Page 60 of Splintered Security
All of a sudden, I’m thinking like a chick? Fuck my life.
It doesn’t take long before she walks tentatively into my office. Her shoulders are slumped, and her chin doesn’t rise to me.
She rounds the desk where I’m tapping away at her old phone, and I open my arms, pulling her into my lap. Our needto be close—at least my need to be close—increases daily. I can’t not be with her, not touch her when she’s within reach.
She cradles into my chest, and I wrap my arms around her. “I’m sorry,” I murmur into her hair before kissing the top of her head. “I didn’t mean to snap at you, Anni. Forgive me.”
She says nothing, her chest rising and falling in my arms as she settles.
“I’m sorry, Ren. I wasn’t being serious. It was a joke.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t mean to make you mad.” Her voice is small. I did this to her.
“I’m not mad. I was, but…” I turn her to straddle me and cup her face.
I suck in a deep breath and lay out the honesty that scares her. “Number one, I’m proud of you. I know this could feel like confrontation, and you faced it head on. Number two, I wasn’t mad. I was hurt.”
“I—”
“Let me finish, Sunshine.” My voice is gentle as my arms squeeze her. I’m not correcting her. I need to say what I need to say before I think better of it. “Our circumstances dictated when we got married and how, but they don’t dictate our marriage. Our wedding was to protect you. Our marriage is for us… for our joys, our challenges, our ups and downs. When I married you last Friday, I made you a promise. Do you remember?”
She nods.
“I told you I’d be faithful to you until I die.”
She sucks in a breath as her eyes hold mine like she can’t look away.
“Not until Giltenhouse is behind us. Not until it’s inconvenient. Not until we find better partners.”
I snake my left hand from around her waist and hold my ring up between us. “This means something. This is me committed to you, committed to us. To making us work. To taking care of you. I’ll fight for it, baby. I’ll fight for you, even if I have to fight with you for it.”
Tears well in her eyes, and her chin quivers.
“I’m not him. You don’t have to run to escape. But don’t threaten to take what’s most precious in this world from me without expecting a fight.”
“What’s most precious in the world to you?”
Dropping my forehead to hers, I close my eyes and relax into her.
“You, Annika. I’m sorry you doubted that.”
She pulls back and cups my jaw before kissing me. Her center rocks against my cock, stirring it to life. Moments later, our clothes are scattered around the office, and she slides down my rock-hard erection, face to face. Rocking slowly.
She’s in control. Making the choice to stay, to connect, to sink into us.
This isn’t frenzy. This isn’t fervor.
This is intimacy.
It’s apology and reconciliation in one.
“I’m falling in love with you, Ren.”
Her whispered confession pushes my heart into a free fall. My hands on her hips pull her down to be fully impaled on my cock as she rocks, rubbing me inside her.
I hold her eyes. “I’m not falling, baby. I’m there.”
