Chapter 40
VANNA
“ A re you alright? You seem very angry tonight,” I say softly to Dean as we enter our home. Ace is fast asleep in my arms, head resting against my shoulder, his little face pressed lightly against my neck.
“I’m not,” Dean practically grumbles, shutting the door and locking it behind us. I let my purse slide down my arm and hand it over to him.
“I’m going to put Ace to bed.”
He only nods.
Ace barely stirs while Nico watches me carefully finagle my son out of his clothes and into pajamas.
Tucking him in, I brush a few strands of dark hair from his forehead and place a gentle kiss above his eyebrow.
Nico curls up in his usual spot at Ace’s feet.
I stroke his fur as he settles himself in, buying a few moments to brace myself.
Dean can deny being pissed all he wants, but I know Legion got under his skin tonight.
The murderous glare in my husband’s eyes at Legion’s song choice lingers in my memory, as well as the way he ordered me to remain inside the roadhouse.
I’m sure he threatened Legion. He may have even tossed him a beating…
but I’m afraid to ask if Legion left the lot in one piece.
I leave Ace’s door cracked a few inches and make my way back to the kitchen, where Dean is still standing, leaning with his back against the front door. He’s doing something on his phone and doesn’t look up when I remove my jacket or when I hang it up on the rack next to his cut.
Soft music begins to play through the sound system of our home. It’s low, not loud enough to wake Ace, but I instantly recognize the song, and the pain in Dean’s eyes when he finally looks up at me. It’s Bryan Adams, Please Forgive Me.
“Dean…” I sigh, unable to formulate a sentence beyond his name. I know part of the reason Legion chose the song tonight was to get at Dean. At least he didn’t pick our actual wedding song. I would have turned him down. “It was just a dance he paid for…”
The sad look in Dean’s eyes darkens, sending a shiver down my spine…
and not entirely in a bad way. He places his phone on the edge of the bench below the coat rack, and I can see he has the song set to loop.
As he begins to undo the buttons at the top of his shirt, enough to yank it off over his head, I know what is about to happen.
The shirt hits the floor, and I can’t deny the devious part of me is smiling inside.
Of course, his jealous, possessive side would kick into overdrive after Legion’s little stunt.
After ripping off the undershirt next, his hands drop to his belt, undoing it with an eager haste that has my face flushing with heat as I admire the rippling muscles of his sculpted body. So beautiful. So lethal. So mine.
I peer up into his lustful gaze. “Should I take off my? — ”
“Ain’t gonna be a problem,” he growls, stepping forward to roughly grab me around the waist, pulling me against his hot, hard body.
In an instant, his mouth is on mine, kissing me roughly, and I submit to his need, parting my lips and allowing him to take possession of my mouth as I wrap my arms around his neck.
Strong hands move lower, gripping my ass, pressing me more firmly against him. I can feel his hard length undeniably now. He backs me up, maneuvering us toward the dining room table, until I’m pressed against the edge.
“Here?” I manage to gasp through the onslaught of his dominating kisses.
He doesn’t respond with words. He simply hoists me up and drops me on it, barely breaking our kiss, and immediately shoves his hands up my skirt.
“Dean!” I whisper-shout at him, but he’s on a mission.
Grabbing behind my knees, he jerks me forward, forcing my legs around his waist. The old barnwood table groans in protest. Anxiety creeps in, shoving lust aside as worry over breaking the damn table is at the front of my mind now.
That would be so embarrassing! I try to shove at his hands beneath the fabric of my skirt, then at his chest when I’m unsuccessful.
His fingers are already pulling at the waistband of my underwear.
“ Damnit, Dean! We’re going to break the table!” I harshly whisper, and though I’m not exactly cooperating, he is undeterred. “ It will wake up Ace!”
“I haven’t had you here yet,” he says, just as I feel the knuckles of his fists ball up against my flesh. The muscles in his chest and arms flex, and the sound of fabric ripping cuts through the music.
His level of heady aggression doesn’t at all match the lovingly mournful romantic song playing softly.
After yanking the fabric from my body, he tosses the remnants of my now useless underwear onto the table beside us, then drops his hands to undo the rest of his fly, freeing himself between my parted thighs.
“Was that really necessary?”
He shrugs with complete indifference, grabbing the bunched-up hem of my skirt, hiked up and draped across my thighs in both fists. A devious smirk pulls at the corner of his mouth, just as his eyes flick up to meet mine again.
“Wait!” I barely get the word out before the fabric of my dress is ripping.
Buttons fly away, clicking on the surface of the table and the hardwood floor around us.
“Damnit, Dean…” I sigh, leaning back on my elbows defeatedly as he grabs and tears the rest of my dress open, all the way to the neckline.
What used to be another one of my Practical Magic dresses now resembles a tattered, ankle-length cardigan.
Maybe I should stop wearing anything I like around Legion.
He seems to inadvertently ruin my favorite clothing.
With one hand, Dean grabs the base of his rigid cock and angles himself to press against my center. Hovering above me, he wraps his other hand around the nape of my neck, pulling me up to him until our mouths crash together again.
“ You’re wet ,” he growls against my lips, almost accusatorily, as he slides his cock up and down my slit. I know the demons in his mind have him worried about my reaction to being in Legion’s arms earlier.
“Well, you’re hot . And mine. And I want you…
Only you .” I nip his bottom lip before kissing him back.
As his tongue thrusts against mine, he pushes inside of me, and I groan into his mouth at the sensation of him filling me.
“I’m always ready for you, Dean,” I whisper, tilting my head back to give him my throat.
His rough stubble on my sensitive skin makes me quiver as he licks and kisses me there.
“I belong to you, sweetheart. No one but you.”
The table creaks with every pistoning slam of his body into mine. Clinging to each other, I allow him to work out his fears and frustrations until we’re both on the verge of climax.
“Do you remember our first kiss? The first time we made love? The fuckin’ thousandth time?” Dean pants as he fucks me.
“Of course, I do,” I try to reassure him. “You love me exactly the way I need to be loved, Dean. You’re the only man in the world for me…”
His fingers tangle in my hair, and he kisses me deeply again, before pressing his forehead to mine and confessing, as if I didn’t already know, “I need to erase it, Vanna… What he did to us tonight…”
“He didn’t do anything… I’m still yours… I’ll always be yours…”
“I’m going to give you everything you want, baby… Everything.”
“I know,” I smile at his determined expression.
“ Everything, Vanna…” he says, as if he’s willing me to understand something unspoken.
He knows the instant I do, and claims my mouth once again with a deep, passionate kiss.
Nails digging into his back, holding onto him as if I might truly fall over a cliff, my body begins to convulse around his. He buries his face in the crook of my neck, holding me so tightly against him it’s difficult to breathe.
“ Fuck, Vanna ! Fuck…” he grunts against my neck, one hand snaking down my back to grip my ass, anchoring me firmly against him as he thrusts as deep as he can get. Every muscle in his body tenses. A primal groan erupts from his throat, and I feel his powerful release.
Dean’s hold on me relaxes just a bit as we both come back down in the aftermath, and he presses his forehead to mine once more. We listen to the music as our breaths slow to normal.
“I love you,” he sighs. “ Insanely , I love you.”
I can’t help but let out a sated, low laugh. “I know you do. That’s why you married me, isn’t it?”
“He can’t have this song... He can’t have any song. Not with you, Vanna… I don’t care if he finds you in the lyrics. If he means every verse in this song… I mean them more … I am your knight.”
I reach up to hold his face in my hands and press a soft kiss against his lips. “I will never stop loving you, Dean. You’re the only man I want to build a family with.”
Another crooked ghost of a smile plays on his lips. “Well, the one thing I depend on…is for us to stay strong,” he teases, stating the lyrics of the song in a matter-of-fact way that makes me giggle.
I drop my hand to take the one he has resting on my thigh. “Come on, goofball… Now that I’ve got you on board , round two is happening in the bedroom.”
T he one thing I’m sure of…is they’re probably making love … Right now… I can’t help the barrage of intrusive thoughts as the song we danced to plays over and over in my mind…
He couldn’t let me fucking have it!
Rotting vegetation and thick humidity assault my senses the moment I pull down the raised dirt path, leading further into Drear Swamp.
Black Gum and Cypress trees dripping in Spanish moss line both sides of the narrow trail through the scummy water.
Downed trunks, now water-bogged logs among the Cypress Knees, serve as moss-covered stages for the millions of frogs and toads croaking in a constant crescendo, audible even over the exhaust pipes and engine of my motorcycle.
I make my way cautiously down the dark trail until I reach the end at a small embankment. The short, dilapidated wooden dock Keegan described sits crookedly in the dark, murky waters.