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Pressing into my back, he planted a hand against the tree and reached around to rub light circles my clit.

“More,” I breathed.

“Like this?” He increased the pressure of his touch.

“Oooh, fuck!” I shrilled. “If you stop, I’ll fucking kill you.”

“No need for death threats. My hand isn’t going anywhere.”

Closing my eyes, I lost myself to his groans, to the way he claimed me, to the expert circles of his thumb on my clit. Bodies slapping together, he pounded me from behind, and we both lost our minds in the midst of our primal coupling.

We rutted like fucking animals against that tree.

My chest heaved, and I gritted my teeth as the pressure built between my thighs. “Rafe?”

He answered with a grunt, teeth latching onto my earlobe, breath hot against my neck.

God, it had been so long. I was about to burst. “Let me come,” I pleaded.

“Let you? Fuck, if you don’t, I might lose my fucking mind.”

That was all I needed. Permission. The green light to take that dive into ecstasy without consequence. I plummeted then soared in spectacular abandon. A powerful shudder ripped through me as I cried out his name.

He came seconds later, his teeth sinking into my shoulder and smothering a series of grunts and cries.

“Damn,” he rasped. “I’ve missed that sound.”

We stood like that for a while, me against the tree, his body plastered to my back as we caught our breaths. In the back of my mind, I acknowledged the sight we’d be if anyone came upon us. With our bodies still joined, his skin hot on mine, his breaths slowly leveling out to match my shallow ones, I couldn’t bring myself to care about getting caught.

This moment was too euphoric, but beyond that, it signaled a return to our fucked up normal.

After a while, he disentangled his body from mine and began untying the elaborate knots that restrained me. The rope dropped to the ground, and I held up my hands so he could free my wrists.

His eyes caught and held mine as he rubbed my sore, rope-chafed skin. Taking hold of my left hand, he kneeled and pressed his lips to my belly, gracing each inked letter of his name with a kiss.

“You’re everything to me, Alex. I hope you know that.”

Something about the way he gazed at me, with a seriousness darkening his irises, sent my heart into a somersault.

“I know that.”

“I put you through hell.”

I had nothing to say to that. It was true, but I was still exactly where I wanted to be.

“And the worst part, babe? I’d do it again. You know I would.”

“I know,” I whispered.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a white ring box, and I failed to breathe.

“I want you to think long and hard about your answer.” He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he lifted the lid to reveal a gorgeous jade stone ring. “Though I already know what it is, and fuck, Alex, I’m dying to hear you say it. But be sure. Once we do this, there’s no going back.”

I sank my fingers into his thick hair, a smile of irony forming on my lips. “We passed the roundabout a long time ago, Rafe.”

“That’s true, but you know I’d move Heaven and Earth to pave a new one…if it’s what you really wanted.”

“It’s not. You’re what I want. What I’ve always wanted.” I glanced at the ring he held between two fingers. “I want to marry you.”