“God, yes,” he groaned. “I feel you coming around me, baby. I can’t… I’m going to— Ah!” He pushed hard into me, touching my innermost soul.

When he finally stopped convulsing inside my walls, he pulled out and then gently removed my shoes, jeans, and underwear. He turned me so I lay on my back, looking up at him. He was, of course, still fully clothed except that his jeans and boxer briefs were at his knees.

I smiled. “We’ve been in this situation before.”

“So we have.”

“I like this,” I said shyly. “I like being naked before you, ready for whatever you want to do to me.”

He lifted his eyebrows. “I like it too. Very much.”

Time for the words. To tell the man I loved what I’d made him wait to hear.

“Ryan, I want to marry you.”

He leaned over and kissed my lips. “Finally. You know I wasn’t going to stop until you agreed.”

“I thought a lot about you when I was taken to the island, especially when I was locked in that room with Juliet. I wanted to get back to you, and I knew you’d come to me. But I didn’t want you to come. I knew you’d be walking into danger. I couldn’t lose you. I just couldn’t.” I sighed. “I’ve been so afraid of losing something else by letting you in. Some part of me. But I was wrong. I’m gaining something. Something wonderful.”

“We’ll get married tomorrow,” he said.

“Not yet. I don’t want a courthouse wedding. Let’s have something small and nice, like the wedding in Jamaica.”

“You want to go back to Jamaica?”

“No. I don’t want to go near the Caribbean for a while. But we can have something nice here. At your house.”

He smiled. “Our house.”

The thought didn’t freak me out or give me pause. “At our house.”

Chapter Forty-Seven

Ryan

I stood and pulled up my jeans. Then I went to the top drawer of my dresser and removed a gray velvet box. I’d purchased the ring a while ago, after I’d given Ruby the sapphire bracelet that had belonged to my grandmother. I’d thought about asking my father about the bracelet, but I’d decided against it. If my mother had been lying and it hadn’t belonged to my father’s mother, I didn’t want to know. The piece was so perfect for Ruby, and I didn’t want it tainted by my mother’s possible lies. For as long as the piece stayed in our family, it would be an heirloom from my grandmother. Perhaps one day Ruby would give it to our daughter.

God, a daughter.

Or a son.

Hopefully some of each.

Melanie would soon have Joe’s first child. Talon and Jade most likely wouldn’t be far behind, and neither would Ruby and I.

We hadn’t talked about children, but Ruby was a natural mother. I’d seen the way she dealt with Dale and Donny. Even with Juliet. And the way she fussed over her new puppy. She was very nurturing and caring.

We’d talk about it all later. Right now, this amazing woman had finally agreed to be my wife. She had sat up on the edge of the bed, her naked body gleaming, and I knelt before her and opened the box. “Ruby Lee, I love you with all my heart. Would you marry me?”

I picked up the sapphire ring set in platinum and placed it on her finger. I’d guessed at the size, but it fit perfectly and matched the bracelet.

She inhaled sharply. “It’s so big! It’s like Princess Diana’s!”

“Princess Kate’s now,” I said.

“How in the world did you know that? You don’t seem the type to keep up with the royals.”

I chuckled. “Neither do you, actually. I have no idea how I know that. But it doesn’t matter. This one belongs to Princess Ruby.”

“I’m hardly a princess.”

“Sure you are. A beautiful naked princess.” I kissed her lips. “I hope you like it. It’s not a diamond, but I thought—”

She cut me off with another kiss. “It’s perfect. Perfectly beautiful.”

“It matches your eyes. Except your eyes are even more dazzling.”

“Never in my life…” She choked up.

“What is it, baby?”

“All those years, afraid of men. Keeping them at bay. None of it was a mistake because it all led me here. It led me to you. To a love I could never have imagined in my deepest dreams.”

“I, for one, am glad it did.”

She smiled, her eyes glassy. “I am too.” She pressed her lips to mine.

I opened for her, and we kissed until my cock was hard and I couldn’t wait to have her. I broke the kiss and inhaled deeply. “Baby. Please. I need you. I need your ass.”

She tensed against me and stepped backward, fingering the ring on her left hand. “Ryan…”

“If you’re not ready, I understand. I won’t push you.” Even as I said the words, I had to bite back the urge to command her.

But when her gaze met mine, I knew. Her eyes sparkled with more fire than the jewel on her finger.

“I trust you, Ryan. Take what you need from me.” She lay down on the bed, facedown, grasping the sheets.

I walked slowly to my dresser, found a bottle of lube, and then returned to her, turning her over so she was supine. “I want to see your eyes when I take you.”

She smiled. A little shakily, but it was a smile. I spread her legs, knelt between them, and drew my tongue across her swollen, wet folds, inhaling the scent of our combined juices. My cock throbbed for her, but I was determined to go slowly. Not just because she needed me to, but to savor this gift she was presenting me.

After the horrors we’d just witnessed, she was truly gifting me with something special.

I licked her and sucked on her clit until she was near orgasm, and then I squeezed a little lube onto my hand, warming it, before I spread it over her anus. “Relax, baby.” I slid my tongue back over her clit as I breached her tight hole with my finger.

She inhaled, tensing.

“Shh,” I said. “Easy. Let it feel good.”

She closed her eyes, exhaling. “I’m all right.”

“I won’t hurt you. If you’re uncomfortable at any time, just tell me. I’ll stop.”

“I know. I trust you.”

I worked my finger in and out while I continued licking her pussy, bringing her to the edge again. “That’s it. Come on. Come for me.”

She moaned low in her throat, and her pussy quaked beneath my tongue. The walls of her ass pulsed against my finger, and I nearly lost it. While she was shuddering in climax, I added another finger.

“Ryan! God!”

I shoved my tongue into her pulsing cunt and continued to drill my fingers into her. When her orgasm began to subside, I withdrew the fingers and nudged the tip of my cock against her ass.

“Ready, baby?”

“God, yes. Please. Take me. All of me. I want to be yours.”

I placed her legs upon my shoulders, closed my eyes, and slid into her quickly.

She cried out.

“Easy, baby. Tell me when.”

Then she opened her blue eyes, and the fire within them scorched my soul.

“Now. Take me now.”

I slid out and slid back in. Sweet, tight heaven. I didn’t expect her to climax again, so when she started to finger her clit, all thought rushed away in a flash. Only feeling remained—such an amazing feeling of headiness and comfort. Of love.

When she flew into her climax, moaning my name, I thrust inside of her deeply and emptied everything into her—my heart, my soul, my life.

She was my life.

I stayed inside for a minute or two while we both came down from our euphoria. Then, I silently withdrew, walked to the bathroom, wet a wash cloth with warm water, and then returned and tended to my woman.

She smiled. “I can’t believe I did that.”

“Would you believe it was the first time for me too?” I’d engaged in anal play with others, but never had I actually performed the act itself.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want you to think I didn’t know what I was doing.” I laughed and lay down next to her.

“She propped her head on her hand and gazed at me with her gorgeous blue eyes. “That makes me happy.”

“It does?”

“Yeah. In a way, now I’ve taken your virginity!” She chuckled and pressed a light kiss to my forehead. Then she cocked her head. “I hear Ernie whining on the deck.”

“How can you possibly hear a puppy all the way in here? We’re pretty far from the deck.”

“Trust me.” She stood, looking around. “My shirt is in the kitchen, and it has no buttons anyway.” She laughed, walked to my closet, grabbed one of my shirts, and wrapped it over her naked form. “I’ll be right back.”

I couldn’t keep my eyes off her as she walked toward the door and out of my bedroom. I didn’t doubt for a minute that she’d heard the puppy. Again, I knew she’d be an amazing mother.

I began stripping off my clothes. I’d be ready to take my fiancée to bed when she returned to me after seeing to her fur baby. I looked around my bedroom. It was good sized, but we couldn’t stay here forever. This was a guesthouse, not a real home. It was high time I built my own house on our land. Ruby and I would do it together.

I lay down naked, my cock already hardening again, and—

A scream—

Then, Ruby’s voice. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Chapter Forty-Eight

Ruby