Her eyes grow shiny with tears. She walks slowly to me, stopping a mere footstep away. She lets me take her hand.
“Maura, I’ve been in love with you longer than I’ll ever admit in public. Embarrassingly long. Possibly before you even liked me. No one's ever made me feel as alive as you have, and I’d rather have twenty fiercely lived years with you than fifty empty ones without you.”
I take the box from Maura’s hand. “After the accident, my parents’ belongings were boxed up and stored for me. One of the boxes held my mother’s engagement ring.”
I open the box, and Maura’s hands fly to her mouth when she sees the rectangular blue diamond on a slender white gold band. The complete opposite of her reaction to my first ring. I know, without a doubt, that she loves it.
“I never thought I’d want to give it to anyone,” I explain. “She would only want me to give it to someone I loved. I know she would be proud for me to give it to you.”
Her full lips curve into a smile. “And I would be proud to wear it.”
“Wait a second, let me ask you first.” I laugh. “Will you marry me, my beautiful wife? Properly, by choice?”
Tears break free from Maura’s eyes, and she laughs at the same time that she cries. “Yes! Yes, James, yes.”
I slide the ring on her slender finger and kiss her knuckles. “It looks perfect.”
“It is. It’s so,somuch better than my first ring—which was beautiful,” she adds quickly. “It just wasn’tthis.”
“You’re right. This is better.”
I stand and pull Maura into my arms, setting my lips against hers. Her lips part for me, inviting and wanting. Mine, for the rest of our lives.
Lifting her in my arms, I carry her to our now-shared bedroom. It's more colorful than it was when only I used it,Warm Fronthanging prominently over the bed. I only set her down long enough to peel off the linen dress she's wearing. I sink to my knees in front of her, dragging her panties down her legs.
“Lie back on the bed for me, wife,” I instruct her.
She crawls backward onto the mattress, her head nestled on the pillow. I strip off my shirt and trousers, feeling her eyes on my body as she takes in the view.
“Like what you see?” I ask, raising a brow.
“Yes,” she purrs. “I love looking at my husband.”
Growling, I circle a hand around one of her ankles and slowly kiss my way up the soft, pale skin. I crawl up over her while I kiss her everywhere. On her calves and thighs, her hips, the soft curve of her stomach. Territorial asshole that I am, I can’t wait until everyone can see she's pregnant with my child. So that every man who so much as looks at her will know that she belongs to me.
I prop myself up on my arm beside her, so I have full access to her body without crushing her belly. I kiss her shoulder as she wraps her hand around my length. Fuck, I love the way that looks. As she pumps her hand up and down, her chest heaves with shallow breaths. I lower my mouth to suck on her breast. A small chest suits her frame, but I love every way the pregnancy is already changing her body.
I thrust shamelessly against her hand while I feast on her breasts and neck. Every little sigh that falls from her mouth just makes my cock throb harder.
I drag my teeth along the juncture where her shoulder meets her neck and she sighs. “James…”
Hearing my name from her lips almost makes me come before I want to. Gently, I move her hand from my cock to my hair as I slip down her body and settle between her spread legs. I sink my mouth into her slick pussy, lapping at her wetness. I love the way her hips arch up toward my face. I love how my wife shamelessly takes her pleasure when I eat her out.
My hands skate over her thighs and belly, while her hands grip my hair tightly, pulling me even closer. I’m surrounded by the musky scent and taste of her, and it makes my cock throb against the mattress. I wish I could tell her how fucking sweet her nectar is, pouring on my tongue, but that would mean I’d have to stop tasting her. Right now, that’s not something I’m fucking capable of doing.
“Oh, god,” Maura moans. “Yes, James, yes.”
Her hips rock faster and faster, chasing the pleasure I know is spiraling up through her body. My fingers tighten around her hips and I hum, adding to the vibrations of my mouth. I refuse to relent until her legs spasm over my shoulders.
“Oh, fuck!” she screams as she comes all over my mouth. I wait till her legs are done shaking before I raise my head and slowly lick every drop of her off my face. She looks down at me with lust-drunk eyes.
“I love hearing your pretty mouth swear when I make you come, wife.”
Her lips curl into a smile. “Maybe you should make me do it again,” she teases, and I grin.
“It’s like you’re reading my mind. Lie on your side now, Maura.”
Satisfaction still unfurls in my belly whenever she does as I say. When she rolls to her side, my cock pulses.
