Page 35 of Moonlight & Matrimony
He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees, hanging his head and sighing. “Her name was Sienna. Or is, I guess. She’s not dead,” he clarifies. “We’d been together for four years and she dumped me on our anniversary after I proposed. A year later, I found out she’d been cheating.”
“She sounds like a cunt,” I say, hoping to infuse a little levity into the moment.
His shoulders shake as he looks at me out of the corner of his eye, his laugh reverberating in the quiet room. My body instantly reacts to the sound, and I’m not sure what to do with that information. It’s like I can’t decide if I want to jump his bones or run far away. Or run far away and let him catch me.
Still, I get the sense there’s more to the story than he’s letting on, but instead of prying into a past that he’s clearly not comfortable sharing just yet, I decide to change lanes. “Do we want to talk about bills and division of labor?”
His body visibly relaxes as he sinks back into the sofa. “You pay nothing, and we all cleanup after ourselves,” he says matter-of-factly. “I have a cleaner who comes once a week so we don’t have to worry about the big things. Just tidy as we go.”
“Ok, the cleaning stuff sounds good, and I’ll obviously take care of my animals. But I still think I should at least pay rent. I can’t afford much but —”
“No. Absolutely not. Save your money for the lawyer fees, Ivy. I have more than enough. You also have daycare costs, and don’t think I haven’t noticed that every time you walk into a store that little girl talks you into something new, and possibly cat-shaped.”
I smile at how well he knows us already. “Have you been talking to Paige?”
“Maybe a little,” he admits. “But I’m also observant.”I’ve got so many things he can observe.
“Ok, but I’m buying groceries.”
“Fine. But I’m cooking. Anything else?”
“Nope. Good talk.”
He chuckles, then reaches an arm across the couch, his hand grazing mine as he plucks a stray hair off my shirt. “You look exhausted, maybe we should get to bed.”Yours or mine?
I grumble, sinking so far into the plush velvet sofa I just might disappear. “I would, but I don’t think I can make it up the stairs yet.”
He pulls a throw blanket off the back of the couch, one of the plush ones I brought over with the move, and lays it across my legs. “Wanna watch a movie?”
“Sure. You pick.” I burrow even further into the cushions until I’m damn near horizontal, my head resting near the arm of the sofa as my feet inch closer to his lap. He grabs the remote off the coffee table and flips through the streaming apps, coming to a stop on a romcom I’ve never seen before.
The opening sequence starts and I feel a hand reach out to pull my foot onto his lap. I stifle a moan as he runs his thumbs over my aching arches. I think I’m in heaven. Can you come just from a foot rub?
“God that feels so good,” the words come out as a moan before I can stop them, and Luca adjusts his position. Diverting our attention back to the movie, he clears his throat before moving on to my other foot. This time I do a better job of stifling my sounds, but fuck, this is the best foot rub of my life. Luca, to his credit, carries on as if nothing happened.
The movie is fine, but I’m bone tired. I feel myself drifting off to sleep until I feel Luca shift beneath me. A moment later, the soft blanket is pulled up over my body, and he readjusts our position so my calves are draped over his lap with his right arm slung over my thighs. The comfort of this quiet moment allows me to fall into a dreamless sleep for the first time in months.
Chapter 8
Ivy
? Narcissist - Avery Anna
“Oh fuck,” I curse as I plow straight into a rock hard body, coffee spilling over the edge of my mug, saturating my ratty pajamas.
“Shit. Sorry, Ivy.” Two strong hands grasp my shoulders to help steady me, but I’m too busy taking in the impeccable view. My husband is standing in the hallway with nothing but a towel slung low on his hips, his toned chest glistening with the last remnants of his shower. His dark hair is damp, and his jaw is set in a thin line as he stares down at where my coffee has spilled down the front of my t-shirt.
He pinches his eyes closed, muttering a curse. “I didn’t think you were home. I’ll just —” he gestures over his shoulder, and takes off into his room at the end of our hallway.
Fuck. I’m not going to survive this.
To be fair, I’m supposed to be picking up Rylin, so he had no idea I was home or he probably wouldn’t have been walking around the house looking like every girl’s wet dream. I didn’tthink to tell him my plans had changed when Evelyn offered to meet up with Austin in my place. He’s the last person I want to see today, so I wasn’t about to pass up the offer. Topping the list of people I’d very much like to see,again, is my super sexy, very wet husband. By the time I’ve snapped myself out of my shameless thoughts, Luca isn’t the only one who’s wet.
I head towards the bathroom, intending to get cleaned up and change into something less caffeinated, but I pause outside of Luca’s door when I hear a faint groan coming from the other side. Is he…?
“Fuck,” he grunts, all but confirming my suspicions. I hover a little too long, listening to his ragged breathing. My jaw drops when the next word comes out of his mouth on a groan. “Ivy.” My entire body heats at the sudden realization that Luca is getting himself off to thoughts of me. I won’t deny that I’ve been tempted to return the sentiment, but I haven’t exactly had a lot of free time to get myself there, if you know what I mean. By the time I crawl into bed at night, I’m already half dead to the world.
Realizing I’ve been standing here silently contemplating my next move for just a bit too long, I reluctantly take a step towards the bathroom and the floor creaks — loudly.Shit.
