‘I’ll make it worth your while,’ I tell her, and she presses her forehead to mine as she rears up in my lap. She takes my dick in a strong grip and slides it through her soaking cunt. So confident. My girl knows exactly what she wants.

That it’s me she wants is the greatest privilege of my life.

She feels incredible. She feels like home, and I can’t wait to get inside her. ‘Put me in, love,’ I grit out, gripping her waist with both hands in an attempt to regain some kind of control, because she’s taking too long.

She straightens up and smiles at me as she operates me like a joystick, directing me to exactly where she needs me. As she lowers herself down and takes the first inch, we both hiss with the pleasure of it.

‘Fuck,’ I groan. ‘Not sure how long I’ll last.’

‘If you come before me, I’ll need a refund,’ she says sweetly. Despite my physical anguish, I throw my head back and laugh.

‘Touché, sweetheart. Sex work’s a tough gig, isn’t it?’

‘You bet your life it is.’ She lowers herself down another inch and I groan.

‘I could die a happy man right now.’

‘You’re not allowed to die. I love you far too much.’

‘I’m not going anywhere. I promise.’

She pushes all the way down onto me. This feeling of bottoming out so deep inside her is so sublime, so otherworldly, that it is literally melting my brain. She does a little shimmy of her hips, and I utter a shaky groan. I simply won’t survive this.

‘Give me a sec,’ I beg her, and she stills. We gaze at each other, finally joined in that unique way I took so much for granted in our early days together and at which I now marvel, because there is nothing on earth like this.

I stare into her huge brown eyes, so close to mine, so full of love and desire. In their depths, I see my entire future.

My happiness.

My life’s meaning.

My children.

‘You can move now, love,’ I tell her hoarsely. ‘Fuck me. Use me. I’m yours to do whatever you like with.’

She cups my jaw with both hands and watches my reaction as she drags herself up my dick. ‘Say that again.’

My voice breaks with emotion. ‘I’m good for absolutely nothing in this life but making you happy. Nothing. So let me do that for you. Because I’m yours.’

Epilogue

MARLOWE

I’m chuckling to myself as Brendan reenters the bedroom, but the sight of him has me instantly distracted. It’s the low-slung cotton pyjama bottoms and all that bare skin and muscle up top. He’s carrying two mugs of steaming hot coffee, and his dark hair is sticking up in several directions.

He is quite simply the dream.