Page 51 of Landing Love

“Ann.” He gave her an inquiring look. “It’s completely up to you, but I don’t want you to feel like you have to go back to work for the sake of money. I can support you. You’re welcome to teach if that’s what you want to do, but if you want to stay at home with Junior, you can.”

She sat up straight, hardly daring to breathe. She’d been dreading going back with Junior still an infant. She adored her job, but another year would be a godsend. “Are you sure? I don’t want to be a burden to you. I love teaching, but with Junior so young and not sleeping through the night, I would love to take another year before I go back to work.”

“Take as much time as you like.” Bill smiled. “I make twenty-seven hundred a year. That’s more than enough for us to live comfortably.”

“Yes, it certainly is.” It’s more than Roger made as a junior accountant before the war, and once they bought a house, they wouldn’t even have to pay rent. They would have money to spare on a salary like that. “If it’s all right with you, I’ll send a letter of resignation today.”

“Of course.” He smiled and winked at her.

“Oh, this is such a relief, I can’t tell you.” An entire year before going back to work, and possibly more… She hadn’t realized what a weight of dread she had been carrying until it was lifted.

Bill finished off his sandwich and looked at her with a furrowed brow. “You could have asked.”

“I wouldn’t have dared.” Not yet. She hardly knew him. “I owe you too much.”

“You don’t owe me a thing, Ann. You’re my wife.”

She leaned across the table and kissed him, and he tugged her arm and pulled her onto his lap to kiss her more deeply. The warmth she always felt in his presence suddenly heated to a blaze. She craved her new husband ferociously, and from the way he was kissing her, it was clear he was in a similar state. Fortunately, Junior had dozed off in his crib.

He began unbuttoning the back of her dress, and she set to work on his shirt. She needed to touch him, feel his skin beneath her fingers. The blossoming heat between them engulfed her, and she let herself succumb. He stood up, still holding her close, and slid her dress to the floor. Her inhibitions slid away with it. All she wanted in the world was to be close to him, to feel the length of him against the length of her.

Fumbling with the clasps, he unhooked her stockings and unlaced her corset. She tore off his shirt, slid down his pants, and began unbuttoning his union suit. Too many layers! They all had to go so that she could touch and caress his naked flesh. He stripped her of her bloomers and chemise as she slid his union suit to the floor. They both stood naked, seeing each other fully exposed in the light of day for the first time.

They paused for a moment to take each other in. Good Lord, he was a handsome man—taller and thinner than Roger but with lean, sculpted muscles that made her mouth water. The look of utter adoration in his blue-green eyes absolutely melted her. A lock of his wavy chestnut hair broke free of his pomade and fell across his forehead as he gazed at her.

“In all my days,” he said, “I have never seen anything or anyone as breathtakingly gorgeous as you.”

Her mouth opened, but no words came out.

She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him hungrily, leading him back to the bed. As he pressed her down onto it, he found the secret spot she showed him last night and began to stroke. “This time, I want to watch you. I want to see the expression on your face.”

Soon, she was trembling all over and moaning his name. As she arched in the final throes, she pleaded, “Bill, I need you inside me. Please.”

A moment later, he thrust into her, embedding himself to the hilt. The slow, languorous caution of last night was gone, replaced by urgency and need. She responded in kind, arching to meet him. He thrust into her again and again, driving her to another pinnacle, she shuddered from head to toe with the force of it, and still he continued, his pace growing more and more frantic. As a third wave of ecstasy hit her, she felt the powerful pulsation of his release. They collapsed together onto the bed.

They lay panting in each other’s arms, and Junior began to fuss. Ann laughed. Of course, he would choose right now to make demands. She got up to get him and came back to bed, holding him to her breast as she snuggled up to Bill, who was sitting against the headboard.

“Are you satisfied with our canoodling, my lady?” he asked, making her burst out laughing.

“Is it not obvious?”

“Well, a gentleman doesn’t want to assume.”

Always the gentleman, even in this.

“Did the look of ecstasy on my face not tell you everything you needed to know?”

He gave a goofy sideways smile. “Which look of ecstasy? I think I saw more than one.”

Her cheeks heated. “Yes, you did. Three, in fact.”

“I’m going to miss you when I go away tomorrow.” He played with a lock of her hair that had come loose. “I never used to mind going away, but I think I do now.”

She nodded. “I didn’t think I was lonely before I married Roger, but once I did, I hated it when he went away.” Oh dear. Here she was talking about Roger again.

“Does it bother you that I’m going away?” He looked her in the eye and tipped her chin up with his finger.

“Yes,” she admitted. “But I know it’s your job.”