Page 22 of The Rent Just Went Up

Erika looks at me with concern for a millisecond before she realizes there must be more to what I’m saying. She smiles and pulls herself closer. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yup.” I nod. “You won’t need it because you’re moving in with me.”

Epilogue

Malcom

Five years later…

Beinghonoredfor something is strange. There aren’t many people out there who can relate, but I’m one of them, and I can attest to it being very odd and difficult to navigate.

Three and a half years ago, I took some of my money, fixed up one of my old decrepit buildings, and opened a domestic violence shelter in town. I may have been the money behind it all, but Erika was the inspiration. She was the one who really got me thinking about what I was doing to help the community other than just charging rent and being one step above a “scum of the earth” landlord.

Her words really had an impact on me, so I put the project into overdrive and put her in charge of coordinating with the town, social workers, and the various women’s organizations that would help get things off the ground and running. And she killed it. There was basically zero waiting time from when the building was approved and inspected to when it was ready to go and take people in.

Two and a half years later, the town decided it was time to honor me. So quietly, they invited me and my family to the town hall to present me with a Good Citizenship Award plaque. It was a small, quiet ceremony, but Erika was all smiles the entire time. Ryan, my three-year-old, pretended to care and was well behaved, but he clearly wanted to be out doing something more entertaining.

The day he was born—that was when the ground really shook under my feet. Erika moved in with me immediately, and I knew—I justknewI was going to love her for the rest of my life, and that if I was going to evenhavea life with her at all, that I had to put my fears of things not working out behind me and trust my heart.

So I proposed, and she said yes.

We were married, and she gave Ryan to me. The whole earth shook beneath my feet when he was born. The love of my life became the mother of my child, as well as my partner in business. She helps with the management of my buildings, now that I’ve continued to expand, but even more, she takes care of my shelter. She planned the whole thing from the ground up, and she runs it like it belongs to her, which as far as I’m concerned, it does. We’re even talking about opening another a few towns over just as soon as we find the right land. And once we do, I’m sure she’ll take charge and get things running smoothly just like before.

Unfortunately, Nikki wasn’t able to work things out with Thomas, but she’s seeing someone new now, who I actually like, and so far, things have been going well with them. I have high hopes that they’ll be able to make it work. It’s been just shy of two years now, and so far, there haven’t been any panicked visits in the middle of the night, so that’s a great sign.

I watch Erika now as she comes down the stairs from Ryan’s bedroom, looking like a goddess in her beige dress and heels with her hair in gorgeous curls spilling down over her shoulders, and think back to that night we met at the bar.Imagine if Jared had never let her in that night? We never would have even met.

“Do you think this was too much for Town Hall?” she asks, motioning to her dress. She’d been anxious about it before we left—worried that it was too sexy or some nonsense.

“I told you no,” I reply.

“You don’t think it was too…sexy?”

I watch as she reaches the bottom step and comes over to me. Christ, half a decade, and Istillcan’t take my eyes off her. How many husbands can say that about their wives? Five years and we’re still as fiery as ever.

We go at it like a couple of teenagers trying to break a record for how many times we can do it in a week, and we never have any of those dull couple moments you always hear people talk about either. You know the ones where the night consists of simply discussing what to order from takeout and then maybe arguing over what Netflix show to watch, then getting into bed and playing the which-one-of-us-can-fall-asleep-faster game while staring at our phone screens.

It’s like living a fantasy. Any temerity I had about marriage, about giving myself over to a woman—it’s all gone. And Erika is responsible for that.

“No, I thinkyou’retoo sexy.” I grin, wrapping my hands around her waist and pulling her to me. “And as a result, any dress you buy is going to be too sexy.”

“Oh, you charmer,” she scoffs with a smile.

“Unless of course we wrap you up in a blue tarp,” I suggest, leaning in and kissing her neck as I pull down the left strap of her dress and slip out her arm. “Or cans of shaving cream.”

Erika moans as I make my way up her neck. God, she smells delicious. You’d think I would have gotten used to her scent by now, but it’s like my body simply will not let me. It’s like it doesn’t want me to—so I can enjoy moments like this.

“Hmm, I think we could probably skip that,” Erika giggles as I tug down her second strap, exposing her breasts. They got larger after her pregnancy but retained their perkiness at the same time. She’s just pure walking sex appeal now. I can barely handle being around her now without sprouting a hard-on.

“Then you’re just going to have to stop worrying, sweet thing,” I whisper. “Because you know you’re just too sexy.”

I kiss down her chest to her left breast and take her nipple into my mouth, causing her to gasp.

“Well how many women can say they have a husband who washonoredby the town?” She whimpers. I can feel her slightly teasing me, but she also kind of means it. I reach behind her and slide my hands up her dress and feel that she’s wearing no panties. And that’s all it takes to drive me over the edge.

I have her in my arms and am carrying her to the couch before she has a chance to cry out. I’d love to bring her up to my bedroom, but it’s too close to Ryan’s for the things I’m going to do to her and the noise she’s going to make in response.

Her eyes light up with lust as I set her down and lift up her dress, exposing her bare little pussy. She’s taken to leaving just a tiny tuft of hair aboveas decoration, she would say, and it’s there now, like a cute little frame above the main event.

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