Page 80 of Impending Consent

"What are you doing?"

I nodded toward the fire pit I'd built in the center of the stone patio. "Unless you have something you need to do inside?"

She shook her head. "No, a fire sounds nice."

I arranged the wood in the pit and fired it up. It took a minute for the flames to burn at a full blaze.

"Another beer?"

She nodded. "Yep."

When I returned with the bottles, Sailor had moved to one of the chairs closer to the pit. I handed her a beer and reached for her hand, demanding that she stand. After the space was empty, I sat and pulled her down into my lap.

"I got that job today. The Reynolds project.”

"That’s good.”

"It's a beautiful house with good bones."

"Like this one." She gestured to my house.Ourhouse, at least for now.

"This place is a work in progress but I think that’s the part I like the most. The restoration is part of the appeal."

"Like your wife. I feel like I’m one of your restoration projects."

The comment caught me off guard. “You’re no different than the rest of us. We all have shit with us.”

"Why are you so adamant about this marriage? Why put up with my moods, my resistance?"

I tightened my arm around her waist. Sailor was so damn night and day. Professionally she was confident and assured but personally she was always second guessing where she belonged.

I set my beer down on the ground next to us and dropped my eyes to hers. "Because you’re worth it. There’s something real beneath all those walls you've built. You fight so damn hard to show people who you feel like they need you to be—your parents, your siblings, hell even the people you work with—but I see you, Sail. And I fucking like what I see."

She grinned. "Even though I only married you for sex?"

"As much as you want me to believe that’s the only reason you married me, we both know the truth."

“Which is?”

“You’re very fucking transparent, Sail. You don’t like being told what you can and can’t do and you love a challenge, but agreeing to this was very intentional. You could have given yourself an out.”

Our eyes met and she blinked a few times then narrowed hers. But when she opened her mouth to argue, she sighed. “I’m good at my job.”

“You are, but it’s not about that. Can we just be honest for a minute?”

“I’ve been honest.” She frowned.

“Nah, you haven’t. Something shifted in your life. I don’t know what but whatever that thing was, it made you want more than what your life had previously been. You’re good at reading people, Sail, it’s what makes you so damn good at your job. You knew I wouldn’t half ass with this marriage. You also knew I wouldn’t let you bullshit me when it came to what we were. You agreed because you wanted me to give you what you were too afraid to ask for.”

She tensed. “I didn’t want to be married and you’re insane if you believe that.”

“Maybe not married but you wanted something real. You trusted me to give it to you or you would have bullshitted your way onto my dick with a temporary resolution of getting around what you knew I wanted.”

This marriage.

She was quiet for a long time and I half expected her to bail but she surprised me when she softened. "I don’t belong anywhere. Not even with my family sometimes and that was scary. Teej and Sky were moving on with their lives and I didn’t know how to do that. They expect me to be…"

"You're here, Sail. You fucking belong."

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