Page 26 of Splintered Security (Aspen & Evergreen #2)
sex and coffee
Anni
Our week passes so quickly, I’m surprised when I wake up and it’s Saturday morning. I shouldn’t be. Except for last Sunday, I’ve woken each morning just like this, curled into Ren’s body, enveloped in his arms. Warmth and protection surround me.
I kiss his chest, right above his heart, just like every morning.
And like every morning since he made me his, he rolls me to my back and slides into me with a gravelly, “Morning, Wife.”
Some mornings it’s quick. Sometimes fast and rough. Rarely is it a slow build. But apparently Ren’s mood this morning is unhurried. He’s deep and it’s rough, but each stroke is measured and deliberate.
He hikes my knees under his elbows, changing the angle, but never losing my gaze. It’s as if he wishes his eyes could brand me like his cock is doing.
“Ren.” I arch my neck. “Oh God, Ren. I’m going to come.”
“Wait for me, Annika. Wait for me. ”
His thrusts are dragging across my most sensitive places, and I screw my eyes closed trying to fend off the impending waves of orgasm.
“Look at me.” It’s the desperation in his voice that makes me snap my eyes back to him.
“I… Hurry, Ren.”
A small smirk plays on his lips. “No. Just wait.” His words come between the strokes that set my insides to a spin cycle of pleasure. “I don’t want to rush this morning.”
I hold his gaze. “You keep hitting that spot and neither of us will be able to stop what’s coming.”
His eyes dance. “Challenge accepted.” He thrusts deeper, harder. His cock caresses that spot inside me that heightens every sense—a feeling I never experienced until him—and it thrums with my impending orgasm.
I focus all my energy on the feeling at my core and the gorgeous man looming over me. Not to mention, the heat he’s building and the fact that I’m without a doubt falling in love with him.
It’s not the sex, though it’s the best I’ve ever had. The fierceness, the protectiveness, the kindness. It’s his anger at where I’ve been mistreated. It’s his cooking, his laughter, and his lovemaking. It’s buying rings and wearing his own.
It’s the man.
It’s Lorenzo Gallo.
My brother’s best friend.
My childhood crush .
My husband.
Those two words and the pleasure at my core are all it takes. “Ooooh, God.” I seize and pulse and hang on to Ren’s arms as he ruts inside me, finding his own bliss and tumbling over the edge together.
I come out of my haze to see him staring at where we’re joined, gliding in and out.
“The most erotic thing I could see this morning. Your pretty pink pussy taking my cock, full of my cum.” He pulses in short strokes.
“I might get hard again just watching you stretch around me. I could live in this pussy. Never want to leave it.”
“You don’t have to, Ren. It’s yours.”
His nostrils flare, and his eyes dilate. His mouth dips to mine as he rocks, still fully seated. “Yeah, baby. It is. You are. Always.” And he takes my mouth while pressing deep, bottoming out.
He could go again. I could go again. But seeing as how we managed to connect every morning and every night, it’s hard to complain.
Except for when he withdraws, stretching me at my entrance with that round head, and leaves me empty without him. I mewl in protest.
“Lots of things I love, baby, but the whimper when I pull out of you is right up there. Love that you hate me leaving your body as much as I do.”
He kisses me as he exits the bed, returning with a warm washcloth, like every single time we’ve made love .
He stares between my legs, but doesn’t clean me up. He runs a finger from my pussy where his cum leaks from me to my ass, spreading himself over my sensitive flesh. He traces me there, his gaze intense. He runs a finger around my clit and back to my entrance where he presses a finger deep inside.
“My wife.” His words are solemn. A vow.
I close my eyes against the exquisite pleasure of his words coupled with his possessive gaze.
“Your wife,” I whisper back, but don’t look at him to see his response.
Ren
I never thought I’d want anyone in my house, in my life. I wasn’t opposed to it. I just couldn’t imagine that my life would be this much better in the way Anni has made it.
I assumed sometime in my life I might settle down, but I couldn’t picture it. I wasn’t raised with a family and didn’t necessarily want my own. Didn’t want a cold bed and my fist either, but that was always preferable to a contentious life.
So, being married and enjoying being married are not things I would’ve envisioned.
Every morning I slide into my wife. I get off and she does too. We drink coffee, and I go to work. As far as routines go, I can’t say I hate it. I used to work out. I’ll have to get back to that at some point, but I’m not missing out on cardio, that’s for sure.
I take Anni’s hand, bring it to my lips and kiss above her knuckles. I thread my fingers through hers, just like each morning this week, as we drink our coffee on the back porch.
“Are you a morning person yet?”
She gasps and yanks her hand from mine. “You evil man. Are you trying to manipulate me into being a morning person?”
“Depends. Are the sex and coffee working?”
“Horrible. I should divorce you over this.”
My body goes rigid, and my mind blanks. “Don’t ever joke like that, Annika. That’s not an option for me and you. We make it.” I stand, open the slider, and stalk to my office, leaving her alone outside.
I don’t know why I reacted so vehemently to her joking. Actually, I do know. This isn’t a joke for me.
What the fuck happened? Oh, I know. Anika Garver Gallo happened. She exploded into my life, made me want to protect her, then made me want to love her and be loved by her.
All of a sudden, I’m thinking like a chick? Fuck my life.
It doesn’t take long before she walks tentatively into my office. Her shoulders are slumped, and her chin doesn’t rise to me.
She rounds the desk where I’m tapping away at her old phone, and I open my arms, pulling her into my lap. Our need to be close—at least my need to be close—increases daily. I can’t not be with her, not touch her when she’s within reach.
She cradles into my chest, and I wrap my arms around her. “I’m sorry,” I murmur into her hair before kissing the top of her head. “I didn’t mean to snap at you, Anni. Forgive me.”
She says nothing, her chest rising and falling in my arms as she settles.
“I’m sorry, Ren. I wasn’t being serious. It was a joke.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t mean to make you mad.” Her voice is small. I did this to her.
“I’m not mad. I was, but…” I turn her to straddle me and cup her face.
I suck in a deep breath and lay out the honesty that scares her. “Number one, I’m proud of you. I know this could feel like confrontation, and you faced it head on. Number two, I wasn’t mad. I was hurt.”
“I—”
“Let me finish, Sunshine.” My voice is gentle as my arms squeeze her.
I’m not correcting her. I need to say what I need to say before I think better of it.
“Our circumstances dictated when we got married and how, but they don’t dictate our marriage.
Our wedding was to protect you. Our marriage is for us…
for our joys, our challenges, our ups and downs.
When I married you last Friday, I made you a promise. Do you remember?”
She nods .
“I told you I’d be faithful to you until I die.”
She sucks in a breath as her eyes hold mine like she can’t look away.
“Not until Giltenhouse is behind us. Not until it’s inconvenient. Not until we find better partners.”
I snake my left hand from around her waist and hold my ring up between us. “This means something. This is me committed to you, committed to us. To making us work. To taking care of you. I’ll fight for it, baby. I’ll fight for you, even if I have to fight with you for it.”
Tears well in her eyes, and her chin quivers.
“I’m not him. You don’t have to run to escape. But don’t threaten to take what’s most precious in this world from me without expecting a fight.”
“What’s most precious in the world to you?”
Dropping my forehead to hers, I close my eyes and relax into her.
“You, Annika. I’m sorry you doubted that.”
She pulls back and cups my jaw before kissing me. Her center rocks against my cock, stirring it to life. Moments later, our clothes are scattered around the office, and she slides down my rock-hard erection, face to face. Rocking slowly.
She’s in control. Making the choice to stay, to connect, to sink into us.
This isn’t frenzy. This isn’t fervor.
This is intimacy .
It’s apology and reconciliation in one.
“I’m falling in love with you, Ren.”
Her whispered confession pushes my heart into a free fall. My hands on her hips pull her down to be fully impaled on my cock as she rocks, rubbing me inside her.
I hold her eyes. “I’m not falling, baby. I’m there.”
I wasn’t lying when I told her I’d be faithful until I die. I just need to make sure that day isn’t tomorrow.