“Yes, and I know this. I should have known it last night. This happened to me earlier this year. Only it was a piece on Erin and her two love slaves as the article termed them. The piece suggested Alexander should be taken away from her and her sex grotto.”

Any doubts he might have had about her were gone when he saw the devastation on her face. On Erin’s behalf.

“Yeah. It sucked. But we stuck together and it’s fine.”

“I can fight with you all the time. Really, it’s rather like foreplay for us, I think. But I can’t do what we did last night. I can’t. If that’s what it’s going to be like, I really must say right now that we can’t see each other anymore.”

He went to his knees before her. “I love you. I want us to be together and married and as a family. Last night was a big wake-up call for me. The biggest ever. We turn to each other, first and always. That’s my pledge to you.” He held out a hand. “Pinky swear.”

She eyed his hand and then his face again, narrowing her gaze. He wiggled his hand again and she sighed. “You’re very bad for my constitution. I find myself breaking all sorts of personal Gillian Forrester rules for you.”

“From you, this is a great declaration of love.”

“Hm.”

“There she is.”

She sighed. “Really, if you’re a beast and you call me to tell me mean things again, I will carve your bits off with a rusty spoon I’ve sharpened against the pavement.”

He was the best thing as he knelt there. Earnest and beautiful. Loving. He wanted to make this work and she thought they might just do it if she could let him in more and he could expand his life to include hers.

“Take a risk on me and I swear I’ll spend the rest of my days making you smile.”

She grasped his pinky with hers and crooked it.

“I love you, Mister Brown. So much I won’t even tell Jules you brought traitor coffee and pastry into my house.”

He grinned. “That is love, English. Truth be told, I figured you might have talked with her about what happened and I’d get chased out. I saw how quick she can get over that counter. She’d be deadly with a knife.”

“Yes, well. It might be safe if you let me handle her and Mary for a while. Though they both urged me to try to make things up with you. Mary told me I loved you.”

“And she was right.”

“Yeah, she was.”

“If Miles wasn’t here—” He looked side to side and she couldn’t stop smiling.

“But he is! Stop it. None of that for hours. But when I get my hands on you tonight, I’m taking all my feminine pique out on your back and those arms of yours.”

His grin was wicked. “Promise?”

“Yes.”

It was nearly midnight before they found themselves alone. She’d gone off to shower and he’d hung out with Miles until the boy finally dropped off to sleep midsentence.

A lot like his mum in so many ways. Miles had seemed quiet and shy at first, but by that point he chattered and teased, and it made Adrian proud to be trusted.

Trust.

He moved to her, needing to reconnect after their fight. Needing the make-up sex portion of the program, not just for the physical release, but for the emotional connection as well.

There was a reason make-up sex existed.

He had to pause to catch his breath when he turned the corner from her room into her bathroom and found her, one leg on a stool, applying lotion. She wore the silky robe he’d given her for Christmas, the tie open at the waist, her bare skin just beneath gleaming from the heat of the shower she’d taken and the lotion she’d applied.

She looked up, catching his gaze. “Mister Brown, that look you’re wearing might scare off a lesser woman.” One corner of her mouth lifted and she put the lotion aside before moving to him at last. “Good thing I’m not a lesser woman.”

“Much to my delight.”

He danced her back to the bed and dropped on it to get out of his clothes and turn back to where she’d knelt on the bed, naked now and waiting for him.

“Hot damn.”

“Well said.” She held a hand out. “I need you.” And she did. So very much.

Getting on the bed, he leaned in close to take a deep breath of her and then groaned. Each time he did that she understood what it meant to be cherished and loved. To be desired by a man who touched her with sometimes rough hands, but never intended to harm.

His hands on her kept them both anchored. To each other. To this moment. This would heal that last bit of the rift left between them. The heat they made together would make it all right again. They’d fight again, she knew it, and it was part of their energy as a couple. And so they’d f**k again and again, laugh as well.

“I’m going to use a blindfold on you next time. But for tonight I want to look into your eyes when my c**k is buried deep in your pu**y. So you know who’s bringing you your pleasure.”

A poke on her shoulder and she let herself tumble back to the bed as he followed her quickly. The teasing look had gone, replaced with stark, raw need.

She slid her hands down her belly and back up, taking the weight of her br**sts, idly flicking her thumbs across her ni**les just to watch him swallow hard a few times.

“Hold them for me.” He bent his head to her, licking and then using the edge of his teeth over her ni**les as she held them for him.

Her breath gusted from her lungs when he took her hands, banding her wrists in his grip and positioning her arms above her head.