Page 37 of Burn Bag (Owens Protective Services #31)

KAVANAUGH

“Son, do you plan on being married for long?” the man who stood just a few feet from me asked.

“What?”

“Because right now, you’re headed for d-i-v-o-r-c-e. Take it from a man who’s been there.”

“Listen, I think I can handle a little grocery shopping on my own.”

“Is that right?” he asked, a smirk playing on his lips. “How long have you been married?”

“A week,” I muttered, snarling at the grin forming on his lips.

He barked out a laugh, pressing the heel of his hand to his watering eyes. “Christ, son. A week and you’re already having a blowup in the grocery store?”

“There are special circumstances,” I argued.

“I don’t care what those circumstances are. There are only two ways to answer when you’re talking to your wife. One will keep you on her good side, and the other will put you on the fast track for a divorce.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. I couldn’t believe what he was telling me. “You pander to your wife? ”

“I would now if I was still married. Divorced twice. And it ain’t no picnic.”

“If you’re divorced twice, how do I know anything you say will help?”

“Trust me,” he chuckled. “You’ll see immediate results. You know, my old man always told me you can either be right or you can be happy. It’s your choice.”

Either be right or happy. I rolled that around in my head and frowned. “That means there’s no winning.”

“Ding, ding, ding! The man has a brain!” He clapped slowly, mocking me with his smirk. “Do you think they don’t do the same for us?”

“Pander?”

“Exactly. How many times have you heard a woman praise her man?”

I thought about what I had heard around the guys and their wives. The women always gushed over how amazing their husbands were. “I guess they do it a lot, but?—”

“But nothing. They’re not doing it because they think their husbands are amazing. They’re doing it because men need praise. If they want anything done around the house, they have to give praise. Oh, you’re so amazing. I couldn’t have done that without you. Sound familiar?”

Daphne hadn’t done that yet, but I’d heard similar from the other wives.

“That’s because every time a woman praises her man, his chest expands exponentially and he feels like Superman. Makes him want to do better. Works the same in the bedroom,” he winked.

I almost cringed at the last part, but focused instead on the important things. “Wait, so you’re saying that women basically pat us on the heads like dogs to get their way?”

“More or less. And we lap that shit up,” he laughed. “My wife had me running in circles for her. Every time I did a project outside, she gushed over how good a job I did. And it works in other ways as well.”

Now I was really fucking curious. “What ways? ”

“ Honey, I can’t seem to change the thingy in the ceiling.

I just don’t know what to do.” He raised an eyebrow at me.

“She knows damn well that thingy in the ceiling is a smoke detector. And she knows how to fucking change it. She just doesn’t want to.

But by playing fucking stupid, she gets her man to do the work for her.

” He sighed, rubbing his hand across his jaw.

“And the sad thing is, now that I’m divorced, I wish there was a woman who pretended not to know how to change the smoke detector.

It’s a sad, lonely business when you’re all alone with no woman to please. ”

Was I doomed to be him? Was I going to end up sad and alone because I argued with my wife too much over salad? Christ, I couldn’t have my marriage end at a grocery store. I would be the laughing stock of the company.

“It was nice talking to you.”

I rushed past him as he called out, “That trick works both ways!”

I didn’t want to decipher what that meant right now. Instead, I was on a mission to find my wife and ensure that she would never leave me because I was too stubborn to let her get the brand of food she liked.

When I found her, she was hauling yet another bag of litter off the highest shelf, about to flatten herself like a pancake. I rushed to her, but it was too late. The bag slid off another one and rushed at her like a waterfall, sending her flying backward.

I called out to her just as the bag flattened her to the floor. Only her arms and legs were visible underneath the gigantic bag. “Daphne!” I rushed over and grabbed the bag, tossing it aside as I stared down at my wife, eyes scanning for any apparent injuries.

“Are you okay?”

“Peachy,” she muttered. “I think I cut my lip.”

I grabbed her jaw as gently as I was capable of at the moment and studied her bruised lip. “The skin isn’t broken, but it’s red. Are you okay other than that?”

She nodded and started to push herself up, but I grabbed her elbow and did all the work for her .

“Jesus, you couldn’t fucking wait for me?” I snapped, anger surging through me. “You could have seriously hurt yourself!”

Instead of the snappy retort I thought she would shoot back at me, tears filled her eyes as she ducked her head. Fucking tears. Christ, I was a horrible husband.

I snagged her around the waist and pulled her against my chest, rubbing her back as she cried into my shoulder. “I’m so sorry. It just scared me.”

“You? A giant bag of litter almost killed me!”

“I know, and I’m sorry I yelled at you.” Fuck, I was really screwing this all up. “Can we make a deal from now on that we’ll shop together? You pick out the food and I’ll set it in the cart. No more of you shopping on your own.”

“I think shopping together is a terrible idea,” she mumbled into my arm. “All we do is fight.”

“Not anymore. I will keep my opinions to myself and let you pick out whatever you want. I will only take things off the shelf and set them in the cart.”

“That’s just silly. I can shop by myself.”

I stepped back and shot her a disbelieving look. “If I hadn’t been here, you would have been suffocated by cat litter. I’m not sure the doctor would believe me if I had to take you in again.”

Sighing, she thunked her head against my chest. “No one said marriage was going to be this hard.”

“No, they didn’t,” I agreed, rubbing my hands up and down her arms. “We’ll figure it out. It can’t be that hard.”

She snorted. “Said no one ever.”

“Seriously, it can’t be that bad. We’re just on a sharp learning curve. Things other couples have already figured out, we’re miles behind.”

“Lightyears,” she corrected. “I don’t even know your favorite food.”

“Steak,” I grinned. “When in doubt, always assume meat is my favorite.”

“And what about drinks? ”

“Mostly water, but when I relax, beer does the trick. Anything harder and I won’t remember my name.”

“I already figured that out,” she smiled. “Condoms?”

I grimaced. “Hate ‘em. But I wear them.”

“Not anymore. You’re my husband.”

“Well, I think the gigantic step of getting married is enough for one year. We really don’t need to add a baby to the mix.”

“I’m on birth control, and I’m super good at taking it. Like, I never miss a day.”

“Never?”

She thought about it, then opened her mouth and sighed. “Well, the day I was hungover was the one day. But that never happens. Speaking of…”

“Condoms?”

“No, sex. We haven’t…”

“Well, I was attacked by a cat. It sort of killed the mood.”

“I figured, but…you know, technically, we haven’t consummated the marriage.”

“I’m well aware,” I answered, my voice low and gravelly. Fuck, I was going to get hard in the grocery store. “I have my reasons.”

“Reasons like…”

I glanced around, catching the old lady just a few feet away, listening curiously. “I hardly think the grocery store is the place to discuss this.”

“Right,” she said breathlessly, pushing away from me, blushing brightly. “We should probably finish shopping.”

“Yes. Food. It’s good for eating and cooking.”

“Eating and cooking is good,” she repeated. “We should definitely do that.”

“Right.”

I swallowed hard, wishing I was anywhere other than in the middle of the grocery store. But I was, and I had to tame my cock before everyone around me knew exactly what I was thinking of doing to my wife.

“Home. We should probably go home.”

I shoved her through the front door, my tongue already fucking her mouth as I tore the clothes from her body. As soon as her shirt was over her head, I grabbed her by the ass and hauled her up into my arms, kicking the door shut as I stormed for the stairs. Fuck, I needed to be inside this woman.

“It’s been too long,” I mumbled, brushing my lips across her collarbone.

“Since you had sex?” she gasped, gripping my hair in her hands as she brought my lips to hers.

I stumbled up the stairs, barely keeping us upright as she sucked my tongue into her mouth. I made it double-time and kicked the door shut behind me, tossing us both on the bed as my hands got to work on her shirt.

“Since I last tasted you,” I answered. My teeth grasped onto her bra and tugged as my fingers worked the back side. I couldn’t wait to get those tits in my mouth.

The latch came undone seconds later and her breasts were free. Tossing the bra aside, I sucked her nipple in my mouth, groaning as she gripped my hair and tugged hard. Fuck, I was going to come in my jeans if I didn’t slow this down.

But I couldn’t stop the runaway train we were on. I needed to be inside her, to feel her pussy wrapped around me, strangling my cock. Spinning us, I propped her over my legs and worked her pants off while I switched to her other breast, circling her nipple with my tongue before sucking on it.

“So fucking beautiful.” My hands slid over the smooth skin of her ass that filled my hands just right.

Every inch of her was so fucking perfect.

It took way too fucking long to rid her of her pants, but as she straddled my thighs and rubbed her pussy against my dick, I realized something very important.

In just seconds, I would be sheathed inside my wife. This was a first for both of us, and it was going to be fucking amazing .

“Bradley,” she whispered, her lips brushing across my neck. “Don’t stop. I need you.”

She ground herself against me again, and this time, there was no stopping me. I shucked my jeans, balancing her precariously above me, then stroked my cock as she slowly tore herself from my body just long enough to look down at my straining erection.

A laugh burst from her lips as she tossed back her head, instantly deflating my ego. “Oh, thank God!”

I scowled at her, wondering what was so funny about my dick. I’d never had any complaints before. “Something wrong?”

“No.” She grabbed both sides of my face and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Not at all. It’s just…when we were standing at the altar, I was trying to figure out why a man like you would have to find a woman online, and the only thing I could think of was…well, that you had a tiny dick.”

My jaw dropped open as I stared at my wife. “That—that’s immediately what you thought? I must have a tiny dick?”

“Well, look at you. Tall, handsome, sexy as hell with a killer smile…And those eyes. Beautiful. There’s no reason I could come up with that any woman would willingly walk away from you.”

My chest swelled at her words. I’d never had a woman so openly adore me, and I had to admit, yeah, I fucking liked it. “Keep going.”

She surprised me by wrapping her hand around my cock and slowly pumped it. I sucked in a breath, praying I could keep it together with the feel of her gripping me so tightly.

“And then I met you, and…” She bit her lip, shaking her head slightly.

“Other than the grocery store fiasco, you’re amazing.

I mean, I’ve never had a man make me feel so incredibly wanted in all my life.

The way you look at me, the way you stand in front of me to protect me…

” Her eyelids fluttered before she stared me straight in the eyes.

“The way you got so jealous of Fox and nearly punched him…Sexy as hell.”

That shocked me, but all I could think about was how close I was to coming as she stroked my cock and my ego. “You…you liked me getting jealous? ”

“To know that a man is jealous over another man talking to me? Yeah, I’d say that earned you about a hundred bonus points.”

“I have no fucking clue what that means,” I panted, trying desperately to hold on.

“Bradley,” she whispered in my ear, nipping at my earlobe.

“Yeah, baby.”

“I need your cock inside me.”

I nodded, gripping her hips and lifting her into position. That cute little pussy hovered over my weeping cock, and the moment I felt her heat touch me, I knew I was a goner. Slowly, she sank down on me, her tight pussy sucking me and devouring my cock.

“Fucking hell,” I groaned as she seated herself all the way down on me. “Don’t move.”

I pressed my forehead to hers and did my best not to blow my load right then and there. I needed a second to get a grip on things so I didn’t blow it the first time I had her.

“Do you have any fucking clue what you’re doing to me?”

“Probably the same thing you’re doing to me,” she whispered.

I leaned back and rolled her on the bed until I was on top of her, thrusting slowly inside her. My cock hit her hard and deep, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted her screaming my name.

“You’re so beautiful,” I murmured, sliding my tongue along her collarbone.

“Your eyes, your cute button nose.” I trailed my tongue down to her breast, taking small bites along the way as I thrust inside her again.

Drawing her nipple between my teeth, I gave a sharp bite, grinning when she let out a gasp of surprise.

“This pussy,” I grumbled, shoving two fingers inside with my cock. “Fuck, this pussy is so amazing. I curled my fingers, hitting that spot that had her squirming.

“Bradley!”

“That’s it, baby. Fuck, say it again.”

I slid my fingers from her pussy and hitched her leg up, wrapping it around my waist as I started fucking her hard and fast. I grabbed her hand, interlocking our fingers.

She squeezed me, biting her lip as I drove her over the edge.

Her legs spasmed around me, shaking as she came on my cock, and then seconds later, I spilled my seed inside her.

“Fuck,” I muttered, my whole body shaking from how hard I just came.

I rested my forehead on her chest, kissing her breast as I let my cock slip free from her pussy. I never wanted to leave this bed. Not if she squeezed me like that and made me feel like a fucking king.

I pushed to my knees and grabbed her under the arms as I climbed onto the bed and rolled her on top of me. Her heart hammered in her chest as she laid splayed over my body just as I wanted her.

“I’m squishing you.”

I let out a throaty chuckle and kissed her head. “You wish.”

“Bradley?”

“Yeah, baby?”

I waited for her to say whatever it was that was on her mind, but instead, she just sighed and pressed a kiss to my chest. “Nothing.”

And that nothing sat between us like a lead weight as I drifted off to sleep.