“Your happiness is my happiness,” he said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. “So are you happy?”
I leaned back, staring down at my stupidly romantic husband. “Yes, Mr. Brooks, I am very fucking happy. I’m literally the luckiest woman on the planet, and it’s all thanks to my sweet, amazing, perfect husband.” I caressed his cheek with my hand. “I love you. I love you so very much.”
“Fuck, I missed you, Benny.” He tugged my mouth back to his, kissing me hard and deep. He kissed me until moans hijacked my lips and my hips started to move against his instinctively.
“So…about that whole thanking your husband thing?” he asked, smirking like the devil.
“Oh, yeah, about that,” I answered as I slid down his body. My lips found his skin and started a slow, seductive path down his stomach. “I’m feeling all sorts of generous this morning.”
“I’m loving the sound of this,” he said, his voice choppy.
“This morning,” I said, wrapping my hand around his cock, “my happiness will be all about my husband’s happiness.”
“That’s one hell of a cycle.”
The instant my tongue tasted him, he groaned.
“Fuck, yeah, this is definitely making me happy.”
New York, Saturday, May 14th, Morning
“Go ahead, Stan,” I whispered in the late morning sunlight of our bedroom. “Get closer. Come on, scoot closer. Really crowd her.”
Waking up to Georgie earlier was one of the best unexpected treats I’d ever experienced. I’d missed her an awful lot—to the point that I was starting to annoy myself. Long, drawn-out conversations with Walter and Stan weren’t my idea of an ideal reality. I’d needed my wife, I’d needed her surprise, and now, I couldn’t wait to give her another one of her own.
I turned to look behind me and found Walter looking on from the edge of the area rug, completely unamused. “You too. Get up here!” I whisper-yelled. “I need your help.” He narrowed his eyes at me, and I mirrored the gesture right back at him. “Don’t you want to show her our other surprise?”
Two more licks to his paw later, he finally moved forward and jumped up on the bed.
“Thank you.”
Now I’m thanking cats? Jesus.
“Get close, guys,” I instructed again, and for once, they listened.
Stan’s nose nudged under the curve of Georgie’s neck, and Walter laid his kitty paw on her cheek on the other side. She swiped and swatted and tried to shoo it away, but my boys were relentless.
“Georgie,” I whispered, trying to help her along on the trip from Sleepytown to Awakeville.
“Bratwurst,” she mumbled.
“Pickles,” she went on. I laughed. “Big-dicked—”
Hell yes!
“Thor.”
Fuck.
“Benny, wake up.”
She moaned and tried to move, but the animals wouldn’t let her, and finally, her eyes popped open in frustration. “Fucking space management, you little shits are a bigger problem than I realized,” she announced immediately, seeing them and not me.
“I tried to tell you.”
“Shit!” she shrieked, a hand rising to her chest as a flimsy shield. “You scared me to death.”
I smiled and raised my eyebrows. “Rough wake-up call, baby?”
“No,” she denied. “I was just surprised is all.”
“You’re drowning in paws.”
“Okay,” she hedged. “Maybe a little, but it’s no big deal.”
She was afraid I was going to take the dog back. Stan barked like he could sense it.
“I don’t know.” I pushed on, desperate to get her good and riled up. “I was afraid this would happen. There’s no room for me in that bed, and I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Kline—”
“No, Benny. If there’s a bed with you, I want to be in it.”
“We’ll get a bigger bed,” she offered quickly.
“This bedroom really isn’t big enough for a king.”
I was expecting her to get angry, but she just looked crestfallen. Shit.
Tears threatened the corners of her pretty blue eyes, and I knew I’d do anything to stop them. Striding to the bed, I shoved Walter out of the way with a hiss and cupped her cheek.
“Don’t cry, baby. I was just messing with you. Stan’s here to stay, I swear.”
Her waterfall of melancholy dried up faster than a raindrop.
“What the fuck? Were you faking those tears?”
“Maybe,” she admitted with a smirk.
Fuck. I would have fucking sworn those tears were real. “I don’t like this. I don’t like this one bit.”
“I’m sorry,” she laughed. “I promise to never trap you with fake tears if you promise to always keep Stan.”
I had no plans to get rid of Stan. Quite frankly, I kind of liked him. “Deal.”
She smiled again and wrapped her arms around my neck, and it took a full thirty seconds before I realized my perfectly crafted plan hadn’t been executed even close to the blueprints.
“Shit.”
“What?” she asked, pulling back to look at me.
“Nothing. Just…that didn’t go according to plan at all. I started that whole mess for a reason.”
“A reason?”