Page 67 of Beyond our Forever

“So this is just a misunderstanding?”

“I certainly hope so. I have no idea exactly what Emilia told you, but you must decide whose words you’re to trust here.”

“It’s her word against yours.”

“And I’ve been your partner for more than fifteen years,” he says, approaching me again. “The decision is yours, Ilythia, so who are you going to believe?”

I choose to trust him. Yes, I choose him.

I don’t care about the opinion of others and now is a good time to prove it.

I’ll deal with Emilia later. She’s going to have to explain to me what this is all about and what exactly she saw.

She’ll say I’m gullible and a coward, that I’m ignoring reason. Nice combination. But I’m doing what my heart dictates. Throwing myself at Bruce, I kiss him. I kiss him with everything I have, with all my being.

A couple of seconds later Bruce has me sitting on his lap, his hands sliding down my skin. The tension has gone, I’m sure it will return tomorrow, but for now it is gone.

???

“You’re going to end up killing me,” Bruce complains a couple of hours later, when he’s convinced me not only to let him into the house, but also into my bedroom. “Only you make me feel this way, baby, only you…”

Or is it still our bedroom?

I frantically undo the buttons on his shirt, while his fingers fumble to unravel the intricate web of straps behind me.

The fire has been rekindled, the passion grows, feeding on our moans, our desire. With repressed desire, with what we have been missing all these months.

“I think this will be the first and last time you wear this thing,” he grumbles between laughs, his lips running down my neck, my shoulders…

The jumpsuit matters little to me. “Just tear it, undo it, burn it. But take it off now!”

Suddenly, we hear the bedroom door opening, and two seconds later Ava’s little voice breaks the silence.

“Mommy?” she calls out.

Here we go again, we’ll have her sleeping either on top or between us. But we won’t be alone.

“I’ll take care of her,” Bruce says before giving me a quick kiss.

As Bruce tends to our daughter, I head to the dressing room to look for my cotton pajamas.

“What’s up, princess?” I hear him ask her.

She whimpers something I can’t hear to him.

“Ava, you have your own bed and we have ours. I’m sure your brothers hadn’t really put any peas in your bed.”

“But they had!” she insists.

“Listen, Ava, I’ll take you to your room and put you back in bed.” Bruce’s tone is firm yet kind and caring. “Because if you don’t sleep in your bed, we’re going to find another princess to use it. We didn’t buy it for it to stay empty at night.”

“Noooooooo!” Our girl immediately whines. “I’m the only princess in this house.”

Ha! It seems he’s touched on a sensitive nerve, which makes me laugh, I have to bite my lip so she doesn’t hear me before he gets her safely settled.

As the bedroom door closes, I look in the drawers for something to wear. It seems cotton pajamas aren’t going to be necessary after all.

I return to the bedroom wrapped in tiny silk pajamas that I hadn’t taken out in years, I think since our honeymoon, to be precise. Bruce is already waiting for me in bed, nestled between the pillows. He has disposed of the rest of his clothing, leaving only his underwear. When we decided to take this slowly, I said we should wait to have sex. Right now, seeing what is concealed beneath his boxer shorts, I wonder what the hell I was thinking.

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