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"No, you don't."
"Well, maybe I need to start," she huffs, avoiding looking at either of us.
So Nash looks at me. And I look at Nash. Neither of us says a word. We don't have to say it. We've known each other for a long time, and we both know the gorgeous little goddess standing beside me. Something is up.
"I'll meet you at the car," Nash mutters to me, already knowing I'm going to handle whatever has my wife feeling like she needs to take up running. He waves at his sister and then slips out, leaving us alone in the kitchen.
She tries to slip around the island to avoid me, but I'm a lot faster than she is. I catch her before she gets two steps, hauling her up in my arms. A second later, I plop her curvy ass down on the countertop.
"Noah! I have stuff to do," she complains.
"Don't care. Why the fuck do you think you need to start running, Dimples?"
"Just because." She shrugs, still trying to avoid my gaze. That has warning bells alarming all over the place. Aspen doesn't avoid anything. She's a little firecracker. She tells me exactly what she thinks and always has. I fucking love her confidence and her attitude, and the way she doesn't take crap from anyone.
"Why, Aspen?" I growl, refusing to back down on this. Whatever she isn't saying is important.
"Because look at us!" she cries, flinging her hands out. "You get hotter every year, and now I have all this baby weight too. Yesterday, after you left the shop, these two girls were whispering about us, and it made me feel like we don't fit." Her lower lip quivers. "I hate feeling like that, Noah. I've never felt like that before."
I stare at her for a long moment, shocked and pissed off—not at her but that anyone had the nerve to come into her shop and make her feel any type of way. Fuck them for that. My wife is perfect.
"Come on." I shove the baby monitor into my pocket so we can listen for the kids, who are still asleep upstairs, and then anchor my hands around her waist, pulling her down from the counter. As soon as her feet touch the floor, I pull her through the house, practically dragging her to our office down the hall.
"Noah, what are you—"
I slam the door and then spin her around to face the mirror hanging on the back of it. She tries to fight me, but I've got a wife to protect and something to prove. She isn't going anywhere. Within seconds, I'm ripping her shirt off over her head, leaving her in nothing but a pink sports bra and her shorts.
I wrap my arm around her waist, anchoring her to me as my lips descend on the side of her neck. "You know what I see when I look at you, Dimples?" I growl against her skin. "I see the fact that this perfect body protected and nourished two of my babies. I see how much love you put into growing those little lives inside you. I see how much you glow when you look at them and how much they adore you."
"Noah," she whispers.
"You know what I think about when I touch you? I think about how fucking sexy you are and how goddamn lucky I am. I think about how beautiful you are and how incredible it feels to belong to a goddess."
She whispers my name again, her voice shaking.
"You're right, Aspen. We don't fit." I meet her gaze in the mirror. "We aren't equals. We never will be. I belong on my knees, worshipping at your feet." I drop right there, hitting my knees where I belong. When it comes to her, it's where I'll always belong. She owns me, body and soul. "I don't give a fuck what people see when they look at us. If they look at you and see anything other than the woman I breathe for, they aren't looking closely enough. If they look at me and see anything other than a man unworthy of you, they haven't looked hard enough."
She sobs my name this time, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"You don't need to run, Aspen," I murmur, looking up at her. "You don't need to do a goddamn thing to please anyone because you're already perfect. The only thing that changed when you had my babies is how much more I adore every line and mark now. I know the reasons for them, and every single one of them means something special to me."
"You're making me cry, Superstar!" she cries.
I pull her down into my arms, smiling when she immediately wraps herself around me and wipes her face on my shirt. She clings like a vine, hugging me tight. "Don't cry, Dimples," I croon. "You know how much I hate when you cry."
"Then you shouldn't have made me," she sniffles.
I palm her ass, nuzzling my face against her throat. "I love you and your body, Aspen. Don't ever doubt that."
"I k-know." She sniffles again. "I guess I j-just let them get in my h-head a little bit."
"Are they out of it now, or do I need to show you how fucking perfect you are?"
"Nash is waiting for you," she whispers.
"He can keep waiting. I'm precisely where I need to be right now. You and our babies are my main priority. You'll always come first to me."
"I'm okay now." She tilts her head back, letting me see those beautiful eyes. They're rimmed in red and a little watery, but she isn't bawling anymore. And she isn't refusing to meet my gaze. She looks settled again, her confidence restored. That's what I need to see. I can handle a lot, but my wife thinking that she's less than me for any reason? Unacceptable.
