Page 170 of Governor

“I’m going to get his daughter elected governor,” Carter continues when he ends that kiss. “Weare. You and I. That’s something he never could have done. He fucking tolerates me for that reason alone, if nothing else. Because he’s a greedy sonofabitch and I have the political cachet now that hewisheshe’d had in his heyday.”

His smile fades. “She hates her daddy about as much as he hates me. She’s better at hiding it, though. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she loves Benchley, but she hates the politician he is. I might have tapped into that hatred to get her to enjoy giving you what you needed.”

I frown. “She doesn’t enjoy topping me?”

“Oh, she absolutely doesnow. She was uncertain, at first. The more you enjoyed it, the more she enjoyed it. A self-perpetuating cycle. I give her what she needs and wants as her Master, and you give her what she needs and wants as her slave.” Another of those sexy, slow smiles curls his lips. “And you get to fuck the hottest lieutenant governor in the whole United States whenever you want.”

“And you get the best of both worlds.”

“Almost.” He nibbles down the side of my throat, over my heart, and bites, hard. It won’t show there. Ever since the campaign started, he’s always been careful about my neck or leaving marks anywhere that might show. I’m supposed to be single.

Visible marks might trigger questions we don’t want asked.

It makes my pulse race and my cock throb with need.

I miss the days when he’d bite down on my neck and mark me there, just at my collar line, a boner-inducing game where I always wondered if my collar was hiding marks and watching Carter evilly smile as he watched me do it. Especially if we were in court.

“Almost?” I gasp, barely able to think when he does that to me.

He releases his bite and kisses the mark. “Almost.” He lifts his head and stares at me. “Wewon. We have this time to try to do what we talked about. I will work my fucking ass off to pull every string I can to make this happen for us. But there’s something I need you to do for me now, and only you can do it.”

“Sir?” It’s instinctive and I can’t help it.

He releases my ass and cups my face in his hands. “I need Owen right now, not boy.”

I nod.

“You’re in this for life, right? With me and with Susa?”

That’s a silly question, but I nod again.

“I need you tosayit, Owen. I need tohearyou say it, right now.”

Now I’m a little confused. He sounds intense in a different way than I’m used to hearing from him. “I’m in this for life, Sir. You know I am.”

He arches an eyebrow at me.

“Carter, I’m in this for life,withyou and Susa. Seriously. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t. Just try getting rid of me.”

He releases my face and his right hand dips into the front pocket of his slacks. He pulls something out, then he takes my right hand and I feel him slip it onto my ring finger. It’s warm from being close to his body. He brings my hand up to his lips and kisses the ring before his lips travel lower, settling over the tattoo on my right wrist.

When I am finally allowed to see the ring, my eyes blur with tears. “I ordered it the next day,” he quietly says. “I couldn’t find the nerve to give it to you, because I was afraid you’d tell me no. So I put it away to keep it safe. I decided I’d give it to you either the day I could marry you, or the day I got you sworn in as governor, whichever came first.”

The blue and grey Doctor Who rings he’d shown me back in college, the night we’d celebrated my twenty-first birthday. That was one of the things I do remember from that night.

Gallifreyan writing scrolls through the center part and appears etched in grey against the dark blue ring.

Carter strokes my finger, where the band now sits, before looking up at me. “Inside it says, ‘Mine in all lives.’”

I stare at the band, blinking, stunned.

It’s perfect.

I look up again to meet his gaze. “I don’t have one for you.”

“You can pick whatever you want later. For me, and one for Susa to wear. For now, I’ll tell you what Ireallywant from you.”

“What?”