by Jenna Gunn
She won’t look at me.
And I’m over it—I need her to look at me—I need for her to own these feelings so we can move past them. Because being stuck here is like getting pounded by a sledgehammer in the center of the chest and not getting the hell out of the way.
I catch her chin. “Stop. Look at me.” I growl. “Someone did that to us. Do you understand me? Someone framed me, and I have no goddamn idea why. I tried to find you for months, but you vanished.”
When her eyes rise to mine, they’re hard and so fucking vulnerable all at once.
My heart squeezes so tight it drives my breath out. “I know you’re hurt. So am I, and I’m sorry, but I didn’t do that. Someone did this to our marriage.”
She freezes, crumples the little kid sized jeans she has in her hand. A sob shakes her slender shoulders.
“Mia, I can’t undo what happened, but I want you to believe me I never, ever even thought about being with another woman. I haven’t been with anyone since you left.”
Mia dissolves in tears.
Maybe… maybe she believes me.
A spark of hope ignites inside of my chest.
This is just the beginning, but it’s like the first ray of sun arcing over the horizon, shedding light into the darkest nights of my soul.
But I have a million more questions.
Why didn’t she tell me about being pregnant? Why did she keep Bruno a secret?
Yet, I am smart enough to know that the evidence lying on my floor was the beginning of our end, and the beginning of her deciding she needed to be the mother to our child alone.
“I was so foolish,” She breathes.
An old familiar pain threatens to overtake me. That hurt and anger are so much a part of me now—but I refuse to let it take this moment from us.
Chapter Six
Bishop’s eyes bare all his hurt and hope. We’re frozen, locked in the breathless realization that our lives were destroyed by deceit and fear.
I was such a blind fool. There’s no way he’s lying to me. Bishop just doesn’t have it in him to lie to my face. Why didn’t I see the truth before?
Tears leak furiously from my eyes as I remember the day I first saw those images. I was in Italy. Franco, my trapeze partner walked into my dressing room after we’d finished rehearsal and said, “A courier just delivered this for you.”
That was when my world began to collapse. And that was just the beginning.
Five days later, my pregnancy test came back positive.
A week after that, our family’s traveling show folded, leaving me and the other stars of the show in chaos.
I wanted so badly to fly home and curl myself into Bishop’s strong body then, but instead, I listened to others and ran. Convinced that the evidence was solid—driven by my previous jealousy and a new fear for losing my child.
But now things seem so much clearer.
The expression on his face in the photos, the odd receipts—
And honestly, I never watched the video again. Once was disgusting enough. It was burned into my brain. Played over and over in my mind every night when I tried to fall asleep.
I should have dug deeper, but I couldn’t. All I wanted to do was run. Flee.
Bishop draws in a long breath. His voice shakes when he says, “God, I’ve missed you so bad.”
I give in to the feeling that’s been bubbling up from a deep, painful recess for months now. I do miss him. I do want him with all of my heart and body. “Bishop…I missed you too.”
In the next instant we’re crashing together, a wild meeting of lips and hands.
He cups my face—I dig into his shoulders as his tongue invades me in a ferocious kiss.
Memories come flooding back in a rush of want so deep that my marrow heats.
God, he always burns me down until I’m a hot shaking mess with that kiss.
From the moment our lips met, all those years ago, he owned me.
How is that possible? A kiss—that’s all it took.
But that first kiss, just like this one, promises everything this incredible man is.
That strong body…
The power he brings to everything he does.
His total focus on our pleasure.
Passion runs so deep in him, barely bridled, until it’s set free. Then he’s my fire, my twin flame.
His big hand wraps around my thigh, hoisting me up against him by one leg until the center of me aligns perfectly with his bulging erection. I press into him, feeling his hard angles against all my softest places.
We crash backward onto the bed, him coming down hard on me, his body arching against me as we gasp and tangle our tongues.
“Mia, I have to have you now,” he rasps.
“Yes. Yes. Bishop.” My hands find the bare skin of his torso beneath his shirt. The hard muscles along his hips flex and rise beneath my fingers. I know his every scar, all his erotic zones, know so well the ways he loves to be touched.
And my skin knows his coarse chin against my neck and his beautiful hard erection in my hand.
Unable to wait, I start pushing and pulling at his swim trunks. Bishop growls, his breath catches as I undo them and slide them down his hips. I smile against his shoulder, loving the effect my touch is having on him.
Soon I have his clothes mostly off, but he’s still devouring my lips and tongue. Nipping, sucking, exploring every sensual place.
When he breaks away, I yank his shirt over his head. I blink, wide eyed as I look at his broad, muscular chest. I skim a finger over what I’m seeing for the first time. “My god, these tattoos…”
His eyes follow me as I trace the raven’s wings. The beautiful, intricate design is full of celestial symbols and earthly elements. My heart just knows that each emblem has a meaning to him. Then I shift my fingertips to the words tattooed on his right pec. “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
Emotion begins to fill my throat. “When—“
He presses his hand over mine, forcing my palm against his heart. “Not now, Mia. I’ll tell you later.”
I nod, “okay.”
He skims a finger down my neck, traces it along the top of my shirt that’s now well off of one shoulder. “So perfect. I just want to touch every single inch of you so my fingers can relearn all these beautiful shapes.”
I smile as I watch his sultry gaze move over me, “There are some new curves.”
“I know.” He breathes. “I thought you were sexy as hell before…” His hand flexes on my hip, “but I love the shape of you even more. And your breasts, they are definitely bigger.”
I lift the edge of my shirt, start to pull it over my head. “They are. I hope you still like them.”
He stops my hands, catches me with his large warm fingers, “Nope, that’s my job.” Then he pulls the shirt free, leaving my not so sexy bra under his hot gaze. I don’t even have time to have a second thought about the plain gray satin bra when his mouth latches onto me through the fabric. He growls. “Hell yeah, these are incredible.”
For a split second I feel like squirming under his focus, but then my head falls back as the pleasure of his mouth on my nipple overtakes my brain. “Ungh…” I gasp.
My bra somehow disappears—he did always have magic hands. And his mouth goes right back to turning me inside out with just the circle of his tongue. I rake my fingers through his hair. It’s longer than it used to be. I like it. More to hold on to.
Suddenly Bishop sits up. “Dammit, I don’t have a condom.”
For some stupid reason I find great pleasure in this, but I’m not prepared either.
“I don’t either,” I grimace.
“Pill?”
“Nope.”
“IUD?”
“Nope, I’ve been busy being a mom.”
He shoves off the bed. His eyes blaze with need. “Don’t you move an inch.”
Bishop’s hopping into his shorts as he rounds the corner, flying out of the bedroom. The front door slams.
I cover my mouth and laugh. I have a feeling I know what he’s up to.
My phone dings. I reach onto the nightstand and glance at the text just to make sure that it’s not Cass. It’s Franco asking where I am again. I’ll deal with that later. I toss it on the nightstand.
Two minutes later, Bishop is bursting into the bedroom with a feral grin on his face and a string of condoms between his fingers.
“Where did you go?”
“Ty’s house. Nightstand. No brainer.”
I laugh as he drops his trunks. He tosses the condoms to me. “You need to get back on the pill. I hate those things.”
“The pill failed once.”
His lips land on mine. “Sh…”
Point taken. Enough talking, more touching.
I’ve got him covered in seconds. His fingers find my center and he circles around my clit, just the way I like it.
His eyes spark with fire as I watch his beautiful tanned body hover over me.
“Woman, you must have some kind of curse on me. I should be mad at you, but all I want to do is bury myself in your sweet body.”
I can’t find my words. I just nod quickly. My breath catching as he reminds me with his touch how he takes over my body. I melt more into his hand with every stroke.
I watch him and he watches me. His stormy sea-blue eyes drill right into my soul.
I breathe and melt, and rise and fall, and breathe him in more. I just want to inhale him right into me.
This moment seemed impossible just a few days ago, but… here I am, looking the most important man in the world in the eye as we make love.
Bishop kisses me hard, as if he’s feeling the exact same desperation I am, then slides his way down my body, nipping my skin, leaving shivers and stings in his wake. I run my fingers through his soft waves, clutching him hard to me, as he reaches my center. If his touch was melting me before, now it’s washing me away on a river of pleasure.
I never want to come back from the place he’s taking me.
Strong laps of his tongue lead way to penetration. He slides first one, then a second finger inside of me, and demands, “Come for me, love.”
“Yessss, Bishop.” I moan as he strokes my g-spot over and over as his amazingly sensual lips pull at my clit. Within seconds I’m completely blind with pleasure, my head tossed back, my sole focus on the feel of his touch.
I’m getting close. “Oh! Please, that’s so good—” He always gets me off so hard like this, guaranteed orgasm for me, coming right up.
He loops my leg over the crook of his arm, crawls up my body as he fingers me faster and harder, two of his long fingers stroke right against my most sensitive spot.
God, does he know how to unleash a torrent of pleasure in me. “That’s it, come now, Mia.”
“Mmm m-more, yes, oh, yes—” A string of incoherent yes moans come from the very base of my soul.
He’s got me spread so wide and his long talented fingers know just how to make me gasp and pant and curse him and worship him in equal parts.
I hear him chuckle far off in some distant place in my mind. I’m sure I’m tied up like a pretzel, contorted in pleasure. He videoed me before, and I was shocked to see what my body did as he drove me wild.
His laugh fades and my world spins out from under me. Who cares what my body is doing. I want the release…
Everything in me explodes. He forces my leg higher and drives his fingers deeper as a wild cry tears from my throat. I clench and shake, and writhe my way through the hottest orgasm of my life.
So much energy was welled up inside of me from these long months away—it breaks loose in a tidal wave of pleasure.
I literally have no clue where I am or how long I’ve been out when I open my eyes. But I know who I’m with. Bishop’s serious face hovers over me. “You better be ready to cum again, because we’re cumming together this time. Me and you, Mia. Together. Do you hear me?”
I nod, “Yes,” My voice is a torn whisper.
He shifts my leg from his elbow to his shoulder and settles his heavy body into the cradle of my legs. I always love the mass of him, solid and strong.
The thick head of his cock finds its home and slips between my folds. He shudders. “God, Mia, I need this,” he growls.
His hips shift and curl against me, and the full width and length of him fills me up.
“Oh, Bishop, I love how you stretch me.”
He finds his pace, long deep strokes. A full body wave of energy slides from him into me. Over and over. I wrap one foot around his calf, and hook my arms around his broad, smooth back. He presses his chest hard onto my thigh, pushing my leg higher over his shoulder. Pinning me in a deep split.
He drives me hard with full strokes. Shoving me across the bed little by little. I cling to him as our bodies turn slick with sweat. His coarse breaths fill my ear.
We’re fully lost in each other.
Somehow I realize I’m upside down, hanging off the bed, he’s levered over me, driving into me. I reach for the floor, upside down, let my head hang down, and arch my back. The angle increases the pressure of his thick erection inside of me.
His foot finds the floor and we’re contorted into a delicious half upside down pretzel.
I gasp, “Don’t stop.”
“Not. A. Chance.”
He keeps his word, his thrusts grow faster, his hands brutally grip my hips as he pushes himself up at an angle and continues to race hard toward our twin orgasms.
When I lose all control and my arms collapse, he grabs me around the waist and whips me up onto the bed. I’m face down and spread before him before I can think.
He lowers himself over me, wraps a thick tree-trunk arm around me and buries himself deep. I won’t last more than a few seconds like this.
“I’m going to come, I can’t stop it,” I moan and writhe.
He’s obviously close because he doesn’t stop, he speeds up instead. His arm pulls me flush against him, locking my butt against him. His other hand finds mine where it’s fisting the bedspread. He laces his fingers over mine.
And that’s when it hits me. I’m with Bishop. It’s real. I’m home. With the man I love more than life itself.
When he says, “Now—” I’m already there. My body clenches hard around him, locking him deep inside my womb as he pulses out his orgasm.
I gasp at the intensity of the pleasure and the wild emotion tumbling inside of my heart. Tears burn my eyes. My fingers clench ruthlessly against his. Mine.
Bishop rolls his weight off of me, and curls his entire body, every big inch of it around me. His embrace is near crushing, and it’s perfect.
He breathes against my neck as he catches his air, slowly calming. His voice is rough, “I love you, Mia. Never leave again.”
I swallow and try to make my throat work. A sob breaks out of me. “I won’t,” I breathe as I dig my fingers into the thick cords of his forearms and let myself fall fully into his embrace. The scent of him, his heat, wrap around me. Home never felt so good.
Chapter Seven
Something pulls me from my bliss. I blink. “What’s that sound?”
Mia shoves at my arms, “Oh my god.”
She’s off the bed in the next instant. I roll to my back. “What?”
“That’s the alarm. Thank god I set it. We’ve got to pick up Bruno.”
Oh shit, talk about failure to launch as a father.
I’m in the shower five seconds later. “Give me a second and we can run.”
The shower curtain suddenly snaps back, Mia’s eyes are bright, her cheeks flushed. “You said you love me. I didn’t tell you.”
I shrug. “You don’t have to tell me right now.”
“But I want to tell you right now.”
“Okay. I’d like that.”
Her eyes soften. “I love you, Bishop.”
My heart trips up. Fuck, it feels good to hear her say that again. I never thought I’d hear those words or say those words aga
in. I knew I’d never say them to another woman. Mia had my heart. Wherever she ran away to…she had it with her.
“Can I come in?”
I open my arms. “Always.”
She slides in and works the soap over her body quickly. Then turns and skims it over mine. She studies my tattoos, “Tell me about these tonight?”
I nod, “If you want.”
She leans in and places a kiss over my heart. “I do.”
A spear of emotion lances through me. I’m taken back to the time when she said “I do” to me on a cliff overlooking the sea.
Just her and me and the minister and his witness.
We were so young. My parents hated the idea of us marrying so early. Her family was nowhere near. So we did it. Just escaped and professed our crazy love for one another.
I pull her back against me as the water courses between us. She tips her head up, and my lips meet hers. The kiss is wild and sweet.
Crazy love. That’s how it’s always been between me and the high-flying acrobat.
I reach around her and shut off the water. “You better go or we’re going to be really late.”
She hops from the shower and disappears into the bedroom, grabbing a towel as she goes.
“I didn’t get much put away.”
“We’ll do it later.”
“You have no idea what it’s like to keep up with Bruno.”
“I’ve been learning a lot about babies. Did you know that Christian and Bryce have kids? And Brandon’s having one soon too.”
Her eyes go wide, “No way! Do they all live here at Pelican Point?”
I slip a clean t-shirt over my head. “Yep. It’s a little zany around here now.”
She laughs. “Things are about to get even more zany with Bruno here.”
I chuckle because I have no idea what else to do.
A companionable silence settles between us as we drive to Cass’.
When the door opens, Bruno is hitched on Cass’s hip. He squeals wildly when he sees Mia.