Page 48 of Mercy (The Sins Trilogy 3)
“If I asked you to put a price on the sky above us, could you?” he says.
I blink at the sudden question, then look harder, squinting. It’s an odd thing to ask. “What happens if someone can’t pay the price?”
“Then they never see this sky.”
I swivel my head to look at him. “That’s not right. I don’t think you can put a price on nature.”
“Why not? Anything can be monetized.”
I make a face at such a calculating and crass suggestion, wondering what this has to do with our prenup discussion. “Because it’s just there. To be loved and appreciated. Maybe we can figure out how much it costs to keep the air clean so everyone can enjoy the view, but the sky itself?”
“So why can’t our love be like that? It just exists. We aren’t thinking about money or other crazy stuff. It’s just…there to make us happy.”
That’s sweet, but what Margot said is still weighing on me. “Don’t you think it’ll bother you if people say that about me? How about our children? They’d have to hear those things about me.”
Tony looks away, just a fraction of a second, as though he’s deeply troubled. “Do you think a prenup would make people shut up?” he says after a moment. He laughs dryly. “Jealous assholes are jealous assholes because they have shriveled hearts and mushy brains full of petty thoughts. If we have a prenup, they’re going to whisper that I only married you for your youth and beauty, and when you’re older, I’m going to trade you in for a newer model.”
If I were a cat, all the hair on my back would be bristling. “How dare they! They know nothing about you!”
He shrugs. “I don’t worry about gossip. It means nothing to me. The only thing that matters is what you think…how you feel.” He turns so we’re standing face to face, the moonlight casting silvery glow on him. “When I look at you and think about the miracle that brought you back into my life, and that you love me, I feel like a man who has the world in his hands. I’m never going to be lost because I have my North Star. I’m never going to be cold because I have my sun. My world will never lack beauty because I have my own starry sky.”
I know he loves me. But when he speaks of the depth of his emotion, I’m in awe that this extraordinary man could ever be so in love with me. And I know deep in my soul that this is the kind of love that will never change. When I’m older, and my hair’s no longer a vivid strawberry blond and my skin’s no longer smooth and taut, he’ll look at me and still see everything he sees now.
“I wanted to do something grand and amazing. I considered asking Wei to help plan it because I’m not that good at stuff like that. But I don’t want to wait anymore. This ring belongs on your finger so everyone knows how much I love you.”
Tears spring to my eyes as he pulls the gorgeous pearl ring out of his pocket and slides it back on my hand. It looks perfect, the symbol of our commitment. “I don’t know how you can not call this grand and amazing. My man is putting a ring on my finger under the most beautiful night sky I’ve ever seen.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him. He kisses me back, the lips lingering, the tongue slipping into my mouth.
The connection is lush, full of his taste—that hot, masculine flavor zinging through me. My heart is so full that it seems like it’s about to burst. This is why I could never, ever leave him. He’s the only one who can make me feel whole and loved. I’m perfect and completed in his arms.
Nothing anybody else says matters. What matters is what’s in our hearts. And I show him, deepening our kiss until I’m dizzy with longing.
I feel the world tilt. We seem to kiss forever, his mouth devouring me endlessly. Always starved for me. Always wanting me.
Lust and love blaze through me, making the blood in my veins sing. I’m wet and aching with emptiness. Always desperate for him. Always needing him—physically and emotionally.
“I want you,” I say between kisses.
He curses softly. “We can’t do it out here.”
He pulls me back into the car and drives, going well over the speed limit. The Cullinan cuts its way back to the city with smooth alacrity. Hot lust thrums in my belly, as needy anticipation seems to permeate the inside of the vehicle.
We make it back in forty-three minutes.
Tony practically carries me through the garage, his mouth fused with mine. The elevator ride feels like an eternity. He kicks our bedroom door closed then places me on the center of the bed. He pulls my top over my head, revealing my racy bra to his heated eyes. “You have the prettiest underwear.”
“I have a very appreciative fiancé.”
He pushes a breast until it pops out of the cup. He does the same to the other. “This is seriously hot. The cleavage. The peaked nipples.”
It’s as if he’s touched them. They bead until the ache makes me whimper and clench my thighs together.
“I want to pull one into my mouth and suck until you go out of your mind,” he whispers, his hot breath fanning over my sensitive skin.
Oh God.He just might do that. My nipples are always responsive, but right now, they’re even more sensitized under his blazing gaze.
Instead of just clamping his mouth down, he teasingly licks the skin around the nipple. Every flick of his tongue sends a streak sizzling through my body until it ends in my clit. I dig my hands into his hair and bow my back, hoping he’ll both end the torture and continue it forever.
