We collapse. A sweaty, tangled heap of limbs and heavy breathing, and thundering hearts.
I don’t pull out. Can’t. Won’t. My cock stays buried inside my wife while I press lazy kisses to her shoulder. Her neck. The spot behind her ear that always makes her shiver.
Eventually, she turns her head. One eye open. Looking thoroughly destroyed.
“You’re gonna kill me, Beau Redding,” she mumbles into the pillow.
“Can’t. Just married you. Gotta keep you alive for the honeymoon.”
She snort-laughs. “There’s more?!”
I grin against her damp skin. “Baby, we haven’t even left Texas yet.”
She groans dramatically, burying her face. “My poor vagina.”
I chuckle. Low, dark. Press a kiss to her spine. “She’ll survive. She’s tough. Takes after her owner.”
“I can’t believe you just called my vagina tough.”
“It’s a compliment.”
“It is NOT.”
I laugh. For real. Full and deep. The kind of laugh I didn’t know I had in me before her. I carefully ease out of her, and she makes a soft sound…half protest, half relief. I grab the warm towel I’d left on the nightstand and clean her up. Slow. Gentle. Between her thighs, over her belly, down her legs. She watches me with her big brown eyes, all soft and glowing.
“You always take such good care of me,” she whispers.
“Always will.”
I toss the towel and pull the blanket over us. Tuck her into my chest. Her cheek against my heart. Her fingers tracing lazy circles on my ribs. My ring on her hand, warm between our bodies.
We’re quiet for a while. The candles burn low. The house settles around us.
“Beau?” she murmurs, half-asleep.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
She shifts, tilting her face up. Her eyes are sleepy and full and so beautiful my chest aches.
“For not letting me talk myself out of this. For showing up on my porch that first night and just…” She shakes her head, smiling softly. “And for being so damn sure. Even when I wasn’t.”
I tighten my arms around her. Kiss the top of her head.
“Knew the second I saw you, Ina. Told you that. Wasn’t ever gonna let you slip away.”
She snuggles deeper into my chest. “Stubborn bull.”
“Your stubborn bull.”
She hums. Happy. Content. Mine.
“Beau?”
“Mm?”
