The silk of her nightgown rode up and bunched under my hard abs, bringing to life the tiny hairs scattered over my body. I wanted her bad. I was desperate to take control, but I’d let her have her way for a while. Her nails scratched my back up and down, down and up, small circles, then big ones. She brought her right leg around my back and dug her heel into my ass to press her cunt against my cock, which was ready again.
My tip rubbed her clit and she let out a long purr, which was my undoing. Grabbing her arms, I pinned her hands above her head and snatched the leather ties from the nightstand. After I secured her hands in place and tied them to the wrought-iron headboard, I began my descent to her pussy.
“Jake, I was in charge,” she grumbled as my tongue lapped up her creamy skin.
“Not anymore,” I replied, and bit down on one of her nipples.
I blew my hot breath on the sensitive point, allowing my tongue to love it gently. Then I bit the other one, repeating the same tenderness I had a moment before. Her nipples stood at attention on her chest, pink and reaching for my mouth.
“Gorgeous. Fucking stunning.”
“More.”
“Who’s in charge? Not you, Aly.”
“I want more,” she said.
Of course I gave in, bringing my mouth down again on her tit. I sucked it until she was squirming and screaming. Finally, I was on the move again, dusting her flat stomach with kisses and making my way to where she wanted me to be. When my tongue grazed her clit, she arched right up into my mouth.
The ocean air swept in from the window, coating our skin with salt. We were in Grand Cayman, but we might as well have been in some basement in the middle of Kansas, because I had no intention of leaving the room. At least we were enjoying the breeze.
“Jake, don’t . . .” Aly whimpered when I quickly moved my tongue from her clit. “I want it back,” she begged.
I didn’t answer. My mouth wandered to the crease where her thigh met her groin, and did a little exploring in the small cavern of sensitive skin. I sucked hard when I made it up to her hip bone, leaving one hickey and then another.
“Please.”
That was all she had to say from her sweet mouth, and I was sucking the hell out of her clit, my finger dug deep inside her. I was done teasing, over being gentle, my control snapped. Her hips smacked my face as she tilted off the mattress. Fuck, her glutes were strong as hell when she wanted me to dine on her pussy. She kept her right heel digging into my own glutes, and I was pretty sure my cock was going to snap from the pressure.
I slid a second finger inside her, using the two in synchronicity to find her spot—the spot—and put pressure while I dragged my tongue hard over her clit.
“Oh God, Jake,” she wailed as she came hard and fast all over my face, her juices tickling the stubble along my jaw.
I sat up and swiped my hair out of my face. It was long again. I hadn’t buzzed it since the night Aly made me take charge again. There were fireworks that Fourth of July, and not just in the sky. I shaved it back then so I didn’t have to bother with it, but my girl liked her guy’s locks to be long enough to pull on. It was nothing but a quick trim these days when I went for a haircut.
“You want your hands back or you want to keep them tied up like a good kitty?” I asked as I propped myself over Aly’s sweet and sweaty body.
“Leave ’em,” she said.
I didn’t need any further talk. I just dove inside her body, my cock hitting the back wall of her pussy fast and furious. After a few pumps, I slowed the pace, dragging my length back and then leisurely sliding inside my most favorite place. We did this dance for a while, fast and slow, slow and fast, before Aly said, “Need my hands.”
I rubbed her wrists after reaching up and untying them, never slipping out of her. She fisted my hair and brought me in for a kiss, running the tip of her tongue along my mouth, prying it open and entering without warning.
“Faster.” She breathed the word inside my mouth, and I felt it rumble all the way down to my chest.
“Fuck!” I shouted, a loud growl escaping as I came hard inside my wife.
I tumbled off her and trotted off to the bathroom, my dick loose and rubbing my thigh. When I came back with a cloth to wipe Aly with, she was sitting on the edge of her bed, fastening on her prosthetic. “What are you doing, babe?”
“I just wanted to feel complete when you came back.”
“You are,” I told her. “You’re always complete.”
I knelt on the floor in front of her, taking her hands in mine and slipping off the prosthetic. I set the piece of metal and fake flesh to the side, bent my head, and kissed her stub. I knew she missed her leg. She couldn’t run stairs anymore. I owned a gym, exercised for a living, and that was something she’d always struggled with—the women all around.
“Aly, there’s no one but you for me. Not yesterday, today, or tomorrow. This”—I ran my finger along the scar where the doctors severed her leg to save her life—“this is nothing but another piece of your beauty. How you held on and survived for me, so we could live life together.”
Her eyes were pained as she looked up at me. “How will we have babies with me hobbling around?”
I knew she thought about it a lot. Since Bess and Lane announced they were pregnant with their second, Aly had mentioned babies here and there.
“What? I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. I promise.”
“How do you know?” she asked as she ran her hand down my face.
“I just do. What are you trying to say?” I brought my hand under her chin and lifted her eyes to meet mine. My knees dug into the floor, my forehead rested on hers, and my heart beat at a furious pace.
“I’m pregnant.”
For a single millisecond, my heart stopped and my throat went dry. Then I remembered this was Aly, and we were meant to save each other; that with her I felt I deserved life, and now we had created life.
I grabbed her cheeks between my hands and kissed the fuck out of her face before I lifted her off the bed and up into my arms. “We’re going to be parents?”
“Yes.” She nodded, her eyes shining.
“Do you think I’m going to be okay? A good dad?”
Another nod from her. “But what about me? And this?” Her gaze wandered to her stump.
“I’m not worried, Aly-cat. I’m never worried when it comes to you.”
I could see her swallowing back tears, and I didn’t think we deserved that on our honeymoon—or ever—so I begrudgingly carried her outside the hotel room and onto the balcony. I set my wife, the soon-to-be mother of my child, into a chair, and I pulled up one right next to her.
Hand in hand, we sat and watched the sun rise. If this was what absolution felt like, I liked it.
No, I loved it.
Jake
Another year later
Oh my God, there were kids and dogs everywhere. Maverick rolled in the grass with Lucky, Bess and Lane’s new golden retriever puppy, and Luna, our new chocolate Lab pup, while Brooks staked out a quiet spot so he could keep a watchful eye on everyone.
Maddy was running through Lane and Bess’s backyard with a kite flying behind her, helped by James, who was all dolled up in linen pants and a dress shirt and carrying the baby he’d recently adopted, Cliffie. He couldn’t let Bess have one up on him with her gorgeous family; he wanted one too. He’d finally settled down with a man named Zach, who worked at the hotel where Bess used to work. The two of them gave a baby left at the local church a second chance. Now they were permanent fixtures in all of our lives. Weston toddled behind all of them, desperate to catch up to his big sister, chanting his favorite word for Maddy, “Ma, Ma, Ma.”
And under the tree, next to calm Brooks, my beautiful Tabitha slept in a Pack ’n Play, her tiny pink-covered bottom facing up, the mass of red curls matted on her head, her back rising and falling with each breath. I didn’t miss a one; my heartbeat was in sync with that little baby.