Reaching out, she grasped his hands between hers and was thankful when he gripped her tight. “What changed?”

“I started talking to someone—a psychologist at the VA. It took a while, but I figured out that my need for pain was based on guilt issues. Guilt that I’m alive while my mom and more friends than I even want to think about aren’t.” He shrugged, the action casual when she knew he must be feeling anything but. “The guilt was unfounded and I get that now. But I didn’t for a long time. I don’t go anymore, but I did for about a year after I got out of the Marines. I’m not saying I’ll never get another tattoo or piercing because I really do like them, but…I don’t need to experience pain to feel alive anymore.”

Her throat clenched at his admission. Something told Noel he’d never admitted any of that to anyone before and it touched her that he was opening up to her. Hell yeah, he’d better. Travis was it for her. She knew it straight to her core. This was the man she would love forever. Pushing up on her knees, she cupped his face in the same way he’d done to her countless times in the past couple days. “I love you so much.”

He shuddered at her words and before she realized his intent, she was flat on her back again as he kissed her like a man starved. She wasn’t sure how long they laid there with him cupping and stroking her already sensitized breasts and her moaning in pleasure, but eventually she had to pull her head back. Her body was trembling with the need to have all of him. “I need more.”

Travis pushed up and glanced at the packets on the bed. “I’m tested every six months at work as a requirement, but if you want to wait to see the proof, we’ll use a condom. I’d planned to anyway.”

She pushed up on her elbows. When his gaze immediately strayed to her breasts, she hid a grin. “Do you need proof from me?”

He shook his head, his eyebrows drawing together. “No.”

“Neither do I. Your word is all I need.” The knowledge was freeing. Travis would never lie to her.

He stood then, unzipping his jeans. As he shoved them and his boxers over his lean hips, she swallowed hard. She’d kissed and licked his cock more than once over the past couple days so she’d gotten used to the piercing. He’d told her that his piercing was called an apadravya and from what she’d looked up online it was supposedly the most painful type of piercing to get in that region. Well, painful to heal, but it was also more pleasurable for him and his partner in the long term. Vertical, it pierced right through the head of his penis from top to bottom. There was a little ball at the top and one at the bottom, connected by a straight barbell. And the little balls would stroke right against her inner walls—hopefully the top one would hit her G-spot in the process. A shiver rolled through her at the thought.

“We don’t have to do anything tonight.” Travis’s voice had her looking up to meet his intense gaze.

He’d misread her scrutiny. She wasn’t fearful, just impossibly turned on and dying to see if what she’d read about was true. If that metal ball on top actually stroked her G-spot… hell yeah. Pushing up so that she was fully sitting, she took his hand and led it to her mound. His fingers cupped her, one of them sliding into her wet sheath. He shuddered and she instantly tightened around him.

Travis’s entire body jerked as he tested Noel’s wetness. His muscles tensed and he had to restrain himself from pouncing like an animal. He’d never been so turned on his life. The feel of her coming against his mouth and fingers wasn’t enough. The past couple days had been amazing, but he needed to feel that tightness around his cock, needed to watch her expression as she climaxed. Some primal part of him wanted to claim her in a way that shocked the hell out of him.

Watching him intently as he slowly fingered her, Noel leaned back against the bed. She slid her hands up her waist then ribs until she cupped both breasts. The teasing, seductive glint in her eyes made his cock jerk. As she held her full breasts, his breath caught in his throat. The look in her eyes was pure need and desire. And when she rubbed her thumbs over her hardening brown nipples, he erased the short distance between them, covering her mouth with his.

A man could only take so much. He tried to order himself to show some restraint and take things slow, but it was hard in the face of Noel naked and touching herself. Especially after she’d just come against his tongue.

He covered her mouth with his and threaded his fingers into her dark hair. She rubbed her breasts against his chest, turning him on more even though he hadn’t thought that possible.

She pulled away for a moment and playfully nipped his jaw. “I want to feel you come inside me,” she whispered, white hot lust in her eyes.

Okay, now he was turned on more than he’d thought possible. But their first time together, he had to make sure she was turned on enough. His piercing was supposed to increase her pleasure, but he still wanted to be careful with her body.

“You make me crazy,” he murmured before taking one of her nipples between his teeth. He tugged gently and she moaned his name.

Hearing that on her lips was almost too much for his restraint. While he circled her nipple with his tongue, he cupped her other breast with his hand and began gently rubbing his thumb over the tight center.

Her legs wrapped around his waist and she started grinding her slick sex against his erection in an erotic rhythm. “You’re killing my good intentions,” he murmured against her breast before lightly blowing on the moist area he’d just licked.

“What intentions?” she asked.

He looked up, meeting that pale gaze glittering with need. “To give you more foreplay.”

“I’ve already come once—I want to feel you inside me now.” Her voice was soft yet demanding.

Letting out a long shudder, his gaze narrowed on the soft thatch of trimmed dark hair covering her mound. Slowly, he trailed a finger down her wet slit. Her thighs fell open wider, giving him more access.

At her words, he pushed a finger inside her. Her inner walls tightened around him, slick and wet and more than ready for him. With his thumb, he began massaging her clit, just barely stimulating her.

“You are such a tease,” she groaned.

“No more teasing.” Withdrawing his finger, he fisted his cock and was stunned when his hand shook. He was so fucking amazed that she was letting him inside her with no barriers, the way things should be between them. He’d opened up to her more than he ever had to anyone.

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, watching him hungrily. As he settled between her thighs, she closed her legs around him, digging her feet into his ass and urging him on.

“I love you,” he said quietly as he watched her, the heat and electricity between them sparking. Even though he’d already told her once, the words still felt foreign on his lips—but he liked the way they sounded.

And he really loved the way her eyes lit up. “Me too.”

The truth was clear on her face and in her voice. Even if she hadn’t told him, he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t have let him inside her without a condom if she didn’t love him. Pushing into her in one long, slow thrust, he kept his gaze on hers.

Her lips parted and she arched her back as he settled inside her, balls-deep. She was so damn tight he was almost afraid to move and embarrass himself. His entire body was primed.

“You feel so…good,” she rasped out.

“The piercing?” That was all he could manage as he pulled back then slid into her again. For him, the extra stimulation in his cock was almost indescribable. Like all his nerve endings were being stimulated at once, and with her sheath so damn tight around him…all his muscles tensed as he let out a slow breath.

She swallowed convulsively, her cheeks flushed and her inner walls tightened around him. “A…mazing.”

At least he wasn’t the only one struggling to get words out. He could only moan as he slowly pulled out of her. She clenched around him, trying to pull him back in, her breathing shallow and uneven.

Knowing how close he was, he reached between their bodies and tweaked her clit between his thumb and forefinger. As he did, her inner walls convulsed, rippling around.

Increasing his speed, he began moving in and out of her tight sheath in unsteady strokes as he rubbed her sensitive bundle of nerves in a small circular motion. Each time he thrust into her fully, she let out a strangled sound of pleasure that had his balls pulling up tight.

He knew the moment right before she let go. Her inner walls clenched impossibly tight and she pressed her heels into his ass so hard he lost control. As his own orgasm tore through him, she came with a strangled shout.

“Oh, fuck…Noel.” He buried his face against her neck as he came with her. His climax seemed to go on forever as he emptied himself inside her. She wrung every last drop from him until he all but collapsed on top of her.

Using his forearms to prop himself up, he stared down at her. There was an expression of bliss on her exotic face. A seductive smile played on her lips as her eyes opened. “That piercing is amazing.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re never taking it out. Ever. And next time, I get to be on top. I want to see if it feels any different.” Her inner walls clenched around his half-hard cock as she spoke, desire puncturing each word.

“I kind of feel like a sex toy.” Not that he was complaining. She could play with him all she wanted.

Her smile was almost mischievous. “It’s my Christmas gift from you.”

Grinning, he lowered his weight onto her and settled his face into the curve of her neck to breathe her in. Christmas was supposedly the time of miracles and he’d definitely found his own miracle. And he wasn’t ever letting her go.

Epilogue

Noel snapped the top closed on the fourth plastic traveling container and breathed out a sigh of relief. She’d made cupcakes, two pies, lemon squares, and a double fudge chocolate cake. Her brothers and father could all cook, but they always talked her into baking the desserts for any holiday. Thankfully Travis had been more than willing to help her in the kitchen this year—and had gotten quite creative with some of the frosting.