He turned over and she straddled his thighs like she had before and then the drizzle of the almond oil against his skin had him closing his eyes.

She began to knead his muscles. “I’m sure you spent the last two weeks taking care of everyone else so let me take care of you. There will definitely be a happy ending, just so you know that going in.”

“Counting on it. But I’m always glad to hear it.” He smiled into the pillow.

“Do you want to tell me about it?” She dug in a little deeper and he groaned.

“Later. After. I just need you right now. You tell me things.” His voice was muffled by the pillow but she understood him.

Because she loved Duke and had spent two weeks without him, realizing it more every single day, she needed to tell him.

“I never believed in real love until you. I let myself believe a huckster was the best I could do. And because of that, I let myself get jaded. I told myself that because Virgie was a fail in the love department and my previous try had been a disaster, it wasn’t possible. I had a life before you. Responsibilities. But I also had fun. Admittedly way less. But anyway.”

“I want to turn over for this. I want to see you when you’re talking.”

“You want me to massage your chest?”

He flipped her over, tossing her to the side to grab a condom from the table nearby.

“No. I want to fuck you.”

“I want to suck your cock and then fuck you. After the massage. I had an itinerary.”

“Uh. I’m sorry?”

She started laughing. “I’m saying I never let myself believe anyone like you could exist for me. And there you were. You’re nothing like the men I grew up around. You’re strong and you keep your word. You take care of me. I can’t quite believe that you love me. I’ve been in shock since you told me the first time because how does a girl like me get you?”

“A girl like you gets me because I’m really fucking lucky.”

She scooted down, kissing over his hips and breathing against his cock. She rubbed her cheek against it and then licked against the crown.

“I missed your taste.”

She had.

Carmella swirled her tongue around the head, digging the tip into the slit and then into the spot just below. He was close, already sticky with come. Excitement flared in her belly that she’d been the one to do this to him.

She kept it slow, not setting a rhythm that would send him over the edge. He wanted to be inside her and she’d be just fine with that. But a warm-up wasn’t going to spoil anything.

She knew he watched her, which was hotter than any stranger. Carmella gave him a show, licking him slow, keeping her fist around him loosely. The vein throbbed with the beat of his heart.

Carmella risked a meandering lick around his balls until the fingers he’d dug into her hair tightened.

“Going to be hitting that point of no return very soon,” he ground out. “I want in you.”

She gave him a parting kiss, and once he’d gotten the condom on, she straddled his body and then backed up slowly, taking him inside bit by agonizing bit until she sat up straight and tucked her feet back up, and under her butt.

“I was going to have you use my cock against your clit to make yourself come. I’ve been jerking off to that fantasy for a while now. But I don’t think I can stand it right now. I’d come in two seconds.”

She gave an experimental bounce and his resulting groan made her do it again.

“I saw this in a porno. The woman sitting this way, I mean. She is way more acrobatic than me. But the bounce is nice and I don’t feel like I’m going to crush anything necessary.”

His laugh was edged in discomfort. “Saw it in a porno?”

“Yes. Did you think I never watched porn? Jeez. I mean, well, I don’t. Not for very long. But it gets the job done.”

He grabbed her hips and held her in place. “Don’t move.”

Carmella writhed at the pleasure/pain of his fingertips digging into her muscles.

He cursed under his breath and urged her up into a bounce. A bounce he met with a thrust. It wasn’t as artful as a movie, but it was a million times hotter to have Duke’s hands on her, his cock deep inside over and over. He’d moved one of the hands at her hips to her pussy as he squeezed her clit.

She’d lived in the same place growing up. She went there at the end of every day, but it had never been her home. Her little duplex was the same. A house, not a home.

But in his arms? Well, that was home. Beautiful, wonderful, and it made her feel like she could do anything. Be anything with him on her side.

Climax the second time around was intense. The edge of it was nearly too much. Nearly pain. She forced herself not to cringe away, knowing if she did, it would only reward her with the bloom of pleasure that hit her moments later as she came on a hoarse shout.

He continued to meet her bounces with his thrusts until he did a little growl and fucked her hard enough she saw little white stars at the corner of her vision.

And then he froze, his growl cut off as he came.

“Don’t move,” he said, voice rough.

He needn’t have said anything. She couldn’t have moved outside a real emergency. In fact, when he came back, he had to pull her into place against him.

Her voice worked, though. “I love you because you see me. And because you make me feel like I can do anything but that if I fuck up it’s okay too.”

“That’s a really good one.” He kissed her. “I’m not sure if I’m ever going to tire of hearing you say that.”