Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Four

We stumbled out of the hotel elevator later that night, sipping from each other’s mouths. The mix of alcohol and sexual need swimming through me had my whole system buzzing. I felt warm and tingly and tipsy.

Dane took me by the wrist and led me to our room. Chris and Miley had booked us the honeymoon suite, so it was no surprise to see fresh flowers, champagne on ice, rose petals on the bed, and a tiered-stand of chocolates and strawberries.

Dane hauled me against him. “I spent pretty much the entire day thinking about what I’d do to you when I had you all to myself,” he said, his voice low and vibrating with a need that equaled my own. “Now I finally have you where I want you.”

And I really couldn’t have been more pleased about that.

He splayed his hand on my throat. “I can feel your pulse racing against my thumb.”

I expected him to claim my mouth, but he didn’t. He just stared at it, his face cold, his eyes hot. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I felt the strain in my chest.

Everything seemed to go still and quiet as I waited for him to move. My breathing picked up, and my pulse quickened even more. Anticipation was like a living thing inside me. Just when I thought I might explode, his mouth slammed on mine. That easily, the sexual buzz in my system amplified by a thousand. Hunger flared. Nerve-endings sparked. Chemicals raced. My heart began to pound like crazy.

Needing to touch him, I slipped off his jacket, pulled off his bow tie, and opened the top buttons of his shirt. I slid my hands inside and planted them on his chest, loving the feel of that hard muscle and barely leashed hunger.

He broke the kiss with a nip to my lower lip. “Stay right there.” He moved to stand behind me and then, slowly and leisurely, undid the back of my corset. The material slumped forward, and he wasted no time in slipping his hands down the front of the corset to palm my breasts.

Closing my eyes, I arched into his warm, skilled hands as they shaped and squeezed. Each touch teased me. Inflamed me. Branded me.

Without turning to face him, I reached up and looped my arms around the back of his neck. “You still torn on whether to strip me naked or just flip up my dress?”

He pinched my taut nipples just right. “No.” He kissed and suckled on my throat, humming in approval when I tilted my head to give him better access. “I’ve decided I’ll take you while you’re wearing this cock-tease of a dress. Then I’ll get you naked and fuck you again.”

That was a plan I could get behind.

He withdrew his hands from my corset. “Sit on the edge of the bed.”

I complied and looked up at him, waiting for further direction, knowing how much that revved his engines.

His eyes went heavy-lidded. “Such a good girl. Now lift your dress and spread your legs; show me what’s mine.”

I very slowly peeled up the front of my dress while parting my legs.

His gaze dropped to my boots, and every muscle in his body seemed to tense. His dark eyes flew back to mine, glittering with need and promise. “So this is why you had that wicked little smile on your face earlier,” he said, taking two predatory steps toward me.

“I wanted to surprise you.”

“You succeeded. They stay on. All night.”

“I really don’t think I can sleep in them.”

“I’ll make it worth your while.” He crossed to me, dropped to his knees, and snaked his hands up my inner thighs. “Such soft skin.” He caught the waistband of my panties and slowly peeled them off. His eyes on my pussy, he said, “Spread your legs wider. That’s it.” He might be on his knees, but there was nothing submissive about him. Even then, he wore authority like a second skin. He was fully in command, held all the power and knew it.

“Lean back and brace yourself on your elbows, Vienna. Good girl.”

I gasped as he buried his face in my pussy. He didn’t tease me with little flicks or laps of his tongue. No, he worked me with his tongue, teeth, and lips; drove me up hard and fast into an orgasm that left me trembling and panting. Then he did it all over again. I collapsed onto the mattress, breathing hard.

He stood and deftly shed his clothes. “Hook your hands under your knees, pull your legs toward your chest, and then spread them wide for me. That’s it. Keep them there like that.” He slipped one hand beneath my ass, tilted my hips slightly, and then wedged the head of his dick in my pussy. “Hmm. My happy place.”

I chuckled. “Feel free to—” My back bowed as he slammed home, ruthlessly burying himself balls-deep inside me. I let out a shaky breath. “Jesus, Dane. You could give a girl a little warning.”

He gripped my ass. “Are you ready to be fucked?”

“Yes. Very, very yes.”

He hummed and reared back. “Well that’s a shame. Because I’m not ready just yet.”

I frowned. “What? You are. You totally are.”

He lazily sank his cock back inside me, hunger carved into every line of his face. “I love watching your pussy swallow my dick.”

Dane kept his pace excruciatingly slow as he thrust inside me again and again. Occasionally, he’d pause to grind his pubic bone against my clit like the teasing little shit he was. My entire body was so hot I wouldn’t have been surprised to see flames dancing over my skin.

Gasping and moaning, I urged him to move faster, to take me harder. He didn’t. He seemed intent on driving me insane—something he came close to doing when he began to do some clever things with his hips. He’d circle them, move them side to side, or rub up and down, sending my clit and inner nerve-endings haywire.

“Dane—” I gasped as he yanked me closer, hooked my legs over his shoulders, and slid even deeper inside me. Oh, God, yes. I thought he’d then finally give me what I wanted, needed, but he kept his pace lazy and gentle.

“You are cruel,” I croaked. “Just plain cruel.”

His mouth curving, he bent over and lashed my nipple with his tongue. “You look like you hate me right now.”

I could never hate him. Never. I loved the teasing bastard, and I wondered if he even knew it. Probably not. He wouldn’t expect anyone to love him. He most likely doubted that anyone ever could. And that just wasn’t acceptable to me.

I licked my lips. “I want you to know something.”

He ground against my clit again. “What?”

I curled my hands around his nape. “I love you, Dane. I don’t expect you to say it back. I don’t even need to hear those words. I just want you to know.”

He stared down at me, a whole array of emotions flickering in his eyes so fast I couldn’t identify a single one of them. He swore under his breath, buried his face in my neck, and began fucking in and out of me. Hard. Fast. Brutally. Like he couldn’t get deep enough.

I clung to his nape, moaning and scratching at his skin, loving every savage thrust. He went so deep it hurt a little, but I didn’t care. Liked it. Especially since every stab of his cock hit my sweet spot, rubbed my clit, and made his balls slap against my ass.

After being teased for so freaking long, I was excruciatingly close to coming. I could feel my pussy tightening and spasming around his cock. I knew his own release was creeping up on him, because I could feel his shaft begin to swell and throb. “Dane—”

“Come for me.” He sank his teeth into my neck, and I was gone. “That’s my good girl.” He fucked me through my orgasm, ramming harder, faster—almost feral. Then he punched his cock deep inside me and exploded.

The strength seemed to leave us both, and we sagged. The weight of his body made it hard for me to catch my breath, but I didn’t care—I liked having him so close. So I breezed my fingers through his hair, lightly scratching his scalp.

Finally, Dane let my legs slip from his shoulders and down to my sides. He kissed his way up my neck and over to my mouth. His tongue swept inside and tangled with mine, tasting and savoring.

Pulling back, he brushed my bangs away from my face. “Love you, baby girl,” he said, his voice low and soft. “You told me you don’t need the words, but you deserve to hear them. I don’t want you to ever be unsure of what I feel for you. I need you to know deep down to your bones that you’re the most important thing in my world. I need you to know I could never love anything or anyone the way I love you.”

My eyes stung, and my nose tingled. I had not expected that declaration. Hadn’t been prepared for it. I didn’t need to ask him if he was sure—Dane would never have said those words if he didn’t mean them. “Right back at you. I don’t know when it happened. I just know that it’s true and it won’t change.”

“Same here. I haven’t done anything at all to deserve you, but I’ll never give you a reason to regret being mine. Not ever, Vienna. You can count on that. On me.”

“I know, and I do. You were the best fake husband ever, so I have no doubts that you’ll make the best real husband ever.”

A low, rumbly chuckle vibrated his chest.

I gaped. “You just laughed. Sort of.”

He nuzzled my neck. “It was a cough.”

“It was not. Don’t worry; I’ll keep it between you and me.”

“That I coughed?”

I play-punched his shoulder. “You laughed. I heard you.” And I was determined to make sure it happened again. He deserved to have a home filled with laughter—not fear and anxiety the way his childhood home had been. I tilted my head as something occurred to me. “Are you going to want a bigger house when we have kids?”

His brow pinched. “Why would we need a bigger house? How many kids are you planning to have?”

“We won’t need a bigger house unless you think you can’t cope sharing your space with noisy little people.”

He shrugged. “I’ll manage. You didn’t answer my question. How many do you want?”

“Two or three.” Or maybe four.

“All right. We’ll get started in a few years. I want to have you all to myself for a while first. I’m not ready to share you yet.” He nibbled my lips with his own. “I’m greedy and selfish when it comes to you.”

“You don’t hear me complaining, do you?”

He skimmed his hand down my neck, over my breast, and down to my waist. “I love this dress on you. Do you remember the little black dress you wore on our first date?”

“I remember.”

“I want you to wear it for me one night. I sat opposite you in the restaurant hard as a steel fucking spike. I kept picturing you bent over with that dress hiked around your waist. You’ve no idea how close you came to getting fucked in the car on the way home.”

I would never have guessed he’d been going through the same sexual struggle as me. “Who says I’d have let you fuck me?”

One side of his mouth hitched up. “You’d have let me. You were just as hot for me as I was for you.”

Totally true. “Oh, I was, was I?”

“Yes, you were. Which made it even harder to keep my hands off you. But I knew that if I touched you like that even once, there’d be no going back. And I was right.”

“That you were.”

“I always am.”

I snorted. “You’re an arrogant ass at times, but you somehow make it work for you. I don’t even know how. It’s like your superpower or something.”

“When I was a kid, I wanted the power to teleport so I could go anywhere in the world. Which reminds me … I have a surprise for you.”

“You do?”

“Yes. We’re going on a trip next weekend.”

I smiled. “We are? Where?”

“Venice. Hanna told me you always wanted to go there. It’ll be our belated honeymoon.”

I hugged him tight. “Thank you. I’m super excited. Wait, what about Blue?”

“She can come with us. We’re not staying in a hotel. We’re staying in my villa.”

“Well of course you have a villa in Venice. Do you own houses anywhere else?”

“A few places. You’d like the lodge in the French Alps.”

“Alps? I would not have pictured you as a skier.”

He shrugged. “I might never have tried it, but … Oliver always wanted to learn to ski.”

And because the little boy had never had that chance, Dane had done it for him. “Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did.”

I rolled my eyes. “You don’t have to answer, I won’t be upset if you don’t. I just wondered … Does the ‘o’ in o-Verve stand for Oliver?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“Why ‘Verve?’”

“As a toddler, he couldn’t correctly say ‘Oliver.’ He used to point at himself and say ‘Verver.’ But if people said, ‘Oh, your name is Verver?’ He’d scowl and say ‘no, Verver.’ In his mind, he was pronouncing it correctly.”

A sad smile pulled at one corner of my mouth. “So, you added the ‘O’ and dropped one of the ‘Rs’.” And, in doing so, honored his brother.

“Yes.”

I pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “Thank you for telling me that.”

Dane hummed and sipped from my mouth again, tasting and tantalizing me. The kiss soon became hard and deep and wet. “Now I want you naked. Well, mostly naked. The boots can stay.”

“Fine, but I’m not sleeping in them.”

“All right,” he said easily, so sure he’d get his way.

He did, actually.