Page 7 of Future Like This

Ugh. This man. He does the most ridiculous things to my heart. Protects it. Saves it. Shows it the love it deserves.

“Yes, please.” I let him pull me up and happily follow him to the bedroom. Our bedroom. He’s right. A week spent not sleeping in his arms was far too long.

As I settle into bed with him, relief washes over me.

I’ve been so afraid of the pain. Scared of what else is going to happen. Stuck feeling like nothing would ever be okay again. It’s taken me too long to realize that’s not the point. I can’t prevent what’s going to happen, but I decide how I face it.

Everything won’t be okay, but for the first time in a long time I know I’m going to be okay.

Chapter two

Ride This Roller Coaster

Miles

“Ames?” I call, heading for the bedroom. It was a long weekend spent focusing on each other, the nursery, and getting things settled with her mom. It’s Monday now, and her mom is supposed to be going back to the nursing home today. Because of that and everything, we both took today and tomorrow off, though we’ll probably end up on our laptops checking in by tonight. To some degree, we’re both workaholics. We know when to stop, but neither of us can stay away if we have the time and could get something done.

I walk into the bedroom and hear Amelia rummaging in the closet.

“Hey,” I say, standing in the doorway. “What are you doing?” She’s on tiptoes and shoving something onto the top shelf of the closet. She quickly drops back to flat feet and spins around, a sweet smile on her face. I lean against the door frame as I take her in. There’s a hint of mischief in that smile, and it makes me want to pin her to the wall and question her, but I don’t. She looks down at the tote.

“I was just moving a couple of things from this tote.”

“What is that tote?”

“My life,” she says, looking wistfully at it.

I step to her and wrap my arms around her from behind. “Yeah?”

“I started going through it last week. I wanted to start working through things before my therapy appointment, and this tote holds a lot of pain. I didn’t make it far before I went to bed.” She spins around in my arms, looking up at me. “Would you go through it with me? I want to share it with you. Especially…”

“What?”

“There’s a USB in here with videos of my dad. I want you to see him.” She sniffs. “I want to see him, but not alone.”

I wrap my arms tighter around her, feeling some light thumps as her stomach presses against mine. “Of course, baby. Where do you want to look through it?”

“Living room?”

“Perfect. The tea’s ready. Why don’t you take our mugs to the living room, and I’ll carry this.”

She leans up and kisses my cheek. “Thank you.”

“I think we need to retire those words from our vocabulary. They’re important, but we shouldn’t have to thank the other for things we do out of love.”

She gives me a tiny smile. “So, what you’re saying is… I should come up with other ways to thank you.”

Be still my aching cock.

She’s killing me.

We haven’t had sex all weekend because we’ve been focused on the other pieces of our relationship, but we’ve been teasing each other, and I’m about to explode.

I wrap my hand around the side of her neck and kiss her possessively. “Remember who you’re teasing. That ass is mine to spank and that pussy is mine to devour.”

“Miles…” she breathes.

With a quick kiss to her forehead, I dial back the horniness, and focus on what she wanted to do. It’s going to be intense and emotional. Hopefully, healing, too.

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