Page 47 of Never Always
“You could have just told me,” I say, moving my hips in a circle because he loves it. “That would have sufficed.”
He groans, closing his eyes. “I needed to touch you more.” He brings his lips down and kisses me between my breasts, then my collarbone. “You have no idea what you mean to me.”
I swallow my pride, because he didn’t say he loves me. Not with words. “You just showed me. It’s going to be leaking down my legs all night.”
He grins and licks the corner of my ear. His cock springs up inside me. “We have to leave this room now or we’re not going to leave this room at all. For the rest of the night.” As he pulls out, he looks at his watch. “That’s a fucking record, Fire. Be proud. You served your country well.”
Rolling my eyes, I sit up and make my way to the bathroom to clean up as best I can and shove toilet paper into my panties.
“I’ll go out there and tell them our sentiments are matched and how I don’t like expressing feelings so openly. Isn’t that a problem most men have? They’ll buy it. Well, Rexy and Mercer won’t but I don’t care what those fuckers think.”
“You’re so sketchy, Corrick Granger,” I say, adjusting my skirt. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined having sex with a man like Grange with my family in the next room over waiting for me. I like that I’m surprising myself. Everything is changing.
“But you love me,” Grange coos, pulling me against him. He looks different in his button-up shirt, and I love that, too.
My heart flutters. “You’re lucky.”
“Oh, I know that.” He walks out and makes the announcement almost verbatim of what he just told me. Everyone is clucking about how adorable Grange is for being shy. If they only knew he is a wolf, no, a beast, in sheep’s clothing. That underneath those grey slacks his dick is coated in me, and his mind is on the next time he gets me alone. A breath lodges in my throat as I look at his wide back and sculpted ass. I love him in the sweatpants, but I can get used to these clothes as well.
Rexy looks like he’s sweating bullets. I check the thermostat on the way by and it’s good. “Well,thattook long enough. Is it my turn now? Can we continue?” Rexy says, heaving a breath.
“Sorry man. Yeah. Of course. Let’s get back to it,” Grange says while pulling out the chair for me. I make sure my mama sees. She does. Mentally she’s scoring me. Mostly Grange. If he notices, he doesn’t seem to care. “Go on then,” Grange announces, clearing his throat, eyes focused on his friend. Now he looks nervous.What’s going on?
“Like I was saying before love interrupted, I don’t want to follow Tennyson’s confession, but I have to. This meal looks delicious. Thank you, everyone.”
“What looks best though?” Clover interrupts. “If you had to choose before you take a bite? My casserole, right?” She’s joking, of course, but my sister scowls. “It’s my mama’s recipe.” My mama responds to that, her eyes lighting on the sweet potato casserole. Clover’s family is known for their recipes in Alabama.
“Your casserole is always best, baby,” Mercer says, rubbing Clover’s back. “What are you thankful for, Rexy? Give it to us.”
“This turkey,” Rexy replies, swallowing hard, pointing to Maeve’s plate in an exaggerated gesture. She looks at it inquisitively, then nods.
“Agree. It looks good guys!” she says, meeting gazes with a few people on the other side of the table.
“And marriage,” Rexy adds, reaching for her turkey breast with his bare hand and flips it over. On one side of the wishbone poking out of the breast is a diamond ring covered in turkey grease, shining up at Maeve. He watches her face for a response of any kind, but she doesn’t give anything away, so he goes on. “I’ve asked Maeve to move in with me seventy-three times. I realize now I’ve gone about this the wrong way.” She picks the ring off the chicken and looks at Rexy with big, tearful eyes. “Marriage, Maeve. I’m grateful for marriage. Married people have to live together. I mean, I guess in this new age they don’t have to, but that’s an outlier. I want you to live with me forever. I want to marry you and make a family. You are everything and anything that is good in my world.”
He plucks the ring from her fingers and puts it in his mouth to clean it. It makes a popping sound as he plucks it from his mouth. Rexy takes her hand and slides the ring onto her finger. “Seventy-four, Maeve. Make it my lucky number. Say yes.”
She looks at her finger, a contemplative look warring with what she obviously wants to say. The second her gaze meets him, it’s over. Love wins. “Yes. I’ll marry you.”
Rexy stands on the bench, fists held in the air over his head, screaming out his victory. Clover cries, Mercer and Grange join him in hoots and claps. Sue-Ellen puts a hand over her mouth, a shocked pageant move. Mama lays a hand on her chest, and Daddy nods his head like the proud patriarch of a very large, unruly family.
Rexy sits back down and takes Maeve’s face in his hands. “Does that mean you’ll move in with me too?”
“Did you ask me to marry me just to get me in your bed every night?”
His smile is devious. “It worked.”
Maeve shakes her head and wipes away an errant tear. “I love you, Rexy.”
“Because I like my love to be loud, I’m about to kiss my woman right now. Close your eyes, I’m going in.”
Kiss her he does. The passion is so evident, so full, so magnetic that it takes Grange wrapping a hand around my shoulder to bring me back to reality. I turn away. “You’re crying,” he says.
I lie. “It’s so romantic. I’m happy for them.” I’m jealous.
Grange’s smile drops when he hears the truth behind the lie. He pulls me to his chest, and I accept his warm embrace. Because I have to.
Chapter Fifteen
