Page 67 of Impending Consent

He nodded again and walked away. I stepped back into the room feeling a little better. Gray and Rival returned moments later. I couldn't help but watch Rival's face, searching for some sign of what he was thinking after his conversation with Gray. His eyes found mine immediately and that sexy, reassuring smile was back. The smile shouldn't have made my heart speed up. But it did.God, I’m falling for my husband…

The drive home was quiet but that was needed because dinner had been a shit show, but when Rival pulled into our driveway, I decided it was time to break the silence. "I'm sorry about my father."

"Don't be. He was just being protective."

"He was being an ass and you didn't deserve that."

Rival turned to face me. "It's strange how we defend each other to our families, even though this marriage isn't real?"

"What’s strange is that it felt so normal to defend you. I didn't like how he was treating you."

"And I didn't like how he was making you feel. That's what people do when they care, Sailor. They protect each other."

"Is that what we're doing? Caring?"

He laughed, shaking his head. “Yeah, that’s what we’re doing.”

“You’re much better at this than me.”

“Nah, we’re both caring in the ways we understand. I feel you, Sail. Don’t think I can’t see through you.”

I groaned. “Yeah, that’s the problem.”

He laughed again. "Come on. Let's go inside. It's been a long fucking night."

We got out and headed to the door. Like always, Rival kept his hand at the small of my back, a gesture that was becoming familiar and needed. Maybe there was more to this arrangement than I assumed it could be and surely more than just a bad fucking mistake.

Chapter 16

Rival

I woke and adjusted my eyes to the darkness, feeling momentarily disoriented by the unfamiliar weight against my side. Then I remembered Sailor asked to sleep in my bed last night.

We returned from her parents' house emotionally drained. The dinner had been exactly the minefield I expected. Her father's disapproval was loud and overbearing. Torrance Addison Sr. made it clear he thought his daughter had made a catastrophic mistake and voiced that opinion every fucking chance he could.

I didn’t care about his opinions, which I made clear, but the night was still heavy. So by the time I climbed into bed and Sailor appeared in my doorway with Hippo clutched to her chest looking drained and vulnerable, I decided I could survive the night with a hard dick if it meant lifting some of that weight off my wife’s shoulders.

I pulled back the covers and welcomed her into my space. She eased in beside me, leaving some distance, but during the night she gravitated toward me and now her head rested on mychest, her arm was draped across my waist, and her breathing was deep and even, like she was perfectly content.

The weight of her on me felt right. Natural. She belonged there. I wanted her. I studied my wife’s sleeping face. Without the mask she wore during most days, she looked more peaceful. I gently brushed the hair from her face, being careful not to wake her.

This damn woman bulldozed her way into my life, or more accurately, drunkenly signed away a year of her life to be with me and was slowly becoming something more than just a legal obligation. The way she defended me to her father and the vulnerability she was showing proved she trusted me in her life and in her space. Hell, she found comfort in my bed last night after the clusterfuck of a family dinner. Sail’s walls were slowly crumbling.

She stirred against me and sighed in her sleep before inching closer. Her leg shifted and tangled with mine under the sheet and I felt my body starting to respond. I tried to focus on anything but the heat from her skin against mine, which had my dick swelling, but I failed miserably.

Having Sailor this close triggered memories of the night I married her. My dick, her mouth, her pussy, my mouth, and all the other stuff in between. I'd been celibate by choice for years, building my business, focusing on myself, and then she crashed into my life with a proposition I couldn’t refuse. Even though whatever the hell we were had begun under unusual circumstances, there was no denying the attraction between us. I fell hard and fast and wasn’t resisting. I raked a hand down my face, exhaled a sigh, and closed my eyes, accepting that I was fucking gone over this woman. My wife…

I must have dozed off again because the next thing I knew, sunlight was streaming through the windows, and Sailor was upnow, watching me. Her chin was propped on my chest and she was smiling in that way that let me know I was in trouble.

"Morning.”

"Morning." She didn't move away, just continued grinning at me. "You talk in your sleep."

"Do I?”

She nodded and her smile expanded.

“What did I say?"

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