Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
West
O ur bedroom goes dark, then I hear the sound of Blue’s feet padding closer. Her silhouette passes in front of the window, then she lies down on her side of the bed. There’s more space between us than usual, and I’m guessing that’s for the same reason she’s been quiet with me since everyone left.
Things got awkward at dinner, and I’m not even sure what I did or said that rubbed her the wrong way, but I’ve been with this woman long enough to know when she’s upset. Specifically, when she’s upset with me.
Frustrated with the distance between us, I reach for her waist, and with a slight tug, she lets me pull her closer, until her ass curves perfectly against my pelvis. It doesn’t take long for my dick to respond, and to my surprise, she doesn’t pull away.
My lips are on her shoulder the next second, kissing a trail beside the strap of her nightgown. Her breathing deepens as my hand splays flat against her stomach, feeling it tense beneath my touch.
The pull toward my wife is always intense, but tonight it’s like I’m not even in control of my own damn body.
“I fucking need you,” I say, breathing the words against the rim of her ear, and she quivers against me.
Because I didn’t bother with clothes after my shower, a slow thrust of my hips moves my bare tip down the smooth, pink satin of her gown, and I’m fucking throbbing for this woman.
I move my hands higher over her torso, not stopping until I feel the softness of her tits, brushing my thumb across her nipple, and the feel of it pebbling against my fingertips has me biting down on my lip.
Seven years together, and she still gets me rock hard, like we never moved on from being the horny teenagers who used to make out in the hallways of our high school. She was my everything then, and she’s somehow more than that now.
I can’t fight the urge to be inside her any longer, which has me reaching for the hem of her lingerie, pushing it over the curve of her hip before gripping her thigh. She lifts her leg without hesitation, arching her back when I align my dick to enter her from behind.
“Fuckkkk.”
That single, groaned word is the only thought my brain can put together because, shit… her pussy is fucking addictive.
Hot.
Tight.
So fucking wet.
She reaches back and grips my ass, pulling me in again and again.
Harder.
Faster.
I push into her. To the hilt. And my girl’s already whimpering, taking every inch of my dick. So, so deep.
Whatever was wrong and off between us earlier is the furthest thing from my mind now. When we fuck, it’s like the rest of the world disappears. It’s just us. And like I’ve told her a million times before, that’s enough for me.
She’s enough for me.
“That feels so fucking good,” she sighs, then moves her hand between her legs, rubbing her clit with me powering into her.
Watching her, I’m so damn close to exploding, ready to lose my shit. So close that I’m just about to slow down to avoid finishing too fast, but…
“No, don’t stop,” she begs, and I’m relieved to not have to hold back anymore.
My dick is soaked, throbbing inside her as she pulses around me. Within seconds, I’m filling her pussy, grinding against her ass, giving her every-fucking-thing.
I squeeze her tits, and she arches back, strands of her hair moving with every breath I take. My heart doesn’t settle for a full minute after we finish, but the overpowering urgency I felt before subsides. Now, all I want is to hold her, keep her close, so neither of us moves.
The room is completely silent, and I’m just starting to doze when Blue slips out from underneath the cover.
“Be right back,” she says, and my eyes track her until she disappears inside our bathroom.
She isn’t gone long, maybe five minutes, but I’m not ashamed to say I would’ve missed her even if it’d been five seconds. That’s how much I need her, how into her I still am after all these years.
“What?” she smiles, climbing back into bed beside me.
I grab her into my arms, squeezing tight.
“Nothing. Just enjoying the fact that I have the hottest damn wife on the planet.”
She smiles at that, giggling a little when I kiss the side of her neck, and my beard tickles her skin.
“Have a nice time tonight? Hanging out with everyone?”
She sighs before answering, and it feels loaded. “I did.”
“But?”
“But… there were some tense moments.”
The response has me going over all that happened, and what stands out most in my mind is the weirdness within The Sterling Triangle . It’s gotten easier to think of it that way than calling it The Sterling, Tiffany, and Lexi Situation .
My brother… he’s gotten himself in a bit of a bind. More and more, Tiffany is showing him that building a life with her, while also maintaining a healthy co-parenting relationship with Lexi, might prove difficult. From the outside looking in, he’s doing everything right—showing Tiffany that he’s all in, being a good father to his son—but I’m realizing circumstances are far more complicated than that.
For starters, he’s still in complete denial that some closure with Lexi might be in order. Otherwise, I have a growing concern that the unresolved feelings between them might be a problem down the road.
But as a guy who just got laid and has the most beautiful woman in the world lying beside him, I’m not in the mood to think about anyone else’s drama right now.
“Just try not to worry too much. Sterling and Lex will work through their shit because Jax is in the picture.”
That’s the only response I give Blue, hoping it helps ease her mind, but the second my eyes fall closed, her words have them popping back open.
“I… wasn’t talking about them.”
Confused, I lie still, waiting for her to say more.
“I was talking about us. Our tense moment,” she says.
I have the sinking feeling that the perfect ending to a great night is about to go to shit.
“I noticed you were upset, but I’m not sure how or when I pissed you off.”
“I was never pissed off. I was just a little caught off guard,” she admits. “Out of everyone who knows me, I would’ve thought you’d be the one who understood where I was coming from about my dad.”
Now, it’s starting to come together. This is about me disagreeing with her about Mike and Hannah.
“I do understand. I just have a different opinion. That’s still allowed, right?”
Shit. I shouldn’t have said that. She’s gonna get defensive and think I meant something by it that I didn’t.
Sure enough, she sits up, glaring at me from over her shoulder.
“I always encourage you to say how you feel, so don’t even go there,” she hisses, and here we fucking go.
“That came out wrong.” I turn over onto my back, pushing both hands through my hair as the tension rises.
“You have no idea what it was like growing up with Mike back in the day.”
“And I’m not making light of that.”
“My mom left and, after that, not a single day went by that my dad didn’t drown himself in a bottle, West. And the root of all that self-destruction came down to one factor. Mom was gone,” she says. “I’ve seen where this story ends, and I’m not interested in seeing it play out again.”
“I hear you, Babe, but there’s no guarantee thinks will be like that.”
“Yeah, but there’s also no guarantee it won’t.”
I don’t speak a word, weighing what I’ll say next very carefully.
“So, ideally, what would you like to see happen where Mike’s love life is concerned?”
“I’d like for him to focus on being well ,” she says. “Then, once he’s got that nailed, maybe he could think about finding someone.”
I stare at the ceiling, again weighing my words.
“Your dad’s not as young as we are, Blue. And let’s say it takes him a decade to get to where you want him to be. That’s a long time to ask someone who’s ready to move on now to hold off. That’s kind of unreasonable.”
“It’s not an actual blueprint, and I said nothing about him waiting a decade.”
“No, but it could very well take that long for him to regain your trust.
“You asked what I felt would be ideal, so I shared that with you, West. That statement wasn’t something I’d ever say to him or anyone else for that matter.”
“Okay, but all I’m saying is that we can’t always control the decisions people make. And your dad being with Hannah is just one of those decisions. So, all you can do is sit back and let him live his life the way he sees fit, and be there for him if he ever needs the emotional support.”
“Even if he self-destructs again,” she says, forming the words as a statement. Not a question.
“That won’t happen. Mike’s done rehab, and you said yourself that you’ve never seen him doing this well for this long, so all I’m saying is… give him a chance.”
She’s silent, and I’m in limbo, waiting to see if she’ll be receptive this time. But it isn’t until she lies down again, slowly inching back toward me that I know which direction this will go.
I don’t hesitate to wrap my arms around her, just like before, without any lingering frustration or anger. She should feel that when I kiss the top of her head.
“I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She pulls my hand from where it rests against her stomach, then kisses the back of it before responding. “And I’m sorry. This is just… kind of a sensitive subject, I guess.”
“All good.” I smile a little. “Besides, you’re kind of sexy when you’re tearing me a new asshole.”
She laughs, and the sound of it soothes my soul.
“I love you, Southside.”
Her body loses tension as those words settle with her. “Even when I’m being a bitch?”
A laugh slips out. “You kidding me? Especially when you’re being a bitch.”
She elbows my ribs lightly, and I pull her closer, symbolic of the way I intend to hold on to this woman forever. If I were to ever lose her, if there were to ever be an end to West and Blue … on my life, that’d be the end of my whole fucking world.