Page 87 of Ramsey & Emerson

When I’d first met Emerson, everything about her had damaged me in a way that I knew I could never recover from. I had spotted her from a balcony, and even from the distance, her beauty had blown me away, and her defiant demeanor had made my dick twitch in a way that it’d never had before. I could remember how it’d taken everything in me not to race down the stairs towards what I hadn’t known at the time would soon become the entire world to me.

Twenty-five years later, her dark brown hair had not a speck of grey, and she still wore it long down her back, though she kept it thrown up in a bun most days. As soon as she’d gotten pregnant with Ram, doing her hair and makeup had become a luxury, not a must. Granted, Emerson was beautiful just waking up in the morning, so it hadn’t been the hardship that most women believed it to be.

At any rate, her dark hair, brows, and lashes made those startling silver eyes of hers shine like hypnotic beacons, and my wife’s eyes were still the most stunning things that I’d ever seen. They were clear, bright, intelligent, and whenever she looked at me, I could see my soul in them, and they were always going to have the ability to bring me to my knees.

As for the rest of her, if Emerson wasn’t so goddamn combative, I’d say that she had an innocent doll’s face, but she was too hardened for that. Though beautiful, Emerson didn’t look sweet or malleable. She looked like a runway model whose every step oozed a confidence that most people would never experience. Yeah, she had fair skin, rosy cheeks, and plump lips that made her look ethereal, but no one knew Emerson’s temper the way that I did.

Now, if that weren’t enough, there were also those curves of hers that had just gotten sexier with time and the birth of our two sons. At five-foot-two, Emerson’s feminine frame had always packed a punch, and even back whenI’d first met her in high school, she’d had a woman’s body. My wife had big tits that were natural, so they hung like heavy teardrops whenever she didn’t have a bra on, and I’d lost track of how many times I had fucked them. Her waist was tapered, but not so much that she didn’t look naturally proportioned, and though her stomach was soft, it was still flat, which only she cared about, honestly. The same thing could be said for her hips. Emerson had always had wide hips, but pregnancy had just made them wider, and she really did have that hour-glass thing going, though she’d always had it. She also had a little more meat on her thighs, which always made my dick hard when I touched them. In fact, everything about my wife made my dick hard, which was why this night officially sucked the second that she’d walked into our living room earlier.

As I watched my wife talk animatedly with her childhood friend, Sally Allerman, she looked like a vision with her hair pinned up in a messy bun, her jewelry minimal and tasteful, and that body of hers encased in a dark green dress that hugged every curve, despite it being modest by comparison to a lot of the gowns in the place. It was floor length, and held up by a pair of struggling straps, but it also came with a light coverall jacket that hid her bare shoulders, though nothing could be done about her cleavage.

I stared at her, and all I wanted to do was take her home where I could do unspeakable things to her body, then do them again and again. A million lifetimes with Emerson still wouldn’t be enough for me to get my fill of her, and if her job didn’t mean so much to her, I’d make her quit, sell my shares of RMM to Liam and Deke, then just live in bed with my wife for the rest of our days. Emerson was an addiction that no amount of prayers could ever kick, not that I wanted to cure myself of her. Quite the opposite, in fact. I wanted to overdose on every little thing about her, and I wanted her to feel the same way about me.

“Are they saving the world over there?”

I grinned as I looked over at Scott French, another one of Emerson’s childhood friends from the Hantover trailer park. Their other childhood friend, Henry Ricker, hadn’t been able to make it this evening, but according to Emerson, Sally had convinced Scott to be her date, and they were such a mis-matched pair when you looked at them. Sally looked like she stepped right out of a Scottish picture book with her red hair, bright eyes, and splatter of freckles across her nose, whereas Scott looked like a mystical villain with his silvery-blonde hair and black eyes.

“Aren’t they always?” I quipped.

“I get why they want to be here, but these things are so fucking tedious,” he remarked stoically.

“I couldn’t agree more,” I replied. “Especially, when most of the people here are just here for a tax write-off. I haven’t had one impactful conversation with one person since we’ve arrived.”

“I’m only here for Sal and Em,” he said honestly. “Otherwise, I’d just write a check like I usually do. Though I believe in the cause, I like to leave the heavy emotional lifting to Em. She’s a lot stronger than any of the rest of us are. She always has been, so it’s easier for her to keep swimming in the dirty waters of childhood abuse and neglect.”

“She’s definitely something else,” I said as I looked back towards my wife and her friend.

“Anyone that has ever met her is a better person for it, that’s for sure,” he agreed.

Looking back at him, I said, “She’s got a new supervisor at work that’s after her.”

Scott’s head reared back a bit in surprise. “Are you sure? I mean, she hasn’t mentioned it to me.”

“That’s because she believes that he’s not,” I answered.

Scott grimaced a bit before looking over at Emerson and Sally. “She still doesn’t have a vain bone in her body.” Then looking back at me, he asked, “Why is the guy still breathing?”

“I’m already working on it,” I informed him. “Though Emerson has no idea.”

“Is it a secret?”

“No,” I answered truthfully. “I just have no desire to fight with my wife right now if I don’t have to.”

“I don’t get it,” he remarked as he shook his head. “Why go after a married woman? There are too many single women out there to be trying to ruin someone’s marriage.”

“I have no idea,” I replied, still looking at Emerson and Sally talking away. “A challenge?”

Scott let out a dark laugh. “You have to be a real sonofabitch to ruin someone’s marriage because you’re bored.”

“I don’t disagree.”

While I knew that Scott was divorced, I didn’t know the intimate details. Though he, Sally, and Henry had been welcomed into our fold years ago, their bond and friendship with Emerson was different than their friendships with the rest of us. So, I didn’t pry whenever they shared something private with my wife. However, though I’d never heard any rumors of cheating, maybe Scott’s divorce had been way more complicated than I’d first suspected.

With those black eyes narrowing in thought, he asked, “He has to know who you are, right?”

“Not sure, but how could he not?” I posed as I shrugged. “RMM is every-damn-where.”

Just then, I saw Emerson’s supervisor approaching her and Sally, and I couldn’t help but tense, causing Scott to ask, “Is that him?”

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