Page 170 of The Spider & the Storm

“You have no idea how much I cannot wait until the day I make you my wife,” I said, holding her gaze.

“I want that more than anything,” she replied on a held breath, swallowing. “Oh God, is that insane?”

“Maybe, but maybe that's how you know it's real.”

Her laugh was abrupt and nearly maniacal as she thrust her mouth against mine. She pressed her hands to either side of my face as the kiss immediately deepened, tongues gliding and twisting and feeding on the taste of each other. My fingers slid along her jaw, plunging into her hairline and tangling that wild mane of black around my hand, and I forgot all about my concerns of corrupting the kids sleeping on the floor above our heads, only needing her naked body once again over mine.

She straddled my waist, and my hardened length was sheathed in her wet heat in one fluid motion. I swallowed her moan as I fed her mine, never breaking that fevered kiss for a second as she rode me with slow, patient thrusts. God, how I loved her and how our sex could be a frantic, passionate coupling of power and submission in one moment and a lazy display of closeness with no need for anything but skin against skin in the next. How lucky I was to have this, how blessed I'd been in my middle age to have met her.

“I want you to meet my family,” I blurted out, my lips moving against her open mouth.

“Oh, yeah?” she asked breathlessly before sliding her pierced tongue against my throat.

I wasn't sure she'd heard me correctly, so I clarified, “I want you to meet Luke. Tomorrow.”

Her attention was captured as she sat up abruptly, her hands held to my heaving chest. “What?”

I nodded, hardly able to believe it myself as I verbalized what I'd been considering for days. “I want to see him tomorrow, and I want you to come with me.”

Her eyes flooded, and mine followed suit, both from the anticipation of seeing my brother for the first time in five years and the sheer fact that this incredible, amazing woman could care so much about me to know how large of a step this was for me to take.

She clapped her hand over her mouth, stifling a sob. Then, she bobbed her head in a frantic nod and whispered from behind her palm, “Okay.”

“Yeah? You'll go?” My heart soared with hope and an uncontainable amount of happiness, so much that I thought it'd explode.

“God, Charlie.” She held my cheeks in her hands, bent over, and kissed me with the gentleness of a spider's legs walking along its intricately spun web. “You didn't need to ask. You already know I will.”

***

Just outside the window, birds chirped from an overhanging tree in the bright November sunshine.

Just outside the bedroom door, young laughter filled the hall, followed by scampering footsteps.

Inside the room, Stormy had woken before me, standing beside the bed and pulling her knit black sweater over her head. She glanced over her shoulder to find my eyes open, watching her, and she smiled.

Yes, everything seemed good, even normal, but the tumultuous feeling that spread from my gut to my lungs to my heart … it was old and familiar, but not something I'd felt quite this strongly in a long, long time.

Eight years. It's been eight years since Luke was arrested.

“Soldier's already up and ready to go,” Stormy said, sitting on the edge of the bed beside me.

She was beaming with happiness and excitement, and somewhere beneath this feeling, I was too. But … something wasn't right.Ididn't feel right, and I couldn't help but think I needed to be cautious, wary.

“Okay,” I said, sucking in a deep breath and allowing my lips to curl into a broad grin. “I can't believe we're going to do this.”

“You wanna change your mind?”

No.Yes.I shook my head. “No, I need to do this. I just feel kinda … I don't know … nervous maybe?”Wasit nerves though? God, I couldn't tell, and I hated that I couldn't read my own damn mind.

She nodded, a glint of sympathy touching her eyes. “Of course you're nervous. You haven't seen your brother in years, and from what you said, the last time you saw him wasn't a happy memory.”

“No,” I said, fiddling with the blanket's stitched seam while remembering the hurt and heartbreak in Luke's eyes before I'd turned to walk away.

“But you're taking a step toward making it right, and that's so freakin' brave of you. I hope you realize that.”

I guessed I did. It took a coward to run away, but it took a great dose of courage to turn around, and I was trying. Iwantedto try. So, despite the unease settling deep in my bones, I got up and got ready to go. And by the time I was dressed, boots on and hair brushed and pulled back in a low ponytail, I had successfully allowed my excitement to overtake that disgusting urge to change my mind.

I was going to see Luke. I was going to see him and hug him and touch his face and probably cry when I did … and I couldn't fucking wait.

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