Page 128 of Gracefully Yours

“Mmm.” Instead of settling next to me, she nudged herself between my legs.

That’s my girl.

“Listen…” I wrapped my hands around her midsection. “I know things haven’t been perfect lately. But I want to be there for you.”

“Everything’s fine,” she murmured, picking at the grass underneath the blanket.

“Charlotte.” I frowned. “I know you. I know everything’s not fine.”

She leaned her head against my shoulder, looking up at me, her hand brushing against my jaw. “I don’t want to think about anything but us right now, babe.”

Babe.I couldn’t stop my lips from curling up into a smile. I’d started calling her darling when we’d started all of this, but she’d never actually called me anything before.

“Food?” I asked, pulling out a bottle of sparkling cider and two glasses.

“Guess marrying you had perks after all, huh?”

I laughed. “Sure, I suppose that’s one thing.” Kissing her cheek, I pulled out the rest of the spread. Strawberries, gluten-free sandwiches, a bag of her favorite chips, gluten-free cookies for dessert. “Now eat up, wife.”

Charlotte grinned, popping a strawberry into her mouth.

After we’d finished our food and thrown the ball enough for Brownie to be passed out on the grass next to us, Charlotte pulled one last item out of the bag.

“Why did you pack one of my books?” Charlotte said, laughing. It had been on the coffee table, her bookmark marking the spot she’d left off.

“Read to me,” I said, resting with my hands behind my head on our little picnic blanket—the one that somehow had started living in my car a few years ago.

You never know when it will come in handy,Charlotte had argued.

I’d raised my eyebrow.Sure, but why does it need to live in my car?

She’d shrugged.You always drive.

It had been with us through countless adventures, from trips to the beach to outings with friends, but now I could truly appreciate it.

When I cracked my eyes open, she was staring at me, dumbfounded, the book in her hand.

“What?” She looked around the mostly empty park. We’d picked a quiet corner, so no one was close enough to hear our conversations. “You’re crazy. You know this is….” She lowered her voice, cheeks flushed. “Spicy,right?”

I quirked an eyebrow. “So?”

“So, we’re in public, and I…” She flushed. “It’s embarrassing.”

“Charlotte.” I sat up, facing her fully, taking her jaw in my hand, my thumb resting against her chin. “You rode my cock to no abandon in yourdance studiothe other day. Why is this too much?”

She bit her lip. “You’ll make fun of me.”

“No, I won’t. I’m your husband.”

My girl gave me a cute little pout.

“You don’t even know what’s in here, do you?” Her blush had creeped up her neck now, like she couldn’t possibly fathom it.

I smirked. “Mmm. Maybe.” I had some idea. The guys talked, too, and they had informed me long ago about the girls and their tabbing systems for their books. Maybe I hadn’t read all of them, but I’d found her most-tabbed books and read some of the sex scenes in them.

Some of them mademyeyes grow wide.

I’d resisted asking the rest of them if they reenacted them with their girls. Partially because I had no desire to know what kind of freaky shit my sister and her husband got up to, and partially because I was pretty sure the answer to that wasyes.

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