“You missed sex on that list.”
“I remember,” she said, a grin on her face. “I barely knew you. You were so much younger than me. I thought it was some kind of joke.”
He took her hand in his and spun her engagement ring around her finger. “You were never a joke to me.” He brushed his lips over hers, gently at first and then more firmly.
“You were always so certain, despite…” She waved her hand in the air. “Everything. This. Me. Daniel. My divorce.”
Gently, he tugged the elastic out of her hair, letting it all fall around her shoulders in soft waves. “Us, Kendalee. I was always certain about us. And being certain about us meant we could deal with everything else.”
Kendalee smiled. “You continue to sweep me off my feet.”
A murmur broke through the silence. Soft mutterings came through the baby monitor, and they both switched their gaze to the little white box that could disrupt Elliott’s plans. Thankfully, Holly settled, and he looked back at Kendalee, threading his fingers through her hair.
“First thing on my list. Lure my wife into thinking we’re just kissing.” He fucking loved the feel of her lips on his. Soft, pouty, and always deliciously warm. Her eyes were firmly on his, something he loved during moments of intimacy like this. Sure, there were times for closing your eyes in the final throes of sex, but at the start, there was something so vital about seeing an expression of love and lust on the face of someone who meant the world to you.
“What’s number two?” Kendalee gasped.
“Second thing on my list. To see what my wife is wearing underneath this sweater.”
She lifted her hands in the air and he pulled off the sweater and the vest she wore beneath it.
Blue lace.
His favorite color, his favorite fabric, on his most favorite woman.
Smooth skin met his fingertips as he brushed his fingers over the rise of her breast. Nipples he knew were a dusky pink were already erect beneath the fabric and he scraped his thumb gently across them.
“Elliott,” Kendalee murmured.
“What, Babe?”
Her eyes locked with his. “I’ve missed you.”
The words ricocheted around his heart. “I’ve missed me, too. I’m sorry.”
Kendalee reached up onto her toes and placed her hands around his neck, kissing him softly. “No. I didn’t say it to make you feel bad. I know it’s been a lot for you.”
“Number three on my list. I’m going to get us both naked. Literally and figuratively. Because I need both. We need both.”
Stepping away from her, he pulled his T-shirt over his head and shucked his jeans and underwear, leaving them on the ground. By the time he was done, Kendalee had kicked off her jeans and removed her lingerie.
“I should have picked a better spot to do this than the laundry room,” he said gruffly as he pulled her naked body to his. Bright fluorescent lights, a wooden floor that, thankfully, had underfloor heating, and the smell of fresh laundry. Not the sexiest place to seduce his wife.
“Are we in the laundry room? I hadn’t noticed,” Kendalee whispered against his ear.
Elliott ran his hands down the soft curve of her back until he reached the cheeks of her butt. Nudging her gently, he picked her up, his arms around her, her legs around his waist, and placed her onto the washing machine. “Spontaneous sex in any part of the house is officially back on the menu.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” Kendalee’s eyes glowed with the love she felt for him. Even when she’d not believed herself capable of falling in love with him, the signs had been there that she already had, written in her gaze.
“Have I told you how much I love your eyes?” he muttered.
She shuffled closer to the edge of the machine, using his hips for leverage. He could feel the slow and steady rumble of the washing machine as the drum turned. “Not recently.”
“Number four. I want to check out just how ready for me my wife is.”
Knowing, as she always did, exactly what he wanted from her, she spread her legs wider. He ran his finger over her C-section scar. A constant reminder of the most incredible gifts she could ever have given him. She’d been embarrassed about it at first, and he’d not been able to understand why.
That single silvery-white line had been the physical doorway to becoming a father, to building a family of his own.
His fingers drifted lower, his thumb circling her clit, eliciting a gasp from Kendalee. Her back arched as she gasped, and he took the opportunity to suck one of her nipples into his mouth, to lave his tongue across the tip before letting go.
She was wet for him already. Fucking perfect. He placed his hands on either side of her thighs on the machine and lowered his head. His tongue lapped her once, then twice, in long brushstrokes from front to back.
Her taste was one he could never get enough off. He licked between her lips, thrusting his tongue into her, mimicking the action his cock would take soon. He curled his tongue upward, finishing every stroke with a flick of her clit before he started.
“Elliott,” she gasped. “If number five isn’t to fuck me on this machine, I might consider a divorce.”
He grinned against her clit, giving it one last kiss for good measure.
“I think number five of things I want to do to my wife in the laundry room is to leave her sitting on the washing machine in dire need of my cock, so she thinks about me every minute for the rest of the day.”
Kendalee grasped for his hair and pulled his lips to hers. “Try it and you might lose said cock.”
Elliott kissed her, sending his tongue to meet hers.
“I still taste good,” she said, as he pulled away.
“Really fucking good,” he agreed. He reached for her ass and pulled her toward him until she was balancing precariously close to the edge of the machine. He ran a hand down her chest, between the valley of her breasts, pushing her to lean back.
Desperate to be inside, he palmed his cock, stroking it a couple of times. He looked up to see Kendalee’s eyes fixated on what he was doing. To tease her, he rubbed the tip against her wetness, groaning as he did so. “Warm, wet, and deep inside you is his favorite place.”
She changed her gaze to his. “So, what’s he waiting for?”
Elliott grinned and then eased himself forward, a slow back and forth, as Kendalee stretched around him. “Fuck, Babe,” he gasped.
The image of her, opening to receive him, her lips dragging against his cock as he withdrew, her clit all erect and red for him was almost more visual stimulation he could stand. He thrust into her, seating himself as deep as he could get.
“Oh, god,” Kendalee gasped, reaching for his shoulders, so their chests mashed together and blocked his view. “I’ve missed this. I’ve missed you like this.”
Words gathered at the back of his throat, but he couldn’t say them.
Life was too short to worry about life being too fucking short. His diagnosis and treatment had been a wake-up call to embrace life by the mother-fucking-balls. He had Kendalee, they had each other. They had the kids. And fuck, if he wasn’t there for any reason, there were over a dozen people who would make sure they were looked after. He was the luckiest fucking man on the planet, not the unluckiest.
His diagnosis had happened for a reason.