37
MAKSIM
Iheld Carina close and noticed her breaths evening out. Keeping her in my embrace seemed like such a small thing to do, but it was what she seemed to need.
Comfort. Reassurance.
Love.
In a true one-eighty nature, I’d gone from the dark deed of killing her brother to the elation and brightness of hugging her tightly.
But that was life. That wasourlife, and we’d get through this storm of whatever she had to come to terms with now.
“I will never doubt you,” I told her sincerely. “In the beginning, I did. I had to. I didn’t know you and our arrangement was proposed in the middle of what I suspected was sabotage.”
She looked up at me and nodded. “I wasn’t too crazy about the idea either,” she admitted.
“I doubted why you were arranged with me and what you were really after. But once I opened my eyes and gave myself a chance to get to know you, to really understand who you are and all the potential you’ve held in for so long, there was not a single doubt in my mind.” I kissed her, hoping she could feel the honesty I shared if she couldn’t hear it and let it sink in.
“There will never be a doubt in my mind,” I explained.
She sighed before reaching up to kiss me. Deeply. Slowly. Hungrily, like coming close to me was the antidote to all the ugly emotions she warred with.
“Because I know you, Carina. I see you and I will never have to suffer the unknowns that I did when I brought you into my life.” I slowly walked her back toward the bed, placing my hands on her back to guide her as she peppered kisses over my face.
“I understand this isn’t easy for you?—”
“But it is. It will be. Now that there aren’t any more questions about what he was doing or plotting, there’s no room to guess or wonder. His death was inevitable. And I accept that my place, my role, and my purpose are to be with you. Here.”
I kissed her as I lowered her to the bed, not giving her a chance to escape my hold. Lying over her but off to the side, I secured her against me.
“We will both accept all the changes that life will have in store for us.” I meant that in terms of her brother being dead, the fact that we had a child on the way, and the overarching threat of my uncle seemingly back from the dead to cause more hell.
She slid her fingers over the back of my neck as she gazed up at me, clear-eyed and level-headed. Trusting me and listening to all that I promised.
Killing Arturo marked the end of his life and his ability to mess with her.
But it also marked the start of our lives without that problem of his influence needing to be solved.
“Iknowyou. And I love you. And you will never have to be stressed about me doubting you or where your intentions stand.”
She nodded, closing the distance between us to drug me with her sweet lips sealed to mine.
When we first met, sex was the common denominator between us. It linked us and tied us closer to each other until our heads and hearts could get on board with our marriage being the real deal.
Now, as she pried at my clothes and urged me to shed my shirt, it seemed like she was falling back to that strategy, the goal of stripping and feeling me as a distraction. As a means of venting her frustration and built-up emotions.
Perhaps it wasn’t healthy or wise to dive into physical intimacy when she was clearly emotional and not behaving logically. But she wasn’t under the throes of being illogical either.
I shifted up, hovering over her as I braced myself on one forearm to tug at her clothes. Peeling her layers off and exposing her bare skin felt like a chance to reduce us to the simplest form we could be together. It wasn’t a frantic race. It wasn’t a lazy exploration. We both stripped and shed our clothes in an unhurried but meaningful revelation.
Flush together, our softer body cushioned against mine, we had nothing between us. No clothes. No reservations or hatred or guilt. Naked and with our flesh rubbing against each other’s we were elementally stripped down to how we mattered the most.
As a man and a woman in love.
As a husband and wifemakinglove.
As mutual worshippers of each other.
