Page 135 of Finding Forever

Thirty-One

“Ineed you,” Cade groaned that night as he stepped into the apartment.

Fern, who was sitting at the round dining room table going through her course curriculum, looked up in alarm at the dramatic entrance.

She was on her feet seconds later, as she took in her husband’s unusually pale complexion and the dazed pain in his eyes.

“Cade,” she admonished. “You really need to start wearing your glasses more. Get on the bed this time, not the couch, the oils aren’t great for the fabric.”

This wasn’t the first time he’d come home with a raging headache. And where before he would stoically have endured it silently, these days, he came straight home seeking solace from Fern. One evening he’d simply sat on the couch beside her and dropped his head in her lap, eyes silently pleading with her to make the pain stop.

She sometimes had a sneaking suspicion that a few of the headaches weren’t truly headaches… especially since those sessions had a way of turning into something else altogether. She was starting to recognize the fake—horny Cade—headaches from the real ones though and this one was definitely real.

He obediently made his way to the bedroom, his head and shoulders stiff with pain.

“Strip down to your underwear,” she called out from behind him, knowing from experience that he was going to fall asleep and that it was better if he was comfortable.

She retrieved water and aspirin from the kitchen and followed him to the room. He was already lying prone on the bed. Face buried in a pillow; powerful arms raised above his head.

Fern was wearing a pair of drawstring cotton shorts and a baggy T-shirt. She tied her hair up in a loose knot and padded to the bed.

“Cade take these.”

He groaned again, and took the painkillers and water from her, barely opening his eyes as he did so. She winced in sympathy, and set the bottle aside before, straddling his back and going to work. It didn’t take long before he was fast asleep, and she settled down in the dip beside him, snuggling against his big, warm body as she fell asleep as well.

Fern wokea couple of hours later to her husband kissing and nuzzling her face.

She stretched and smiled, her eyes still closed.

“How’re you feeling?” she asked.

“Better, thank you,” he whispered, his lips finding the corner of her mouth and dropping a soft kiss.

“I’m serious, Cade, you have to start wearing your glassesmore. Or permanently. Maybe you need a different prescription, when did you last have your eyes checked?”

He shrugged in unconcern and yawned, his hand kneading her butt, before stroking up over her back, his palm sliding over the bare skin of her back beneath the T-shirt.

He was hard, she could feel him throbbing against her thigh through his underwear.

“I don’t need new glasses when I have you to help me keep the headaches under control,” he whispered, his hand finding its way to the summit of her breast and stealing her breath away when he rolled her nipple between the knuckles of his index and middle finger. She gasped involuntarily and arched into his touch.

“I’m not a frikking Tylenol,” she protested, when his words finally registered. He chuckled unrepentantly, the sound smothered against her throat, where his mouth was currently exploring.

“My father came into the office today,” he told her after planting one last kiss at the corner of her mouth.

“He did? I didn’t even know he was in the country.”

“He apologized. About the name thing.”

Fern reluctantly pushed against his shoulders and reached over to the side table to switch on the bedside lamp.

“Tell me everything,” she murmured. He groaned and released her, flipped over onto his back, his huge erection making a mockery of the boxer briefs trying to contain it.

He placed his palms over his face and took a moment.

She sat up and dragged her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them as she watched him.

“Nothing much to tell, really. What you said at dinner that night, resonated with him. And confirmed a few of his own long-held beliefs.” He sat up too and told her about the talk he’d had with his father. It sounded like their conversation had been long overdue.

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