I feel his eyes on me, so I look back up at him. He towers over me as he steps between my legs. He’s so wide that it forces me to spread them farther apart. My thighs are stretched to the point that I feel the muscles on the inside complain. Jesus, he’s big like this. I don’t know how I never noticed it before, but it’s probably because we’ve never been in this position.

“Carlos.” I say his name, but it’s the only thing that I can manage before he cuts me off with a kiss.

At first I’m shocked and don’t know what to do as his lips move over mine. But after a moment my eyes fall closed and I melt into him. The feel of him is so much better than I imagined, and I savor it. It’s something that I’ve felt like I’ve wanted my whole life. A feeling of coming home washes over me, and all at once everything is right. It’s as if it’s finally as it should be in this moment and not the mess that’s been going on inside my head.

His lips are softer than I thought they would be. Then he slides his tongue into my mouth, giving me a taste of him. His flavor is like cinnamon and desire mixed together. I slide my hands up his body, wrapping them around his neck as his hands tighten on my hips in a possessive hold. The grip tells me he’s never going to let me go. He moans into my mouth, and it feels like it travels down to my core. The need to push my body into his is too strong to ignore, and I try to pull him closer. Kissing is no longer enough, and I’m becoming panicked and rushed. Years of pent-up frustration start to push forward into the kiss, and it grows intense. We’ve become ravenous, and our bodies are trying to burrow into each other so we never have to let go again.

I pull away to catch my breath, and my emotions scatter and surge. Carlos rests his forehead on mine, his breathing even heavier than my own.

“You taste sweeter than I ever imagined. All this time I wondered what you’d taste like. I should have guessed it would be cherries. You eat them by the handful.”

“It’s not like you help my addiction to them,” I tease.

For a moment we slip back into our past playfulness. Or maybe this is just us now. Maybe this is how we are when we’re together. When I belong to him and he belongs to me.

“I’ll plant another twenty cherry trees in the orchard if it pleases you.”

I smile up at him, knowing he’ll do anything I ask. But I think the last twenty he planted for me was more than enough. He leans in again, brushing his lips against mine softly.

“I didn’t know a kiss could be like that,” he says against my lips before giving me another kiss.

“I wouldn’t know. It was my first,” I sass back, my jealousy showing through. How did I ever think I could be around him with another woman?

He smiles at that. It’s full and spreads from ear to ear, showing off his perfect teeth. I want to smack him, but instead I do like I did before when he did something I didn’t like. I close the distance between us and I bite his lower lip. But it backfires because all it does is make him push further into me. The kiss turns from playful to deep, with promises of more.

I pull back, breathless once again, and try to glare at him.

“As much as I love when you talk back to me, because God knows no one else has the moxie to do it, you can cool it.” The hands on my hips pull me into his very evident erection, and he grinds it against me. “I’ve known you were mine for a long time, my Heavenly. Before I was even thinking about kissing girls. Do you think after I found you and knew what you’d become to me that I’d ever be disloyal to you?”

I know the answer to that question before he can finish it. But I let him ask it, wanting to hear it anyway. Needing to hear it after all these years of thinking he never thought of me as anything more than a little sister.

“Never,” he snaps. “Even if I couldn’t have you, which would never happen, I’d still never stray from what I feel for you. Even if you don’t return my feelings.”

There’s a trace of insecurity showing again, and I don’t know why. How could he not know what I’ve felt?

“What do you feel for me?” I push, wanting to hear it all.

“I love you, damn it.”

“I love you, too,” I tell him.

“Not like that.” He shakes his head, and I know what he means. We’ve said “I love you” to each other before, but I’m starting to think that we never knew how deeply the other really meant it. “I don’t love you like everyone thinks I should. Like you’re my little sister or best friend.”

“Hey, I better be your best friend.” I let my hands around his neck drop and slide them down his body. I grabbing ahold of his shirt in my fists, and he smiles.

“That’s just it. You’re my everything. Always have been,” he admits.

“Carlos, I’ve loved you in that way from the moment I snuck on your land and you saved me. You’ve saved me in more ways than you could have ever known. You made all the sadness I had wash away, and you filled that empty void with what life could be. When I told you all those things I wanted years ago - the babies, the marriage - I was always thinking about you. But I thought it could never be. They were dreams I had and whispered to you into the night.”

He sucks in a deep breath, absorbing my words.

“So today when you screamed that you would marry me, well, it hurt. I thought you were just doing what you always do. Protecting me. And while I love that, I don’t want you protecting me like a brother. I want you screaming that you’re marrying me because that’s what you want. That you want it so bad you can’t take it. Not that I forced you into it.”