Brandon braced himself on top of Shane and used just his hips to push inside, each thrust slow and deep and making Shane want to claw at the bed, or scream, or maybe sing hallelujah. Brandon’s hard, thick cock filled up every inch of him, rubbing against his prostate just enough to keep him teetering near the edge, but not quite hard enough to push him over.
“Do you have any idea how good you feel, Shane?” Brandon whispered against the back of his neck, never breaking his slow, relentless rhythm.
It was maddening. It was torture. Or maybe heaven.
Shane whimpered.
“You’re the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Brandon said, his body sweat-slick, hard, and hot as it moved on top of Shane’s. “And those sounds you make? They make me want to find a way to get more of them.”
Brandon wrapped a hand around Shane’s hip for leverage and drove himself home. Switching from slow and deep to hard and fast in the blink of an eye. The urgency that had been coiling in Shane’s belly, low and hot and building toward a mind-blowing crescendo, suddenly spiked into a kind of pleasure so intense it was almost pain.
“Oh, God, please, Brandon,” he begged, Brandon’s weight holding him down and keeping him from doing anything but taking it. “Please… I can’t stand it… I need you… I need more… harder, you’re going to… you’re going to—”
“I’m going to make you come.” Brandon’s voice was low and thick with need, each word panted out between his driving, unrelenting thrusts. “Now… Shane… honey… come for me. Now.”
It slammed through Shane like a tsunami, and he emptied himself onto the sheets with a sharp cry as Brandon stiffened on top of him, groaning as he shot his own release into Shane, filling him with heat.
“Oh my God,” Shane said, smiling against the pillow as he wondered whether or not he’d ever want to move again.
Brandon pressed a kiss against the back of his neck, wrapping an arm around his waist to keep them connected and rolling them both to the side, spoon-style.
“Love you,” Brandon said, sounding suspiciously sleepy. He nuzzled his morning scruff against Shane’s neck, his breath already evening out into a rhythm that meant—
“Nuh-uh,” Shane said, squirming around to face Brandon. He grinned, tickling Brandon’s ribs until his eyes popped open again. “You’re not falling asleep on me.”
“I’m not sure I ever actually woke up, honey.”
“Oh, yes, you did.”
“Can’t we have a lazy morning?” Brandon asked, his eyes starting to drift shut again as he started to do the circle-thing on Shane’s back. “That was a lot of work, you know.”
Shane laughed. “Are you complaining? You’re the one who wanted it that way. You wouldn’t let me do anything.”
Brandon grinned, not bothering to open his eyes. “Oh, you did something. You always do something to me, Shane.”
“Sweet talker. You’ve still got to wake up, though. It’s Valentine’s Day.”
“It will still be Valentine’s Day after a nap, won’t it?” Brandon asked, cracking one eye open. “Come on, honey, let’s cuddle.”
A faint crash sounded from the basement, and Brandon jackknifed up in bed, instantly going from lazy to alert. “Stay here, Shane,” he said, kicking off the sheets that had gotten tangled around their legs. “Do you have your phone?”
Shane grinned, grabbing Brandon’s arm. “Wait,” he said. “I’ve got something better than my phone.”
Brandon frowned at him, looking confused. Even though their new house was in a great neighborhood, just down the street from Brandon’s parents, in fact, and Brandon had insisted on installing a top-of-the-line security system, given their history, Shane doubted he’d ever stop being a bit overprotective. And, honestly, Shane didn’t mind one bit.
But this time? He wasn’t worried.
“Trust me,” Shane said, grinning at him as he slipped out of bed and grabbed a long, skinny box from where he’d stashed it in the dresser. He’d wrapped it in red and white, heart-covered paper for the occasion, and Brandon only looked more confused when Shane returned to the bed and handed it to him.
Another sound from the basement.
“Shane, we need to take care of—”
“We will,” Shane said. “After you open this part of your present.”
Brandon searched his face for a moment, but finally relaxed, his lip quirking up in a sexy half-smile as he turned the lightweight box over and over in his hands. “A lightsaber?” he guessed, winking at Shane.
Shane laughed. “Nope. I’m happy with the one you’ve already got, thank you very much.”
“What is it, then?”
“Open it and see.”
Brandon turned it over again, finding the seam, and carefully slid his thumbnail along it, breaking the tape.
“Oh my God,” Shane groaned, snatching at the box. “Just open it already.”
“Patience, young Jedi,” Brandon said, holding it out of his reach.
“I got the paper at the dollar store, Brandon, it’s not like you have to be careful with it.”
Brandon grinned. “You can open yours fast if you want. This one is mine.”
“Mine?” Shane asked, perking up as he looked around the room. “Where is it?”
“I thought you were impatient to see what was in this one,” Brandon teased, shaking the still-wrapped box in front of Shane’s face.
“I already know what’s in that one, Brandon,” Shane said, trying and failing to grab it out of his hands again. “It’s a—”
Brandon covered Shane’s mouth, laughing, and somehow managed to finish unwrapping the gift one-handed. He flipped the lid off the box, instantly getting a distinct oh-shit-how-do-I-fake-that-I-like-this look on his face as he pulled out the thick leather collar.
“Um, wow,” he said, turning it over in his hands. “It’s… really nice work, Shane.”
Shane had covered it in a rolling geometric pattern, hand-tooled into the leather, and inscribed it with the word—
“Bruce, huh?” Brandon said, looking up and doing a very respectable job of trying to look like he loved it. “Is this your way of saying you want to kink up our sex life, honey? Role playing, or, um…”
Shane gave up trying to keep a straight face. Brandon probably would do something like that if he really thought Shane wanted him to, but yeah… no.
“Come on,” he said, having mercy on the man he loved. “Let me introduce you to Bruce.”
Another crash sounded from the basement, followed by a faint yip, and Brandon snapped his eyes back down to the collar, his eyes lighting up as the clues obviously clicked into place. “You got me a dog?”
“I got you a dog,” Shane confirmed, grinning as Brandon jumped out of bed, practically vibrating with excitement. “You planning on meeting him naked?”
“He’s a dog,” Brandon said, his famed patience nowhere in sight as he made a beeline for the door of their bedroom. “He’s not gonna care, honey.”
Shane laughed, slipping on a t-shirt and boxers and grabbing a set for Brandon before following him down to the basement. By the time he got there, Brandon already had the squirming golden retriever puppy in his arms, laughing as little Bruce Lee Byrne did his best to simultaneously lick his face off and beat a hole in his side with his madly wagging tail.
The puppy’s frantically scrabbling paws kept trying to gain purchase on Brandon’s side, and his skin was already streaked with red lines from Bruce’s claws.
“Hand him over for a minute,” Shane said, holding out the clothes he’d brought down and then doing his best to dodge the tongue action when Brandon traded him the dog. “And you’re welcome, oh naked Jedi.”
“I think I’m in love,” Brandon said as he slipped the shirt over his head.
“Well, I hope so,” Shane teased. “Otherwise the whole buying-a-house-together thing may have been premature.”
Brandon reached for Bruce again, tucking him under one arm, football style, and pull
ed Shane toward him, his face lit up like it was Christmas. “It wasn’t premature. And neither was getting a dog together.”
“He’s your dog,” Shane said, biting his lip to try to keep his smile from exploding into epic proportions. He loved seeing Brandon so happy. Almost as much as he loved being the one to make him that way.
“You’re just saying that because of what he did to your workshop,” Brandon said, giving the dog a noogie.
Bruce barked, wagging his tail even harder, if such a thing was possible.
“Oh, shit,” Shane said, trying to look over Brandon’s shoulder. The spacious basement was perfect for Allen Designs, although now that his Ashby’s line was taking off, it was entirely possible that he’d outgrow it within a year or two. Still, he hadn’t been thinking when he’d hidden Bruce down there. He’d had everything organized…
“Don’t worry about it, honey,” Brandon said, setting Bruce down at their feet. “I’ll help you clean it up later, and then we’ll get him trained so it doesn’t happen again.”
“Maybe I should get started now,” Shane said, thinking about the custom order that his Ashby’s rep had told him to expect later that week from Ash Ashby himself.
“Nope,” Brandon said, steering Shane away from the basement and laughing as Bruce did his best to trip them both up, racing around their ankles as if he were going for the Olympic gold in ankle-lapping. “It’s Valentine’s Day, remember? We’re not doing anything today but that.”
“How, exactly, do you ‘do’ Valentine’s Day?” Shane asked, following Brandon back to their bedroom.
“Do you want another demonstration, honey?”
Shane grinned as Brandon disappeared into the closet for a moment, then came back out with one hand behind his back.
“So, you’re saying Valentine’s Day is going to be an all-day sex-a-thon?”
Brandon smiled, shaking his head. “No, but I do want to spend all day loving you, if you’ll let me.”
Bruce yipped, sitting between them with tongue lolling out and tail wagging madly, looking back and forth between them as if he was actually following the conversation.
Shane got a lump in his throat. That answer was so Brandon, and it had nothing to do with Valentine’s Day.
“Isn’t that what you do every day?” he teased, determined not to turn into a crying mushball just because he was in love with the most perfect man ever.
“That’s my goal,” Brandon said, handing over the gift.
“Oh, God, Brandon. Please tell me you didn’t listen to Luis.”
Brandon just grinned, his eyes sparkling, and handed over the small, red, heart-shaped box—a classic Valentine’s box of chocolates. He nodded toward the empty box that Shane had wrapped Bruce’s collar in, sitting in the middle of the bed. “Didn’t you ask me to trust you a few minutes ago, Shane?”
Shane rolled his eyes, laughing. “Okay, but you still know I’m never going to eat these, right?”
“Just open it, honey.”
Still laughing, Shane pulled the top off the small box. He did trust Brandon, and, honestly, if there was anyone on the planet that he’d try to like chocolate for, it would be him.
But he should have known better. Brandon would never ask him to do that.
There were no chocolates in the candy box. Instead, nestled inside on a bed of flower petals—none from roses, as far as Shane could tell—was another box. He blinked, staring at it, then jerked his head up to look at Brandon, excited and nervous all at the same time.
The smaller box was unmistakable.
“When I said I wanted to spend all day loving you, Shane, I didn’t just mean today,” Brandon said, opening the ring box and going down on one knee. “I meant forever.”
“Oh my God,” Shane whispered. He’d thought his heart was already full, but love proved him wrong.
There was always room for more.
“I’ve wanted a chance to ask you this practically since the day I met you. For years, I didn’t think I’d ever get that chance. And then, for those few minutes back in O’Hare, I thought I might have lost it forever.”
Shane burst into tears, and instantly Brandon snapped the ring box closed, surging up to his feet and pulling Shane into his arms.
“Oh, honey. We don’t have to. Whatever you need—”
Shane kissed him. “I need you,” he said after a minute, smiling when Brandon wiped his cheeks, taking care of him like he always did.
“So these are happy tears?” Brandon asked, his hands cradling Shane’s face tenderly. “Because I really want you to say yes.”
“I really want to say yes, too. And these are definitely happy tears.” Shane took a deep breath, feeling expanded, like there would never be any limits on how much love he could have for this man. He grinned at Brandon, letting it overflow. “I want other things, too, Brandon. I want a house with you and a dog with you and, later, I want to adopt a bunch of babies with you.”
“Looks like we’re off to a good start,” Brandon said, grinning down at Bruce as the puppy started chasing his tail, knocking into their legs with every other spin. “We’ve already got two out of three.”
“But I want more.”
Brandon didn’t even hesitate. “Anything.”
He said it so sincerely that Shane’s eyes started spilling over again. “I want it all, Brandon,” he whispered. “I want to wake up every morning next to you, and grow old with you, and, someday, be buried beside you. And, if there really is a heaven? Then I want us to be together there, too. I don’t ever want to stop making the magic happen with you.”
“Then marry me, Shane,” Brandon said, smiling at him as if he was overflowing with it, too. “Your love is all the magic I’ve ever needed.”
Shane kissed him, because he had to.
And then he said yes, because he’d been born to.
And when Brandon finally slipped the ring on his finger—a steel band surrounding a thread of amber—it made Shane catch his breath as it hit him. He already did have it all, because heaven was right here, every day, loving Brandon and being loved in return.
And it was theirs forever.
At last.
END
Also by Stella Starling
All I Want (Elliott and Ash, A Prequel to The Beloved Series)
Be True (Trevor and Logan, At Last, The Beloved Series - Book One)
Be Mine (Kelly and Jase, At Last, The Beloved Series - Book Two)
About the Author
Stella Starling is the storytelling team of two M/M contemporary romance authors who have far too many stories to tell on their own, so decided it would be fun to tell a few of them together.
The authors bring their love for writing, romance, and sweet, steamy “happily ever afters” to every story, and hope that “their boys” will give readers a delicious escape into a world where love always wins.
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Be Loved (At Last, The Beloved Series Book 3) Page 24
