Page 4 of The Moment We Know

Paige sighed. Knowing she’d woken him up made her feel even worse. “I’m sorry.”

“So, why am I—” he broke off as her phone screen abruptly tilted and her face disappeared. He found himself looking at one of her bathroom walls for a few seconds, followed by the ceiling light, which briefly blinded him and made him blink rapidly several times. “Why am I the devil?”

She didn’t want to tell him the truth because the truth was embarrassing. However, they’d made a pact of complete honesty not too long ago, on the night she shared the details of her recovery, so Paige felt honor-bound to come clean. But … maybe there was a loophole. “Could we just forget all about that text?” she asked, still not looking at him while unnecessarily adjusting the towel, as if getting it arranged neatly was of the utmost importance.

The request hardly registered, since David’s attention was now focused on her bare shoulders and upper chest, which made him think she might be … naked. The likelihood of this increased as he became aware of the sound of running water, making it clear Paige was getting ready to take a shower. Unable to stop himself, he immediately pictured her with rivulets of water running down her body, along the curving slopes of her breasts, to her stiff nipples—

His wayward thoughts halted as part of an actual nipple came into view, as if his imagination had conjured it. His eyes widened a little when it stayed onscreen, then widened further when the other one made an appearance. He knew she wasn’t deliberately flashing him, nor was she likely aware it was even happening. Instead, it seemed to be an unintended consequence of whatever Paige was trying to do while holding a phone in one hand.

He could probably be a gentleman and tell her what was going on, but he wasn’t going to say jack shit about it. His mother hadn’t raised an idiot, after all.

Finally finished with the towel, she turned back to her phone and found him just staring at her. Not knowing if it was because he was shocked at how awful she looked, or because he was waiting on justification for her request to forget about the text, she explained, “I sent it in the heat of the moment and I shouldn’t have.”

“The heat of the moment?” he asked. “That sounds interesting.”

“Not really.”

His eyes were glued to her breasts, discreetly of course, so as to not jeopardize what was the best FaceTime call he’d ever had. “Tell me about it anyway. You know, since we’re both awake and all.”

Her loophole a complete failure, she pursed her lips. “Well, to begin with, I didn’t sleep very well—”

“Oh? Why not?”

She took a deep breath and released it slowly. “After I got home, all my doubts came back which made me start second-guessing our decision and kept me from falling asleep.”

David wasn’t surprised to hear this, since he knew her biggest fear going forward was the possibility he would be hurt. “I think I’m going to add another ground rule—”

“Another one? Oh, my God, are you serious?” she muttered, the dozen or so rules he’d thrown at her the night before seeming more than adequate.

“Yes, I’m serious. And this one is really important.” He paused briefly before saying dramatically, “No more second-guessing our decision.”

Paige rolled her eyes. “You know, I want to add a rule, too,” she told him. Then, imitating his dramatic delivery, said, “No more rules.”

He grinned. She hadn’t been this feisty when they were married and he found himself enjoying it. Really enjoying it. Was she like this every morning, or was it due to her lack of sleep? Or was there something else going on, too? Which reminded him … “So what’s the rest of the story?”

“The rest of the story?”

“Yes. I’m assuming there’s more, since you said ‘to begin with’ you didn’t sleep very well, so what else happened to bring on the ‘heat of the moment’?”

“Well, when my alarm went off, I was in the middle of a sex dream.”

His ears perked up at that interesting nugget, but when nothing more was forthcoming, he prompted, “And?”

“And nothing, because I wasn’t allowed to rub one out, per your stupid ‘no self-love’ rule.”

Hearing her say those words, especially so petulantly, drew a soft chuckle from him. “So, that’s why I’m the devil?”

“Yes.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, my ban on self-love has already bitten me in the ass, too.”

“Um, it doesn’t. In fact, it makes you even more of a devil, for causing us both to suffer needlessly.”

“Not needlessly. We’re priming the pump.”

“Priming the pump?”

He nodded. “You’ll thank me for it later.”

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