Page 55 of Single All the Way

“So I have to trek through half the frigid house buck naked to get to one?”

“You can throw on your pj top, but I’d like it a lot better if you didn’t. I’ll just have to take it off you again when you get back.”

“Presumptuous that you think I’ll come back,” she teased.

“I’ll warm you up if you do.”

She pulled back to look in my eyes. “Compelling offer.”

“It’s not every night we’ll have the whole place to ourselves.”

She frowned and sat up, glancing around at my modest bedroom. “I guess that’s confirmation you’ve never had a secret lover in this place.”

I sat up too, banding my arm around her middle and pressing a kiss to her lips. “I’ve never had any kind of lover in this place. It’s not a decision I make lightly, not with the kids here.”

“Have you been with anyone since Leeann?” she asked quietly, as if hesitant to bring up my late wife’s name.

I shook my head. “It’s funny how your priorities change when you have kids.”

“That’s for real,” she said.

She climbed over me, her legs straddling me for a few seconds as she leaned in and kissed me. “I’ll be back in two minutes for that getting-warm offer.”

She slid off the bed. I expected her to throw her pajama shirt on, but she strode away without a stitch of clothing covering her irresistible body. I didn’t see any sign of an extra sway as she walked out. She wasn’t even trying to get to me, but even so, I started to get hard again from watching her.

I got rid of the condom and pulled the covers back as it hit me how chilled the nighttime air was, particularly with a sheen of sweat covering my skin.

As I waited for Emerson to come back, I felt on top of the world. Maybe it would’ve been just as good between us without the backstory, the teenage crush, and all that, but I couldn’t deny that was part of it.

Had I loved my wife? Yes, but in a very different way. It wasn’t fair to compare the two. The fact was that when I’d been married to Leeann, Emerson had been off my radar, living across the country and married to my friend.

That didn’t lessen the satisfaction or the thrill of finally,finallygetting to be with Emerson.

I locked out thoughts of Blake, reminding myself I’d decided this was okay, that he’d want her to be happy. I might not be her forever happy place, but based on her sexy sounds and signs of enjoyment a few minutes ago, I believed I’d made her happy for tonight.

So far.

ChapterSixteen

Emerson

After multiple rounds of sleep alternating with superlative sex, I stirred again to find Ben’s strong arm around me.

I cracked an eye open to verify it was still dark in that snowy, brighter-than-usual way, telling me the world outside was covered in a white blanket. Filled with warmth and contentment that was practically foreign to me, I relaxed back into him and closed my eyes again.

Sleeping cuddled next to a man was a luxury I’d rarely gotten to enjoy in my life. During all the years I was with Blake, we went from high school, where we both lived at our respective parents’ homes and woke up alone, to a couple of weeks of married bliss before he went into basic training. From then, he’d rarely been in my bed for more than a few nights at a time.

The last four years it’d been more normal to wake with a little girl or sometimes a boy in bed with me. It made cuddling with Ben that much more glorious.

I must’ve dozed off again when I realized with a start that he was sneaking out of bed on the other side.

“What are you doing?” I whispered. “Did we miss Gordon’s wakeup call?”

“We must have. He’s not as loud on this side of the house. It’s time to feed the animals. Somebody kept me up too late.”

“Mmm. Not sorry.”

He leaned across the bed and kissed me. “Me neither. Go back to sleep if you want.” He took clothes out of his dresser, then left the room.

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