Page 113 of The Incendiary

I had been extremely careful with her on our wedding night and every single time thereafter. I made sure she was soaked and worked her with my fingers until she came a few times before carefully sinking inside her, to avoid her straining to accommodate me. I suspected she’d been sore for the past ten days, but not enough to stop her from climbing on top of me and initiating.

And then last night, she begged me not to hold back. I was good at many things, but I wasn’t good at saying no to her.

I could only hear her moan, “I trust you,” “I’m yours,” “I love you,” “Please,” and “More” so many times before the feral, possessive beast inside of me unleashed.

After, I held her tight against my chest as she came down from the high that we found together. She felt everything so strongly, and her emotions easily ran rampant. She needed to be held, and I’d be content holding her forever.

I smiled into her hair as her eyes fluttered open. She covered my chest in kisses before sliding her arm beneath mine, wrapping it around my torso, and burrowing in deeper. “Good morning, husband,” she sighed. Her warm breath on my skin sent gooseflesh across every surface of my body.

“Good morning, sweet wife.” I drew gentle circles over her forearm with my thumb. “Are you sore?”

She giggled into my chest but didn’t answer.

“Aryella.” I tilted her chin up, forcing her to meet my gaze. “Tell me. Are you hurting?”

She rolled onto her back, wincing from the movement. That was all the answer I needed.

“I always know I’m in for a scolding when you use my full name.” She stretched her arms above her head. My erection immediately grew impossibly hard when the bedsheet slid off her torso, baring the milky skin of her full breasts and perfectly pert, dusty-rose nipples. Fuck. I needed them in my mouth again. But I dropped my forehead between them where I decided to stay and listen to her pulse instead. “As if you could ever scare me.” She ran her fingers through my dark, shaggy hair. It needed to be trimmed. “Hey. Eyes up here.”

I obeyed and lifted my head, trying to keep from smiling. Because damn it, I was trying to be serious, and she made feeling anything other than joy and elation extremely difficult.

“You’re in pain, aren’t you?”

My eyes couldn’t obey “eyes up here” for long. She was too beautiful. They trailed down at the rest of her perfect, naked body, marked in multiple places where I’d sucked and bitten a little too hard. I wondered how she managed to look so angelic and freshly fucked all at the same time.

I heard the smile in her voice when she admitted, “Yes, but I like it.”

Fuck. A low groan rumbled in my chest. I lifted my gaze to hers again in warning, but the rest of me wanted to move down. “Don’t say things like that.”

“Why?” She dragged her finger down the center of my nose, stopping over my lips. “I’ve never felt more fulfilled in all my life. You don’t like to hear how much I love what your cock does to me?”

I barked out a surprised laugh. “What has gotten into you? Last I checked, you didn’t have a mouth like that.”

She gave me a coy grin. I knew what she was going to say, but I pretended otherwise.

“Well, you have definitely gotten into me.” She bit her lip to keep from smiling. My eyes darted there, wanting to bite it, too.

“Good one,” I snorted.

She hummed and resettled into my side. Her fingers stroked my abdomen through the thin layer of hair that covered my chest, ran down the center, and disappeared under the sheet. I sucked in a ragged breath as her hand moved lower.

“Are you happy?” I asked, stopping her. I wanted her hand on me beneath our sheets, but more than that, I was worried. I fought the impulse to smooth her disbelieving, furrowed brow.

“Gavin,” she began slowly. “I’m with you, my best friend and my husband. You’ve been doing nothing but making me come, holding me while I sleep, feeding me, and bathing me for a week and a half. How could I be anything but happy?” She ran her thumb over the thickening dark scruff on my cheek. “I’ve never been happier than I am in your arms. Are you happy?”

Happy didn’t cover it. With her, elation lifted my bones and warmed my soul into a state of bliss there were no real words for. “I’m the happiest man alive, Aryella Jay Smyth.”

She smiled against my mouth. We kissed for long and perfect minutes, tongues entangled, never tasting each other quite enough.

“I want nothing more than to be inside you right now, but it’s about that time.” I glanced out the loosely curtained window, kissed her forehead, and rose from bed. She needed to take her contraceptive the same time every day. Sometimes she forgot, but after she took it too late our second morning here, I never did. Keeping her from getting pregnant so soon was my responsibility as much as hers. I took my job to protect her and our potential family very seriously.

She drank the clear liquid, chased it with a glass of water, and handed both glasses back to me. “Would it really be so bad if I had your baby?”

I set the glasses down and made gentle circles with my thumbs on the top of her thighs. I slid them up to bracket her hips, holding her there, caressing the bare skin of her lower stomach.

Until her, I’d been adamant that I never wanted children. Now, the thought of her belly swelling with my child added another layer to the crazed possession I already felt.

I wanted everything with her.