Page 141 of Golden Ruin

Lex goes still against me, and I hate that I had to tell her that part, hate that I had to break her heart.

“Figures,” she sighs, and it isn’t until I hear her sniffling that I know she’s crying again.

“No. Come here, Lex.”

She lets me pull her into my lap, and her head falls against my shoulder.

“I could go on a rant about how not knowing you is his loss, or how he’s a shit father for putting you through all this, but I’d rather tell you how fucking sorry I feel for him.”

She laughs in the middle of crying. “I’m gonna need a bit of context, Sterling.”

I smile and pause to kiss her chin, then her lips. “I feel sorry for anyone who has to miss out on having you in their life, miss out on knowing what an amazing woman you are.” I kiss her again. “The guy doesn’t know what he’s missing.”

Her smile grows, and I swear the sight of it makes my heart feel ten times lighter.

“It just sucks. I wanted him in my life so fucking bad. But the first chance he got to back away, to disown me, he took it.”

“Well, I like to think you turned all of that into a positive, because you’re an incredible mother. Don’t let people who’ve never met you convince you you’re anything less.”

She stares into my eyes, nodding. “Unfortunately, I’ll now have to defend that to the rest of the world.”

She tries to look away when she tears up again, but I grab her chin, forcing her to look at me.

“Fuck them.” That makes her laugh, and I’ll take it. “Seriously. Whatever happens, whatever comes next, we’ll deal with it. Together.”

She doesn’t blink, doesn’t speak. She just stares at me, like she’s afraid I’ll disappear if she looks away. I kiss her before that fear has a chance to take root, tasting the saltiness of her tears on her lips. Her fingertips trace the stubble along my jaw, and I’m home. Doesn’t matter that we’re in the middle of nowhere. As long as she’s in my arms, I don’t give a damn where we are.

This woman, my woman, is home.

“I missed you,” she breathes against my mouth, but she kisses me again before I’m able to tell her the same. But there’s no way she doesn’t feel that in my touch, how I pull her into me when close doesn’t even feel close enough.

Craving the feel of her skin, I slip both hands beneath her tee, moving up her back, only half thinking as I remove her shirt. We undress each other slowly, falling onto the couch with the fire at my back while I stare down on her. I want her, but I’m not in a rush. Tonight, I need the closeness. Maybe more than the pleasure.

She draws a deep breath when my mouth presses to her neck, kissing her slowly as our naked flesh awakens at the feel of one another. Her inner thigh is soft and warm when it brushes my hip, and her nails slowly running down my back has my heart racing.

“Lex…”

She kisses my jaw, my cheek, my mouth. “Yes?”

“I know we agreed to take this slowly, that we said there wouldn’t be titles, but…”

I stop myself because I don’t want to push, but I’ll be damned if I don’t want to be everything to this woman. I want the exclusivity, the titles, all of it.

“Tell me,” she breathes against my neck, and the warmth of it has me pushing into her just enough that she wets my cock, gives me a taste of what’s waiting for me.

“I want you,” I confess. “All of you. Everything.”

I pause to let her take that in, then I just… put it out there.

“I need you to be mine. I need the world to know you’re my girl.”

A memory echoes from our past, when I told her something similar while sharing a bed in my dorm. She was naked, rain was falling, and I remember feeling so fucking desperate for her. But this… this isn’t just desperation.

This is a man knowing exactly what he wants, needing the woman he loves to see his heart.

The whole fucking thing.

She studies my face a moment, a surprised look behind her eyes. Then her hand is on my cheek as she smiles underneath me.