Page 48 of Ripple Effect

“You can. You will,” he demands as he curls his back over mine. His hand slips away long enough for him to guide his cock inside of me. And just like every time since the first time, I feel like I’m whole because we’re connected in the most elemental way possible.

Cal begins thrusting, driving into me in short, quick strokes. His free hand not gripping my hip is alternately tweaking my nipples or circling my clit. I keep grinding back against him. My head is on his shoulder.

Bracing myself on one hand, I wrap the other around his neck. Cal, taking that as a sign, swoops my other out from beneath me. I cry out. “Cal?”

But his thrusts don’t miss a beat. Now, with both hands free, one glides up over my ribs to cup my breast, and the other notches itself between my legs, putting pressure firmly against the spot where we’re joined, the heel of his hand rolling firmly against my clit. His wicked mouth works my neck, and soon I’m chanting, “More, Cal. Yes, yes, God!” And driving down, I come again, this time around his cock.

“I’m coming, Libs. Just like that. Stay…” Cal’s voice breaks as he surges up into me, and his body jerks as he spurts deep inside of me.

Still joined, we collapse back against the sun-warmed sheets of the bed. “I love you. Of course I’ll stay,” I whisper in the quiet of the room.

I get a tight squeeze as a response.

My eyes start to drift shut. Just before I find sleep, I hear Cal whisper, “I love you, Libby. Always.”

Knowing that, I realize I really don’t partially care if we leave the hotel room for the duration of our honeymoon. The water looks just perfect from our room without us frolicking around in it to mess up the perfect ripples.

There’s time enough to do that at home.

32

Present Day

Elizabeth

“Ithought I knew what it was like to make love to Cal. Until my wedding night when I knew we were an irrevocable us, I had no idea.”

“There was a difference?” Dr. Powell asks, unperturbed.

I blush a fiery red. “Cal’s guard was completely down during our honeymoon—maybe for the first and only time during our marriage before the events on theSea Force.”

“So, it was a significant change?”

Crossing my legs in front of me, I wish I’d made us later than we were because the memories flashing through my mind are stirring my pregnant body up. “The difference of Cal before our honeymoon and during are like comparing a springtime shower to a hurricane. Or like when someone jumps in a swimming pool and you get splashed versus a tsunami.” I laugh softly. “We like to say we went to Grand Cayman for our honeymoon, but the reality is we could have been at the Super 8 off of I-95 for all we saw of the island.”

Dr. Powell smiles. “It sounds…”

I interrupt. “Like paradise. It was absolutely everything I ever wanted from the man I dreamed of.”

“So, what changed? When did you start to notice the cracks in your marriage?”

I feel the bite of my nails in my hands as I hold back my initial response. “I really don’t know how to answer that.”

“Try.”

“I didn’t notice any problems other than Cal working unusual hours. Occasionally, that would happen, so I didn’t think anything of it. That is, until…” My voice drifts off.

“Until you left.”

“Wouldn’t you?” I finally snap. “If you found yourself in the same situation I was in, would you not have walked away?”

He opens and closes his mouth. I’m waiting for the typical platitudes I receive from the number of people of his type over the years, so I’m floored when he answers, “Yes. Presented with the same evidence, I likely would have.”

I sag into myself. “Throughout the time I was filing for divorce, I was dying inside. Because I had a secret I still had yet to share with anyone. By the time I boarded theSea Force, I was ill with the ramifications of it.”

“Are you ready to talk about them?”

At that moment, the child growing inside of me rolls, reminding me that what happened on that boat wasn’t my fault. I’m nodding even as I answer, “Yes.”