“I’m on the edge, Lincoln,” she says hoarsely. “I’m right on the edge.”
I am, too. But I need to look in her eyes. I want to be looking into her eyes when I make her come.
She yelps then giggles when I grab her by the waist and fling her on her back. Then I crawl over her.
“Hi.” I grin down at her, wasting no time entering her pussy again.
“Hi” She grins back at me, breathing hard.
But then I tug on her clit and lunge my hips forward. The smile drops off her face, replaced by a slack jaw and eyeballs rolling back inside her head. She sucks in all the oxygen in the room as I pound her with thrust after thrust.
And she breaks.
I watch her face contort into a mask of unbridled beauty, and red heat rushes across her skin. Her spine arches off the bed and she wordlessly mouths my name.Lincoln.
It’s her beautiful ‘O’ face that sets me off. Something inside me explodes, shaking me to my core. My cock jerks and white noise fills my head as I empty in jolt after orgasmic jolt.
When the last of the shockwaves has passed, I pull myself from inside her. Harsh breaths rattle my chest as I struggle to recover, and all I can think of is getting Jules into my arms. Pulling her as close as humanly possible.
I tug her up against me and she doesn’t fight back. Instead, she drapes her arms around my shoulders and plasters her sweaty body to mine. Our heavy, unsynchronized heartbeats pound through each other as we come down from our mutual high.
I steal a sidelong glimpse at Jules where she’s contentedly nuzzled at my side, and I feel completely lost. This woman is so perfect, so special, so unpredictable. Every minute I spend around her, I’m struggling to keep my old identity together.
Where Jules is concerned, none of the rules I’ve always followed seem to apply. Yet, I wouldn’t change a thing.
“Why are you staring at me, Raines?” she mutters without even shifting her eyes to meet mine.
I chuff. “It’s annoying that you’re so gorgeous,” I admit.
One manicured eyebrow jerks upward. “Excuse me?”
With my knuckle, I tilt her chin, forcing her to look at me. “You’re gorgeous. Painfully so. You use all that pretty privilege to drive me insane.”
Jules cracks up, laughing. “Privilege? Privilege is something I’ve never had, Lincoln. Everything I possess, I’ve earned through sheer fucking grit. I’vefoughtfor. Don’t you dare minimize that.” When she says that, it’s not anger. It’s pain I hear in her voice.
She sweeps her lips over mine, then her legs swing out of bed. I watch her perfect ass sashaying side to side as she disappears inside the bathroom and shuts the door.
Jules’s words linger in the air. The hurt I heard in those words makes me feel off-balance. It’s a feeling I can’t shake.
I don’t want her to have to keep fighting for her place in the world. I want to be that one corner of the universe where she can always put her armor down. I want her safe place to be…me.
A few minutes later, she returns. I hop out of the bed and quickly use the bathroom, too.
When I get back to the bedroom, I find Jules awkwardly sitting on the edge of the mattress. She glances at me, shyly pulling at the hem of the long T-shirt she’s now wearing. Like she’s not sure what happens next.
But I have no doubts in my mind.
I crawl beneath the covers and lift the edge to invite her in. “Come here.”
A little smile plays at the corners of her lips. She gingerly scoots up next to me and settles in.
I take her in my arms. And I hold my wife.
33
JULES
I’m waiting on the cracked sidewalk with a smile when Cameron bursts out the elementary school doors and comes running toward me.
