Page 24 of Wounded Fox
"Even when you hated me?"
Valerie's gaze softened as she palmed my cheek. "I never hated you. Even when I wanted to. You always were, and always will be, the love of my life."
I dropped my forehead to hers and just soaked up the moment.
"You mentioned something last night that I think we need to talk about." Now that I knew she wasn't completely sober last night, I figured it was imperative that we talked about all the things she went off on a tangent about.
Valerie chuckled. "I'm pretty sure I mentioned a lot of things I normally would've kept to myself."
"Maybe so, but I hope from here on out you always tell me what you're thinking. I don't want secrets between us ever again.”
"What specifically did you want to talk about?"
I pulled back so I could look her in the eyes when I answered. "Children?"
Valerie tried to bury her head back into my chest but I wouldn't let her hide from me. This was a discussion we needed to have. "What about them?" she sighed.
"You never told me you wanted kids, and then yesterday you went off about how you missed out on that."
"Because we never talked about a future together. I felt like if I brought up kids, you would freak out, and then the whole letter mishap happened and it wasn’t a big deal anymore."
So many mistakes. So many things I would go back and change if I could.
"What you wanted has always been important to me."
"It doesn't matter anymore anyway. We're too old to have a child," Valerie answered sadly.
"We could adopt." I was thinking on the fly and completely pulling shit out of my ass, but when I saw the smile on Valerie's face, I knew it was the right thing to suggest.
"You really think so?"
"I think we can do whatever we want."
Valerie grabbed my face and crashed our lips together. I was too stunned at first to do anything, but the second she tried to pull away, instinct took over.
My fingers went into her hair and I deepened the kiss. Licking the seam of her lips, I silently begged her to open up for me, and like a good girl, she obeyed. Our tongues tangled for dominance as a wave of passion consumed me.
I'd waited years to have the freedom to kiss Valerie like I wanted and I wasn't about to stop anytime soon.
Her soft lips were pliable under my own, and like the eager man that I was, I took everything she was willing to give me.
Every scratch of her nails along my back. Every dig of her heels into my ass. Every swipe of her tongue and clashing of our teeth. I took it all until we were both a heavy-breathing mess and still I took more.
Then, like a clap of thunder, the sound of Valerie's stomach grumbling brought our kiss to an end as we both chuckled. "As much as I would love to kiss you all day, I need to get some food in your belly."
The dazed look in Valerie's eyes was enough to make me feel like I was ten feet tall.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Valerie
"Ummm, what is that?" Vanessa—my sales associate—asked as soon as I walked into the back room of the store.
Vanessa only worked part-time for me and had been on vacation for the last week, so she missed out on all the excitement from the shooting.
"What's what?" I looked around the small storage space like whatever she was asking about would jump out and make itself known.
"That?" She pointed at my hand. "On your finger."
