Chapter 29
CHARLOTTE
I’d never even stepped foot in Trent’s bedroom before. During that week I’d slept right across the hall, I’d passed the doorway a hundred times, glimpsing a corner of the massive windows and the heavy wood furniture whenever I’d walked by.
Being carried into it in Trent’s arms now felt like crossing some kind of invisible line I hadn’t even known was there. Our bedroom now. Maybe. God, that’s going to take some getting used to.
It was enormous, with shadowy corners, soft lamplight, and a view of what would probably end up being the entire ranch in the daylight, but I barely noticed any of it.
My focus was completely on him, on his hands so confident at my waist, on the heat of his body pressed to mine, and the way he set me down in front of the bed like he was placing something delicate. Something he cared about.
When I’d said that thing about him not having to act like a husband, I genuinely hadn’t thought he’d react the way he did, like he’d been waiting, wanting this for just as long as I had.
Trent kissed me like he was memorizing the shape of my mouth, but the slow, careful kisses didn’t last long before they got deeper. Hotter. His fingers slipped into my hair, tilting my head exactly where he wanted me. My bones turned to liquid under his touch.
My hands fumbled with the hem of his shirt and he let out a low groan before breaking the kiss just long enough to pull it over his head himself.
The sight of him made my knees go a little weak, but then he was touching me again, his fingers brushing the edge of my top, giving me every chance to object.
I didn’t. The only objections he would get from me were if he tried to put a stop to this.
I wanted him with every fiber of my being, my body practically humming with need.
My panties were soaked, my nipples painfully hard, and judging by what I’d felt just before he’d set me down, he was aching in all the same ways.
He undressed me with a kind of reverence I wouldn’t have expected, pausing to kiss every newly bared inch of skin like he was making sure I knew he was here, present and choosing this.
Choosing me. His mouth trailed along my collarbone, my shoulder, and the curve of my neck. Each kiss felt like a promise he wasn’t saying out loud, so intense I could barely think. Barely breathe.
“Trent.” His name fell out of me on a whisper, more a plea than anything else.
He pressed his forehead to mine for a moment, his hands firm on my hips and those blue eyes blazing with heat as they held mine. “Tell me if you need me to slow down.”
The fact that he’d asked, like he was holding himself back and I had any sort of control in this moment, made my heart flutter like a butterfly. “I don’t want you to slow down. If anything, I need you to speed up.”
The sound he made in response was quiet, but rough, needy, and it made another flood of heat pool between my legs. We tumbled onto the bed together, kissing like we’d been waiting years for this instead of hours.
I arched into him, obsessed with the feel of his hard, hot chest against my own, but when I reached for his belt buckle, he caught my wrist, putting a stop to the movement. He broke the kiss and pulled back to look into my eyes.
“My jeans are staying on tonight, Charlotte.”
I frowned, my heartbeat hammering in my ears, but a frisson of disappointment laced through me. “Why?”
There was so much heat in his eyes, so much want. His pupils were dilated, his lips swollen from our kisses. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?” I whispered, catching his face between my palms. “I want this, Trent. I want you.”
The way his hips were twitching just slightly where he’d fitted himself between my legs, like he couldn’t help but seek out even just a tiny bit of friction, was a sure sign that he wanted me right back.
“Yeah, but if those come off right now, I won’t be able to control myself.” He dropped his mouth to my neck, pressing hot kisses to my throat and speaking against my skin. “If you had any idea how much I want to not be the good guy right now…”
“So don’t be,” I whispered, biting back a moan as I started rolling my own hips in time with his. “I don’t want you to control yourself.”
He nipped at my throat, another rough, needy groan coming out of him, but then he lifted his head to look at me again. “You’re my wife, Charlotte. I told you, that means that I want to do this right. Fucking you raw wouldn’t be doing it right, but…”
“I don’t care.”
“I do. I can’t do that with you.” He kissed my mouth again, the hard length of him grinding against me in a way that made sparks fly behind my eyes.
I felt my eyebrows furrow in response and he groaned again, lowering his forehead to mine.
“All I want tonight is to make you feel good. To learn what makes you tick and to worship every inch of you until you know that I’m not as honorable as you seem to think. None of this is about duty, Charlotte.”
“Why do you keep saying my name?”
“Because I’ve waited a really fucking long time to say it while I’ve got you naked underneath me.
” A slight smirk appeared on his lips. “You can be Char or Lottie to everyone else. To me, you’re Charlotte.
My insanely sexy wife whose breathing exercises had me so worked up earlier that I couldn’t even stand up right away. ”
My eyes widened, but then I laughed and wrapped my legs around his hips, sliding my fingers into his hair to bring him closer. “That was why you didn’t come swim immediately?”
“You didn’t see the way you were looking at me.” He planted another hard kiss on my lips, but then he moved down, dragging his lips and tongue across my throat to my chest, sucking my nipples into his mouth and letting his teeth just barely graze across them.
With every sound I made or jerk of my body, he glanced up at me, like he was checking I was still okay. I wasn’t. I was on fire for him, but his restraint showed in every brush of his hands and every line he didn’t cross.
He kissed me until my thoughts blurred and my heart thudded loud enough I was sure it was about to break out of my chest. I’d never been kissed like this before, like I was this wanted, this cherished. Like I mattered this much.
He didn’t push or rush and that made everything ten times more intense. When he’d finally slid down far enough that his face was between my legs, he pushed them open further with those big hands on the insides of my knees, and then he looked up at me again.
“If you want me to stop, now is the time to say it,” he murmured, his eyes intent on mine. “I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to once I’ve tasted you.”
My breath stalled in my lungs, my fingers tugging at his hair as I writhed underneath him. “Do. Not. Stop.”
“Yeah.” He held my gaze for another beat. “Okay. Just talk to me, alright? If anything—”
“Trent?”
“Yes?”
“Would you please just stop worrying and get the hell out of your own head?”
A beat passed before he grinned, a slow, wicked smile that made the fingers of my hand not in his hair curl around the sheets with anticipation. “Whatever you say, Wife.”
He took a breath, then lowered his gaze to my pussy, the most intimate part of me completely exposed to him from that angle. I didn’t try to hide, just watching him as he looked at me.
Soft curses fell out of him, his handsome features contorting like he was being tortured. “Fuck, Charlotte, you’re so wet.”
“I know,” I whispered. “I told you I wanted you.”
He let out a long, low groan. “Christ, the things I want to do to you right now.”
“So do them.”
“Nope.” He glanced up at me, restraint etched into every line of his gorgeous face. “I shouldn’t even be doing this with you. I can’t, Charlotte.”
“Yes, you can and you should. Because you’re my husband and I’m your wife.” I reached for his left hand and ran my finger over the wedding band. “You’re not going to scare me, Trent. We can take it slow, but just know that I’m ready when you are.”
“Fuck me,” he muttered, drawing out the words. Then he moved his mouth to my core, licking a long, hot line through me from bottom to top.
I moaned loudly, falling back against the pillows as my grip tightened on his hair and on the sheets. It turned out that the lazy, sexy Texas drawl wasn’t the best thing he could do with that mouth after all. Not by a long shot.
My eyes slammed shut when he sucked my clit between his lips, sinking a finger into me at the same time. I practically flew off the bed, anchored only by his grip on my hip as he kept licking and sucking until it felt like I was levitating.
My toes curled, my brow furrowing to the point of pain as pleasure coiled tight in that secret deep place within. “Trent. Oh, God. Trent, yes.”
He didn’t stop, didn’t mess up by changing his pace, and didn’t do anything other than to send me flying into the abyss of the most spectacular orgasm of my life.
I’d never made sounds like the ones being ripped out of me as I came, waves of pleasure that made my ears hot and my entire body tremble like a leaf.
After, as it subsided, he licked me clean, then crawled up the length of my body and kissed me again, slowly but deeply. I wound my fingers into his hair and kissed him back, not at all bothered by tasting myself on his lips.
All I wanted was to return the favor, but Trent shifted us up on the bed, pulled the covers over both of us, and tucked me into his side like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Sweat dotted his forehead and I felt the massive bulge in his jeans, his pulse hammering under his jaw, but when I looked up at him, he shook his head.
“I’m a big boy, Charlotte. I’ll be fine. Just close your eyes and go to sleep now, okay? It’s been a really long day and I can’t guarantee that tomorrow will be any better.”
His arm was heavy and warm around my waist, his breath steady against the back of my shoulder. I didn’t know where to put my hands at first. I’d never shared a bed like this, not in any way that felt so real, but when he tugged me closer, I let myself exhale and melt into him.
My last coherent thought before sleep dragged me under was that this, falling asleep in his arms, felt dangerously close to something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And somehow, I might actually be able to.
I woke up the next morning alone. For a second, confusion swept over me, warm sheets, the faint scent of Trent still clinging to the pillow beside me, and sunlight spilling across the room I’d barely even seen the night before, but then I spotted a folded note on his side of the bed.
Out with the cows. Didn’t want to wake you. —T.
Of course he was. Married just over twenty-four hours and my husband was already out ranching like nothing had changed. A ridiculous little swell of affection rose in my chest before I shoved it down.
I dragged myself out of bed, wincing at how deliciously wrecked my body felt after last night, and I was halfway into a borrowed hoodie when I heard someone calling my name.
“Charlotte? Honey, are you here?” Claira called from downstairs. “Trent? Anyone?”
Oh God. I shoved the hoodie down and grabbed the same jeans I’d had on yesterday. I barely made it to the landing before she spotted me and swept me up into one of her full-body, spine-realigning hugs.
“Oh, I am so glad you’re here,” she said into my hair. “I told Trent I was going to give him one single day before barging in. One. But now you’re back and we can start planning holidays, and family dinners, and, good heavens, babies. You two will have the most beautiful child—”
“Claira—”
“And Christmas! You must let me host this year. And Thanksgiving. And Easter. And—”
She pulled back to look at me properly, and for a moment, her smile was so bright it felt like staring into the sun. But then her gaze dropped to my hand, specifically to the rings on it, and everything about her froze.
“Charlotte,” she breathed. “Oh, I’m so happy he gave it to you. It’s looks beautiful on you, darling.”
My fingers twitched, instinctively curling into a fist around the wedding band Trent had chosen yesterday. But it was the engagement ring that she was staring at.
A ring she clearly recognized. I frowned a little, wondering why it suddenly felt like I’d stolen it from her. “I didn’t realize it was, uh…”
“It was mine,” she whispered, her eyes shining. “That was my engagement ring. My mother’s before me and her mother’s before that. I gave it to Trent when he graduated college. Told him to give it to the woman he wanted to spend his life with.”
My stomach dropped so hard that I almost swayed. He’d never told me that. He’d never told me anything about its history, actually, but a brutal, sickening thought was already at full strength in my head.
Did he give Savannah this ring, too?
My mouth went dry. My heartbeat stuttered painfully behind my ribs.
I stared down at the diamond right along with Claira.
It was a stunning, vintage cut that suddenly felt too heavy for my hand.
I tried to keep my face neutral, calm, sane, but I couldn’t help the suspicions drilling through my mind like nails.
What if I’m wearing a recycled promise? What if this wasn’t supposed to ever have been mine at all?
Claira touched my arm gently. “Charlotte, honey? Are you alright?”
I nodded, but she looked at me like she didn’t believe me and I didn’t blame her. I didn’t believe myself either. But the truth was that I honestly didn’t know. All I knew right now was that I was wearing another woman’s ring, and I didn’t think he’d ever meant to put it on my finger.