Page 79 of Deny Me

Charlotte’s eyes were closed when he slid behind the steering wheel. “Okay?”

She hummed her answer with a slight smile. They’d been out of the hospital only a couple of weeks, and though both of them were still working on recovering, she’d had more of a struggle. Maybe it was the whole he-man, me-feel-no-pain attitude he’d had to cultivate in his line of work, but he was more concerned about Charlotte’s healing than his own.

“I like your family,” she finally said as he steered the car onto the interstate. “I’m really glad you found them, King.”

He was too. And they were his family. Although his parents knew he’d been shot, they hadn’t bothered to contact him. He’d done his best to reach out to Warren and Christy the past couple of weeks, but they would never be close. His team was, and he was incredibly grateful for that—and for them—every day.

After a bit Charlotte opened her eyes, a crease appearing on her brow. “Where are we going?”

King couldn’t hold back a grin. “Somewhere,” he said. Not his apartment, not yet.

“Somewhere, huh?” She laid a palm on his thigh, her fingers so close to his groin that he had to bite back a growl. “Will I like this somewhere?”

He knew she would, but instead of saying so, he made the universal gesture of locking his lips and throwing away the key. Charlotte tortured him for that by stroking up and down his thigh, closer and closer to the part of him that strained to meet her touch, until he turned off the interstate to a mountain road he knew she recognized. Not long after, he pulled into the ragged dirt drive that was the only access to the piece of property her father had given her as a pre-wedding gift when they got engaged the first time.

Or at least, he prayed it was the first time. If not, he might carry her off like a caveman and hold her captive in the woods somewhere.

With the car shut off, the interior went quiet. Outside, the trees blocked the wind and the ambient light from the city, surrounding them in darkness except for the lights from the dash, but he still caught the track of a tear on Charlotte’s cheek when she turned his way. His gut clenched as he reached to wipe it away.

“Why are you crying?”

Charlotte shook her head, a wry laugh escaping despite another tear glittering as it dropped. “Just remembering.” She looked out the window, then back to him. “I came here that day, you know.”

“What day?”

“The day Richard hit me. I was…missing you, missing what we’d had.” A heavy sigh escaped her. “I had no idea how close you were to coming back into my life that day.”

King wished it hadn’t taken a near-fatal car accident to make it happen, but God, he was glad something had.

Reaching down, he pushed the button to back his seat up to its fullest extent. He leveraged up the middle console, then pulled Charlotte carefully across until she was full in his lap. Only when she was comfortably settled did he tilt her head up and take the kiss he so desperately needed.

And just like that, he was lost. Charlotte’s mouth opened to him, allowing him in, her heat matching his, their tongues dueling for long minutes before the need for air broke them apart. He rested his forehead against hers, breathing deep, counting down the seconds until he could have more.

“Why did you bring me here, King?”

Her words reminded him this wasn’t a random drive down memory lane. Anticipation set his already racing heart off even faster. “I brought you here for a very specific reason,” he said hoarsely.

“You did?”

Reaching into his jacket pocket, he pulled out a small square box. When Charlotte’s gaze latched on to it, she reached up with a hand he noticed was shaking, and flicked on the interior light. “What is that?”

Something he prayed she wanted as much as he did. Without answering, he popped the lid of the box open to reveal a platinum band inset with two heart-shaped diamonds twinkling in the artificial light. One of the diamonds had been in their engagement ring long, long ago, the ring she’d given back to him when they broke up. Now…

He pulled the ring from its nest. “A few years ago,” he rasped, “when we were young and not as smart as we are now, I gave you my heart in a ring I wanted you to wear for the rest of our lives.” He reached for her hand, poising the ring above her fingers, waiting for her signal. “Now I realize it takes two hearts to make a whole—the one I gave you”—he nodded toward the ring—“and the one I hope you’ll give me. Charlotte, will you marry me?”

She stared at the ring for so long he began to sweat. Maybe it was too soon. Maybe she needed more time to trust him again. But no. They’d been through hell together, and there was no going back, for either of them. They belonged together; he knew it.

“This is really the diamond from my old ring?” Charlotte raised liquid eyes to his.

“It really is.” He tipped the ring between his fingers, giving her a look from all angles. “A piece of our past, but set in something completely new, just like we are. We can’t go back, but we bring the past with us, and I know this time we will only make things better.”

She nodded, her smile wet with tears. “Yes. We will.”

When she slipped her finger inside the ring, he wanted to howl at the moon. Caveman, indeed. She brought out every facet of him, rough and tender, sweet and sexy.

And speaking of sexy…

Neither of them were healed enough for acrobatics in the front of a sports car, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t give his fiancée—God, how he loved calling her that!—a taste of their future. He gripped her nape and guided her mouth back to his, showing her exactly how much he wanted her. His fingers shook as he pushed them beneath the hem of her shirt, all the way up till he could pull the cup of her bra down and find the swollen mound of her breast. Already her skin flushed, sending heat into his palm, and within seconds of his teasing, her nipple was rigid between his thumb and forefinger, her back arching carefully into his grip. At a particularly hard pinch, her mouth opened beneath his on a gasp, her moan ending in his name, breathy and begging.

She was fire and flame, his woman. His angel. He teased her without mercy, driving her high while holding her secure, her writhing on his lap making his cock hard as steel. The monster need driving him would have to wait, but in the meantime he reveled in the rocking of her body over him, the way she spread her legs to give his fingers access when he dived beneath the waistband of her slacks, the sound of her moans as he thrust two fingers deep into her creamy channel and drove her to the edge of sanity before tipping her over it. Nothing could be better than her hunger, her desire for him. Nothing but the way she sank into his hold when it was over, trusting herself completely to him, no matter how vulnerable she became.

“King,” she finally whispered, still breathless.

“What, angel?” He nipped at the lobe of her ear, hunger keeping him on the razor’s edge.

“Take me home.” She turned her head and whispered the next words against his lips. “Make me yours again.”

His cock thumped against his zipper. “Let’s go.”