Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
I breathed in the scent of her shampoo as my cheek rested on her head. I cupped the back of her head as she nuzzled against my chest, burrowing closer to me. As her hands slowly crept around my waist, I sighed in relief. My Chloe still came to me for comfort. Me.
Just how much hurt and heartache could the world pour on top of my woman?
“I’ve missed you,” I whispered.
“More. I’ve missed you more. But I’m scared. I hate to see you hurting yourself.” The words were muffled against my t-shirt.
“I’m not, sweetheart. It’s not like that anymore. I need you to trust me, can you do that?”
She tipped her head back, her eyes staring up at me like she was peering into my soul. “You’re not, are you,” she said with a hint of amazement.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m still fucked up, but I’m pulling my way out. Knowing what I’ll lose if I don’t…” I settled my lips on hers, and she responded beautifully. She was my Chloe and she was welcoming me, not just into her arms, but into her heart. I could feel it.
I parted my stance so that I could tug her tighter, get her to totally rest against me. I loved the way her weight relaxed into me, trusting me with everything she was. And there it was, the most heady feeling in the world, Chloe trusting me.
With one hand, I wove my fingers through the dark, silky strands of her hair as my other hand stroked lower and cupped her ass. Not as full as normal, but not as skinny as I had feared. She’d been taking care of herself.
She bit my lip.
“Hey! What was that for?”
“You’re checking me out as an EMT, not as my lover.”
I chuckled. “Like you’re not going to catalogue every one of my bruises the moment I get naked, Mrs. Post.”
Her eyes glimmered with amusement. “Okay, you might have a point.”
“Anyway, I was just paying homage to your tushie.”
“How about I let you do that in our bedroom.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “Really? ’Cause last time it didn’t end so well.”
“Last time you were bound and determined to get yourself killed in a boxing ring.”
I didn’t correct her that it was an MMA cage. I figured that at this point it would just make her cranky, and I didn’t want to do anything that would ruin the mood. Plus, it wasn’t relevant at the moment.
I picked her up in my arms. My ribs shrieked, and I told them to shut the fuck up. By God, I was going to convince Chloe I was healed, and the fighting was behind me. And it felt right. Like a new start.
“Zarek, put me down, you’ll hurt yourself.”
“I’m fine,” I managed to say in a normal voice. I got us down the hall and placed her on the bed in a record-winning time. I laid down with her and pushed my nose into her hair again so that she couldn’t notice me breathing too hard.
“Zarek, you might as well come up for air. I can feel your heartbeat galloping like a racehorse on speed. You’re a total doofus for having carried me.”
I lifted up and peeked at her face. “You don’t look mad.”
“I’ll only be mad if you left all your stamina in the hall,” she said as she stroked her knuckles down the side of my face. My stomach clenched at the soft caress.
“I’ll always have stamina for you.” I peeled her top over her head and made quick work of her bra. God, she was gorgeous.
“Now, you,” she murmured.
“No way. You’re my treat for giving up fighting. I’m going to take my time.” I bent my head toward her breast.
She pushed against my shoulders, and I looked back at her face. “What?”
“Honey, you have to stop for yourself.” She bit her lip.
“Chloe, it’s okay. I get it. After. I promise that afterward I’ll explain everything. Right now, I just need to claim you. I know that sounds primitive, but I want you… No. I need you to know that you’re mine. I choose you. The person you are today, and the person you’ll be fifty years from now.”
I saw tears well in her eyes.
“No, sweetheart, don’t cry.”
“Then don’t keep saying such sweet stuff,” she sniffed.
I bent low and kissed around her rose-colored nipple. I licked and blew and did everything but take that needy bud of flesh into my mouth. Soon she was wiggling all over the bed, with her hands in my hair, begging me for more. Begging me to ‘do it right.’
I laughed, then tortured her other breast in the exact same manner.
As I did, I worked the buckle holding up her shorts, and had her belt, shorts, and panties off in no time.
This time, she wasn’t wiggling, she was arching up to my hand.
My baby always knew what she wanted here in our bed.
Then she surprised me by rolling away until she was on the other side of the bed.
“What?”
She knelt up and I swallowed my tongue. I lay there drinking in the sight of my naked wife. I really wished I was the type of guy who could write poetry, because she deserved poems to be written about her.
She pointed her finger at me. “If I’m naked in this bed, then you need to be naked,” she decreed.
“I like that rule.” But first I hopped off the bed for just a moment, so I could unbuckle my belt and pull off my jeans, jockey shorts, and socks. Then I pulled my shirt off over my head. I hid my wince as the tee covered my face.
“Oh, Zarek,” she whispered. She sounded so sad.
“It’s really not that bad,” I said as I knelt back up on the bed.
“Yes. Yes it is. Did you have Fletcher take a look at everything? What did he say?”
“I had a professional look me over,” I assured her.
She snorted. “Don’t think that kind of sneaky bullshit answer is going to fly. I know what you’re really saying is that the professional who looked you over was you.”
Fuck!
“Maybe.”
“Maybe before we do anything you should get checked—”
I pounced and took her down to the bed and she giggled. “Okay, maybe not,” she continued to giggle.
“Damn right, maybe not. The only thing Fletcher would find if he examined me now would be a serious case of blue balls.”
Chloe continued to giggle. It was perfect. So many of our nights had been spent in this bed, sharing our thoughts and dreams, sharing our laughter and fears. Hearing her laugh like this, something I hadn’t heard for over eight months, made me ache with joy.
We finally fell together like children, laughing, out of breath. I picked up a strand of her hair and rubbed it between my thumb and forefinger. I wanted to tell her this was it. That we were starting over. God, I wanted to say it. I felt it. But I knew it was too soon.
“I love you.”
She leaned up, then carefully straddled my hips, so she wasn’t pressing on any part of me that hurt. She looked into my eyes. “I love you, Zarek Post.”
She dipped down and melded her lips to mine.
Her kiss made me dizzy with all the passion and love she infused it with.
Soon our tongues were tangling, and I was sitting up high against the backboard of the bed, looking at her all happy with herself, ready to ride us into oblivion.
But I wasn’t going to make it that easy on my woman.
Nope, first she needed a little bit of special attention. My hands left her hips and drifted inwards, petting her nest of curls, seeking and finding her wet folds.
“Zarek,” she moaned.
I sought further, and slowly stroked her needy flesh, up and down until I found the wet entrance of her body. I pushed in, just a little, with two fingers.
She hummed out a toneless tune. Something she’d been doing with me for years. Something I had forgotten.
With my other hand, I softly brushed my thumb over the swollen bud of her clit. She wiggled her ass against my thighs. I didn’t know if I was going to make it. I might just go up in flames before the night was over.
I pressed my fingers into her snug flesh a little further. So warm. So tight. So mine.
“Zarek!”
“What sweetheart?”
“Move your hands so I can take you inside me.”
“Give me one orgasm, and then I will.”
Her eyes opened and they looked almost black. She was so close. I loved seeing her like this, wild, needy and feeling safe enough to give up control. I used my thumb to circle and press her clit while her body shivered and trembled.
She began to call out my name. It was music to my ears.
She lunged against my touch, holding herself there, taking what she needed as she wailed in approval.
I was done waiting. I shifted our bodies so that my cock met her welcoming warmth and slid home. I couldn’t control the shudder that went through my body.
Chloe arched back, her hands on my thighs, moving in a sinuous dance that brought me to my metaphorical knees. Up and down. She tossed her hair back, her breasts thrust forward. For just a moment I could see that she was reaching for another orgasm, but then my world exploded.
I was nothing more than the man who belonged to Chloe Post, and she had just given me everything.