Chapter 48
ADELINE
This didn’t seem like an opportune time to remind Zach that the girls wouldn’t always stay in bed after going to sleep there.
Besides, I knew what he meant. From now on, once the girls and I moved in here in a couple weeks, he and I would be sleeping next to each other every night for the rest of our lives.
We could lock our door and get lost in each other for hours, or we could leave it open for the girls to come climb in between us when they had bad dreams. We could have family movie nights in bed and all fall asleep together, or he and I could wake up super early and sneak in a quickie before work.
The point was that we’d be together, all of us as a family, under one roof from now until the girls were eventually all grown up and moved out.
And even after that, Zach and I would still be together.
That was what he was talking about and I loved the sound of it so much that I leaned all the way into him, kissing him harder and more passionately than I’d ever kissed anyone in my life.
Zach responded like he was thinking the same thoughts, which he probably was, and like he was just as happy, as incredulous, and as relieved about it as I was.
A lot of things had changed since that first morning when we’d confessed our feelings to each other, but one thing that never had and hopefully never would was that when we were together, it felt like home.
I ran my hands up to his chest, feeling his heart pound under my palm, and then I slid my fingers to the buttons running in a line down the center of his abdomen.
Slowly, one at a time, I undid them, thankful that it was Zach groaning into my mouth.
Zach who alternated between kissing me like the ship was going down and backing off, like he just needed a moment to calm down.
Zach who now wore a wedding band on his left ring finger.
A wedding band that finally made him mine.
I’d honestly never thought this day would come.
When I’d committed myself to Louis, no matter how much it’d hurt or how deeply I’d still felt for Zach, I’d genuinely thought this chapter was closed.
Now that I knew better, I also knew that I would never take one day, one kiss, or one moment with him for granted.
We’d been to hell and back to get as far as we had, and as I pushed his shirt off his shoulders, I vowed that I would not only make the absolute most of every moment, but also that I would work every day to banish whatever lingering guilt, remorse, or regret might still be living inside him over what had happened before.
And I would do the same thing for myself.
This was our fresh start, our new beginning, and I wouldn’t let either of us go into it hung up on the past. My fingers slid from his shoulders down his sides and I started on his fly. He shuddered and I smiled .
“You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?” I whispered against his lips.
“Being married?” he groaned, sliding an arm around my waist and hauling me closer to him. “I’m loving it. Just wish we’d done it sooner.”
“No more of that,” I murmured, slowing my movements and opening my eyes when I pulled away just far enough to look into his eyes.
“Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. We’re not going into that still thinking about the past. I wish we got married sooner too, Zach, but we have to believe that everything we went through happened for a reason. ”
“A reason?”
I inclined my chin in a nod. “Maybe we were too young to have made it work back then or maybe we needed the experiences we had apart to fully appreciate what we have now, but whatever it was, we’re here now. You’re my husband and I’m your wife, and that’s all that matters.”
Those green eyes flicked from one of mine to the other. He lowered his mouth back to mine and took it in a searing kiss. “I love you, Adeline Westwood. If you want me to let it go, I can do that.”
“Yeah?” I didn’t even try to hide the shiver that ran through me when he called me by the name I’d been doodling in my notebooks since high school. “Be like Elsa and let it go, Zach.”
“Who?” He frowned. “I don’t remember ever meeting an Elsa.”
I groaned. “God, the girls are going to have a field day with you once they find out you don’t know who that is, but for now, let’s just say yes. I want you to let it go.”
He crushed me back to him, answering me with his body and the intensity of his kisses, and letting me know that he was completely in for turning over a new leaf.
A few moments later, he had me pinned to the bed, his body fitted against my side and his leg draped over my knees to keep them where he wanted them.
The towel was gone. My skin was flushed from a combination of him and the hot water in the shower earlier. Zach’s ran his gaze and his fingertips up and down the length of my torso, slipping them around my nipples and tracing circles.
“My wife,” he murmured under his breath, glancing up at me with that sexy, cocky smirk. “You have no idea what that makes me want to do to you.”
“Tell me,” I breathed, desire unfurling like a dragon deep inside. “Or show me. Whatever you want, but do it soon.”
He toyed with my nipples until they were hard, sensitive peaks. Then his fingertips skated slowly back down between my legs. I was so wet, I could feel it, my breathing getting labored as I struggled to stay still while he touched me, feather-light and reverent.
“I’m not rushing tonight, Adeline. I’ve waited too long for this.” His fingers finally slid further down, but he didn’t let them near where I wanted them until I was writhing, bucking into his hand, and on the verge of begging.
When he finally circled my clit, I whimpered and nearly started levitating, wrapping an arm around his neck to keep myself anchored to this plane of existence.
Zach seemed to be in a totally different league tonight, playing a long, slow game that involved his fingers and his mouth, and he kept every movement measured and deliberate.
He slid his fingertips around my clit once more before moving them down to my entrance, all the while either watching me closely or kissing me. He pushed first one finger and then another into me, never breaking his rhythm even as he kissed a line down my body and settled between my legs.
With his lips and his tongue on me seconds later, my muscles locked up and I started trembling, but he never picked up the pace, keeping the pressure just light enough to keep me hovering right on the precipice.
Finally, we worked together on freeing him from his pants, and the second he settled beside me again, I wrapped my fingers around his shaft, groaning when I realized he was hard as iron, hot, and practically pulsing in my hand.
I took a page out of his book no matter how much I wanted to speed things up, though.
As desperate as I was for both of us right now, he was right.
We had waited a very long time for this and I wanted to drag it out too, just exploring each other’s bodies and limits without a clock ticking or any disasters waiting to happen.
No one was going to tear us apart ever again, and it seemed only appropriate to take all the time we wanted now that we finally had it. Plus, neither of us knew how long it would be until we finally had a whole night to ourselves again.
We kissed and moved together, time losing all meaning.
We spent the rest of the afternoon just loving each other every way we knew how.
When he finally sank into me, my entire body was sensitive and alive with anticipation, my entire being focused only on him.
Zach’s eyes were on mine as he slowly fed himself inside, his fingers wrapped around mine high above our heads.
Almost his entire weight was on me and it was so delicious that pleasure was sparking through me before he even started moving. Both of our chests were heaving, but when his mouth lowered back to mine, I decided even oxygen could wait.
There was nothing between us tonight, not for the first time, but still. The heat of his skin against mine and the way he felt without even the thin cover of latex between us was indescribable, taking me to all-new heights as his lips crashed into mine over and over again.
I arched into him, my nails pressing divots into his skin, but he didn’t even seem to notice, let alone mind. Instead, his eyelids were heavy, his entire expression one of complete rapture and concentration.
My muscles tensed all over again and I lifted my head, seeking his lips for another kiss. This time when he crashed into me, I felt the change in him, instantly knowing he was close to losing control. The rhythm of his thrusts was different now, faster and harder, his kisses becoming almost sloppy.
“Let go, Zach,” I whispered against his ear. “I want to feel you.”
His breathing faltered, but the next thing I knew, he was shaking, every muscle locked as he moaned my name and swelled deep inside me.
I hadn’t really needed a trigger, so worked up that I probably could’ve just looked at him and gone over the edge, but feeling him lose it inside me with nothing between us made me a lost cause too.
Pleasure crashed into me from the heavens above, starting at the very core of my being and exploding outward in waves of absolute bliss. I heard shouting, and in the back of my mind, I knew it was me, but I was too far gone to try to keep it down.
Shuddering underneath him, I had no idea how long it took before we collapsed, both of us slick with sweat and completely breathless. He pulled me with him, rolling me until I was half on top of him and pressing a kiss to my hair as he wrapped his arms around me.
“I love you, Mrs. Westwood. Give me a few minutes and I’ll get back to proving to you exactly how much.”
I laughed, exhaustion already tugging at the edges of my consciousness. I cuddled into him, my eyes drifting shut. “Okay, husband, but you don’t have to do it all tonight. We’ve got the rest of our lives together, remember?”
“Yeah,” he murmured against my hair, sounding completely beat himself. “That was a hell of a way to start though, right? So why wait to do it all over again?”
I didn’t respond, only just managing a nod before I drifted off to sleep. He wasn’t wrong, though. We didn’t have to wait. We’d never have to wait again. Well, not for very long, anyway.
But I’d also never have to wait to fall asleep beside him again. Never have to wait to hold him, or kiss him, or tell him I loved him.
This right here was everything I’d ever wanted, a second chance to do first love the right way, and now that I had it, it felt better than I ever could’ve thought it would. Better than I ever would’ve been able to imagine—and it was all because it was him.
Zach Westwood, my husband, my best friend, and the guy who’d always had my back. Even way before I’d ever let myself believe something like this could exist between us.