by Lauren Dane
She looked up, her smile widening when she saw him. “Are you all right?”
“Come on, Abbie. We’re going to my house where it’s warm and we can be alone. Yes, I’ll live to lead House Lyons another day,” he added quickly when she started to ask him again.
“I’ll escort you out to the conveyance.” Ellis got up and spoke into his comm before opening the door and leading them out.
Abbie knew she had to contact her family, but all she could think of was Roman. Of taking joy in touching him openly for the first time since she’d met him. At the conveyance, he helped her inside and slid in next to her.
Finally it was silent as the door closed and they pulled away from the front of the building.
“You did such an amazing job today. I was so proud of you. You did it, Abbie. You reached your goal through hard work and persistence.”
His words meant so much to her.
“Thank you. Thank you for supporting it. House Lyons supporting the proposal makes a huge difference. Despite what some will say.”
“Fuck them. You made this happen. You did. Not what we have together, but your work. And soon you’ll be House Lyons, too. Gods.” He hugged her to him and she buried her nose in his neck, loving that she still fit there just perfectly. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve been broken without you. And then people wanted to hurt me and I wanted to run to you but I couldn’t.”
His arms tightened around her and they pulled to a stop. “Come on, let’s go in. I want you here from now on. It’s safer than your flat and it’s at my side. Will you do that for me?”
She nodded, not able to express just how happy she was.
He helped her out and she followed, still amazed at the size and scope of the outside of the manse.
Dazed, she nodded until the door was flung open and the house manager—Mercy, Abbie thought her name was—rushed out and hugged Roman and then Abbie.
“Welcome, welcome! Oh it’s going to be wonderful to have a lady of the house again. And such a pretty one. Come inside! I’ve warned the boys they can only visit with you for a short time and then you two will need to be alone. Oh, I’ve been waiting for you to come to your senses, Roman.”
Abbie hid a smile at how the woman led them into the house, more like a mother than an employee. She liked that Roman’s staff seemed to like him as well as respect him.
But right then, she wanted to rub all over him. It’d been four weeks since she’d touched him. Four weeks with a broken heart, feeling alone and scared, like she’d never be happy again.
And there he was, his arm around her shoulders, openly loving her. It was nearly too much. She wasn’t sure what to think or do, part of her wanted to curl up and take a nap just to hide for a bit.
“Dai! Congratulations!” Corrin came in with Deimos and they both hugged their father and then looked to her.
“Abbie, it’s such an honor to welcome you into our family. You make our father whole. I can’t wait to get to know you better.” Corrin looked sort of tentative, and she supposed he had reason to be. He didn’t even have that small bit of exposure to her that Deimos had had.
“I look forward to that, too. Your father talks so much about you, boasts about your musical and artistic talent. I’m quite looking forward to seeing your paintings and drawings. I know neither of you know me that well, so it’s got to be a bit uncomfortable for you. Rumors will be flying around. I’m sure they are already. Will you promise to talk to me if you have questions or concerns?”
Corrin and Deimos nodded. The stiffness in Corrin’s spine had eased, which made Abbie feel better.
“Boys, Abbie and I have been apart for four weeks. We’ve got some stuff to talk about.” Roman glanced at the chrono on the wall just opposite. “Let’s meet back here for dinner in two hours, all right? And Mercy, will you arrange to get Marcus, Jaron, my parents, and Abbie’s family here, too? Make it a big party?”
Mercy smiled. “It’s already in the works. You two go on. I put some things in your room and I hope you don’t mind, Abbie, but I spoke with your brother Daniel and he’s going to be bringing some of your things over tonight.”
“No, I don’t mind. Thank you.”
Abbie let Roman tug her arm as they walked up a staircase as grand as the one in the Grand Council Chamber.
“Are you warm enough?” he murmured as she gawked at the majesty of the upper hall on the way to his room.
“Right down to my toes. I can see marrying you is going to be worth it.”
He laughed. “I have all the hot water you can use, too. But I think I might have some other uses you may be interested in.” He shoved open tall double doors and she wanted to gasp and only barely succeeded in holding it back.
“You sleep in here? My entire flat could fit in here.” The room was massive and sumptuous. The kind of place you could go at the end of the day and the world would fall away. Thick, lush fabrics covered the bed and a sunken seating area formed a half-circle before a large stone fireplace.
“Do you like it?”
“I’d like it more if you were naked. But this place is beautiful. I love it.” She turned around to take him in. The gaze that had been happy and filled with love just downstairs had darkened. The love was still there; the happiness, too. But want burned through his eyes, most likely mirroring her own.
“The doors are closed, mine—rather, ours—is the only room on this floor on this side of the house. Make all the noise you want. I know I will.” Abbie watched, fascinated, as he slid off his suit jacket and then unbuttoned his shirt. When he peeled it away, her heart thudded against the wall of her chest.
“So handsome,” she said. “I’ve dreamed of your body since the day you walked out my door.”
His hands paused on his belt as he toed off his shoes. Pain sparked through his gaze. “Never again, Abbie. I will stand with you until I cease to draw breath. Can you forgive me? For not being there when you needed me? For hurting you?”
She shucked her jacket and rid herself of her shirt, tossing it to the side as she moved to him. “It’s over. We’re here together right now, and that’s what counts. You were hurt, too, I know that. And I know you sent Ellis, and through him, my brother, to watch me. We’ll talk about that later.”
She shoved her skirt off and smiled when he caught sight of the bows holding up the stockings at the garters.
He fell to his knees before her, pressing his face to her belly and then against the front of her panties. The heat of his breath echoed off her skin, even through the material.
A tide of desire, of raw-edged need, rolled through her and she buckled. He caught her, lowering her to the rug that was soft and thick.
She watched, intoxicated with him as he stripped the last of his clothes and turned back to her, gloriously naked. “Hold on.” He got up and she angled her head to watch him move to the fireplace, and in moments he’d turned on a switch and flames merrily danced, casting a lovely glow about the room along with heat enough to make her languid like a feline.
“You spoil me,” she said, arching into him as he came back to her.
“I plan to for the rest of our lives.” He made fast work of her bra and panties but refastened the stockings. “These, my darling, are absurdly sexy. Who on earth were you wearing them for?” One gold eyebrow rose as he leaned in to kiss, ever so lightly, the distended tip of her nipple.
“You. In my head, of course. I had no idea you’d be—oh, that’s so lovely—willing to toss aside your job, your life, for me so you’d see them.”
He nibbled on her, nipping the soft skin on the underside of her breast, up and around, carefully avoiding her nipple.
“You are my life. Gods, the scent of your pussy is making me crazy.”
She laughed, widening her thighs and wrapping them about his waist. “I’m so wet I’d be embarrassed if I didn’t need you so much right now. The moment you looked down at me earlier, it shot straight to my cunt. You have magical pow
ers over me, I think.”
“If I do, I’d use them to keep you naked, here in our room. Maybe not totally naked. You can keep the stockings. And I can come in to fuck you any time I like. I’m not the kind of man who will lose interest in you sexually after we marry. You should know I plan to fuck you every way, in every place I can think of, every time we get the chance.”
He teased along her gate with the head of his cock, just barely dipping inside and pulling away.
“Good to know. I’m not the kind of wife who plans to be ignored. So put your cock in me right now.”
He kissed her. Softly at first, but once she opened to him, he groaned into her mouth and the need licked them like flame. His tongue slid along hers, teasing, seducing. All the while he’d busily pulled the pins from her hair, running his fingers through it as he continued to kiss her.
Gods, he was on fire for her! The slide of her soft, bare skin against his own sent little flickers of electricity through him. His woman beneath him. His. The freedom to love her, to have her, to share his life with her, made him giddy. All he’d ever wanted resided within the walls of his home. His children, healthy, successful and happy, and now a woman he could give himself to, trust to take care with his heart, with his family. Abbie was all of that and more. He looked forward to learning more about her each day.
He was so hard, each throb of his pulse bordered on pain, but it had been entirely too long since he’d had her like this and he planned to take full advantage. He kissed across her jawline, over to that spot just beneath her ear that made her make that sound.
Her hips jutted forward, taking the head of him into the heated, soft gate of her pussy.
He plunged into her fully and she gasped, arching to take him. She was tight, so snug around him he nearly lost his control, it felt so damned good. He pulled back and thrust again and once more before pulling back out and kissing her nipple. First one and then the other.
He pressed them together so that he could lick and bite them more easily. She whimpered and he blew across her sensitive skin.
“I love that sound,” he said around her nipple. “Needy, achy. I know you want me to fuck you. And I will. But first I’m going to bury my face in your pussy, licking you the way you like. Then, when I’ve made you come, then I’ll fuck you.”
Like she would argue with that?
“If you think I’d stand in the way of that, you don’t know much about me after all.”
He kissed down her belly, his gaze locked with hers as she leaned up on her elbows to watch—take him in as those big, capable hands pushed her thighs wide. And then he broke his eyes from hers to look long and greedily at her pussy. Her breath caught at his perusal, at the way he made her feel—adored, beautiful, desired.
He didn’t waste time with his usual long, slow tour of her body. Instead, he dove in with a ferocity that made her gasp at the intensity of it. He pressed his mouth into her, tongue swirled over and over from gate to clit, steady, rhythmic, until her thighs began to tremble against his palms.
She’d needed him for so long, had been alone for what felt like forever. Her body had been numb but his touch brought it roaring back to life. Orgasm came, an irrefutable onslaught of intense physical and emotional sensation bringing tears to her eyes and a muted cry to her lips.
Abbie reached down, fumbling to grab his cock, but he had better use for it, slicing into her body as she melted around him, sending so much pleasure into him his eyes rolled back into his head.
He stilled for moments until he grasped a tiny amount of control and began to move again. Roman braced his weight on his arms as he fucked into her body. His gaze roamed over her, taking in the seductive bounce of her breasts as he thrust, the wet gleam on her lips as she licked them, the puff of her breath as she was caught in the same web of sensation he was. Her eyes were wide but still blurred with her orgasm. Her pussy fluttered and clasped around him as he pushed in deep and then pulled out.
Her scent was deep within him, mixed with the beauty of her taste on his lips.
“You’re written into my bones, Abbie.”
She blinked, the blur disappearing until those clear, beautiful brown eyes locked onto his. “You do know how to make me weak in the knees, Roman. I love you and I’m not giving you back so the rest of the Known Universes just have to deal.”
He could tell she tried to be flip, but the breathless quality to her voice told him she was as affected as he was, and that she was close to coming again.
“That smile makes me all tingly. It usually means you’ve got something enjoyable in store for me.”
“Indeed.”
Adjusting himself slightly, he moved down her body a bit, changing his angle so the line of his cock slid over her clit each time he pressed into her body. Right away her breathing changed, hitched. Her honey slid over his balls, hot and sticky.
“Mmm. Just like I like you, panting and ready to come. Give it to me, Abbie. Come all over my cock.”
Her mouth opened as if her body’s response had been a surprise, her back bowed and her nails dug into the flesh at his hips where her hands had been. She squeezed him with her thighs as her cunt grabbed him and he knew he was lost to the magic they made each time they touched.
Chapter 36
Seven Standard Months Later
“You know I’d keep you just for our bathroom, right?”
Wearing a smirk and little else, Roman looked down at her in their bathtub. “You’re worth it. I must say my bathroom is much nicer to be in with a sexy, wet, naked woman in the bathtub.”
“Well, I don’t have as much time as I’d like to enjoy it.”
“Abbie, darling, you’d be in here every moment of the day if you didn’t have a full time job as a barrister and weren’t the newly elected leader of the Unranked Advisory Council.”
She frowned at him a moment. “I’m going to have to lower my caseload. I spoke with my boss about it, and he’s making me a supervisor like he is. His second-in-command, he says.” She then laughed and he loved her more for the fact that, regardless of the size of her house and that she didn’t have to work at all if she didn’t want to, she still found joy in a promotion.
“Are you all right with that?”
“Why are you getting dressed? I’m here, naked and ready to be tussled with, and you’re putting pants on. This is not the direction things should be moving.”
“We have a state dinner to be at. Remember?”
She sighed, pouting those lips he loved so much for just a moment. “Oh yeah, the Mrs. Lyons thing. That’s another job.” She stood with a fake, put-upon sigh and he handed her a towel even as he delighted in the way the water slid down her breasts and belly.
Another thing Roman enjoyed about his wife was the way she went from wet sylph to the wife of the leader of the Known Universes in just a few minutes. She was wonderfully independent and not fussy. Complicated, yes. Moody at times. Aggravating in her insistence that she keep her job as a barrister through the creation of the Advisory Council and then the election cycle. But through it all, she’d remained his most strident and solid supporter. Abbie understood policy with an eye he’d come to respect and appreciate. In truth, his wife was his chief advisor, and while there had been grumbling from several quarters, she’d comported herself with so much dignity and strength, she’d won over many of her original detractors.
She loved his sons and they her. She’d even managed to charm his father, who now chastised anyone who spoke ill of her. And she simply accepted it.
Abbie slid into a gown in a style she knew Roman favored. The deep, bloodred coloring accentuated her skin and hair. Twin golden lion heads fastened the slim braided straps at the very bottom curve of her back.
When she entered her dressing area just outside the bathroom, she wanted to laugh at the very idea of a dressing area, but she did love it. Loved the gleaming table where she frequently found new presents from Roman. Little bits of jewelry and things for her hair. Loved the
space that was so feminine and luxurious.
“My, you do know what that dress does to me.”
She smiled into the mirror at his reflection. “When you fucked me in the antechamber of the hall where we married, yes, I did get the idea you enjoyed seeing me in it.”
“Only my bride would marry in such a gown. The talk of the vids for weeks afterward.”
She laughed and made quick work of her hair, fastening it with pretty clips. “Well, that one was pale blue. This one is red but in the same design. How many women own such a thing?” She motioned at herself. “I love this dress so I wear it when I can. I can’t very well argue cases in it.”
“You won’t hear me complaining that my wife is the sexiest woman in all the ’Verses.”
He kissed her neck, his clever fingers pinching her nipples through the silky, cool material of the dress.
“Sera Pela isn’t anything to sneeze at.”
He shrugged. “She’s lovely, yes. But she has two men already. Good thing I find you much more compelling.”
She turned, tiptoeing up to kiss him quickly. “Good. That’ll come in handy when I’m huge from the baby and all.”
Wearing a smile, she left the room as he gaped at her.
Laughing, he followed after her and made them very, very late for their dinner.
