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“Good. I didn’t want you to. Thank you for…” He cleared his throat unexpectedly. “For giving me a real wedding night.”

“It was my wedding night too.”

“I know it was.” His eyes focused on her left hand. The rings there. Her lovely engagement ring and the simple wedding band that matched the one on his hand.

She was his wife. He was her husband. The reality of it hit Eve hard. Made her kind of shaky again.

She reached out to stroke his face, his beard. “I enjoyed tonight.”

“Me too.”

She climbed out of his bed. Cuddling wasn’t on the agenda for tonight. Neither one of them was like that. She found her gown and pulled it back over her head. “Okay. It’s late, and we both should get some sleep. Good night, Jude.”

“Good night, Eve.”

She felt his eyes on her as she walked to the connecting door, opened it, and then disappeared into her room.

She could hardly believe he was her husband.

4

Jude wokeup early the next morning.

His first awareness was a headache. It was relatively mild—a pulsing pain in the background of his thoughts. Just a reminder that the days of his life were counting down with every sunrise.

His next awareness was that his body was pleasantly relaxed. Much more than normal. He didn’t know why, but he liked the feeling.

He was tempted to stay in bed longer to enjoy it.

Then he remembered why.

He’d had sex with Eve last night.

Any urge to keep sleeping vanished at the memory of the night before. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. His skin grew warm, and his heartbeat accelerated as he recalled details.

He’d never expected it to happen. Naturally the possibility had crossed his mind when she’d agreed to be his wife, but he’d immediately dismissed it. She wasn’t remotely interested in his body, and he’d never really lusted after hers. She was marrying him out of pity and compassion. Sex was almost certainly off the table.

So he’d been confused—bewildered—when she’d knocked on his door.

As soon as he’d understood what she was offering, he’d been hit with a rush of excitement. Sex was sex. He’d always enjoyed it, although most of his encounters in the past had left him feeling kind of empty.

He wanted to have sex again before he died, and Eve had gifted him that.

But gradually, as the night progressed, his pleasure had become as much about her—being with her, understanding her, appreciating her—as it was about having sex. It was strange and unexpected, and he’d felt replete rather than empty at the end of it.

There had been nothing particularly passionate or romantic about the sex. That wasn’t how they would ever come together. But he’d feltwith herin it, and he hadn’t experienced that in a really long time.

He lay in bed for what felt like hours, indulging the memories and the way they made him feel. He even started getting hard as he relived how her mouth had felt as she sucked him off.

Whoa. He wasnotgoing to spend the morning jacking off to the thought of Eve. That wasn’t appropriate at all. So he hauled himself out of bed, threw on some clothes, and headed outside for an hour-long run.

It was a coolish morning for May, so he wasn’t overly drained when he got back. He was, however, hungrier than normal and wanted coffee. Since his father was home, Nancy would have prepared a full breakfast, but his shorts and T-shirt were soaked with sweat. He went upstairs to shower and dress before he came back down to the sunny breakfast room.

Before he reached it, he heard voices. Eve’s soft laughter.

Surprised and curious, he stopped in the hallway to listen.

Definitely Eve. And his father. They were chatting pleasantly. Eve was asking him about his work and was clearly interested in his responses. His father actually seemed to be enjoying the conversation.

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