Page 169 of The Spider & the Storm

But instead, I mulled over something Soldier had said back at The Fisch Market.

“I’m visiting Uncle Levi tomorrow.”

His uncle Levi was at Wayward Correctional Facility. If Soldier was going up to see him, that likely meant the visitor center was open, and if it was …

***

That night, after we ate dinner and got back to the house, after we played a board game with Soldier and Ray and retired to their guest room, Stormy and I lay in bed, naked and tangled up in the bliss of having made love for the first time in days. She peppered my throat with a thousand kisses before landing number one thousand and one at the corner of my mouth, her lips spreading in a wide, sated grin.

“God, I will never get tired of fucking you,” she muttered in a dreamlike daze as she lowered her head to my shoulder. “I love that you take my weirdness and just accept it.”

I released a breathless huff. “You’re not weird.”

“Okay, well, most men don’t always like to be dominated. They think it’s emasculating or something.”

“Nah. I like giving you the reins to do whatever you want to me,” I said, one side of my mouth curling upward in a grin, remembering the filthy words she’d said to me. The way I’d become malleable in her hands—as always.

“Don’t you dare come until I tell you to. Do you understand? Say you understand.”

“I understand.”

“Do you feel how wet I am around your cock? Do you feel how tight my pussy is, just for you?”

“Yes.”

“You want to come, don’t you? Is my good boy ready to come?”

“Oh fuck. Oh God, yes.”

“Then, come for me, baby. Come inside me. Feel my pussy milking your cock. Yes, that’s it, good boy. Ahh …”

Stormy huffed a husky laugh that held just the slightest touch of embarrassment, her fingertips tracing a line down my sternum to my navel, then back again. “That’s why I love you. You don’t just humor me; youlikeit.”

“It’s just one reason why we’re perfect for each other,” I muttered, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “I just hope your sister didn’t hear.”

“Oh, trust me, I’ve had to listen to her and Soldier enough for one lifetime. Payback is a bitch.”

I snorted and tightened my arm around her shoulders, the ghost of insecurity snaking through my nerves. “Okay, but what about the kids? I think I've finally won them over. The last thing I want is—”

Stormy propped herself up on an elbow, her eyes meeting mine in the soft glow cast from an outside lamppost. “Everybody loves you. Don't worry about that.”

My jaw clenched, and the muscle pulsed. “It doesn't take much to turn that around.”

“You would have to do something ridiculously fucked up for my family to not like you. Break my heart, and I can't guarantee I won't send Soldier after you.” She smirked, her eyes twinkling with jest. “Do you plan on breaking my heart, Charlie?”

“I already told Blake I'd hurt myself before I ever hurt you, and I only intend on protecting your heart, not breaking it.”

“Then, I guess my family will love you forever,” she said, her voice quivering with hushed excitement.

“Yeah?” I lifted my hand, brushing a strand of her hair off her forehead. I traced a line through the collection of silver hoops lining the outer edge of her ear. “And what about you? Willyoulove me forever?”

“Spider,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes. “My soul doesn't know how to not love yours. All I had to do was meet you to know that I had been put into this universe to hold you and protect you and shelter you from every terrible thing that had ever come your way until you were strong enough to face it on your own. And whenever that happens, if ever it does, my soul will stand beside yours, even while the rest of the world has been conditioned to run from us both.”

Spiders and storms. Two of the most common fears, and separately, we were the embodiment of them both. But we'd saved each other, hadn't we? We'd given each other shelter, a place for our hearts to heal and love.

“Fuck,” I uttered breathlessly, staring up into her glittering eyes. “You can't say shit like that without expecting me to propose.”

Stormy's smile wilted from her face to make way for an expression of surprise, as if she hadn't seen that coming. “What?”

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