He breathed out a laugh. “Thought the whole point was to take advantage of this great big bed.”
She unhooked her legs from around him and slid to the floor. Slipping her hands under his shirt, she tugged it up and off him before pressing up on her tiptoes and nipping his bottom lip. “I’ve misled you. The whole point is to have you inside me.”
With a groan, he gripped her around the waist, tugging her up and against him as he lowered them both to the bed, right over the clean laundry. He notched himself between her thighs and pressed down hard against her heat, knowing by the arch of her back, by the speed of her breaths, by how tightly she gripped his hair, that she wanted this now.
In the months they’d been together, he’d learned every facet of her. Every shadow, every secret was now for him, and he loved every complicated, unique, incomparable inch.
He thrust hard and brushed his lips down her neck, eliciting a loud moan from her. “We’re gonna have to get those sounds under control.”
She slapped her left hand over her mouth and caught her next moan with her palm. But that wasn’t going to do. For the next month, they may have to be quiet, but he sure as fuck was going to hear her sounds now.
He gripped her wrist, brought her hand to his mouth, and pressed a kiss on her wedding ring before pinning her arm above her head. “Tonight, those noises are mine.”
After stripping her down, he worshiped every inch of her body with his lips, tongue, and hands. Made her call out his name before he yanked her to the edge of the bed and stared down at this gorgeous creature. This wild thing that had somehow settled with him. His wife. Her ring glinted at him as she cupped her breast, running her thumb back and forth over her nipple, a mischievous smile curving her lips.
He never could’ve imagined this would be where he’d end up. Wherethey’dend up. Never could’ve foreseen that using downpour for the first time meant she’d be on that life raft with him for the rest of their lives.
It might’ve started out as nothing more than a lie to get the kids, but as he slid inside her, as he stroked them both toward their peaks, he knew he’d never felt anything more real than Nat’s love.
If someone had told Nat a year ago that she'd be spending her Saturday nights at The Willow Tree with her sisters and their husbands—okay, and one not-quite-husband-but-might-as-well-be—after having just dropped off the two kids she was now responsible for at her parents’, she’d have thought they were high. But her life had changed in inexplicable ways over the past year—ways she wouldn’t alter for the world.
This had become their routine of sorts, as sporadic as it was, which she guessed was a routine for her all the same. If they were in town when Asher finished writing a song, they swung by The Willow Tree so he could test it out on a crowd. Havenbrook’s local bar wasn't exactly Bluebird territory, but it helped him get a feel for how people would react to it nonetheless. Finn, Drew, and Nola were all too happy to allow him to play whenever he wanted, as it usually brought in a full house.
She, Asher, and the kids had arrived back from their adventure along Route 66 a couple months ago, and while the trip had been challenging in wholly new-to-her ways, it had also been the most fun she'd had in as long as she could remember. So much so, they already had their next trip planned—this time to British Columbia in a couple months.
Despite how much Nat loved Asher, June, and Owen, she couldn’t deny there’d been a part of her that’d been worried about staying tethered to them—and to Havenbrook. But she should’ve known better. She’d been tied to Asher nearly her whole life—whether they were in the same city or not—and that hadn’t changed. The only difference now was that she wore his ring, and he wore hers.
That full-bodied warmth she got while he played hadn’t waned at all in the time they’d been together. No matter how often she’d witnessed it, she was still snared by his gaze every single time. And, just like it had at Will and Finn’s wedding, it felt like he was singing only to her. Thank God her parents had taken the kids for the night because Nat was certain she and Asher wouldn’t make it two steps in their front door before she had her hand down his pants.
She shifted in her seat, forcing herself to quell those thoughts as she leaned into Asher's side. No sense in getting worked up with her sisters surrounding her and still an hour or more before she and Asher could be alone.
“Are you nervous?” she asked.
He turned his face toward her, tipping his head down, and brushed his smiling lips across her temple, his thumb whispering over the curve of her shoulder as he rested his arm against the back of her chair. “Nah.”
“No pukin’ back stage?”
“First of all, you’re lookin’ at back stage.” He patted his guitar case that sat propped against the table. “And second, every time I play here, it's like playin’ Will and Finn's wedding.”
“What do you mean?”
He lifted a shoulder, his gaze pinning her in place and shooting heat to all her good parts. “I just play to you.”
Nat wasn't a swooner. She didn't gush. That was Will’s area—which her sister had proven all night as she’d watched, complete with a dopey smile on her face, her husband hold their five-month-old daughter, Lily, snuggled up against his chest. But still, Nat couldn’t deny Asher had a way of bringing out her heart eyes. Heart eyes she’d never known existed until he came along.
“You’re just sayin’ that in hopes of gettin’ lucky tonight,” she said.
“Correction…” He leaned forward and nipped her bottom lip before sucking it into his mouth. “I’m sayin’ that even though IknowI’m gonna get lucky tonight.”
She had to force herself not to lean into him. To throw an arm around him and tug him even closer so she could get lost in his taste and his sounds. “Awfully sure of yourself, aren't you?” she said on a breath. “Maybe I won't feel like it.”
Without restraint, he threw his head back and laughed, severing their connection, and she had to fight her own lips from tugging up at the corners in response. When he met her gaze again, his eyes were dancing with amusement. “Literally every other time I've played publicly says otherwise.”
“Quit doin’ your teasing-banter-pre-sex ritual,” Mac said with an eye roll, snapping Nat out of her Asher-induced haze. Her sister sat across the table next to Hudson, their positions mirroring Nat and Asher's.
“Fuck off. We do not do that,” Nat said, attempting to put as much force in her tone as possible, because…yeah. Hadn’t she just been worried about showing too much of that around her sisters?
Rory huffed out a laugh and shook her head. “Don't pee in my rose bushes and tell me it's rainin’, Nat.”
