When he brushed the tears from her cheeks, his tender caress wrenched her heart.

She blinked up at him, touched down to her soul. “I d-didn’t know.”

“You weren’t supposed to.” He kicked his jeans aside, leaving himself naked, and helped her to her feet. “I’ve been on some of the most dangerous missions the navy has doled out in the last ten years. Iraq, Afghanistan, tons of third world shitholes. I never worried. I knew my role, knew I was good at my job. I went in, did what I needed to do, and got out. I even woke up in the desert once with a viper’s fangs about six inches from my face. My heart may have raced a little then. But I was never truly afraid of anything until you came back into my life and I realized how much I still loved you. Knowing that you could utter one Shakespearian character’s name and walk out forever scared me more than anything, ever.”

She bit her lip to hold in a sob, clutched his shoulders, and looked right into his eyes. “I love you.”

Logan stepped close, eliminating her personal space and pressing his body against hers. His hands trembled as he grabbed her face. With his jaw clenched, his stare delved deep, past her eyes, right into her soul. “Say it again.”

The tears took over again, blurring her vision of Logan, but Tara felt him all around her, somehow inside her. She might not have any visible tattoos to remind herself of him, but he was indelibly imprinted on her heart. “I love you. I don’t think I ever stopped. I tried everything I could think of to cut you out of my heart.” She shook her head. “But you were always there.”

Pain tore across his face. “That night I came to your house a few years ago?”

God, that night. “And I slammed the door in your face. I’m sorry. It was like you had a sixth sense. I was just getting together with Brad, thinking that maybe he’d be different and that I could love him. We’d planned to . . . spend that night together for the first time.”

She swallowed, wishing she didn’t have to give him such a truth, but if he wanted it, Tara wouldn’t hide.

“Did you?”

“No. Seeing you, even for two seconds, flipped some sort of switch in me. As soon as I saw you, I finally felt the excitement, yearning, and need I’d been trying to manufacture with someone else for years. It only took me a second to realize that you gave me everything I’d been searching for, and you didn’t even have to speak a word. I got angry. Then I panicked. I knew Brad would see it all over my face. So I slammed the door, told him that I wasn’t feeling well, and sent him home.”

He pulled her face closer, whispering against her lips. “I wish to fuck I’d had the courage to knock on your door each day of every single leave home.”

Fresh tears scalded her cheeks. “You would have worn me down.”

“No, Cherry. I would have loved you. Christ . . .”

Logan pulled her tightly against him, wrapping his arms around her, burying his head in her neck. Tara felt him everywhere, his heat all over her, his love running through her, his need simmering in her veins.

Gently, she pulled away, then took his hand and led him to the bed. “Love me now?”

He yanked the dress from her body, then tumbled her down onto the mattress, covering her body with his. “Every day for the rest of your life, if you’ll let me, Cherry. Marry me?”

Tara thought her heart would explode. After everything they’d been through, all the years and distance, life experiences and heartbreak, they were going to be together—where they belonged.

Tears spilled over again as she nodded. “I would love that more than anything.”

Logan’s smile dazzled her, and the genuine warmth and happiness in his eyes was infectious. In that moment, Tara felt deep down that they’d finally overcome everything. As soon as they finished this mission, they could plan a wonderful, perfect life together.

With one hand anchored on her hip and the other wrapped around her nape, Logan began sliding into her body, feeding her wet pussy one slow, hard inch at a time. The friction of his cock sinking into her clasping sheath charged a whirl of tingles through her, lighting up something that went heart deep.

“I’ll take good care of you, baby. And I’ll always love you,” he whispered against her mouth. “It may not have been the most romantic proposal you’ve ever received, but it’s the most sincere.”

“It’s perfect,” she whispered, then covered his lips with her own, tangling his tongue with hers as if she could drink in every part of him and keep him with her forever.

As he pressed deeper, Tara’s need to have all of him surged. She lifted and wriggled, head tossed back. Logan kissed her exposed throat and ground his hips to her, detonating a new flurry of sensation through her.

They weren’t just joining bodies, and she knew it. Felt the tendrils of the fragile love they’d both clung to over the years thicken and grow, curling around them with every sweet, slow glide deep inside her. With every thrust, she panted out her pleasure, then held her breath as he withdrew, waiting for more of the sweet ache to ramp up to the explosion she needed to feel all the way down to her soul.

“Will you trust me, Cherry?” His gaze pleaded with her, saying what he wouldn’t.

She didn’t know exactly what he sought, but in that moment, it didn’t matter. Whatever he did—whatever he wanted—would give her pleasure.

“Yes. Always.”

His smile of joy was almost blinding as he slowly kissed her, their lips and breaths entwined reverently. Then withdrew from her.

With a gentle nudge, he rolled her to her stomach, disappeared for a moment, then returned to the bed.

“We’re going to take this slow and gentle, baby. I only want to make you feel good. If you don’t like anything, just tell me.”

Tara had a pretty good idea what he wanted, and her heart skipped. “Hmm. You don’t sound much like the badass Dom now.”

He laughed and pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “Now that I’ve got a lifetime to unleash that side of myself on you, I can afford to take it slow. Trust me, you’ll see the badass again. But right now, there’s nothing more important than simply sharing this moment with you.”

Joy welled up in her at his words. He wanted to connect them together in body now. In heart. They’d soon do it legally, in the eyes of God and man. And someday, if they hadn’t already, they’d create life together. And live all their days side by side.

The fact that happiness—that Logan himself—was finally in her grasp made her urgent to have him now that he was finally, truly her man. “Hurry.”

His warm palm glided down her back, over the curve of her waist to cling to her hip. “I want you to belong to me in every way. Will you let me try?”

Before she could answer, she felt a cool drizzle of liquid slide in the crevice of her backside. Then he penetrated her there with one finger, silently telling her exactly what he sought.

Tara gasped as her body swallowed him up, clamped down, and sent jolts of sensation pinging all through her body. “Yes.”

“You like that?”

The plug he’d used on her previously had been sexy, awakened nerves she hadn’t realized she possessed. But his fingers, with their warm skin and gliding movements, were something else altogether.

She nodded. “More. Please.”

Logan leaned across her back to whisper in her ear, “Like this?”

Then he withdrew completely, only to enter her ass again with two fingers, scissoring them apart, stretching her. This time, her body clenched, her skin burning. The utter intimacy of the act, as if he found every part of her worthy of attention, as if he loved and accepted every part of her and wanted to claim her wholly, encouraged her to take a deep breath, relax, and give him everything he wanted.

“Yes!” she cried out.

His fingers dug into her hip. “Even now I can see your fair skin flushing, baby. There’s nothing more beautiful than your acceptance. Can you take more?”

For him, she could take anything. If it pleased him, if it brought them closer together, she’d endure anything.

But this electric touch lighting up her whole body told her this wouldn’t be something she’d have to bear through, but a sizzling pleasure she could only hope to survive.

“Give me everything, Logan.”

He moaned against the sensitive skin of her neck. “When you say it like that, Cherry—God, it turns me on.”

Tara felt that in the next moment when he pressed his hard cock against the cheek of her ass, then eased his fingers past her rosette again. One, then two . . . until he added a third. The burn intensified until her skin seemed to be on fire. She hissed in pleasure and thrust back, gyrating to impale herself deeper.

Logan stilled her with a firm grip on her hip. “Easy, baby. We’re taking this slow. I want this to go down as smooth as possible.”

“I’m ready.”

“Soon. Be patient.”

She moaned in frustration, then cried out when he pressed his fingers deeper into her backside. “Now!”

“Do I have to drag out the ropes and discipline to make you behave?”

Someday—probably soon—he would. Tara could picture herself bound helplessly to his bed while he tormented her body slowly, mercilessly, until she begged him to fill her anywhere, everywhere.

Today, she understood his need for a gentler approach. They were mutually acknowledging not only pleasure, but the bond of their love for one another. Every touch felt profound.

With firm, slow strokes, he thrust his fingers deeper into her backside, spreading tender kisses across her back. “How’s that, Cherry?”

Heavenly. She whimpered at those thick fingers inside her. She felt invaded and somehow conquered—yet still loved. Logan was opening her up to one of the most intimate acts possible, yet with every word and deed, he treated her with care, mindful of her pleasure and pain. And there was a bit of both that blended together to saturate her with startling pleasure.

He stilled. “Answer me.”

“So good,” she moaned.

“When I get inside you, it’s going to sting, maybe even hurt a bit.”

“I want to give myself to you, please you.”

Logan leaned across her back, wrapping his arm around her to caress her belly. “The beautiful submissive I’ve always wanted inside the perfect woman I’ll always love. I feel humbled.”

Bliss exploded through her heart, then magnified as he glided his hand down her belly, settling it possessively over her mound. As one of his fingers slid between her slick folds, grazing her clit, Tara eased her head back on a slow groan.

Logan dropped his chin over her shoulder until they touched cheek to cheek. The rough coolness against the fever heating hers flared more need inside her, spinning a heavy ache all through her blood. She arched, melting into him.

“I feel so desired,” she whispered.

With a gentle withdrawal, Logan removed his fingers from her backside, then spread more lube over the tender area. He disappeared for a moment, and Tara listened to the sounds he made around the room—the opening of a drawer, then ripping of cardboard, the clink of plastic. Vaguely, she wondered what he was doing, then decided it didn’t matter. Whatever he did was for her greater pleasure, their heartfelt connection. Eyes still closed, she smiled as he made his way back to the bed and the mattress behind her dipped under his weight.

“You are desired, Cherry. I’ve always wanted you.” He aligned himself behind her, hand curled around her hip, and fit the bulbous head of his cock against her rosette. “I will always want you.”

A gasp replaced her reply as he eased into her, one slow torturous inch at a time. Her flesh stretched. The burn returned. Logan was not just longer, but thicker, and he paused when the tight ring of muscle there resisted his entry.

“You’re going to be okay, baby. Take a deep breath for me. That’s it. Relax. Good girl. Now arch your back and push out.”

She did so as he used his hands to spread her cheeks apart, opening her even wider just for him. As he pushed forward, she braced herself, willing him past the constriction to fill her deep.

“Damn, this is so . . .” He groaned. “Fuck, you’re so tight. The sight of you taking me here is killing me. I want all of you. Relax for me a bit more. Keep pushing out. Yeah.” The sound was a long moan.

Then with a last push that flared her full of searing pain, he slid past the fist-tight muscles and sank inside her.

A whole new explosion of sensations opened up to her, the deeper he sank. The burning no longer lit her skin, but fired her muscles, igniting her very core. Having him in her pussy was always a pleasure that she could barely put into words, but this felt somehow more intimate, their connection so wordless yet absolute. Everything about the hushed whisper of sheets blending with their mutual moans, in rhythm to their slow, synchronized thrusts felt sacred.

Finally, Logan slid completely home and wrapped one arm tightly around her, as if he never wanted to let go. “We’ll take our time because I’d never want to hurt you. I don’t know how long I can hold out against this kind of pleasure, but I want you to feel utterly filled and fulfilled. So I need you to take everything I want to give you, Cherry.”