Chapter 15 #3
“Warren!” I call his name in a pitiful sob. “Help me. I can’t take this! I…I can’t…” His hands wrap around my wrists, pulling them away from me, and it’s too much. I’m pinned to the bed by his mouth, cradling his body with my thighs, and connected to his soul by our palms.
At the very moment his fingers thread through mine and lock, his name leaves my lips on a silent scream as the most unimaginable thrill assails me.
I writhe beneath him, but there’s no escape.
And if I had the presence of mind to be honest with myself, I don’t want to evade the way he stretches me wide and uses his shoulders to hold me down and accept the rapture his love brings.
“Oh, God…” I groan, low and breathy when he keeps going. The sensation is heightened even further than before now that I’ve reached completion. I squeeze his hands. “Done. I’m—Christ! I’m done! Stop…please stop!”
Warren turns his face to my inner thigh instead, breathing heavily. “Goddamn, wife. I’m done, too.”
I stiffen. “You didn’t like it?”
“Oh, I loved it. I could live between your legs if you let me. And if I died between them, I’d still be the luckiest of men because I’d die with the taste of you on my tongue.
” Warren drags himself upward, hardly pausing to wipe his mouth before he kisses my own slack lips.
“But I couldn’t exactly control myself.”
“What do you mean?” I think he controlled himself just fine, especially stopping when I asked him to. He ruefully gestures to his lower half, and that’s when I notice the wet spot. “You came in your pants?”
“That’s how much you drive me crazy with need, wife,” he says as he kicks them off and changes into another pair. “You should be proud.”
“You’re crazy.” Air stings my lungs as I exhale a shaky laugh and slowly come down from the ecstasy he just brought me. Sin has no place in heaven, but that’s exactly what happened with my husband. And he enjoyed it so much that he came from it?
Then the high crashes, and my lips tremble as I begin to shake. One tear breaks free, and then another. Why is sadness crowding my happiness after the one good experience I’ve ever had with a man? “I’m sorry.” I furiously scrub my face. “I don’t…I don’t know why I’m crying.”
“Hey now, it’s okay. It’s okay.” Warren pulls me in tight and throws a heavy leg over both of mine. “You just let it all out, just give it all to me. It’s my arms you’re in now, wife, and you’re safe here. You did so good falling apart for me, Mara. So good.”
“I’m not dirty now that you’ve had me?” I hiccup miserably.
“Never,” he swears. “You were never dirty, and you never will be. And nothing will ever make me think that way about you.”
But I have one more burning question that demands an answer. “And…and I’m still beautiful?” I don’t care what other men have thought about me. My husband’s is the only opinion that matters, but seeing that part of me and then the crying, sweaty mess I am now might change his mind.
Rough palms cradle my face. “Always, Mara. You’re beautiful now, and when we’ve been married until we’re old and gray, you’ll still be just as beautiful to me then.”
I believe him.
Everything he’s ever done from the moment we met, it’s all been for me. Whether it’s because I needed to open myself up for him in this way or because I needed to hear him tell me again and again, I believe him.
And more than that, now I know I love him.
Damn it.
Another wobble of my bottom lip, and then I’m sobbing even harder.
Much to the panic of my husband. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you? Was it too soon?”
“No.” I shake my head and wave my hands uselessly, but it’s not until the wave of emotion lessens a bit that I can get any words out. “I just…I just realized that I…I love you.”
Warren freezes for a moment, then the biggest grin I’ve ever seen splits his face as he flops back against the bed. “She loves me,” he announces to the ceiling. “My wife loves me. Did you hear that, Emmaline? Your momma loves me!”
“Shh! Don’t wake her!” I haltingly laugh through my tears, but it changes to a breath of surprise when he rolls me on top of him.
“Swear to me that you mean it, wife,” he says with mock sternness as he gently wipes the salty streaks from my face. “It’s already too late to take it back, but I need to hear you say it.”
My heart threatens to burst at the plea beneath his words.
“I love you, Warren Shay,” I whisper, daring to lean down and kiss him to show him just how much.
He grabs hold of my neck, moving his mouth against mine in the sweetest caress.
I can taste the remnants of me mixed with my tears, but I don’t mind.
Finally, I break away and place a palm to his bare chest, searching for the heartbeat that never ceases to calm me.
“I never thought I could be with a man again, let alone love one, but I do. I love you. Only one man. Only you.”
“Goddamn, wife.” Brown eyes scan mine as if gauging the honesty in my proclamation.
He must find it, though, because his gaze softens into an endless pool of happiness.
“If you knew how much I love you, it’d probably scare you.
But you’re mine now, you hear? And the same goes for me. Only one woman for me. Only you.”