washed over him, leaving him drowning in pleasure and sweet emotion.

Then the words crashed into his brain.I love you.

For a moment he thought he’d said it out loud, then realized his thoughts were just distorted in his mind, as if he’d detached a little from reality. The words drifted away as the fierce intensity of his climax ripped through his consciousness, so that he almost forgot what had been going through his head.

He allowed himself to slump a little on top of her, holding back some of his weight in case he was too heavy.

But she tugged him down, collapsing him onto her. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he told her.

“It’s okay,” she said, breathless. “I like feeling the weight of you. I like that you’re so much bigger than me.” A smile played on her lips. “I can still fell you, though, with my karate skills. So you’d better watch yourself.”

He smiled as he rested his forehead on hers. “In that case, I don’t think I will watch myself. Because the idea of you pinning me down is a huge turn-on.”

Those three little words resurfaced, and free of his climax-rattled brain, the thought fully hit home.I love her. I’m in love with Olivia Agnes Holland.

It was the cliché to end all clichés—but he’d never felt this way before. It was almost as if the physical act had tethered a little piece of his soul to her. He was connected in a way he hadn’t been before, to her or anyone else who’d come before. Did she feel it too?

He could’ve easily uttered all of it aloud, but something stopped him. The same thing that stopped him from telling her how long he’d dreamed of this. How long he’d wanted her to look at him the way she was doing right now. How much he wanted them to be together.

He didn’t want to rush her, to scare her off. Not when she’d only just managed to let him in.

She was stroking his hair. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything,” he said.

Her eyes were wide. “Do you really think Dean said that shit to me because he was proud? Not because he thought it was true?”

He managed to bring his thoughts back to some kind of clarity. “Of course, sweetheart,” he murmured, brushing his nose against hers.

She searched his face. “But you never said anything nasty to Jess. And you’re really proud too.” She arched an eyebrow. “I’ve never known anyone as reluctant to ask for or accept help as you.”

“I guess I don’t have the ego to match,” he replied, lifting his head to grin at her. “Though I really should, being such a sex god and all.”

She laughed, and he absorbed the warmth of it through his chest. “I can’t argue with you there.” She kissed him, then whispered against his mouth. “I always knew you’d be superhot in bed.”

“Why, thank you Aggie,” he said, peppering her face with kisses. “The same goes for you.”And then some.

Her smile softened. “I like that you’re using that nickname again. You hadn’t called me it in a little while and I felt like I’d lost a bit of you.”

Lifting a hand, he trailed his fingers down her face. “You’ll never lose me.” That was the most he allowed himself to say to indicate the depth of his feelings, keeping the rest buried.

When she’s ready. Then I’ll tell her everything.

Chapter

Twenty-Four

The hot water ran overher skin, but despite the fact that Liv liked her shower temperature high, the heat of the flow was nothing compared to the flush she felt from Arran’s touch.

It had been the sexiest encounter she’d ever had in her life. She never came the first time being with someone because she felt too closed off to let go. And twice? That was unheard-of.

But he’d made her feel comfortable as well as turned-on. She felt safe with him, nurtured and secure.

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