AllFreeNovel
Share Us
LILY
I wakeup in Nero’s bed—our bed—the sun shining through the open drapes and pooling, warm on my bare skin. I yawn, hazy with sleep, and the bone-deep pleasure of the night before.
“Morning, Princess.”
I turn. Nero is watching me, head propped up on one hand. He reaches over and brushes hair from my eyes, dropping a soft kiss on my mouth.
I shiver with emotion, last night rushing back to me. Not just the mind-blowing sex, but how Nero held me, tight in his arms, until I fell asleep, feeling safe.
Loved.
“Morning,” I whisper back. There’s a rare tenderness in his eyes. I’ve seen it before, but not for a while now. Not with all the fighting and danger consuming our emotion.
It makes hope flicker to life, somewhere deep inside me.
“How did you sleep?” he asks, pulling me closer.
I stretch my arms over my head and arch my back, smiling. “Like I just ran a marathon.”
He grins. “I should apologize… But I won’t.”
I nestle against him, head resting on his chest. I can feel his breathing, the steady rise and fall as he strokes slow circles on my naked back. It’s soothing, the steady weight of him, protecting me, and I can’t help wishing we could stay in this sunlit, morning bubble forever.
Nero must be reading my mind, or maybe he’s been thinking the same thing, because he tilts my face up to look at him.
“Listen, I’ve been thinking…” he says, “Instead of you going right back to hating me, how about we take a timeout?”
I sit up. “A timeout?” I ask.
“Yeah, no fighting or drama or mafia shit,” Nero says with a wry grin. “Just you and me, having a normal day, instead.”
I smile a little and decide to play along. “You mean, pretend we’re someone else? Like we’re… George and Mary from Ohio?” I say, plucking names at random.
Nero chuckles, bringing my hand to his lips for a kiss. “Why not? We’re just a boring couple from Cincinnati. I’m an accountant and you’re a…”
“Librarian, of course,” I add, enjoying this game. “I live a safe life among the books. And we live in a suburb, with an HOA and a perfectly green lawn.”
“Well, it has to be.” Nero teases. “The ladies from your book club would talk if I didn’t take proper care of the grass.”
“We wouldn’t want that,” I laugh, stretching against him. “And you could go fishing or play golf with the boys on the weekends. Oh, and I’m a member of the PTA, and I always sign you up for volunteer jobs at the school parties and fund raisers, which drives you crazy.”
Nero’s smile is bigger than I’ve seen it in a long time. “You’re good at this game.”
I pause. “I used to play it, just on my own. Imagine what life could be like… If my circumstances were different,” I admit.
I see guilt flash in Nero’s eyes. “But usually I’m off having fabulous international adventures,” I add lightly, not wanting to wreck the mood. “George and Mary are a whole new ballgame.”
Nero smiles again. “So, what do you say?” he asks. “Can we leave everything else behind, just for one day?”
There’s something in the way he asks that makes me think he really needs this. He’s showing me a side of himself that is rarely seen, an unguarded depth that he keeps hidden most of the time. It’s enough to make my decision.
“Okay, George,” I grin, kissing him lightly.
Nero’s grip tightens, and I feel him swell, hard under my lap. I pretend to gasp. “But honey, this isn’t our normal time for relations,” I tease, wriggling on his stiff cock. “Whatever happened to once a week, before the nine o’clock news?”
“I’m being spontaneous, Mary,” he replies. Then he climbs out of bed and scoops me up, pulling me into the bathroom as I laugh. Nero turns on the shower, and backs me straight under the warm spray, the both of us still naked.
“George,” I scold playfully, even as his hands glide over me, making me moan. “Whatever will the neighbors say?”
