Page 101 of Single Dad's Fake Bride
I kissed her mouth again, swallowing the sound, pressing into her with my hand until her hips bucked. She was so ready, her body opening for me, and I couldn’t wait another second. I pushed my boxers down and settled between her thighs, guiding myself into her with one steady thrust. Her back arched, a broken cry leaving her lips as I filled her completely.
“God…” I groaned, burying my face in her neck. “You feel perfect.”
Her legs wrapped tightly around my hips, pulling me deeper, her nails raking across my shoulders. I moved inside her, slow at first, then harder when I felt her body respond. Each stroke dragged another sound from her throat, each one higher, sharper, needier than the last.
She clung to me like she couldn’t breathe without me, her chest heaving against mine, her mouth hot and wet as she kissed me with desperate hunger. I shifted my hips, driving into her at a different angle, and her gasp nearly undid me.
“That’s it,” I urged, holding her gaze as I pushed harder. “Let go for me.”
Her eyes fluttered shut, her whole body tensing beneath me, and then she broke, crying out as she came hard around me. The sudden clench of her body dragged me over the edge with her. I groaned her name into her mouth as I spilled into her, holding her close like I’d never let her go.
I stayed inside her, unwilling to let go, my chest heaving against hers. The world had narrowed to this bed, this moment, her skin damp beneath my palms and her breath warm against my throat. She curled into me, her hand resting over my heart as if she could feel how violently it pounded.
For weeks I’d tried to cage it, to keep myself from crossing the line, to tell myself what we had was nothing more than survival and circumstance. But with her body wrapped around mine, carrying my child, every wall I had left crumbled.
“I love you,” I whispered. The words scraped raw from my chest, terrifying to speak, but truer than anything I’d ever said.
Her lips parted, her eyes wet, and then she breathed the only thing that mattered. “I love you too.”
The sound of it nearly undid me. I kissed her hard, kissing her like a starving man, kissing her because for the first time in years, I didn’t feel like I was holding everything together by sheer force of will. I felt… free. Seen. Wanted for who I was, not for what I could provide.
She pressed her forehead to mine, her tears smearing against my cheek. “I tried not to,” she admitted. “I thought if I kept my heart out of it, it wouldn’t hurt when all of this ended. But I can’t stop. I love you, Harrison.”
My throat burned. I held her tighter, overwhelmed by the truth of it. I’d lived so long in careful, measured silence, never giving anyone this piece of me. Now I couldn’t imagine not giving it to her.
But if she loved me, if she was tying herself to me in this way, she had to know what kind of future she was walking into.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” I murmured.
She brushed her thumb over my jaw, waiting.
The weight of her touch steadied me and unmoored me all at once. For years I’d built my life around control—every number in its column, every plan airtight, every choice calculated so Eloise would never feel the instability I’d grown up with. Now, here she was, telling me she loved me, trusting me with her body, her heart, and our child. And all I could think was how unworthy I was to hold it.
“Sadie…” I faltered, my voice rough. “I don’t want to lose this. Not you. Not us.”
She blinked, her brows drawing together, but she didn’t speak. She just waited, her silence soft and patient, as if she knew dragging it out of me would be worse than letting me wrestle with it.
I pressed my forehead to hers, eyes closing. “The truth is… none of this is certain. Everything I’ve promised you, everything I’ve built for Eloise—it could all disappear. I’ve been holding it inside because I didn’t want to lay that weight on you. But if you love me, you deserve to know what you’re stepping into.”
I drew in a shaky breath. “The case with Blackwood… the lawyer doesn’t think it will go my way. If it doesn’t, I lose Hawthorne. I lose the title. The salary. The protection that’s kept Eloise here. It means public school for her, and me going back to a normal job, trying to hold us together on far less than you’ve seen so far.”
The words cracked something open in me. Saying them aloud made the threat feel closer, more real. I’d been pretending I could keep us all above water by sheer force of will, but I couldn’t ignore how precarious it was.
I searched her face, half-afraid I’d see regret there, that she’d wish she’d never said she loved me. Instead, her hand slid higher along my jaw, her thumb brushing the corner of my mouth as if to soothe me.
She brushed her thumb over my jaw, waiting.
I swallowed hard. The words felt jagged in my throat, but I couldn’t keep them from her. “Everything could change, Sadie. If the board wins, I’m not headmaster anymore. No salary, no legacy, nothing from my father. Just me, working a job and trying to cover what I can. Eloise won’t be able to stay at Hawthorne.”
Her expression didn’t shift. “Then we find another way. If she has to leave, I’ll teach her myself. She won’t fall behind.”
I stared at her, certain I’d misheard. “You’d take that on?”
“Yes.” She said it without hesitation. “Because this isn’t about titles or money. I want you. I want Eloise. I want a family with you, whatever it looks like.”
The air left my lungs in a rush. For months, I’d braced for the moment she would decide this was too much, that the strain of it would drive her away. Instead, she was offering more. Not because she had to. Because she wanted to.
I pulled her against me and kissed her, slow this time, tasting the certainty in her words. She didn’t want my father’s name or the school’s prestige. She wanted me.
