Page 28 of He Falls First

This gets me a small smile. “Me too.”

We share one long kiss, her sweet mouth soft and yielding to my tongue. The last bit of tension falls away.

“Tonight’s Halloween. The crew at the station always puts out a huge buffet of candy for the kids downtown. You can come with me and help hand out candy. Do you have time for that?”

She nods. “I completely forgot about Halloween. Sure. Nobody ever took me trick-or-treating. It’ll be fun to do that for someone else.”

She’s so thoughtful, and so wrung out. “You look like you could use a nap.”

Briar nods weakly.

I pick her up and carry her to my bed. I know she’s not feeling herself when she doesn’t object to being carried, or to having her shoes removed for her, or to being tucked under the covers.

I spoon up behind her with no expectations other than for her to get some rest.

With my arm snug around her, breathing in the scent of her, she feels like she belongs here. She feels like my wife.

Closer. I just need to get closer. I give her a quick squeeze, but then she rotates around to face me.

“Sleep,” I tell her.

“In a minute,” she says, her hand on the waistband of my sweatpants.

Who among us would object to this?

“Baby, you’re exhausted.”

“Rowan, I can’t sleep. My body doesn’t realize yet that I’m safe. I swear to god, if you don’t fuck the last remnants of stress out of me right this instant…”

Enough said.

We make short work of our clothes with desperate hands, punctuated with urgent kisses and tangling limbs.

Has anyone ever owned me the way Briar does? Have I ever felt like I belonged anywhere, honestly, before she walked into my life less than 48 hours ago?

This was meant to be.

Her thick thighs hug me to her, and she uses two hands to guide me to her heat. “There’s my girl. Where have you been all my life?”

“Don’t make me cry, just dick me right now, do you understand me?”

Make her cry? Her tired, creaky voice is so full of emotions, and I know exactly what she needs.

“Understood,” I say, slipping into her tight, wet, welcoming cunt.

She’s so damn tight, my world fades to black for half a second. “Shit, baby. Holy fucking shit.”

“Rowan! Oh god…oh my god…you’re so…fucking thick!”

I wait for her body to tell me when she’s ready for more.

Briar makes a raspy, throaty sound, her arms gripping me tight, her thighs squeezing.

I surge into her deeply, her sweet honey painting my cock, making me insane with need. I close my eyes as I move in her and see a future devoted to her.

My Briar.

Did I say she felt like my wife a moment ago?