“Nope.” I settle back with my book and sigh as Isaac begins to run his thumb up and down the arch of my foot. “You’re so good at that.”
“Lots of practice on my pregnant wife.” He smiles warmly at me.
“You took very good care of me when I was pregnant.”
“It’s my job to take care of you, baby.” He continues to rub my feet while Jason Statham drives a car through Paris, and I’m completely content in this moment. I wish Sophie was here, curled up with us, but I know she’s safe and loved, and I’m enjoying my husband.
“Do you want something to drink?” he asks.
“Sure, some tea would be great.”
“I’ll get it.” He unfolds himself from the couch and walks into the kitchen to set on a pot of water.
“I could get used to all this spoiling, you know,” I call out to him.
“You deserve it. I know that you work hard at home, for me and Soph. You deserve to be pampered once in a while.”
And, just like that, I fall in love with him all over again.
“Have you been talking to Luke?” I ask.
“Uh, no, why?”
“Because he’s the over-the-top romantic in this family.”
“Trust me, this is not over-the-top romantic.”
“To a woman who has barely had time to take a shower for the past four months, this is incredibly romantic.”
“Stace, do you want to hire some help? Maybe just a few days a week?”
I wave him off and shake my head. “No, I don’t need help. You know I love nothing more than being a mom and taking care of our girl. I’m lucky to be able to stay home with her and take care of you guys. I’m just saying thank you. This is very sweet, and I love you.”
He pins me with heated blue eyes as he fills my mug full of hot water. “I love you, too.”
He settles in next to me again, pulls my feet back into his lap, and I sip my tea and enjoy my book while he gets lost in his movie.
***
“I can’t believe you let me sleep so long this afternoon.” I smile at my sexy husband and sip the wine he poured me for dinner. We are curled up again in front of the fireplace, enjoying the quiet and our last evening alone together.
“You needed it. Besides, it could be awhile before you get another nap.” He grins and then unfolds himself from the couch and leans down to kiss my forehead. “I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.”
I sit back against the soft cushions of the couch and smile. These past few days have been the best. Isaac’s always been good to me. He’s an affectionate and attentive husband. But, as in most relationships, we’ve grown comfortable, and I admit that it’s easy to take each other for granted. I wouldn’t say that romance is dead, but there are times that she goes on vacation.
Especially when we were dealing with infertility issues and having sex for the sake of knocking me up. It makes me feel so good that he is making such an effort to be romantic. We needed to reconnect.
“Hey, don’t you dare go back to sleep on me, babe.”
I didn’t even realize I’d closed my eyes. I smile up at him and take a deep breath. I love this black T-shirt on him, the way it clings to his abs and sits on his hips.
“You look good,” I murmur.
His eyes heat, and one side of his mouth tips up into a lazy smile. “You’re not so bad yourself. C’mon.” He takes my hand and pulls me up off the couch. “You don’t need any more of this if it’s just going to make you sleep.” He takes my wine from me and sets it on the kitchen island as we walk past it and up the stairs.
“We’re going to bed already?”
“Nope.” He smiles down at me, and when we reach the top of the stairs, instead of heading to the master suite, he pulls me in the other direction, toward a spare bedroom. I gasp as we walk inside.
The covers on the double bed have been pulled all the way off, leaving the soft blue fitted sheet covering the mattress, the matching top sheet pulled back. There are at least a dozen candles lit all over the room, sending shadows over the space. Soft music is playing through a small sound system in the corner.
Isaac pulls me against him, his front to my back and wraps his arms around me, kissing my hair, then turns me around and pulls my shirt up over my head, letting it fall to the floor.
“I think you need a massage,” he murmurs and slips my bra off, throwing it on top of my shirt.
“You do?” I ask drily.
“Yes,” he responds simply. He pulls my jeans and panties off, bending down to slip them over my feet. He stands before me and kisses my lips gently, cupping my face in his hands. “Lie on the bed on your stomach,” he whispers.
“Okay.” Like I’m gonna say no to that.
I lie on my stomach and let out a big sigh.
“No sleeping,” Isaac says with a chuckle.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m never this tired,” I respond with a smile.
“You’re relaxed. I’m glad, honey. That was the point of taking a few days away.” I hear him rub his hands together and then they’re on my back, firmly stroking in a long line down the sides of my spine, over my bare ass, around my hips and up my sides to my shoulder blades, and then he does it again, making long, broad strokes over my back.
“Oh God, I love you,” I moan.
He laughs and starts to massage my low back in slow, firm circles. “Feel good?” he murmurs with a smile in his voice.
“Mmm.”
He works his way up and down my back, then over my butt again and down each leg, gently yet firmly working my muscles into submission.
“You’re so good with your hands, Eyes. This is why I married you.”
“Is this the only reason?” he asks.
“This and your ass.”
His hands stop moving.
“My ass?” he asks, his voice amused.
“Your ass. You have a great ass.”
“I don’t think you’ve ever told me that.”
“I didn’t want to overinflate your ego.”
He smacks my ass, sending a loud slap through the room. I push up to my elbows with a gasp.
“Hey!”
“I like your ass, too. It’s slappable.”
“Slappable? I don’t think that’s a word.” I lie back down to enjoy his roaming hands.
“I don’t care. It is.”
“It grew even more slappable with Sophie,” I murmur and grin.
“Your ass did not grow,” he mutters.
“Do you need glasses?”
“It didn’t.”
“Whatever. I think there are still stretch marks back there to prove you wrong.”
“Shut up.”
“Does it bother you?” I ask and push up to my elbows again, looking back at him.
He’s frowning, the lines between his eyebrows prominent. “Does what bother me?”
“The change in my body. The stretch marks, the pouch on my belly that might never go away.”
His hands stop, and he looks me in the eye, his gaze worried. “Do they bother you?”
“Not really. We worked hard for these changes.” I shrug and look down.
“Look at me.” His hard voice surprises me. “I don’t see the changes, Stace. I see my wife.” He shrugs, and I don’t know why but that simple statement makes me want to cry. “I’ve been hot after you since the first moment I saw you in that bar in college.”
I just stare at him. Well, shit, he’s sweet.
His hands resume their course over my skin, and I sigh and lay my head back on the bed.
“I’ll tell you what I do see,” he murmurs and runs his thumb up the middle of my right calf. “Soft, smooth skin.” His touch lightens, and now it’s just his fingertips, moving up and down my legs, tickling the sensitive spots behind my knees, and traveling up and over my bottom to my back.
“Firm ass, dimples at the small of your back that are sexy as fuck.” He leans down and kisses my dimples, runs his to
ngue over them and then chastely kisses them again.
“Strong shoulders,” he murmurs, brushing his fingers over them and up into my hair. “The most beautiful hair I’ve ever had my hands in. It’s thick and heavy, and the color…right now, with the candlelight, it looks like it’s on fire.”
Fuck me.
“Turn over,” he whispers in my ear. I comply and look up into his molten blue eyes. He pushes my hair off my face and offers me a gentle smile. “I see flecks of gold in your eyes, and when you’re turned on like you are right now, they shine. And your lips…” He kisses me softly and runs his thumb over my lower lip. “Your lips are soft and pink and say the sweetest things.”
He slowly makes his way down my chin and neck, kissing and nibbling. My body is moving beneath him, writhing. I’m completely seduced by him, my body by his touch and my mind and heart with his words.
“Your breasts are perfect.” He gently suckles one nipple, then the other, and makes his way down to my belly, tickling me with his nose and lips.
He gently traces the evidence of my pregnancy with his fingertip. “These aren’t ugly, baby.” He nuzzles my belly. “We did work hard for them, and you earned them. They’re fading. But even if they never go away, every mark was worth it. Because without them, we wouldn’t have Soph.” He looks up at me, and I run my fingers through his hair. I have tears in my eyes.
“When did you get so good with words?” I whisper.
He shakes his head and kisses my belly again. “I know I don’t tell you enough how sexy you are. But don’t ever doubt that I love your body, just the way it is, no matter how it changes.”
His fingers glide down my stomach, over my pubis and to my folds. Isaac grins. “This is another of my favorite places.”
“Is that right?” I grin back at him and sigh as he sinks one finger inside me, while his thumb dances around my clit.
“Oh, definitely.” He scoots farther down the bed and opens my core, his thumbs parting my lips. “Look how beautiful you are. Pink and wet.” His lips glide from my clit down through my labia, then he uses his tongue to trace back up again. “Delicious,” he whispers.
Chapter Seven
My back arches off the bed as his tongue plunges into my core. “Oh my God.”
“So responsive.” He adds a second finger and swirls that magical tongue around my nub, teasing and flicking it, then sucking it gently.
“Fuck, Eyes…”
“Oh, yes, we will, but I’m having fun down here for now, sweetheart.” He smiles mischievously and kisses that spot he knows, the place where my thigh meets my center, and I moan again, gripping the sheet tightly in my fingers.
He pulls both fingers out of me, pushing them through my lips, around my clit, making me even wetter, his intensely blue eyes watching his fingers play with me.
“So beautiful,” he whispers to himself and then looks up at me, grins widely, and shedding his clothes quickly, climbs over me. He rests his pelvis between my legs and settles down on me, just looking at me.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Absolutely nothing.” He kisses me chastely, gently sweeping his lips across mine. He rocks his hips, sliding himself through my wetness, and then slowly, oh so very slowly, inches into me until he’s filled me completely, and he’s buried inside me.
I wrap my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his hips, holding him close, and he rests his forehead against mine.
“The best thing I ever did in my life was make you mine, Stace,” he whispers.
I grasp his face in my hands and nuzzle his nose, letting tears fall down my face. He brushes them gently with his thumbs and ever so slowly, starts to move his hips. He pulls one leg up over his shoulder and turns his head to kiss my calf. I gasp at the new angle, allowing him to slide into me even deeper. And, suddenly, I can’t stand slow and steady anymore. I need it fast, and I need it hard.
I move my hips, pumping them up and down, squeezing around him.
“God, babe, don’t squeeze me so hard. You’ll make me come.”
“That’s the point.”
He shakes his head adamantly. “I don’t want to come yet.”
I grip his ass in my hands and pull him harder and clasp around him tighter. He scowls down at me and pulls all the way out.
“Hey!”
“You’re not good at doing what you’re told, are you?”
“Ten years of marriage and you’re just now figuring this out?” I ask drily.
He slams into me again, hard, and then pulls all the way out.
“Argh!” Damn him!
Now he teases me, putting just the tip inside, grinning proudly at me. “Ready to do what you’re told?”
I raise my hips quickly, making his cock slide farther into me, but he pulls out.
“Oh no. I think you’d better turn over.”
Effortlessly, he flips me over, pulls my ass in the air and buries himself inside me, his hands gripping my hips, pulling me on and off of him at a punishing yet steady pace.
“Oh God.”
He covers me with his chest and reaches around to circle my clit with his fingers.
“I make you come, baby, then you can make me come. That’s how it works.” His raspy voice, and those magical fingers, and the incessant push and pull of friction inside me sends me over the edge, and I cry out his name as I come, pulsating and shuddering beneath him helplessly.
“That’s it, beautiful. Oh God, Stace…”
And suddenly he’s brutally gripping my hips again and pushing inside me, as hard and as deep as he can, and I feel him spill his seed inside me.
“Fuck me,” he whispers and kisses my shoulder.
“I just did.”
“Smart-ass.”
***
“What’s wrong?” Isaac cups my face in his hands with a frown and looks down at me as our family walks ahead of us, not paying any attention to us.
“Just a small headache.” I smile reassuringly, take his hand in mine and kiss it, then he tucks them both in his jacket pocket to keep them warm.
We’re walking around Woodland Park Zoo in the heart of Seattle, enjoying the Christmas lights display it puts on every year. It’s early evening, and the air is crisp, making our cheeks pink and noses cold. We’ve had a rare winter dry spell the last few days. Actually, since we returned from the cabin a few weeks ago, the weather has been surprisingly mild. Perfect zoo-lights weather.
The zoo strings hundreds of thousands of lights throughout the zoo in shapes of animals and flowers and landscape scenes. It’s really quite beautiful after dark. It also brings in reindeer and a huge carousel for the kids.
This is an annual family outing for the Montgomerys. This year it’s just Isaac’s parents, Isaac, Soph and I, Jules, and Nat and Luke. Brynna came along as well, with her two adorable five-year-old twin girls, Maddie and Josie.
“You’ve had a few headaches over the past couple weeks,” Isaac comments. He pats Sophie’s back as she squirms in her sleep in the sling across his chest.
“I’m okay.” I smile at him again and then laugh as the girls squeal in delight when they see a fairy-tale light display, hopping up and down, wanting to get a better look. Brynna looks back at us, surveys the area quickly and turns back to the girls.
“God, I’m gonna throw up,” Jules mutters. Luke and Nat are kissing. Again. I laugh and rub Jules’ arm in comfort.
“Aren’t you used to them making out by now?”
“Jesus, do they have to do it all the damn time?”
Luke grins, kisses Nat one last time and wraps his arm around her. “Yes.”
“Yuck.” Jules sticks her tongue out and shudders, and I can’t help but laugh.
“Are you nine?” Isaac asks.
“Shut up, Isaac,” Jules responds.
Suddenly, Isaac grips the lapels of my wool coat and gently pulls me up to his lips, kissing me hard and deep. I hear Jules gag, and I giggle, wrap my arms around his neck and give in to hi
s passionate embrace, mindful that Sophie is snuggled between us.
“Good one, Isaac,” Natalie remarks, impressed as we separate.
“Why should you guys get all the fun?” Isaac asks, still smiling down at me.
Why indeed?
“There are children here, you know,” Jules reminds us.
“I want to feed the reindeer.” Maddie jumps up and down, and her sister joins her.
“Okay, reindeer it is,” Isaac says and motions for everyone to walk farther down the pathway. Brynna looks over her shoulder, toward the way we’ve just come, and frowns.
“Brynna’s been looking over her shoulder all evening,” I whisper at Isaac. He glances over at her thoughtfully.
“Hey,” Isaac drapes an arm around her and gives her a squeeze, then pulls away. “You’re safe here.”
She offers him a small smile. “I know. I just can’t help but stay alert.”
I take her hand in my free one as the three of us lag behind the rest. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”
Her face drops, and she stares down at the ground. She bites her bottom lip and turns her dark brown eyes up to me and shakes her head, her dark curls bouncing around her pretty face. “No.”
“Why?” I ask in frustration.
“It’s just better for you if you don’t know.”
I look over at Isaac. “Do you know?”
He shakes his head and scowls at Brynna. “No. She’s a stubborn mule.”
“Matt and I have it under control,” she mutters.
“Right, so looking over your shoulder everywhere you go, getting a new disposable cell phone with a new number and changing your hair color are keeping it under control? What’s next, Bryn? You gonna change your names and Social Security numbers, too?”
She glares at me, and I think I see tears start to form. I feel like a bitch.
“Shit, I’m sorry.” I shake my head and exhale deeply. “That was horrible. I’m just worried about you, and you’ve never kept secrets from me before.”
“I’m just trying to keep you safe.”
“Okay.”
She looks up at me, surprised.
“Okay,” I repeat. “When you can tell me, come tell me.”
“So, Brynna…” Isaac starts. “I’m assuming you could use a job.”
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