“Iwantyou to be my wife. I chooseyou.”
“But I’m such a crappy wife,” she splutters.
“What?” I scowl, because that’s absurd.
She cringes away. “I’m so useless at being your wife. I’ve been trying, but I know I’m?—”
I grab her chin, and force her to look me in the eyes.
“Who made you think that?” The words come out with all the sinister promise of “Who hurt you?”. I will tear whoever did this to her limb from limb.
“It’s just a fact! I read about what it takes to be a good wife, and I can’t seem to do any of it!”
My jaw falls open in utter shock. For a second my brain refuses to comprehend something so unexpected.
Then I get it.
“You don’t need to be perfect, or good, oranythingother than yourself,” I enunciate carefully, holding her chin tight so she can’t look away. This is like jumping out of an aeroplane, praying that your parachute works. “Because I love you.”
She stills in my arms. “You love me?”
“Yes.” I look down into her brown eyes that I will never tire of looking at, and nothing matters except her. My grip tightens on her jaw. “Do you love me?”
Panic flits across her face, then she whispers the words I’ve been waiting my whole life to hear. “Yes. I love you too.”
It’s my turn to shake now, as emotion overtakes me.
“That’s all you need to do to be myperfectwife, Ruby. Love me, and don’t let go. I couldn’t bear to lose you.” And god, I came so close today.
“I wanted to be good for you,” she whispers again.
We’ve been such idiots. I had no idea.
“You werealways good,” I tell her, and feel her relax slightly. “I love you. I think I loved you from the moment you fell into my arms.”
“Ran into you…” she corrects me, a smile beginning to light her eyes.
My head spins, then there’s absolute clarity.
I need her. She’s mine.
“Fuck it.”
Her gasp is the last thing I hear through the blood pounding in my head, and I kiss her. I kiss her with all the desperate longing in my soul. All the love that I’ve repressed and denied. I’m holding her neck so she can’t get away even as she kisses me back with the hunger and enthusiasm I’ve dreamed she might have for me. Equal to mine for her.
We kiss, and kiss, and it’s messy and wet from her tears, and there’s probably blood on our clothes. I need my tongue in her mouth, and everything is angles and unwanted space between us.
Part of me would really, really like to fuck my beautiful wife over the dead body of a man who tried to separate us. But that’s messed up, and although maybe she’ll get to my level of insanity, for her first time, Ruby deserves more. A bed, sweet words, comfort. Orgasms. Being absolutely railed without risking interruption or infection.
I scoop her up and lift her, and she wraps her legs around my waist as I kiss her and hold her as close as I can as I walk away from the corpse of my past and to our bedroom to consummate our marriage. To ensure that Ruby knows thoroughly that I’mhers, and she’s mine, and I’ll never let her go. She never has to doubt me.
I kick the door shut behind us and she grasps at my clothes, and I tear at hers.
My hands shake as I push her jeans down and tug them off her ankles. My cock has risen to the occasion, and pushes against the zipper of my trousers. And when Ruby’s inexpert hands fumble, I groan. But I keep caressing her perfect little arse, holding her snug to me.
It’s as though my body has decided the only thing that matters is her being closer, then closer still.
I want to be inside her, of course I do, but I can’t manage to stop touching her or dragging her against me.
