Love: Uncivilized (Uncivilized #1.5)

by Sawyer Bennett

  I’m utterly surprised when Zach comes up behind me while I rinse out my coffee cup at the sink, wrapping his arms around my waist and nuzzling into my neck. While Zach and I have been intimate plenty with each other since our fight, even that seems off to me as well. We certainly have no problem in the sex department, but I realize just now that we’ve been missing little spontaneous acts of affection like what he’s doing right now. In fact, I can’t remember a time in the last month where one of us has just spontaneously hugged the other.

  I’m filled with such elation over his small touch that I go weak in my knees. Unbridled hope and joy bubble up within me, and for a moment, I channel the feeling of the first time Zach told me he loved me. It’s almost as if I were falling in love all over again with this man.

  “Want your Christmas present?” he asks me with a low, rumbling voice.

  “What?” I exclaim, pulling away to turn toward him. “No, Zach. We agreed no presents for each other today.”

  With both of us being so busy, and truly wanting to make this about the kids, Zach and I just always removed that pressure each year and agreed to no gifts.

  “Relax,” he says as he reaches into his pajama pocket. “It’s not something big.”

  He pulls a small, black box out, no wrapping paper, and hands it to me. I look at it curiously for a moment before taking it from him. When I open it, I’m completely confused to see two flash drives sitting in the box. With a black sharpie, someone wrote “Choice #1” on one of the drives, and “Choice #2” on the other.

  I look up to him, my brows furrowed. “What are they?”

  “I’ll show you in a bit,” he promises as he takes the box back from me. Leaning in, he gives me a kiss, a pat on my ass, and says, “Now… Randall will be here soon with his gifts. Why don’t you go get showered, and I’ll watch the kids while you do that?”

  Thoroughly confused, I can do nothing but shake my head in bemusement and head back toward our bathroom.

  So much for lounging around in our pajamas all day.

  The doorbell rings and I head toward the door, yelling over my shoulder, “Zach… Randall’s here.”

  He’s been in our bedroom “taking a shower” for the past half hour, which is odd, because Zach is a five-minutes-to-get-ready type of guy. I’ve long since taken mine, but I’m letting my hair dry naturally rather than blow dry it as I was eager to get back out and watch the kids play with their new toys.

  I swing the door open, pinning Randall with a huge grin. “Merry Christmas.”

  He’s wearing a Santa hat tilted jauntily to the left and is holding two huge bags full of gifts. I know all of those are for the kids because we also exchanged promises with Randall of no gift exchanges amongst the three of us. “Merry Christmas, Moira dear.”

  “Come on in,” I tell him as I reach out to grab a bag. He gratefully releases it and follows me back toward the living room.

  “Uncle Randall,” Cannon yells from his position on the floor where he plays with some Hot Wheels. “Come see what Santa brought me.”

  Jaime pushes up from the ground and toddles toward him, holding a new doll. Randall sets the other bag of gifts down, scoops her up, and then rounds the couch to head toward Cannon. “I can’t wait to see what Santa brought. And I have presents too.”

  I start to laugh, but then noise from the hallway catches my attention. Zach is walking toward me, pulling our huge suitcase on wheels behind him. My jaw drops open as he gives me a wink, and then he says to Randall, “You need anything before we leave?”

  “Leave?” I gasp, and my head snaps to Randall.

  He doesn’t even look at me, just sits down on the ground with Jaime. “I’m all good. You two have fun.”

  “Fun?” I ask stupidly.

  “Yeah, fun,” Zach says as he pushes at my lower back to urge me toward the front door. “Now grab your purse. We have a flight to catch.”

  “Wait,” I say as I dig my heels in. “What the hell is going on?”

  “We’re starting our anniversary celebration right now,” Zach says with mock frustration in his voice, but his twinkling eyes give away his amusement. “Now get your ass in gear, Mrs. Easton. Kiss the kids goodbye if you must, but I’m ready to get out of here with my wife and get all kinds of sexy-crazy with her.”

  “I’m staying with the kids,” Randall provides, but I kind of had that one figured out on my own.

  “But my clothes—”

  “I’ve packed for you,” Zach says, pushing me again toward the door.

  “But did you get my—?”

  “I got what I think you’ll need,” he asserts, giving me another push. “And what I missed, we can buy, but I doubt we’ll be wearing much in the way of clothing.”

  “But—”

  He silences me with a kiss.

  A hard, brutal kiss followed by a low growl only I can hear. “Get your ass in the fucking car, Moira. The sooner we get there, the sooner I can fuck my wife, okay?”

  A bolt of lust sizzles through me, and I stupidly nod at him. He pushes past me and heads toward the door. I start to follow him blindly… like the Pied Piper, but then I shake my head.

  “Wait,” I yell at him. “I’ve got to hug the kids goodbye.”

  Chapter 12

  Zach

  “Here’s the key to your room, Mr. Easton,” the hotel clerk says. “Fifteenth floor, #1588, ocean view, balcony. I’ll have the bellman bring your luggage up right away.”

  I take the small envelope holding two plastic keycards and give a slight shake of my head. “Hold the luggage. I’ll call when we’re ready for it.”

  “Yes, sir,” the clerk says with a small dip of his head and a knowing look in his eyes.

  I want privacy with my wife, and I want it now.

  I hitch my leather carry-on satchel over my shoulder, because it has my laptop in it and that is needed sooner rather than later, and take Moira by the elbow. She’s staring in disbelief at her surroundings, still not quite understanding that just six hours ago, we were sitting by the Christmas tree with our kids and now we’re in Nassau.

  Honestly, I’d expected a flurry of questions from her, but all she said when we got in the car and headed toward the airport was, “How long have you had this planned?”

  I was truthful with her. I’d like to have told her that I had it planned all year, but truth be told, I made these reservations just four days ago when I had sort of an epiphany come to me.

  Since our fight on Thanksgiving, I had been nursing a slightly bruised ego. Moira’s failure to enlighten me as to her desire to return to work was a low blow to my confidence. I had thought my wife considered me her ultimate hero, the man who would always make things right for her. Instead, I found out she didn’t have confidence in me, and that, in turn, made me start questioning things. While we were able to slip back into a fairly normal routine, the gulf between us seemed too deep to navigate at times, and I began to question everything I thought was important in my life.

  I began to doubt that what Moira and I had was as tangible as I had once believed.

  I know Moira doubted it too, as I could see it in her eyes.

  My epiphany came four days ago when I had to make a trek up into the attic to find our original loan closing documents for the house. We were thinking of refinancing, and I needed to look over the original purchase details. I tore the entire house apart trying to find them. Moira suggested they might be up in the attic, but hell… up until that point, I’m not even sure I knew we had an attic because I sure as hell had never been up there before.

  Sure enough, I found the box simply labeled, “House Docs and Bank Reconciliations,” in Moira’s handwriting, so it was confirmed she stuck it up here, and I was on my way back to the ladder when something caught my eye.

  A backpack.

  Moira’s backpack to be specific.

  The one she carried into the Amazon eight years ago when she first came to find me.

  That wasn’t the epip
hany though. As I crouched down beside the bag and toyed with the zipper, I knew she also took this same backpack with her just a few months later when she came looking for me again.

  After I left her.

  Cut ties.

  Ran away.

  She came after me because she knew in her heart that I was her soulmate. That I was the one she couldn’t be without. Now sure, I had figured that out too about Moira myself, and was in fact on my way back to the States to find her at the same exact time, making it a travesty of travel errors, but the point being… Moira had more to risk than I ever did.

  She braved danger and the potential for heartbreak and rejection. Hell, at that point, she knew she might be traveling thousands of miles only to find my dead body.

  Moira was guided by love, instinct, and a deep and unfathomable gut feeling that we were meant for each other.

  And that right there was my epiphany.

  Moira was my epiphany.

  Her confidence in us resounded strong within me, and I realized that all this shit… these petty fights and focus on things that are unimportant and trivial are not who we really are. We got lost for a bit, but when it boiled right down to it… Moira and I were created and exist solely for the benefit of each other.

  We are a team.

  We are one.

  We are love.

  And it struck me then, sitting in that musty attic and looking at a beat-up old backpack, that there was nothing in my life more important than making sure my wife was happy.

  Nothing.

  Not a job.

  Not kids.

  Not my own life.

  I exist to ensure Moira is happy because when she is happy and fulfilled, everyone else is happy and fulfilled. She’s a better mother to Jaime and Cannon, a better wife to me, a better sister to Lisa, and a better teacher wherever she chooses to teach.

  I scrambled down the attic ladder, completely forgot about house refinancing, and made reservations here at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in Nassau. Operation Get My Marriage Back on Track was then in play.

  “I still can’t believe we’re here,” Moira whispers as I lead her over to the elevators. “This is so surreal.”

  “Your husband still has some tricks,” I say with a grin.

  We’re quiet as we ride up to the fifteenth floor, but we are anything but relaxed. Moira knows it. I know it. Things are about to get crazy.

  I open the door. Drop my satchel to the floor. Moira’s purse follows, and then we are on each other.

  I’m able to drag her shirt over her head while my foot kicks the door shut. Her fingers fumble with my belt as I try to toe off my shoes. We claw, scratch, and pant as we tear at each other’s clothing. We do this all while stumbling toward the bed.

  We fall, me on top of her, and it’s so fucking good to feel her soft skin against mine—have her gentle curves filling my palms.

  I kiss her, not gentle at all, and then nip at her lower lip. She moans, my dick goes rock hard, and I mutter, “I’m going to fuck you so hard, Moira… it’s probably going to hurt.”

  It won’t, but I know my wife, and she likes it a bit rough with a ton of dirty talk thrown in. I try to think back to the last time we were truly alone—without the kids in earshot—and my dick goes even harder at the thought that we can be absolutely unrestrained in our actions right now.

  God help any people in the rooms next to us.

  I kiss Moira again… hard with a bite. I move to her jaw, down her neck, and bite her shoulder. You know, that soft, rounded part just at end of her collarbone. She squirms and I push a hand between her legs, find my wife eagerly wet and ready for my fingers. So I give her two to start with, and after she gets used to that invasion, I push in three.

  “Zach,” she groans as I pump practically my entire hand into her heat, occasionally flicking at her clit with my thumb.

  “What do you need, baby?” I murmur as I lick her stomach and then bite down at the top of her pubic bone.

  Her pelvis rears upward in response, and I’m guessing she needs more attention in that area. I replace my hand with my mouth, licking and sucking my wife’s pussy until she’s thrashing below me, calling out for me to let her come. I torture her body with pleasure, and when she sounds near hysteria, I finally make her come by lashing against her hard. I ride out the first few tremors of her release by pushing my tongue deep inside of her, and even as she’s still quaking, I push up, take my cock in hand, and shove it inside of her.

  “Yes,” she screams, and I almost pass out from the exquisite pleasure of being buried deep inside of Moira.

  Has it ever felt this good? Surely it has, but fuck if I can remember when.

  With Moira’s legs raised and wrapped tight around my waist, I proceed to pound the ever-loving fuck out of her, my cock ramming hard and deep into her body… over and over again. At some point, my hips move on autopilot as all of my attention is focused on Moira’s face. I watch her beautiful eyes flash and sparkle with intensity as we hold each other’s gazes, all the while fucking her brilliantly.

  I feel it… in my body, my cock, my heart.

  My wife.

  My woman.

  My forever.

  I’m caught off guard when Moira’s entire back bows up off the bed and her eyes squeeze shut. It takes me only a nanosecond to realize she’s coming again, and that triggers me to blow.

  And I blow fucking hard; freeze up deep inside of her, my body stiffening, my balls tightening, and I explode almost viciously inside of her. And call it my primal DNA or my caveman-like need, I hope I impregnate her at this very moment. She’d totally slap me for that thought, but truth be told, I could never deny my modern woman her desire to contribute to our household right alongside me.

  I collapse on top of Moira, trying to catch my breath. I’m vaguely aware of her fingertips caressing my temples as I press my face into her neck and whisper, “I love you, Moira.”

  “So, are you ready to see what’s on the flash drives?” I ask Moira out of the blue. We’re still lying on top of the bed, fully naked and with limbs loosely entwined.

  She lifts her head up and angles it my way. “Right now?”

  “Sure… why not?”

  “I thought we’d have more sex, you know?”

  “Geez Moira… give a man time to recover. That session right there almost broke me.”

  She snickers and pushes playfully at my chest. I lean in, steal a kiss, and then roll out of the bed. I can feel her eyes press on me as I walk unabashedly naked to my leather satchel. I’ve always loved her eyes on me, knowing how pleasing she finds it to look at me. It makes my cock twitch a bit, and I give it a stern lecture to stay down until I can get this out of the way.

  Because this, after all, is the most important thing of all that my wife needs to know about me right now.

  Pulling out the laptop and black box with the flash drives, I crawl back onto the bed and rest my back against the headboard. Moira lifts up and scoots into place beside me. I boot up the computer, hand the flash drives to her, and then pull up the edge of the blanket over my lap to rest the laptop on.

  “Okay, you have two choices in this life,” I tell her as I nod down to the flash drives. “Choice #1 is that you go back to teaching full time, and we put the kids in a daycare. Choice #2 is you keep on working part time from home with the kids. Without thinking about this, without debating the merits with me, I want you to rely on just your heart to tell me which choice you’d make. Go.”

  Moira immediately says, “Choice #1” and picks up that flash drive as she eyes it with curiosity.

  I nod at her with a smile and pluck the drive from her hand. It was so fucking easy for her to give me that answer, so I know it’s her true desire. My heart flutters in ecstasy as I realize she trusts me enough as her partner to honestly tell it to me.

  I plug the drive into the laptop and pull up PowerPoint.

  “So, this would be a lot more effective if we were in a huge conference room wit
h a projector and screen, and maybe one of those little red laser pointers,” I tell Moira with a grin. She snickers at me and turns her face to the computer. “But I wanted to put forth a presentation to you, so you could see what my thoughts and commitments were as related to your choices.”

  I click on the tiny icon that starts my presentation for Choice #1—that is, Moira returning to work as a teacher full time—and the first slide comes up entitled, This Is My Commitment To You.

  Moira makes a tiny sound of surprise in her throat as she reads the slide, and I advance it forward to the next one.

  I’m making this vow to you.

  Then to the next slide.

  To make you number one.

  And the next.

  From this day forward.

  Moira’s face angles up toward mine. I tilt my own to meet her gaze, and there is a slight sheen of tears there. I take my index finger, place the tip to her jaw, and push against her until she’s looking at the computer screen again.

  I advance to the next slide.

  Always.

  Then the next.

  If you want to return to teaching full time, right now… right this very second…

  And then the next.

  I’ll support you and that decision 100%, and I think it’s the best decision you could possibly make.

  So as not to disturb the flow of my message, I advance to the final slide.

  You’re mine, Moira, and that means your happiness is paramount to everything else. It always will be.

  I expect Moira to melt into a puddle of goo at this point. I expect she’s going to be so overwhelmed by what I’m telling her, and the completely dorky yet cute way I went about it, that she’ll be jumping my bones at any minute. In fact, I bet I’m in for an amazing blow job because this came off fucking perfectly, and my cock starts to thump in anticipation.