Page 63 of Thaddeus

“I’m sorry.”

“We both are. No more apologies. That’s done. We can’t change the past, and maybe we shouldn’t want to. Sucks to say this, but maybe we needed that detour, as jacked as it is, the reasons why, but the last ten years has taught me never to take our time together for granted. It proved our love is everlasting. Think about that. Remember how good we had it, how fast it was taken, and now we learned that no matter what, we stick together. Me and you. A team. We don’t keep shit from each other. Not ever again.”

“I like that. We’re a team,” she whispered.

In the darkness with my arms full of a sleepy Emerson, it was easier than I’d thought to get her to agree to take another shot at us. I wasn’t a stupid man, I knew in the light of day, doubt would creep in and I’d have to work my ass off to keep her. But I knew one thing with certainty—Emerson was worth it.

* * *

I woke up with a hard-on and Emerson half on top of me. Her arm was in the same place it had been last night when we’d fallen asleep, but sometime during the night, she’d thrown her leg over my thighs and was pinning me to the bed.

I couldn’t stop my smile.

Fuck, yeah, this was how I wanted to wake up every morning. Scratch that, I wanted to wake up with Emerson pinning me to the bed, with a hard-on, and the right to roll her over and fuck her. The day would come, but that day wasn’t today. We still had too much to talk about. The day I’d slide into her again would be the day she recognized she’s mine again. The day she acknowledged that one day soon she’d be my wife. But not a day sooner.

Last night I got her to agree to give us a shot, but until I fully believe she’s on board I’m holding myself back. Not my heart, not my emotions, but my body. I knew we were good in that department. Sex with Emmy was explosive. She was dynamite in bed, gave world-class head, and would take as many orgasms as I could give her and beg for more. The woman could wear me out and often had. Best I’d ever had, without a doubt.

So knowing all of that, us being off-the-charts compatible in bed, I needed to work on all the other shit, like making sure her head was in a good place. Yesterday sucked for her, seeing her sister again for the first time and Autumn being who she was now, was going to fuck with Emerson. Especially after she got a good night’s sleep and had some time to dwell on it.

Fucking my woman was going to have to wait. And that sucked because right then with a hard-on and Emerson’s tits snug against my chest, her sexy-as-all-get-out leg cocked up, I really wanted to claim my girl and remind her of all the ways we were great together. All it would take was a small amount of maneuvering and she’d be perched on my dick and I’d be in heaven.

Emerson’s hand started roaming my chest and I fought the urge to toss my good intentions out the window.

“Never thought I’d have this again,” she murmured. “Thought I’d lost you forever.”

“Babe.”

“If this is a dream, I never want to wake up. I’d rather live in this dream with you forever than wake up and be alone. That would be the worst kind of torture.”

Fuck. She was killing me.

Her leg started to move closer to my crotch and I had to put a stop to it. I reached down and caught her bare thigh, blatantly remembering she was wearing shorts. My hand on her exposed skin made my dick throb. This was not going well.

“Emerson,” I groaned.

“Thank you for forgiving me.”

Goddamn, I couldn’t take it.

With Emerson’s leg still in my grasp, I rolled us so she was under me and I fit into the cradle of her hips. One hand in her hair, the other moving from her thigh to her face, I locked her in place.

Her gaze settled on mine and I was lost.

“Fuck, but I missed your pretty eyes,” I told her. “I dreamed about them. About how they looked sleepy like they do now, how they looked—full of need and want when I was fucking you. But mostly I dreamed of the way they looked when I did something sweet, and they got soft. I always knew how much you loved me, just by the way you looked at me.”

“Thaddeus,” she whispered on a slow blink.

“Kiss me good morning so we can get up,” I told her.

“Get up?”

The surprise on her face was cute as hell.

“Yeah, babe, get up. We have shit to plan and the sooner that happens the better.”

“Get up?” she repeated. “But…”

Emerson wiggled under me instead of voicing what she wanted. I ground down, making sure there was no doubt I wanted her.