Page 105 of Entangled

His lips lift the barest centimeter from mine. “Do you see it?” he whispers huskily.

I open my eyes, finding the love edging through the darkness of his own, and give him a nod of response. Incapable of speech as he continues to thrust hard into me, another orgasm already bearing down on me.

And I do. I see it all.

The house, the kids, the nights spent lazily making love to each other after the kids are in bed, voices hushed so we don’t wake them. The love, the laughter.

The millions of cherished moments we’ll have in our lifetime.

And him.

I see him by my side every step of the way.

Holding my hand as our kids come into the world. Bitching about feeding the dog I’m going to make him get. Building fires in the fireplace when it’s barely cold out because he knows I can’t stand anything but oppressive heat.

I see all of it. All because of a guy who wouldn’t take no for an answer. A man who saw how precious what we have is and fought for it. Fought me for it. And I’ll love him forever for that. For his darkness that calls to mine, his words that slay me, his playfulness that makes an appearance at just the right time.

He’s the other side of my insolent coin and I can’t imagine my life without him. We fit each other, our jagged edges forming this magnificent unification of us.

He slams into me and I cry out, walls slamming down around him as I come, imagining it all in painful reality, tears sliding onto my cheeks. He groans and thrusts deeply back into me, holding himself there and I feel his cock jerk as he pours himself inside of me. We stay that way for a while, both of us gasping for breath, high on each other and our shared dream.

Eventually my hips start to complain though and I push at his arm, hating the feeling when he moves and slides out of me. He drops onto his back and I go willingly when he pulls me to him, tangling our bodies again as we bask in the afterglow. The softness in his gaze pulls at my heartstrings as he brings a hand up and runs his thumb along my cheek. I’m not ready to be apart from him again so soon.

“Sure you don’t want to come on my volcano tour with me? I have a feeling we could make that very interesting.”

“Without a doubt.” He huffs a laugh before his brows draw down. “But I can’t. I have my meeting and you need to actually have the space to take some pictures.”

“True.” I sigh. “Well, don’t worry too much about your meeting. You can still be a mercenary in the suburbs. I’m sure the PTA would find a use for you.” I smirk. “I hear they’re quite cutthroat.”

A surprised laugh bursts from me as he rolls us over, pressing his weight into me as he tickles at my sides. “You just think you’re so funny, don’t you?”

“I am,” I gasp through my laughter. “You’ll just have to learn to keep up.”

“Hmm.” He stills his hands, dropping his lips to mine with a lingering kiss. “Maybe I’ll work on that while you’re gone. It’s only two days, right?”

“Right.” I reach up and thread my fingers through the back of his hair. “Hey, Coop?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you,” I tell him. “For fighting for us. For not letting me leave.”

His lips ghost up. “Always, Princess. Always.”

Chapter 28

One Year Ago

I close the door of the taxi and walk up to the red door of our house, a giddy smile on my face despite the fact I still smell like dirt and ash from the volcano tour. Turning the handle, I push on the door excitedly, surprise filtering through me when it doesn’t budge. Coop and I never lock the door.

Maybe he went to the store.

I drop my bag and dig through it, eventually locating the extra house key he had given me for just-in-case situations like this. Shoving the key into the lock, I turn it and open the door. Grabbing my bag from the ground, I walk into the house and kick the door shut behind me on my way.

I make it all of two steps before grinding to a halt. Knowing something is off that I can’t quite place.

“Coop?” I call out.

But stagnant silence and the feeling of emptiness are the only things to greet me.

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