I wanted so fucking badly to watch her lose herself in me. Christ, I wanted to lose myself in her. Nothing, and I meant nothing, felt better than slipping inside her. Than going home. Jesus, I hadn’t been back there in a fucking lifetime.
"What you doing, baby girl?" I muttered, even though I knew the answer and kept my gaze focused on the sink and not the temptation she offered.
I knew how Adam fucking felt.
Her hands went to my belly and I realized my shirt had lifted. Her fingers traced the space, filtering through the soft happy trail at the center, before she murmured, "I miss you."
"I miss you too," I rumbled. "More than words can say."
She shivered a little. "Why did you have to go and fix things? Get all sweaty—"
"You’d prefer for the garbage disposal to keep on jamming?" I drawled, tilting my head forward to catch her eye.
"No. But you could have, I don’t know…" She sniggered. "…Worn a massive hoodie or something. Covered up to hide all this fineness."
I grinned. "I feel like this is reverse sexism."
"Reverse it however you want, there’s some sexing thing going on here for sure."
"Seeing as you’re sitting on me, babe, I figured that out fast."
She smirked. "Quick thinker, that’s you."
"The quickest."
"Just not with everything."
I arched a brow at that. "Is that a complaint?"
"Nope." She popped the P. "I never realized—"
Her words waned, and her cheeks turned pink. "Never realized what?"
"Nothing."
"Keira," I grouched. "Just tell me."
She shrugged, but her cheeks stopped being pink and flared into bright red.
"Keira?" I repeated. "You can tell me anything." Even something I didn’t want to hear. "New phase in our relationship, right? We’re working on something better, something different?" Something less like the marriage model her parents had lived.
Huskily, she mumbled, "Well, you always get me off twice. You know? Minimum?"
My dick went from a semi to rock hard, agony be damned.
God, I loved making her come. The lady turned into a vamp when she was choking on my dick.
"And you’re hard a while…" She choked that out. "…so, I get to come that way as well."
"You’re spoiled for my dick, huh?"
"Storm!" she declared melodramatically, making me laugh as her hand flared up to her chest.
"I swear, you were born to be a Southern belle, baby girl."
Her nose crinkled, but she muttered, "I think I’m just spoiled for you. I-I shouldn’t talk about these things, but you always made me feel like your equal. I realize that now. It was on me for deferring to you when you lifted me up."
"When did I do that?"
"You do it with Cyan a lot. I’m not so noble."
I put down the wrench, resting it on my belly, well aware that put our fingers within inches of each other. "I just want to make sure she appreciates you, baby. She’s so lucky to have you as her mom. I’m not about to let her treat you badly on my watch."
She shot me a shy smile. "Thank you."
"No need to thank me. It’s the truth. I’ll always be in your corner, even if you won’t fight for yourself."
Her lip was sucked in between her teeth, and she gnawed on it before she rasped, "I really want to bone you right now."
"I’d kill for that to happen, honey. But Christ, August. I have to wait until August."
She pouted as her hand went to my dick. "This says otherwise."
"Bet your ass it does." I gritted my teeth. "You didn’t know I made you that goddamn promise, but I did. I won’t let you down again."
Her brow furrowed and I sensed her awkwardness, her hesitancy. It made me want to make things better. To take away all her worries. But that was the old Storm talking. Not the new one.
She didn’t need me to come along and make everything better. She needed me to let her take her own stand. To have her own voice. To do her own shit.
More than that, she had to learn that my promises meant something. She had to come to accept that I wasn’t the same man she’d married—I was stronger. I fought my demons rather than caving into them.
So, I sucked in a breath and waited. And waited. I stared at her with heated eyes, giving her the safe space she needed for her to ask me to get her off, but she just got pinker and pinker and more embarrassed.
When she scuttled to her feet, I slipped out of the cupboard, jumped up, and stalked toward her.
With big eyes, she looked up at me, her back to the breakfast counter, and I rumbled, "What’s our rule?"
She swallowed. "Whatever I want, I can have."
"That hasn’t changed, Keira."
When she licked her lips, my dick started weeping precum. I literally goddamn felt it. Fuck, the pain was so pure, it made me feel high. Which was a massive fucking problem.
I shuddered, holding back barely as I placed my hands either side of her on the counter, pinning her in place. "I will always give you what you need."
Her mouth quivered. "What if that’s you?"
"Then you can have me." I tipped my head. "That why you’ve gone all shy on me, sweetheart? Thought you stopped turning pink on me back when you were twenty."
Her nose crinkled at the bridge once more. "When I got pinkeye because cum got in it? Yes. That solved me of all embarrassment. Standing there stark naked, Cyan latched onto my breast because we woke her up, you pouring saline into my eye—"
My lips curved. "If memory serves, didn’t you get your period?"
"Yes, because God was kind to me that evening."
I snickered. "We survived that, though, didn’t we? Although I’ll admit I was sure you wouldn’t look at me in the face ever again."
She snorted. "I was mortified."
"You never have to feel that way with me."
A sigh escaped her, and she stepped closer to me, pushing her forehead against my chest. "I’ve spent so many months hating you, Asher. It’s… I feel like I’m letting myself down, but then I look at you and I’m like, ‘Girl, why the fuck haven’t you hopped on that dick of his?’" She rocked back to scowl at me. "You ruined me for orgasms."
My lips twitched. "I didn’t mean to."
"Well, it’s not something one aims for in a marriage, is it?" She huffed. "Ruination of a wife by sex?"
"Every man should aim for that," I said dryly, but I leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "We take this at your pace, K."
"I know that," she grumbled. "I’m the one who started this, and now I’m backing off like I’m nineteen again." She rolled her eyes. "I’m supposed to be growing up—"
"Yeah, you’ve got that in your head. I never asked you to do that. I love you as you are."
Her brow furrowed. "What if I don’t love me as I am? And that sounds whiny. Jesus. I’m not whiny. I refuse to be whiny—"