By the time the men roll up in Alba’s driveway to pick up their wives, us women are already in the kitchen, tidying up our mess. We’re halfway through devising a marketing strategy for my new business plans. Everyone is relaxed and laughing, and I feel like I just made four new best friends.
Carol comes up to hug me. “We had such an amazing time with you and your girlfriends, Jules.”
“Oh my gosh, yes. We should all do it again,” Belinda adds, surprising me with a kiss on the cheek. “We’re going to need some new tips in a week or two.” She winks and struts away.
“I’ll give you ladies a call this weekend,” I promise, winking back. “And I expect progress reports.”
Lincoln appears at my side, whispering into my ear as the women each climb into the passenger side of the various sports cars and oversized SUVs. “Jules, what have you done?”
I giggle, shrugging tipsily. “I just equipped the ladies with a few sex tricks to try out with their husbands tonight. By morning time, you should receive news that you closed the deal.”
Lincoln’s jaw slides open. “Sex tricks?”
“You’re welcome,” I respond simply, turning my back on my husband.
He trails after me. “Wait. Any chance you’ll showmea few of those sex tricks?” he asks as I pluck my leather jacket off the coat hook.
“I bet you’d like that, Mr. Button-Up.” I eagerly pull Lincoln toward his car, laughing the entire way.
He jumps behind the wheel and buckles up.
He drives fast.
39
LINCOLN
Jules rolls over in the tangled sheets, shoulders heaving with ragged breaths. She curls up on her side in her post-orgasmic haze. Instantly, I feel cold without her skin on mine.
“Hey. Where are you going?” I mutter into her hair as I loop an arm around her waist and drag her ass up against my dick. “I want to feel your body next to me.”
We just fucked. And I came hard enough to demolish a skyscraper. Yet somehow, I feel my cock stirring again, ready for more of this gorgeous woman.
In the darkness, I can almost hear her grinning into her pillow. “Do your business partners know you’re a big, clingy teddy bear?”
I brush her hair out of the way and nibble at the salty skin of her neck. “Never. Some parts of me are reserved only for my wife.”
I feel the way her chest hitches when I say that.
Shit. I need to stop doing that. I need to stop confessing every thought that passes through my mind. I need to stop showingJules the effect she has on me. I need to stop feeling this way about her at all.
Jules acts like she’s strong, unwavering, untouchable. But I know better. Our weeks together have shown me that she’s a delicate woman. She’s just really good at covering up her softest parts under a tangle of poisonous thistle weeds.
I’m only complicating things. I’m making her grow to depend on me emotionally. And at the end of the day, the last thing I want is to hurt her.
And make no mistake—the daywillend, taking this marriage right along with it.
But for tonight, I pull her closer.
Finally, she turns over. Her arms drape around my neck and she flings a long leg over mine. The way she burrows her cheek against my chest feels too good, and there’s nothing fake about the way my heart pounds beneath my ribcage.
Mentally revising the events of the day, I chuckle into her hair. “I can’t believe you cussed out my business partners. Then you kidnapped their wives, got them drunk and then gave them an impromptu sex workshop in my brother’s living room.”
Jules props her chin on my chest to squint at me. Even in the dimness of the room, I can see the worry lines that form on her forehead. “Are you mad at me?”
I smooth out the lines with gentle fingertips. “Nah. Those assholes deserved to get cussed out. And if some good sex helps them be less of the raging sociopaths that they are, I’d call that a win.”
Jules laughs, dropping her lips to my collarbone for a kiss.
