2. Chapter Two
Chapter Two
Nicole
At five in the morning, Nicole opened her eyes and found her husband asleep beside her.
She had no idea what time Alexander had come home. She hadn’t heard the bedroom door, the shower, or the mattress shift under his weight. At some point, he’d slipped into bed and curved one arm across the empty space between them. His hand rested near her waist without quite touching her.
The room was still dark. No small feet slapped down the hall. No voice called for water, a missing toy, or help with a blanket that had somehow become an enemy.
Not yet.
Nicole rolled onto her side and looked at Alexander. Sleep had softened the hard control he carried through most of his days. His blond hair was untidy, and pale stubble covered his jaw. One broad shoulder rose above the sheet. He looked warm, solid, and close enough to touch.
She’d missed him.
That truth sat beside everything she’d wanted to say after his call. She was still angry. She was still tired of explaining his absence to their daughters. She also wanted her husband with an ache that had nothing to do with reason.
Nicole moved closer and pressed her mouth to his shoulder. Alexander made a low sound but didn’t wake. She kissed the side of his neck. His arm closed around her waist then.
“Caught you,” he muttered.
Nicole smiled against his skin. “You were asleep.”
“I was resting my eyes while I waited for you to attack me.”
“Very clever.”
He rolled onto his back and pulled her over him. His blue eyes opened halfway. “Is it morning?”
“Barely.”
“Are the girls awake?”
“Not yet.”
“Then no.” He closed his eyes again. “It’s the middle of the night.”
Nicole kissed him on the mouth. “Still asleep?”
“Completely.”
She kissed him again, slower this time. His hand slid up her back under her sleep shirt.
“This is an impressive reflex for an unconscious man,” she whispered.
“Years of practice.”
“Twelve.”
“Best twelve years of my life.”
The easy answer warmed her even though he’d given it with his eyes closed. She brushed her lips over his. Alexander caught the back of her neck and held her there for a deeper kiss.
There he was.
He tasted faintly of mint. His body was sleep-warm under hers, and the hand on her bare back knew exactly how to pull her closer without trapping her curls under his arm. He’d learned that early. He still remembered.
Nicole shifted until one leg rested between his. His morning erection pressed against her thigh through his boxer briefs.
Alexander opened his eyes fully. “Good morning.”
“Now you’re awake?”
“I found a reason.”
She laughed softly. They’d had to become quiet lovers after Prim and Rose were born. Quiet for them, anyway. The girls could sleep through a storm and wake because Nicole unwrapped a snack two rooms away.
Alexander pushed a curl from her cheek. His gaze moved over her face, slow and focused.
“You look tired,” he said.
“What a romantic thing to say.”
“You look beautiful and tired.”
“Much better.”
He kissed under one of her eyes. “Did the girls settle after I called?”
“Eventually.”
“I’m sorry.”
Nicole wanted to keep kissing him. They had this small pocket of quiet, and she didn’t want to fill it with hurt. Alexander was here. She could feel his heart under her palm and the steady rise of his chest. For once, his phone wasn’t in his hand, and a studio problem wasn’t being explained to her.
So, she asked about the studio anyway.
“How’s Brittle?”
His thumb moved along her cheek. “Going well.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Better,” he corrected. “Yesterday’s problem is handled. The production needs more attention than it should, but we’re getting there.”
“You said it was a mess.”
“Most movies are a mess until they’re suddenly a movie.”
“Very wise. You should put that on the studio wall.”
“I’ll have someone carve it in marble.”
“Of course you will.”
He smiled, but Nicole couldn’t hold hers. Last night’s empty chair came back to her. Prim’s small voice asking if Daddy would come tomorrow. Rose telling him “no work” as if three-year-old authority might succeed where Nicole had failed.
She lowered her face and kissed Alexander’s chest. Maybe she could put the thought aside until later.
His fingers stopped moving through her curls.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“Nicole.”
“We’re having a nice moment.”
“We are.”
“I don’t want our one nice moment to turn into me complaining about your schedule.”
“That sounds a lot like something’s wrong.”
She lifted her head. “I told you last night.”
“Tell me again.”
The request shouldn’t have felt risky. They’d been together for twelve years, married for ten.
She knew how he took his coffee, how he looked when he was trying not to laugh in public, and how to touch him until every piece of his control broke.
Still, telling him she wanted more felt harder than giving him everything without asking.
“You haven’t joined bedtime in a month,” she said. “You haven’t handled one from bath to lights-out in longer than I can remember.”
Alexander’s expression changed. The sleepy humor disappeared.
“A full month?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He looked away for a second, doing the count in his head.
“The fact that you have to check isn’t helping,” Nicole said.
“No. It isn’t.” His hand settled at her waist. “I didn’t realize it had been that long.”
“They did. They ask for you every day. Rose wants the bear voice. Prim keeps trying to stay awake until you come home. They’re barely seeing you.”
Nicole thought of the adhesive strips under Prim’s pajamas. She could tell him about urgent care now. She could tell him that their daughter had screamed for him while a nurse cleaned the blood from her stomach, and that Vicky had called back because Alexander could not.
The words felt too large for the fragile moment.
Once she said them, this would stop being a request for one bedtime and become an indictment of everything he’d missed.
She wasn’t ready to watch that truth reach him while she was still lying across his body, trying to believe one honest conversation might be enough.
“I know I’ve been working too much,” he said.
“Do you? Because I’m starting to think I should print your face on a card, so they don’t forget what you look like.”
The joke came out bitter. Alexander flinched.
Nicole immediately regretted it. “That was cruel.”
“It was deserved.”
“I don’t want to be cruel to you.”
“Then don’t protect me from the truth until you’re angry enough to hurt me with it.”
His answer left her quiet.
Alexander slid his hand up her back and brought her down until their foreheads touched. “I’m sorry. I haven’t been there for them, and I haven’t been there for you.”
“I can handle you being busy.”
“I know you can.”
“That doesn’t mean I should handle all of it alone,” she said.
“No, it doesn’t.”
The quick agreement loosened something in her chest. She’d prepared herself for explanations about schedules, budgets, and the number of people waiting for Alexander to make decisions. Instead, he was looking at her as if nothing else existed.
That was all she’d wanted. Not forever. Just often enough to know she and the girls still mattered inside the life they’d made.
“Come home tonight,” she said.
“I will.”
“For bedtime. Not after they’re asleep.”
“For bedtime.”
“Alexander.”
He kissed her once, gentle and sure. “I’ll be home for bedtime tonight. I promise.”
Nicole studied his face. “Even if something goes wrong?”
“Something always goes wrong.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Even if something goes wrong,” he said. “I’ll leave and come home. I’ll do the bath, the pajamas, and every book they can force into my hands.”
“They’ll test that promise.” She smiled.
“I don’t scare easily.”
“You haven’t faced them as a team lately. You will.”
His mouth curved. “Then I’ll do their books and the bear voice. I’ll be there.”
Hope moved through her so fast it almost embarrassed her. One promise shouldn’t have been enough to repair a month. It wasn’t. But Alexander had listened. He hadn’t dismissed her or asked her to wait until the production settled.
She kissed him. He answered at once, but Nicole pulled back before the kiss deepened.
“Was that my reward?” he asked.
“No.” She sat up and pulled her sleep shirt over her head. “This is mine.”
Alexander’s eyes moved over her naked breasts. Desire sharpened his face, and Nicole felt a hot rush of satisfaction. Whatever the internet wanted to invent, she’d never had to wonder whether her husband wanted her.
“I like your reward,” he said.
“You haven’t earned anything.”
“I thought we’d established that it’s yours.”
“Good listening.”
She bent to kiss him again. His hands closed over her hips, then moved up her waist. He cupped her breasts and brushed both thumbs over her nipples. Nicole shivered.
“Cold?” he murmured.
“Don’t be smug.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were about to be.”
“You know me too well.”
“That’s why I’m stopping you early.”
Alexander rolled one nipple between his fingers, and her next breath broke. His smile returned.
“There it is,” Nicole whispered. “The smugness.”
“You love it.”
“Sometimes,” she conceded.
He pulled her down and took her nipple into his mouth.
Nicole caught his hair in one hand, holding him close as his tongue moved over the tight peak.
He knew she liked more pressure than he used to give her.
He knew when to use his teeth and when to stop.
There wasn’t a question in the touch. Only memory.
Her body softened over his. The anger and loneliness didn’t vanish, but desire pushed them back. Alexander moved to her other breast while his hand slid under the waistband of her panties. He stroked one finger through her wet folds.
“You missed me,” he said against her skin.
“Terribly.”
“I can tell.”
“Don’t ruin this by talking.”
“You usually like my talking.”
Nicole tugged his hair until he looked up. “I like it when you say useful things.”
“Such as?”
“I’m sorry. I’ll be home. Take off your underwear.”
Alexander laughed. “That last one sounds like your line.”
“And yet you should say it.”
His fingers circled her clit, slow and firm. Nicole’s hips moved before she could stop them.
“Take off your underwear,” he said.
“Much better.”
She shifted off him long enough to push her panties down her legs. Alexander removed his boxer briefs, and his hard cock rose against his stomach. Nicole wrapped her hand around him and stroked from base to tip. His breath caught.
“Missed me?” she asked.
“You know I did.”
“I like hearing it.”
“I missed you.” He pulled her into another kiss. “I miss you when you’re in the next room.”
The words were easy. Alexander had always loved her easily. It was the showing up that had become hard.
Nicole refused to let that thought take this from her. She straddled him, braced one hand on his chest, and guided his cock between her legs.
Nicole had taken her birth-control pill every day since the twins were born. Pregnancy wasn’t a question between them, but Alexander still waited for the answer that mattered.
Alexander gripped her hips. “Yes?”
“Yes.”
She lowered herself onto him. The stretch made her stop halfway and breathe. Alexander stayed still, his jaw tight with restraint. His eyes didn’t leave her face.
“All right?” he asked.
“Perfect.”
Nicole sank the rest of the way until he filled her. They both groaned, then froze at the sound.
She put one finger against his lips. “Quiet.”
He kissed the tip. “You first.”
“Impossible man.”
“My wife likes me.”
“Your wife is making a questionable choice.”
She lifted her hips and took him again. His hands helped guide her rhythm, firm without taking control. Nicole rode him slowly at first, enjoying every slide of his cock inside her and the way his focus narrowed until she held all of it.
No studio. No cameras. No Angela Stone.
Only Nicole.
Alexander sat up and wrapped one arm around her waist. His mouth found hers as she moved over him. Their kisses turned messy. He pressed his thumb to her clit, and she broke away with a sharp breath.
“Right there,” she whispered.
“I know.”
He did. He kept the same pressure while she rocked against him. Pleasure tightened low in her belly, building with each stroke. She buried her face against his neck to keep quiet.
“Look at me,” Alexander said.
Nicole lifted her head. His blue eyes held hers as he touched her and thrust up into her. The need on his face felt raw, almost painful. It reminded her that this wasn’t only her hunger. He’d missed this too. Missed them.
“Come for me,” he whispered.
Her orgasm hit hard. Nicole clenched around him and bit down on her cry, shaking in his arms while he kept his thumb against her clit. He held her through every pulse, kissing her cheek, her jaw, the corner of her mouth.
Before she could recover, he rolled them over.
“Alexander,” she warned, though she opened her legs for him.
“My reward.”
“Still mine.”
“Then enjoy it.”
He pushed back inside her and drove deep. Nicole caught his shoulders. He knew exactly how hard she liked him after she came, when her body was loose and sensitive. His thrusts stayed controlled at first, then lost their smooth rhythm as she pulled him closer with her legs.
“I missed you,” he said again.
“Show me.”
He did. Alexander kissed her as he came, his body tight over hers, and her name rough against her mouth. Nicole held him until his breathing slowed.
For a while, neither of them moved. He was heavy in the way she liked, warm and familiar, one hand spread under her shoulder so he didn’t crush her. The dark room and the sleeping house gave them a little more time.
Alexander finally lifted his head. “Still angry?”
“A little.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“You shouldn’t forgive me because I gave you an orgasm.”
Nicole smiled. “An excellent orgasm.”
“I was trying to be modest.”
“You should stop. It doesn’t suit you.”
He kissed her, soft now. “I’ll be home tonight.”
“For bedtime.”
“For bedtime.”
Nicole traced the line of his jaw. She’d told him what she needed. He’d listened, apologized, and given her a clear promise. Under the warmth of his body, it felt possible that she’d made the problem harder than it had to be.
Maybe speaking plainly had been enough.
She believed him.