Heart of the Devil (The Forge Trilogy #3)(42)

I fish her diamond ring out of my pocket, where I’ve kept it for weeks after she threw it at me in my study the day I told her to go. My heart in my throat, I lay the ring on the table between us.

Indy’s lips press together, and a single tear spills over her lashes.

“Then it’s a really good fucking thing that I’m winning this game.” She flips her cards over to reveal the ace and king of hearts before snatching the ring off the green baize. “Because I’m never taking it off again.”





41





India





As soon as the ring is on my finger, Jericho surges from his chair and charges around the table to lift me out of mine. Our lips meet in a chaotically beautiful collision. His hands roam over my arms, around my back, under my ass, like he can’t stop touching me. Can’t believe I’m real and here.

I tear my lips away from his for a second to tell him something I’ve never said to a man. “I love you, Jericho. So damn much. Don’t you ever try to push me away again.”

“Never again. I swear it. I love you, Indy.”

He lays me out on the table and pulls the straps of the gold dress down my shoulders. My breasts spill free and his mouth skims along their curves, raising chill bumps in its wake. “I need you. All of you.”

“That’s what you get. Every heartbeat. Every fucking breath. Everything I am and everything I have is yours.”

One hand slides beneath my dress and finds the slickness coating my thighs. Jericho groans against my mouth before he pauses.

“I’ll buy you a new dress.”

“What—”

Before I can get the question out, he tears the fabric down the center, baring me completely. The dress I once considered unlucky has turned into the luckiest of my life. But I don’t need luck now, because I’ve got everything I could ever want.

My greedy fingers snatch at the buttons of his pants, and I wrench them open. As soon as he’s free, he pushes between my thighs, and the head of his cock nudges against my entrance.

Jericho pauses before he presses inside. “I want a family. At least two kids. More, if you want.” His voice is rough and ragged with emotion.

A family.

“Yes,” I whisper. “I want that too.”

With a buck of his hips, Jericho powers inside me, and my muscles tense as he stretches me wide. He owns me. My body. My heart. My soul.

Thrust after thrust, I cling to him as he takes me higher and closer to the edge. My nails dig into his shoulders as I lift my hips to meet every stroke.

It wasn’t the island that was home. It’s the man.

“I love you,” I scream as my control snaps and my orgasm sweeps me away. Jericho wraps his arms around me and holds me close as his body pulses his climax.

“I love you, India. So fucking much.”





42





India





When I wake up, I’m scared I’ll find an empty bed, and last night will be nothing but a dream. But the twinges of my body and the massive source of heat pressed beside me tell me that I’m wrong on both counts. Thankfully.

I roll over to see dark hair spread across the pillow and his tanned hand only inches from my face.

I never gave him a ring. This time, that’s going to change.

In the rush of last night, I never actually asked if the divorce proceedings were final. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last month, a piece of paper doesn’t mean jack shit when it comes to love. You’re either all in or you’re not, and even if we’re not married anymore, it changes nothing about how I feel and the direction of our future.

When Jericho’s lids pop open, his gray eyes are less stormy this morning. Now they’re more the dark silver of a clouded moon reflecting off the ocean, and they’re absolutely beautiful.

“You’re here.” His voice comes out sleep-roughened.

“Did you think I wouldn’t be?” I ask, sliding my fingers down his heavily muscled arm.

The hand nearest my face rises, and he trails two fingers across my cheek. “I thought I’d wake up and this would all be a dream.”

A smile tugs at my lips. “I thought the same thing.”

“Best damn dream of my life, though. I never want to wake up from this, Indy.” His palm curls around my cheek and his fingers tuck into my hair. “Kiss me so I know you’re real.”

“Morning breath—”

“Don’t fucking care.”

Jericho’s lips sweep over mine, and his tongue slides inside. He wraps his arm around me and pulls me closer to his chest. Skin against skin, he kisses me like I’m the most essential thing in the world. More important than time or money or goddamned oxygen.

When he finally pulls back, those gray eyes turn solemn. “No more games. No more deals. We’re going to talk. Communicate. When things go wrong or something’s bothering you, you tell me. I tell you. No more surprises. We’re still going to fight, because we’re both hardheaded as hell, but then we’re going to make up, and it’s going to be fucking worth it.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“Good, because I’m not here to tell you how to live your life. I just want to be the lucky son of a bitch who gets to be part of it every day.”