Page 73 of What About Now

She’s quiet, and I can tell she’s processing my words, reading between the lines of what I didn’t say. Fuck it, I’m putting it out there. I want zero room for miscommunication. “If we do this, there is no more timeline. No more six months waiting period. I’ve been dreading every single new day and living for it at the same time. I cherish every day with you, but I dread the time passing so quickly. If we leap over this boundary that has been set between us, I need you to tell me we’re forever. No timeline, no ‘we’re seeing where it goes.’ You’re my wife, ‘til death do us part’.” I take a deep breath and ask her one more time, “What about now? What’s your gut telling you now?”

“My gut is telling me that I want you to be my first. I want you to make love to me. I want my husband to make love to me. This is forever.” She smiles at me, knowing she just repeated her earlier confession word for word.

“I love you, Mrs. Lanigan,” I tell her. My heart beats wildly. She’s mine. She’s finally fucking mine.

“I love you, too, Mr. Lanigan.”

“We need to move.” I lift her into my arms. She shrieks with laughter as I carry her down the hall to our room. “I need a bed for all the things I want to do to you.” When I set her on thebed, she’s chewing on her bottom lip. “Hey.” I gently tug on that bottom lip with my thumb, getting her to release it. “If at any time you change your mind, you tell me, and we stop.”

“Do we need like a word or something?”

“Stop. That’s the word. Unless there is a ‘don’t’ in front of it, we stop. It’s that simple.”

“I know you’ll take care of me.”

It’s not just her words but the honesty I see in her eyes. She believes what she’s saying, and that has me wanting to beat on my chest like a caveman. She’s mine, all of her, and fuck, I can’t wait to show her this next step of how good we are going to be together.

“Always,” I assure her. “I’ll always take care of you. I’m going to need you to do something for me as well.”

“What’s that?”

“Strip.” Her eyes light up, and that has me feeling ten feet tall and bulletproof. It could also be that I’m about to make love to my wife for the first time.

CHAPTER

SEVENTEEN

Brogan

“Strip,” he says, his voice commanding yet soft. It’s a contradiction, and I can’t help but smile, because that’s Maddox. He looks like a bad boy at first glance, the kind of man your parents warn you to stay away from. Once you get to know him, you understand that his outward appearance is nothing of who he is inside. His tattoos tell a story of his journey through life, and his heart? Well, it’s full of gold. I’m certain of it. He’s been so good to me. He’s patient, kind, loving, and although I’ve seen passion from him before, I have a feeling tonight I’m going to get to see a whole new side to my husband, and that excites me just as much as knowing that I’m about to give the man I love a piece of me, that no one else will ever have.

“Brogan?”

Shaking out of my thoughts, I turn my attention back to my husband. “I spaced out for a minute.” I smile to let him know I’m okay.

“We don’t have to do this.”

“Oh, I think we do.” I reach for his jeans, and this time, he doesn’t stop me. I’ve already got them unbuttoned, so I ease hiszipper down and tug around his waist until I can get them over his hips. He does a little move to get them off his feet and kicks them to the side. Next, I go for his boxer briefs. They're emerald green and do nothing to hide his erection.

Once I get them off him as well, I fist his cock in my hand. He’s so close, standing before me as I sit on the bed. He’s at the perfect angle for me to do something I’ve only thought of doing with him.

Moving in, I put him into my mouth. We both moan. I glance up to find his eyes on me.

“You don’t have to do this.”

I let his hard cock fall from my mouth. “I want to. You tasted me.”

“Fuck, baby, I really want you to, if I’m being honest. That hot mouth and those sexy lips wrapped around my cock will be a memory I take to the grave with me, but I’m not coming down your throat, not tonight.”

I’ve never had a man talk to me like this before. Then again, I’ve never dated, so everything with Maddox is new and exciting. “Then where do you want to… come?” I finally ask, feeling my face heat, but also feeling brazen and bold from his heated stare.

“Inside you.”

Heat pools between my thighs. “I’m on the pill,” I tell him.

He nods, letting me know he heard me. “I’ll wear a condom if you want me to.”

“Do you want to?”

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