He grabbed my waist roughly and turned me around to face the desk, bending me over as he hoisted my dress up, tugging my panties to the side.

“Belle is waiting for me outside,” I warned, panting hard, so wet my thighs were sticking together.

“Belle can go fuck herself. You’re mine now, and I’m celebrating our engagement in my favorite place—inside you.”

He thrust into me from behind, and the unexpectedness of it, the sheer surprise made a loud moan slip between my lips. He snaked one arm between my legs and started playing with my clit as he entered me mercilessly, picking up pace, driving me mad as he hit my G-spot again and again.

“Oh, Monster.”

“Mine.” He leaned down, brushing my hair from my ear, biting the lobe softly.

“Mine, mine, mine. Forever mine,” he chanted, moving his fingers from between my thighs, up to my breasts, kneading them. His fingers traveled north again, and he pushed them into my mouth, coated with my arousal, to stop me from moaning loudly.

“There, there, little Nix.” His breath tickled the back of my neck and my ear, sending goose bumps down my body, making me clench around him even more. “You will now have this dick on a daily basis. Starting tonight, you’ll be moving in with me. I’ll have no lip from you, Aisling. I won. You lost. Understood? Nod if you do.”

I nodded jerkily, my body quaking with an impending climax that threatened to tear through my bones. From this angle, he was so deep inside me, I felt impossibly full. I swear the man was rearranging my guts.

My fingers dug into the wood of the table, my teeth sinking into Sam’s fingers in my bid to stifle a groan. The orgasm racked through me like a tornado, ripping everything inside me in its wake. He must’ve sensed my orgasm because he, too, let go of the sliver of self-control he still possessed and began thrusting erratically, coming inside me in warm spurts, grabbing the base of my neck and pulling me to his mouth for a kiss full of tongue.

We stayed in this position for a few moments, him deep inside me, the last of his cum dripping into me. He placed a chaste kiss on the top of my head.

“Better than cigarettes,” he said dryly, his face turning cold and expressionless again, putting his mask back on now that we were done.

This time, I smiled, knowing it wasn’t personal.

“Aren’t you glad you quit?”

“No.” He pulled out slowly, massaging my butt in the process. “But I’m glad you took the bait and got lured back into Badlands. A few more weeks of being celibate and the cemeteries in Boston would be overcrowded. Now go say goodbye to your friend. You have exactly five minutes before we go back home and I fuck you all over again.” He squeezed my ass, pushing me toward the door playfully. “Make it quick and make it count, Nix.”

I was marrying a bastard.

But he was my bastard.

“I heard the news.” Belle waited for me by the bouncers, leaning on the balls of her feet, just outside the card rooms. They wouldn’t let her in. By the looks she sent them, I could tell no love was lost between her and the two burly men. “On a scale of one to Lindsay Lohan circa 2010, how drunk were you when you said yes to the bet?” she raged.

I threw myself between her arms, even though they weren’t technically open, squeezing her in a hug.

“Not drunk at all, Belle. It’s the real deal. I didn’t want to tell you because I wasn’t sure where it was going, but … we’re kind of together now.”

“Kind of? Ya think?” Belle gave me a sarcastic look, still in shock, pulling away from me while patting my shoulder to show me she wasn’t mad. “We all know where it’s going now, and let me tell you, people called your brothers, who then told their wives, who told your parents. Needless to say, no one’s happy you kept it such a secret. They’re suspecting you’ve been lovers all along. The entire ten years you’ve known each other.”

Let them think that, I thought.

In a way, it was true.

Sam and I were always lovers.

Even when we didn’t speak or touch each other at all.

That night, I went home with Sam. It was only when we entered his apartment that I realized that the place felt completely and irrevocably mine. Somewhere down the line, his place had become my home. It housed my clothes, my shoes, my toiletries, and the man I love.

Still in a daze, I walked around the living room, brushing my fingers over the minimal furniture, the bare walls; I knew there was a good chance our house was never going to have any art in it, no paintings, no beloved vintage knickknacks to fill the place with personality and warmth. I was oddly okay with that. With the loss of art in the name of love.

I was facing the window overlooking Boston’s cityscape, sparkling in the nighttime like masses of tiny stars, when I heard Sam’s voice behind me.

“Don’t turn around. Stay like that.”

I did.

Our phones were both blowing up with calls all the way from Badlands.

At first, we shoved them into my purse, but when that didn’t help, and the buzzing and lit screens kept taunting us, we turned them off completely. I was pretty sure my brothers and parents were fully intending to knock this door down any minute now, only they couldn’t because they didn’t know where Sam lived.

I found that little fact strangely liberating.

The irony of living somewhere my parents couldn’t find me, after being under their thumb for so long.

His footsteps pressed down on the floor underneath us. I felt him stop right behind my back. He took my left hand while I was still facing the window, sliding a ring onto my ring finger. My breath caught, and my heart stuttered, the unreliable monster that it was.

“Don’t look yet,” he whispered into my ear. I nodded, waiting.

He dropped a kiss to the crown of my head, and I felt dizzy with pleasure.

“Sam,” I breathed.

“Yes?” he asked, catching the zipper of my dress, sliding it down seductively.

I cleared my throat. “I want children.”

He stopped unzipping me. I found my voice again. I couldn’t not talk to him about it.

“I know you are not a fan, but I want them very much. Is this going to be a problem for us?”

Holding my breath, I waited. After a few seconds, he resumed the work of undressing me, sliding the zipper down all the way. The dress pooled at my feet like a shimmering lake of burgundy blood and glitter.

“No.” His lips skimmed the hollow of my neck. “I will give you children, if you quit your job. Do something legal, Aisling. I cannot bear the idea of something happening to you.”

I swallowed hard, closing my eyes.

My patients were so dear to me.

Their well-being, supporting them meant everything.

But he was right. If someone caught me, I’d be locked up for life.

Becoming a mother and doing something so dangerous simply didn’t go together. Especially since my future children’s father had a less than respectable job, too. Someone would have to be their anchor. The reliable parent who goes out to work and comes back every day, no matter what.

I felt my eyelids drooping.

“I’ll tell Dr. Doyle tomorrow.”

“Good girl.” He kissed my cheek, unfastening my bra. “Now take a look at your ring.”