Ash reared back in shock.
Oops, that might have been a little more brutal than necessary.
“There is no one else!”
“Not even the woman you spend your nights with? Or was it women?”
Ash was stunned. “What woman? There is no woman!”
“Ash, I saw you! With nail marks down your chest . . . and all those nights you weren’t home.”
His lips twisted.
“I should have stayed to listen to you fucking the prick?”
Oh, this wasn’t going well.
“No, of course not. I . . .”
“Hearing you with him—it made me sick to my stomach,” he said angrily. “I couldn’t stay here anymore.”
“So . . . where did you go?”
“The pub.”
“Oh!”
He raised one eyebrow challengingly.
“Not . . . you weren’t with . . . women.”
“No.”
“But your chest? I saw you!”
He sighed and looked down.
“I wanted to. You were with the prick, so I wanted to. I met a woman to fuck. But when she . . . marked me . . . I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want her anyway.”
The expression on his face was dark, and I realized how that must have affected him—being marked by someone else. My heart squeezed painfully.
I tried again.
“We’re in a rather unique situation,” I said, understating wildly. “And I’m not sure what’s happening with us. But . . . I can’t sleep with . . . I can’t have sex with you if you’re going to have sex with other people. I know we’re not together in the traditional sense, or any sense at all in fact, but . . .”
His face relaxed and he pulled my hand between his own.
“You married me to help me, I know this. But I think there is something more, yes?”
“Well, yes.”
He stroked my cheek with gentle fingers.
“I don’t want anyone else, Laylay. My wife. Do you?”
“No, I really don’t. Then . . . we’re together? For real?”
I had a momentary qualm asking this question. Asking Ash to live with me in my world, I would be the never-ending burden. I wanted to take the words back and bury them somewhere deep.
But instead, Ash lifted my hand and held it against his chest.
“For real.”
I studied his face, trying to read every thought he’d ever had. It was bittersweet. Ash had chosen me, closing down other possibilities.
“I hope you never regret your choice,” I said, my voice breaking. “What if you stop wanting me because my body breaks?”
Anger flashed in his eyes.
“What if? That’s all you say! You hide behind it like a shield. What if you are in a wheelchair! What if you walk like an old woman!”
“You bastard!”
“I’m a bastard because I make you look at the truth? I don’t care about those things! You are my sunshine!”
My family and then Collin had shielded me from many of the highs and lows of life. But with Ash, each extreme would be part of our lives.
Together.
I sighed and leaned against him. “Take me to bed, Ash.”
His eyes glowed, passion firing through them. Then he lowered his head and kissed the back of my hand.
It was a sweet, old fashioned gesture, totally at odds with the lust I saw as he let his eyes stroll across my body, seemingly unable to choose between my breasts or my lips.
I helped make up his mind by folding my arms around him and tugging his head down so I could press my lips against his.
He opened his mouth, then proceeded to give me the hottest, slowest, most tantalizing kiss I’d ever had. He was telling me that he was in control and he’d kiss me the way he damn well wanted.
Playful Ash, serious Ash, flirty Ash—I couldn’t help thinking that sexy-as-sin Ash was proving to be my favorite.
His hips moved in a slow rhythm that may have been dancing or may have been back-to-basics grassroots grinding. I reached down for the heat between his legs, massaging the growing bulge at the front of his jeans.
A shudder ran through his body and he ground harder against my hand. I couldn’t wait to be skin to skin.
I unbuttoned his shirt clumsily, fingers deft as sausages as I tried to get at his bare skin. He laughed against my lips and lifted his arms so I could pull the cotton over his head.
Skin like warm silk, smooth and soft, covering hard muscle, my fingers dragged across the planes and ripples of his chest and stomach, then fluttered over the welts and scarred flesh of his back.
He grunted with relief as I unzipped his pants. His cock was pressing so hard against the seam, I was worried it would have a permanent zipper imprint.
I eased his clothes down, wishing I could drop a kiss onto the glistening head as my hands slid downward. But I didn’t. Maybe we’d get there one day, but we had all the time in the world. What a wonderful thought.
Ash kicked off his shoes, and rid himself of the rest of his clothes before prowling toward me. His eyes said, naked now! Mine replied, make me.