Bonus Chapter
The town hall hasn’t changed since I was a little girl, sitting in the chairs while my father droned on and on about what was best for the town.
Except now, I’m the one talking.
“With all due respect,” I say, keeping my voice pleasant, which is surprising even to me, given the man standing across from me. “Rosehill’s yearly budget hasn’t been reviewed in over a decade. Wouldn’t you say it’s time?”
Richard Campbell, my opponent, makes it clear that he thinks he’s the smartest person in every room. Based on his red face at a single argument, I’m starting to think he fills those rooms with people who wouldn’t dare challenge him.
“Mrs. Whitmore—”
“Price,” I correct, looking over at my wife. She’s in the front row, where she would probably rather be anywhere else, but comes to these things because she loves me. She smiles at the correction, while Mr. Campbell looks uncomfortable at the reminder of who I’m married to.
He clears his throat, looking away to address the audience. “The point is, these kinds of changes require experience. They require—”
“Thirty years of sitting on your ass while the park fell apart?” I ask. “I’ve seen the pictures, Richard. Would you want your grandchildren playing on that equipment?”
“Now, that’s not—”
“There’s a lot more where that came from.” I fold my hands on the podium. “I can’t help but wonder where the budget is going if not to protect the kids of this town.”
The crowd erupts, talking amongst themselves. Richard doesn’t have a clean answer for that, pausing and mumbling a bunch of nothing. I have my own theories about where the budget is going— into the pockets of the wealthy members of the board.
But I don’t say that. I let his silence speak for itself.
“Can you believe him?” I say for the third time. “I don’t know how this man has been re-elected so many times. He’s a fool, is what he is.”
“He sure is,” Lily agrees, glancing at me from the driver’s seat with a quirk of her lips. “But you were great.”
I reach across the console and squeeze her knee. She puts her hand over mine, leaving it there for the rest of the drive.
She’s quiet in the car, I notice. The radio is down, and Lily doesn’t talk. That’s not like her. She always has something to say. Someone to complain about. She doesn’t even take the bait to trash talk Mr. Campbell.
We get out of the car and go inside, and she still hasn’t said anything.
“Hey,” I say, reaching for her arm to stop her. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
“Yeah.” She sets her keys on the table by the door. “I just—”
“What?”
“I need you.”
I blink. “What?”
“I need you,” she repeats. “Right now.” She crosses the entryway in a few steps, and my back meets the wall. Her hands land on my cheeks while mine come up to rest on her waist. “I have never in my entire life—”
I meet my wife’s eyes, the woman I’ve loved since I was a child, with pink cheeks and wide green eyes, begging me for something without saying it.
Sixty years old, the two of us. And she’s still flustered because she wants.
I love her so much I don’t know what to do with it. There’s not enough room in my heart.
“Okay,” I say, pulling her closer for a chaste kiss to her lips.
“I’m serious. I almost—” She tips her forehead down, resting it against mine. “Watching you up there, destroying that dick—”
She kisses me, cutting herself off.
I cling to her shirt, my fingers curling into the fabric as she makes a low sound against my mouth.
“It was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” she says, pulling back just enough to look at me.
I can’t help but laugh, and she smiles against my jaw, her mouth dragging down to my neck.
“Stop laughing,” she complains. “I’m being serious.”
“I know you are.” I tip my head back to give her better access, my fingers threading into her hair when she finds the sensitive spot beside my ear. “That’s why I’m laughing.”
She pulls back to look at me, and there’s this look on her face, the one that still catches me off guard after everything.
The openness of it.
She never let me see it before, but she doesn’t have to hide anymore.
“I’m so proud of you, you know.”
My throat tightens at her words, and the fact that she can say them. “Lily—”
“I’m serious.” She brushes the hair back from my face. “You walked in there with your head held high, no matter what anyone thinks. Imagine if us, at eighteen, could see you now. Running for the council, married to me… Unapologetic about all of it.”
“I love you,” I tell her, even though it doesn’t feel like enough.
“I love you too.” She kisses my mouth one more time. “Now take off this dress before I rip it off.”
We strip off our clothes, the way we do every night, making up for lost time. Lily lies back against the pillows, and I follow her down. My mouth finds hers, but I don’t linger there for long. Instead, I kiss her neck, down to her chest, licking over her nipples.
She makes that little sound that tells me she’s holding back.
It’s my goal to bring her so much pleasure that she forgets to be quiet.
Her hands are in my hair, on my shoulders, tugging on me with an urgency she rarely has. She’s been wound up since we left that town hall, and when I reach her pussy, she’s drenched.
“Diana—”
“I know,” I say, taking the opportunity to lick up her mess. But as much as I would love to stay here, dragging my tongue through her folds, circling her clit with my tongue until she pushes herself against my face—
I think she needs more.
When I look up, her hair is spread out against the pillow, and her pale cheeks are pink. She’s watching me, already completely undone, her hands twisted into the sheets.
“Tell me what you want.”
When she opens her mouth but doesn’t say anything, I know what she needs. I always know, even if she doesn’t want to tell me.
I hold her gaze, watching her expression as I slide a finger inside of her, her eyes closing in pleasure as she lets out a quiet groan. “Do you want me to fuck you tonight, sweetheart?”
She nods, her legs spreading more for me as she bucks against my finger.
“Hurry,” Lily complains as I make my way over to the dresser and tug open the bottom drawer. We’ve done this twice since our wedding, and watching Lily take something inside of her—
It was mind-blowing.
She’s always been so beautiful.
She props herself up on her elbows to watch me, impatience all over her face, and I still can’t believe I get to have this. It stops me in my tracks sometimes. What I could have had, if I had only been brave the way she was all those years ago.
What I missed out on—
“Stop thinking,” she says, interrupting that train of thought before it gets too far.
I nod, taking a moment to settle between her thighs. I drag the toy against her, too light for anything but a tease, to see her reaction. And she never disappoints, sucking in a breath, tilting her hips for more, always so desperate for whatever I give her. But I move it away.
“Diana,” she warns.
I line it up with her opening, before she can get too angry, pressing in slowly. Her lips part. Her head tips back against the pillow, letting out a deep breath. She’s stunning like this, taking what I give her perfectly.
I move it inside of her, pulling all the way out before pushing back in, watching as her pussy swallows every inch of the toy, speeding up to see what she can take.
“God,” she breathes out when I hit a certain spot, covering her face with her hands. I do it again, same angle, a bit more. Her thighs shift, spreading wider as she fucks herself on the toy.
“You can go faster—” she says through her hands.
“I know what I’m doing.”
“Diana. I swear to god.”
I bite back a smile. “What?”
“You know what.” She lifts her head off the pillow to look at me properly, and even now, flushed and undone, thoroughly frustrated with me, she’s so lovely, I can hardly breathe. “Stop playing with me.”
“I can’t help it, sweetheart, you’re so beautiful like this.”
I shift onto my knees, spreading my own legs enough to slide my hand down to my clit, circling it with my finger as I fuck my wife. She makes a helpless sound, tearing her eyes from the ceiling to my body, and I shift closer to give her a better view.
“I need you, Di,” She moans, reaching for me.
I ignore her pleas, fucking her harder, faster, watching her face as she loses all control of herself. Her hand on my thigh squeezes painfully, and that makes me want even more, my fingers coated in my own arousal.
I keep moving, finding a rhythm that works for both of us.
It’s not graceful. I still don’t have much experience with this.
But it’s warm, and it’s love. It’s us. The sounds of our bodies and our desperate moans.
Watching each other as we both come apart.
It’s everything I’ve dreamed of, and it’s what I get to have.
My heart aches with how much I love her.
Her breathing is shallow, her eyes moving up to meet mine from where she was watching my hand. “Diana, more.”
“I know, sweetheart.” I fuck her harder, harder than I would ever like, but I know she enjoys. The sounds of the toy fucking her fill the air, bringing me closer and closer until we both find our release.
Her back arches off the mattress, and she squeezes my thigh hard, pulling me over the edge with her, dripping onto the comforter as I lean forward, losing my grip on the dildo when my thighs clench together.
After, we do what we always do. Clean up. Put the toy away. I slide into bed behind Lily, pulling her into my arms. She turns her head to face me, resting her head on my chest.
Her favorite spot, she claims.
Her fingers trace a pattern on my chest, down to my nipple, where her fingers are a light tease that makes me squirm and push her hand away.
“You were torturing me on purpose,” she says, staring up at me.
“A little,” I admit, kissing her forehead.
“You’re lucky I love you,” she mutters.
“You have no idea how much I know that.”