Page 28 of Ever After All

“You don’t have to tell me anything. I hope you know that.”

“I know. I want to.” I let out something between a laugh and a sigh. “I think we did this all backward.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, we’re already married.”

His chuckle was low and sent warmth spinning around my heart. “We are. I knew that night I loved you. Since we’re being honest, I’ll admit I didn’t plan that night. And before it all started, I didn’t know I loved you in the sense of really consciously knowing. I just knew I’d never forgotten you after our week together. But life happened and all that. Once we were together again, I knew.”

“So what do we do now?”

“I say we do what we said we were going to do. We see how this goes. I think we’re both cynical enough to know that just because people are in love and married doesn’t always mean things work out.”

His honesty was spot-on, but it stung a little. Because the part of my heart that had finally shouted out above the cacophony of doubts and cynicism was feeling very hopeful. Of course it would all work out. Right?

My mind spun back in time to the nights I’d woken to hear my father’s quiet sobs in the days after my mother died. Even when love bound people together, you couldn’t trust that it would work out.

I was an action-oriented person. Now that I’d gone and thrown my feelings out there, I wanted to do something about them. The little girl who had lost her mom, that part of me wanted promises and certainty and guarantees. I wanted love, faith, commitment, and happily ever after.

“You’re thinking again, Rosie,” Wyatt whispered as he dipped his head and brushed a kiss on my lips.

I let out a sheepish sigh. I was thinking, and that tended to get in the way.

When I shifted a little, I became aware of two details. The arousal slick between my thighs and the velvety hard length of him where my knee brushed against it. Even when I wasn’t focused on it, being naked with Wyatt set the banked embers of desire flickering inside.

“You can ignore that,” he said.

I placed my hand on his heart, savoring its strong and rapid beat against my palm. “What if I don’t want to?”

“In that case, sweetheart, you just tell me what you want.”

The promise contained in his words was irresistible. My need trampled over anything else. If I was with anyone other than Wyatt, maybe this would’ve been different. But the desire between us was its own force and heightened by my love for him.

I shimmied a little closer and leaned up to press hot, open kisses on the underside of his jaw. His hand slid into my hair, and seconds later, he claimed my mouth. I felt like I tumbled into a sweet, fiery-hot fever dream. Our kisses were lazy and deep. I felt almost intoxicated, everything a slow blur. That was the effect Wyatt had on me.

One kiss slipped into the next. Wyatt’s hands mapped my body, his touch, strong and sure. I molded myself to him, rolling over on top of him and savoring the slide of his palm down my back and the way he squeezed my bottom. He nipped at my neck and shivers raced down my side.

I had lost all sense of time when we finally broke apart, both of us breathing raggedly. I stared into his eyes in the hazy darkness. He whispered something. I couldn’t even decipher the words, but I knew they were good.

He smoothed my hair away from my face, and I moved to rise. I straddled him, his hard length nestled against my slippery, wet core. He shifted back slightly, propping himself against the pillows.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

“What is it?” I whispered.

“I need a condom.”

He moved to lift me off him, but I cut in, “I have an IUD.”

He stared at me, lifting a hand to palm my cheek. “Are you sure?”

“Oh, I’m very sure I have an IUD.” I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

A glint of mirth entered his gaze as he studied me. “No, I meant, are you sure you don’t want me to use a condom? That’s a reasonable question,” he pointed out.

I felt a little bashful as I looked back at him. “I am sure. I trust you, I mean, if…”

“To make it completely clear, yes, I trust you,” he added.

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