Page 98 of A Voice In Chains
But I didn’t come here to spy on him working. I came here to make sure he was okay. Years have passed since Arkin came back to me, but he still tends to bottle things up, especially where his past is concerned. Some things are easier to keep quiet about, yet those are the things we need to voice the loudest.
Turning around, forcing my husband back a step, I shut the door behind me. There’s no easy way to broach the subject. Rip the plaster off. “How are you holding up, Ark?”
Hands on his hips, Arkin releases a deep sigh, the kind of sigh that deflates his big frame, as if the world weighs him down before he rubs the space between his brows. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
Fuck that.
The latest parole hearing is scheduled for this afternoon. I know Arkin wants to put on a brave face, but I also know he’s hurting. When he’s in pain, I’m in pain.
Stepping forward and palming his cheeks, I press my forehead to his. It’s what we do—how we connect. “It’s my job to worry about my husband. I’m your ocean, remember? Together we’re the anchor. Just say the word, and I’ll kill him for you.”
That draws a tired chuckle out of him. “Honestly, baby, I don’t want to think about my uncle’s latest parole hearing today.”
I gaze into his eyes, pain raging in my chest, but I put a lid on it for Arkin, for the man in front of me who’s been hurt enough.
After he places his hand on mine, he strokes his thumb over my skin and draws in a trembling breath. “While I wish he would stay in prison forever where he can’t hurt anyone else, that’s not how the legal system works, unfortunately. He’ll walk the streets again. Maybe not now but soon. It’s a fact I have to accept, and it fucking sucks.”
“I’m sorry.” My voice is choked.
“Don’t be sorry.” He wets his quivering lips. “I want to spend today focusing on good things, like us, and the life we’ve built together. After tidying up here, I’ll take you home and make love on the kitchen table. Then, when your legs are jelly and you’re resembling a Picasso painting of bruises and cum, we’re having a long bath.”
“Whatever you want, baby.”
Arkin straightens and kisses my wedding band, rolling it between his fingers. “My sister has invited everyone over for dinner tonight. Apparently, her boyfriend has dug the barbeque out of the garage. Fuck knows how he found it amongst all the stuff they hoard in there.”
They recently moved house, and half their belongings are still boxed up.
“What about your brother?” I ask. “Will he be there too?”
Archie is currently attending university in Scotland. We travel up to see him as often as we can, but it’s a full day’s drive, so it doesn’t happen as regularly as we’d like.
Arkin kisses me once, a soft press of lips, then nods. “Yes, he arrived last night.”
That’s good news. I’m glad he’s back for the weekend. Arkin is very protective of his siblings even now, and he worries about Archie living so far away. It’ll be good for my husband to spend quality time with Archie and Lily-Rose.
“Well then,” I whisper, peppering kisses over his face to make him smile. “I better help my husband tidy so that he can take me home and ravage me on the kitchen table as promised.”
Chuckling, Arkin wraps his muscular arms around me and crushes his lips against mine in a bruising kiss. “Thank you for checking up on me today. I don’t tell you enough how much I appreciate all the small ways you care for me. You always go out of your way to ensure I’m feeling okay.”
“Your happiness is my happiness, remember? If you hurt, I hurt.”
Tangling his fingers in my hair, he steals a deep, toe-curling kiss.
His heart pounds beneath my hand on his defined chest, and his soft shirt smells faintly of laundry powder and the cologne I gifted him for his birthday.
“What did I do to deserve you?” he asks, breathing hard, trailing his tongue over his lips to taste the remnant of our kiss.
“Let’s clean up real quick,” he says, gazing at my mouth. “I want to take you home.”
Despite his words, he makes no move to leave, shifting his fingers to my shirt button. Flicking the top one open, he slowly leans down to kiss my collarbone.
His arm wraps around the small of my waist, and he pulls me closer. As his devilish mouth leaves biting kisses on my neck, I almost give in and let him devour me there and then.
“Arkin, we can’t do this here. You could lose your job.”
“And somehow, I don’t seem to care about that right now,” he responds. “Why is it that you always smell so nice?”
I chuckle, sliding out, escaping his gravitational force. “Let’s clean up.”
