Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
KARL
Fuck, she’s been crying. I push off the truck the minute I see Nancy’s face.
Her fists are clenched at her sides as she power walks toward the house.
She hasn’t noticed me, and when my hand curls gently around her arm, she gasps and then throws herself at me.
I stumble back but thankfully manage to balance myself before we both end up on the ground.
She buries her face in my neck, her warm breath washing over my skin as she squeezes me tighter.
“I’m guessing you didn’t hug and make up,” I murmur against her chilly cheek.
She shakes her head. “No,” she whimpers, the sound slicing through my heart.
“Do you want to go home?” I ask, briefly worried she’s going to tell me she is home.
“Please,” she replies, and I turn back to the truck.
“You’ve gotta let go, dearest.” I chuckle when her hold on me doesn’t loosen after I open the door.
Nancy slowly lets go of me and slides into the passenger seat, and I get my first good look at her. She looks broken and it cracks my heart in half.
I take her face in my hands. “What can I do?”
The last thing I expect when that question leaves my lips is for more tears to appear, let alone big, gulping sobs. Shit. I close the door and race around to my side. Once inside, I waste no time closing the gap and wrapping my arms around her.
“She hates me. She hates me for being happy.” I nearly laugh when she says it. Sobbing while saying she’s happy. “I…I…I… I don’t know how to make it better.”
“It’s not up to you to make it better.” I try to reassure her. “You can only share your side of things. Maybe she’ll come around. She may need time.”
“Maybe,” she hiccups, pulling back. “Is my stuff still in the house?”
“It’s in the back. Do you want to go back and see if there’s anything else?”
She shakes her head. “I want to go home.” There is something about the way she says home that chases all the chill from the air.
“Alright,” I slide back across the seat and buckle my belt, waiting for Nancy to do the same, and then I turn the truck on and begin the long drive back down the driveway.
As we’re passing the barn, I catch a flash of blonde disappear from the doorway. I wonder if Celeste watched our entire interaction. I wonder if she’s capable of seeing what it is between us that made everything come together so easily.
I keep one hand on the wheel. Nancy maintains a tight grip on my right for the entire drive.
It’s not until we’re driving down the laneway to the cottage that she relaxes.
Between her grip and silence, she doesn’t have to vocalize how she’s feeling, making a part of me regret not going with her, especially after telling her that she’d never have to go to battle alone.
This felt different, though, not a battle as much as a search for peace, and I didn’t think my presence would be a benefit to anyone.
“Do you want to order pizza and rent a movie?” I suggest as I park in front of the cottage.
She sighs, turning to face me. “I would love to order pizza and rent a movie.” She offers me the first real smile I’ve seen from her in hours, and I relax as the lines deepen at the corners of her eyes.
Nancy is more herself by the time I get back with the pizza and Empire Records, a movie she has somehow seen and I haven’t. We eat, and halfway through the film Nancy is out.
I pause the movie and sit there in the dark for a while, playing with a couple loose strands of her hair.
I’ve spent more time than I care to admit watching her sleep, taking my time getting dressed, and prolonging all the things I can do in a quarter of the time so I can watch my wife at peace.
Not worrying about what to make for dinner or if Jack is happy with the bed we got for him.
I’m worried she’s bored, and if she isn’t, she’ll get bored.
She stirs right before her soft voice reaches my ears. “Karl?”
“Mmm?”
“Did I fall asleep?”
I slide my fingers gently through her hair. “You did.”
“I’m sorry,” she yawns.
“Don’t be." My fingers still. "You had an emotionally draining day.”
She rolls onto her back and looks up at me. “Did you like it?”
“The movie?”
“Yeah.”
“I was liking it, but I turned it off. I’d rather finish it with you.”
She smiles softly as I trace the edges of her face with my finger. “Bedtime?”
I nod, helping her up. “You get ready. I’ll let Jack out one more time.”
By the time I’m back inside, Nancy is on her side staring at the wall.
Alright, I think to myself, definitely not okay.
I rush through my nightly routine before stripping down to my boxers and climbing into bed, curling my body around hers as if I can protect her from all the uncomfortable moments past, present, and yet to come.
She releases a breath, and then her fingers are threading through mine, raising my one hand and pressing her lips to the back.
I want to ask her to tell me everything that I missed.
Give me a full rundown of her conversation with Celeste, but I want her to do that in her own time because I think she will.
She’s spent years being told what to do and has had her entire life dictated for her.
I’m not going to be another person who expects her complacency.
So I hold her in the dark. Hold her as the end of the bed dips when Jack jumps up and settles behind my knees.
Hold her as her breathing slows, slipping out of consciousness into hopefully a sleep full of happy dreams.
“Karl.” Lips brush across my forehead, and I hear her voice again, closer this time. “Karl, you slept through your alarm.”
“Shit!” My eyes fly open, and I’m greeted with the clearest blue irises I’ve ever seen. I’ll sleep in every day if this is the view I get to open my eyes to.
She smiles down at me and pushes off the bed, giving me a better look.
She’s wearing a pair of my boxers, an old sweatshirt, and a pair of socks.
I know there’s a Northern Reflections bag with fancy lingerie hidden under the bed, but I can’t imagine anything would look better on her than what she’s got on right now.
My wife in my clothes is the sexiest sight I’ve ever seen, and it does not inspire me to get out of bed.
I stretch out my hands, silently demanding that she return to me. “No, sir,” she warns, shaking her head and backing up further. “You’re going to moan about being late for work if you don’t get up now.”
“I’d rather moan your name and be late for work.” I grin back, hoping she won’t require any more convincing, but she responds by sticking her tongue out at me and walking briskly from the room.
“Come on,” she calls back, “your breakfast is getting cold.”
Throwing the blankets off, I get myself out of bed and ready for the day in record time. Nancy is never up earlier than me, so I’m going to soak up every minute I get with her prior to heading up to the barn.
I stop dead in the doorway when I see her at the counter, slowly swaying to Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song” as she stirs cream into her coffee.
Breakfast can wait, I think, crossing the distance in a couple strides and wrapping my arms around her from behind.
She giggles when my fingers slip under her sweatshirt and brush her skin.
She stops stirring and turns to me, arms slipping around my neck to pull me down for a kiss. How I’ve managed to go to work since she’s been here is beyond me.
“Good morning, Mr. Hore,” she breathes against my lips.
“Good morning, Mrs. Hore,” I murmur, dipping her back. “This is a much better way to start my day than getting dressed in the dark while you sleep.” Her smiling lips meet mine, and for a brief moment I imagine kicking my coffee habit and drinking her kisses every morning instead.
She hums against me, deepening the kiss in a way that has me making up my mind that being late for work is something I’ll be just fine with.
“Work,” she whispers when I haul her into my arms.
“Don’t care,” I admit, guiding her mouth to mine and walking backwards and directly into the doorframe.
“Oh, shit, are you okay?” Nancy asks, concern drawing her eyebrows down.
“I won’t be if I don’t get my mouth on you in the next five seconds,” I growl, pushing off the wall and spinning us into our bedroom.
Nancy’s back has barely hit the mattress before I’m ripping the boxers down her legs and throwing them across the room.
She slams her thighs shut, and I look up to see if this is a serious denial or a challenge.
Nancy’s tongue sneaks out, wetting her lips and then pulling the bottom one between her teeth, a tiny grin half hidden, and I have my answer. A challenge.
Leaning down, I kiss her left knee and then her right. “Open up for me, dearest,” I coax.
She shakes her head, eyes glued to me.
“Nancy?”
Another shake.
I push her sweatshirt up and take a nipple into my mouth, causing her to release a sweet little moan that goes straight to my cock, trapped behind my fly.
“Duchess?”
My guess is met with a little laugh, and I move to the other breast, believing in equal opportunity and all. Her hands thread through my hair, and I reach up, dragging them away. When I feel the ring on her left hand, my head snaps up to catch her looking at me, eyes wide, lips parted.
“Wife.” It’s a statement, not a question.
Her responding smile stretches slowly across those pretty lips, and her knees brush across my chest as her legs open.
I’m on her before she has a chance to change her mind and prolong this little game. I knew she was it for me the first time I saw her. Every day, every taste of her since has only cemented that knowledge.
Her hips roll when I slide a finger into her, a little plea escaping into the room. I crook my finger, hitting that spot that has her thighs locking my head in place. She could probably squeeze me to death, but what a way to go.
Nails drag through my hair when I suck harder and add a second finger.
“More,” she whimpers, and I know she doesn’t mean a third finger. The problem is, she’s got my head trapped between her powerful equestrian thighs, so I stick to what I’m doing until she decides it’s time to move onto something else.
When her breathing changes, I know she’s close, know she’s about to release me as her limbs turn to jelly.
One more suck and pump of my fingers, and she’s crying out, her entire body going rigid as her back bows off the bed. She keeps me locked in place for a few seconds longer before her body relaxes, her legs falling to the side, releasing me from what has become one of my favorite places.
“God, I love you,” she purrs, followed quickly by the sound of her hands slapping over her face. “Oh no, no, no, no,” she whines.
I prop myself up on my knees and grip her hips, pulling her closer. “What? You don’t love me?” I pout. She shakes her head, lips nearly white as she clamps them shut. “Not even a little bit?”
A blue eye peers out at me from between her fingers as she gives the tiniest of nods.
My heart feels like it’s about to blast through my chest. I was so convinced I’d say those three words first. I’d been sitting on them for days now, but somehow I thought it would freak her out.
Hell, it freaked me out a little bit. I kept asking myself how I could possibly know.
All I know is that I haven’t felt this feeling before.
Love was the only word I could think of for it, so that’s what it has to be.
From the minute I saw her, that was it. She was all I could see.
I curl my fingers around her wrists and pull her up so she’s sitting on my thighs. The heat of her pressed against my very needy cock. I release a slow breath because I have other things to take care of first.
“Nancy?” She drags her gaze from my shoulder to my face. Her face red. “Was that a throes of passion declaration?” I ask as seriously as I can manage.
She stares back at me for what feels like hours, but I’m sure it was only seconds, before she shakes her head. “No.”