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SOUNDTRACK: In Your Eyes – 2012 Remaster by Peter Gabriel

~ SAM ~

My heart thundered in my ears and tingled in my skin.

“Sam—”

“Babe, are you sure? I want this. I want you. I want to be here, but—”

“I’ve missed you so much… but I’m scared,” she whimpered, her face buried in my neck. “Every time I’d think about calling, I’d remember that picture and you didn’t tell me and—”

She cut off and pulled back, still holding me, still clinging, but her head pulled back and she met my eyes, her own shining with tears that trickled down her cheeks.

I stared back at her, letting her see me. Feel me. Know me.

She looked back and forth between my eyes like she was finding different answers in each. I held my breath and let her search. I’d grabbed her when she jumped at me and my fingers were digging into her ass. It was the best feeling in the world. But that fear was back in her gaze, and I knew… I had to wait. I had to let her run if she wanted to. We weren’t going to get past this as long as she didn’t trust me to go when she told me to .

Her throat bobbed and more tears fell over her lashes. “Sam, I’m so scared.”

“Me too, babe,” I whispered honestly. “But it doesn’t change that I love you.”

“Doesn’t it?”

“No.”

She swallowed again, eyes still locked on mine.

“My father… How many times did you see him?”

“Just that one time.” Then I remembered the call, and my body went tight. This was so fragile. She was still thinking. If she heard…

But what choice did I have?

I swallowed back my fear and prayed. “But when I said my number was compromised, it was by him,” I said all in a rush. “If you’ve still got the first burner, destroy it. He has the number. The new one, no one has that. I bought it tonight on my way here.”

She blinked and I saw the fear again.

“I’m telling you the truth,” I whispered and my eyes burned. “Bridget… God, this is hard. I know it was wrong to keep that from you. But I’m telling you the truth. I never gave him my number or yours. I never gave him anything. He’s just… I don’t know how he does it.”

She closed her eyes suddenly and let her head tip forward to rest on my shoulder. I instinctively tightened my grip on her, afraid she was about to pull away. She blew out a breath.

“I believe you,” she whispered into my shoulder. “I believe you. I don’t know if I’m crazy or conditioned but… I believe you, Sam.”

I almost laughed, but it felt so fragile. I was so uncertain. Except…

We stared at each other and I held my breath, waiting for her decision. Her brow crumpled.

Then she lifted her chin and her eyes were sparking behind those tears. “I’ve missed you so much. You have no idea!”

I blew out the breath I’d been holding. “I think I do, babe—”

She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me before I could finish .

It was such a shock, for a second I just stared at her. She realized I wasn’t kissing her back and she stopped, pulling her head back.

“Babe… are you sure? Really sure?”

She nodded. “I’m miserable without you. And terrified. Sam… please. Don’t go.”

Thank you, God.

With a growl of frantic need, I pinned her back against the wall and took her face in my hands and kissed her with every ounce of need and desperation I’d been feeling for weeks. I was gasping, growling, unable to get close enough.

Bridget gasped when she came up against the wall, but pulled me in and returned the kiss with every bit of the frantic, teeth-clashing need I gave it.

I’d never felt anything like the roaring tidal wave of need that washed through my body, from my groin which was pressed against her and pinning her to the wall, all the way out to my tingling fingers and toes. Desperation ran in my bloodstream so that I shuddered with it and had to hold myself back before I devoured her.

But I should have known she’d have the same reaction.

She whimpered when I pinned her, growled when I kissed her, and started clawing at my hoodie like some kind of animal.

I eased away from the wall intending to carry her back to the bedroom, but she hissed no! and started shoving at our clothes. I never took my mouth from hers, my breath rushing into her mouth, and hers in mine.

I was wearing sweats and as it turned out, she was wearing nothing under my hoodie. It took her bare seconds to free me, and she gasped audibly when I immediately nudged at her.

“Fuck Bridget, are you sure?” I groaned, rubbing myself against her, praying, shaking, screaming inwardly that I had to wait until she was sure—

“If you don’t take me right now I’m going to question everything,” she hissed, then dove for my mouth again—but only for a second, because I dragged both hands down to her ass, lifted her, and plunged into her, bellowing as we became one and my soul shook with pure, unadulterated bliss as I slid home.

Home .

She was my home.

Bridget’s head dropped back against the wall and I dove for her throat, teeth, tongue, lips. I wanted to devour her—and moaned as she pulsed around me.

“Please, please, please… God, Sam, please—”

Cupping a trembling hand over her head, holding her back, I tore out of the kiss and thrust into her, locking eyes with her, and holding her there.

“My beautiful…” I rasped. “My fearless… my hot as fuck wife,” I groaned and took her again. And again. “Don’t ever leave me, Bridget. Don’t do it.”

She gasped with every thrust, her jaw jumping. “I love you—”

“I’m yours, babe. All of me. To my fucking soul.”

I thrust again and her eyes rolled back, her nails digging into my scalp because she’d plunged her hands into my hair. “I’ve never wanted any woman the way I want you,” I breathed. Something flashed in her eyes at that and I clung harder. “Don’t leave me, babe. Don’t.” I dropped that hand to her chin and made her stay there with me, eyes locked as fiercely as our bodies. She gasped again. “And you’re mine.” I hissed the words through gritted teeth, trying to keep myself together, but frantically fighting the urge to hump her like a fucking dog because I couldn’t get enough.

“Yes!”

“Bridget—”

“Don’t stop, Sam. Please. I need you I need you I need you—”

I couldn’t give her space, couldn’t risk it. Not even a breath between us—and she didn’t want it either, because she gripped me. Grabbed at me. Pressed back in until we were grinding together, barely moving. I prayed her body was exploding with need like mine. Because this between us was electric—charged, crackling, threatening to sear my skin.

Then her eyes hooded and she started saying my name, over and over, soft cries that became sobs as her body tightened on me.

At least, I thought it was my name, but her lips did strange things… and it was only as I reached that trembling edge and was about to come, when I tipped my head forward so we were ch eek to cheek, and her breath fluttered in my ear, it was a different word.

“Safe…” she whispered, and whimpered, and cried. “Safe… Safe… Safe.”

I came like a fucking freight train in the same moment she tensed in my arms and her head snapped back, and then we tumbled, head over heels, heart over heart, mind over soul, back down to earth together.

And when I blinked back to reality, my poor, broken, beautiful wife was clinging to me, mouth open, sobs wracking her frame.

I could do nothing but hold her and thank God she hadn’t run.