That son of a bitch owes me big for talking him up to Tori.
12
Vivienne
Sometime before dawn, I feel Wade get out of bed and go into the bathroom. The cold night air chills my body, and I reach for the sheet and pull it over my head. Groaning loudly when I realize the pain reliever has worn off.
When he comes back into the room, I listen while he rummages through a drawer and heads out into the kitchen. The sound of his voice filters down the hallway, but I can’t make any of it out. I sit up, straining my eyes to the sound, feeling my heart pick up as different scenarios play through my head.
After a few moments, it’s silent again, and he comes back in with his cell phone in hand. I pull the sheet up to my neck, afraid to ask him what’s going on. As if reading my thoughts, he answers every question floating around in my head.
“I don’t feel right leaving you so soon after everything that happened last night, so I called in a favor.” My heart stops, and he crosses the room, sitting down next to me. I don’t know what to say; no one’s ever cared for me the way he does. “Jason is going to cover for me for the first twelve hours, but I’ll be on call after that.”
“You didn’t have to do that.” I lean forward, touching my forehead to his. Fuck, this man is sweet.
“I almost lost you. I don’t ever want to experience that feeling again.” He reaches for the sheet, but I pull back, suddenly feeling a little too exposed. I find myself wondering if he’s real and what I did to deserve him. The last three days have been a whirlwind, but it’s safe to say I can’t picture my life without him in it.
“Babe,” he murmurs, touching his lips to my bare shoulder and giving the sheet a good, hard tug, ripping it down my chest. “Why are you covering up?”
“W-Wade...” I stutter and struggle to pull the sheet away from him to wrap around my body. He tugs harder, ripping it from my hands. Instinctively, my hands move to shield myself from him. “Stop it. I need that.”
“No, you don’t,” he states, narrowing his gaze on me.
“Yes, I do,” I argue, reaching for the sheet, but he balls it up and tosses it across the room. “What the fuck, Wade?”
“You don’t need it.” He leans forward and takes my hands into his, pulling them away from my body. Then he slowly pushes me backward until I’m lying flat on my back. He cups my face and places a gentle kiss on my lips. “There’s no reason to hide your body from me.”
“Wade—” I try to protest, but he silences me with another kiss. This time swiping his tongue across my lips, leaving me suddenly achy.
“I love your body, baby.” His hands roam across my breasts, squeezing and caressing them.
“Wade—”
“It’s fucking perfect.” He lifts my arms above my head, pinning them in place, and his lips find the spot on my neck. “It’s a body meant for love. A body designed to bring a man to his knees. To bring this man to his knees.”
I feel his body shift as he kneels above me. His lips move from my neck down the length of my body, stopping at my belly button. His hands skirt down the length of my legs, lifting them to the edge of the bed.
“Never hide this body from me, sweetheart, because this body is mine, and it’s fucking sexy as hell.” He lowers his head, inhaling the scent of my sex before using his hands to pull back the inner lips, revealing the pulsating bud desperate for his mouth. “Promise me you’ll never hide from me again.”
The warmth of this breath dances across my skin, causing my body to shiver. Lifting my hips, I offer myself to his glorious mouth, but he doesn’t move. I peek down at him and meet his smoldering gaze.
“Wade,” I gasp as he breathes heavily on my sex. The small change in temperature leaves me breathless and feeling as though I’m going to explode soon if I don’t feel his mouth on me. “Please...”
“Say the words, Vivienne.”
“I promise,” I groan and watch as he dips his head closer to me. I try to thrust my hips toward him, but his hands pin me to the bed. His warm, wet tongue darts out, running along my outer lips, teasing me. I try to spread my legs further, needing to feel his tongue against my throbbing clit.
“This pussy is mine,” he murmurs. His hands move from my hips to my pussy, slowly spreading the lips, exposing the aching nub. “Say it, Vivienne. Tell me whose pussy this is.”
I growl, throwing my head back in frustration. His mouth is moving entirely too much in the wrong spot. “Less talk, more action.”
“Not until you tell me,” he demands, and the tips of his fingers dig into my flesh. I cry out, feeling more desperate to feel his mouth than I’ve ever felt before. The anticipation is almost more than I can handle.
“It’s yours.” I’ve barely uttered the words when his mouth is suddenly on me, sucking the nub. An orgasm rips through me as a finger slips into my honeypot, coaxing me deeper into the high. My body twists and writhes. My hips thrust forward, and my hands thread through his hair, holding his head right where I need him to be.
“Fuuuuck,” I groan, riding out the waves of pleasure. He slows his motions but doesn’t stop, still allowing me to gently float back down to earth. He kisses up the length of my body, tucking me gently into his side.
“I’m going to love you, Vivienne, with every breath I take,” he starts, daring to say the words. I listen attentively, needing to hear the words almost as much as he needs to say them. “I want you to know you’re it for me, baby. I’m never letting you go; in fact, you might as well call your friend now and tell her you’re moving in with me, because I never want to wake up in this bed without you by my side again.”
“Wade...” My heart thrums. His words tug at all the right places.
“I’ve spent my life looking for a woman like you. The woman. My woman.”
“It’s only been three days.” I smile, forgetting my disbelief in insta-love, because if this is what it feels like, sign me up. “Are we crazy?”
“No, baby, we’re in love. I’m in love with you.”
“I’m in love with you, too.” I smile, letting him see my feelings for him.
“It only took you three days to admit it,” he chuckles and leans down, sealing the moment with another kiss.
This time setting my heart on fire.
Epilogue
Wade
It’s been two decades, and I still feel like I’ll never get enough of the blonde goddess lying next to me. Every look, every touch, every moment with her sets me on fire. I burn for her when she’s not near, but the inferno rages when she is.
A soft snore emits from her sleeping form, and I smile knowing only the sound of one of our children crying out for her in the night will wake her.
Rolling over onto my side, I study her shadowed form, catching the reflection of the moon from the silver balloons I filled our bedroom with earlier tonight. They were for an impromptu celebration of the night we met all those years ago. But I don’t need its light to see the laugh lines that have formed at the corners of her eyes, or the way her lashes rest against her cheeks, or the sweet down-turned pout her lips form only when she’s sleeping. I don’t need the light because I’ve committed each one to memory.
We’ve been through a lot in our twenty years.
Four children.
Three homes. The last and final one we designed and built to fit our growing family.
Two cars, a minivan and one truck.
Six family pets, seven if you count the hamster that escaped when our youngest, Peter, forgot to close its cage. We never did find him.
One huge career change. Viv decided to teach art history at the local college a few years after our second, Morgan, was born. She loves art, but she loves teaching others about it more.
Four kindergarten graduations. A multitude of school trips, sports games, band concerts, and late-night study sessions. Heartbreaking break-ups and three high school proms.
Two high school graduations. One heading off to college while the other joined
the Marines. The last two fighting over whose room they get to move into.
New worries to go with the old.
But years of happiness.
Years of laughter.
Years of love.
“Why are you staring at me in the dark?” Viv’s sleep-filled voice interrupts the multitude of memories I’ve been quietly running through.
“I love you,” I tell her in a whisper. “I loved you the moment I saw you standing in that bar all those years ago. I loved you the morning you woke, confused and terribly hungover in my bed. I loved you the night you finally agreed to be my wife. I loved you through each pregnancy and birth. But I’ve never loved you more than I do right now, knowing what’s ahead of us is only more of what we’ve already had.”
“Wade…” she sighs, turning toward me. She reaches out to me in the dark, and I know the moment our lips touch, the fire that burns between us will never die. “I love you, too.”
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my family and friends for all their love and support.
To the ladies from the Burn Me Anthology, thank you for the opportunity to be a part of something heart moving. I will never forget our anthology or the lives it helped.
To you, the reader, for kicking ass and reading my words.
I hope you enjoyed Wade and Vivienne.
Get lost in love…
Sneak Peek of
Donut Swipe Right
By Tracie Douglas
1
Elizabeth
“You have to get back on the horse,” my older sister, Delilah, says before sifting a cloud of powdered sugar over the tray of jelly-filled donuts.
She’s right; it’s been almost two months since my last real date, but telling my sister I have no interest in wading through the pool of single men in search of my Mr. Right is not an easy thing to do. Not that she would understand the dilemma that is the single life. She’s been with the same man since she was twelve.
The last date I went on was the last straw. The guy wouldn’t stop talking about himself. He went on and on about his accolades and achievements. He bragged about his job and most recent financial gains. He even told me about the time he got to go to the Playboy Mansion and the massive orgy he took part in while there. He never asked me a question or bothered to get to know me in any way, shape or form.
No, I take that back. He did ask me a total of two questions.
The first was for my half of the bill, which didn’t come as a shock to me. After all, he’d done nothing but prove what a huge douchebag he is. Why would I even consider he might be a gentleman and pick up the check, right?
The second question came the moment we crossed the threshold from the restaurant to the sidewalk, though it was more of a proposition than a question.
Your place or mine?
I mean, what the actual fuck?
There were literally no words to give him because I fell into a state of uncontrollable giggles. As if the night hadn’t been bad enough, he walked off insulted by my reaction, leaving me to find my own way home.
Nope, wading through the pool is not high on my list of things to do. I’d rather curl up with a good book written by my favorite author, Sophie Samuels, every evening for the rest of my life. At least those men, though fictional, never let a girl down.
“I’m not still pining over him, if that’s what you’re trying to hint at.” I swipe a finger across the wooden countertop, collecting the sugar with the tip of my finger before popping it into my mouth. The him I’m referring to is the man I almost married a year ago, Miles.
He was supposed to be my forever, that is until I came home early from work to find him drilling our neighbor from behind. Now he’s moved on with her, and they’re expecting their first child in a few months.
Another example of the kind of men I attract—complete assholes.
“What about the app Kelly was telling you about? HEARTsync?”
“Oh, no, not going to happen,” I exclaim, feeling a surge of bile rise into my chest. “I have no interest in using an app to find me Mr. Right.”
“What about Mr. Right-Now?” She pauses long enough to give me the older-sister stare, the one that tells you there’s no getting out of this one.
“I do not need to get laid,” I scoff, pulling at my fingers in my lap.
“Lizzy, this is me you’re talking to. I know you better than you’re willing to admit.” She sets the sifter down and places both hands on the counter, narrowing her gaze on me further. She’s right. She does know me, probably even better than Miles did. “There’s only so much a battery-operated boyfriend can do.”
“Maybe, but at least I can turn him off and shove him away in some drawer when I’m done with him,” I retort, feeling a flush of heat spread across my face.
“I’m not saying you need to marry whoever this app matches you with, but wouldn’t it be nice to change it up a bit and connect with someone?” Her soft brown eyes, much darker than my own amber-colored ones, are filled with concern and maybe even a little pity.
Dee and I have always been close, despite the six-year age gap between us. She was more of a mother to me than a sister at times, because our own mother bounced from man to man, falling in and out of love easily. Our upbringing wasn’t perfect, but as long as we had each other, we had it all.
“You realize you’re supporting the whole sex-before-marriage thing,” I tease. “I’m so going to get you back for it when your daughter is old enough to have this conversation.”
“Go right ahead. You’ll be dealing with Linc, then,” she chuckles, rubbing the swollen belly hidden underneath the bright pink and purple apron she has on. “If he has any say at all, this little girl will be fitted for a chastity belt the moment a boy starts sniffing around.”
I laugh because it’s true. The moment Dee and Lincoln found out they were expecting a little girl, Linc went into protective dad mode. The idea of some boy coming anywhere near his daughter, even in the womb, sends him into a fit.
A soft sigh escapes my lips, and my smile falters as the painful reminder that I’m nowhere near having a family of my own drops onto my shoulders.
“You’ll never get there if you don’t put yourself out there,” Dee singsongs, and I realize my inner thoughts were spoken out loud.
“A dating app isn’t going to get me any closer, not when the damn thing is nothing but a meat market of one-night stands and random hookups.”
“In other words, exactly what you need.” Dee lifts the tray of powdered donuts and slides it on the tall rack beside her.
“How is a one-night stand exactly what I need?”
“You need to clean out the cobwebs.”
“Cobwebs? It hasn’t been that long,” I exclaim, doing a quick calculation in my head. “It’s only been six months.”
“Shut the front door.” She stands with another tray of donuts, her eyes wide and once again on me. “Cobwebs. Yep. I was right.”
“Dee—”
She drops the tray on the countertop and extends a hand. “Give me your phone.”
“No.” I shake my head, shifting off my stool and onto my feet.
“Elizabeth Bennett, give me your phone,” she clips in the harsh motherly tone she used on me the time I came home drunk from Cass Mallery’s party when I was seventeen. I freeze in my spot before I can make it out the door and away from her. Reaching for my phone in my back pocket, I realize it isn’t there. My eyes fly to the spot on the counter where I set it down, but Delilah reaches out and snatches it up before my feet become unstuck.
“Don’t you dare,” I hiss, moving toward her. She smiles, unlocks my phone, because of course she knows the password, and stares down at it. Her eyes flick up to me, right before her smile morphs into a knowing smirk.
The app.
I installed it last night.
Shit.
“Lizzy, this picture, it’s perfect,” she exclaims, taking in the still shot of me s
tanding at the top of a mountain, my face flush from the hike, and my eyes alight from the beauty around me. It’s one of my favorite photos of myself because it was the first time I felt hope after ending things with Miles.
“I can explain that.” I step forward, reaching out to grab the phone, but she moves it out of my reach, opening the app as she does so. “Dee, come on, I’m serious. Please don’t do this.”
“Let’s see what we have here.” She flicks through a couple of photos, careful to swipe left as she does so, rejecting the potential matches. Her eyes light up a second later, and she turns the screen for me to see. “He’s cute. What about him?”
I place a hand on my hip, trying my hardest to replicate the famous stare down, but she’s immune to the effect.
“Should I swipe left or right?” she asks, shaking the phone in my face. I reach up to snatch it from her grasp, thankfully succeeding this time. She sticks her tongue out at me. “Would you just look at the guy? I’ve never steered you wrong before.”
Again, she’s right. She’s always had my best interests at heart and has been supportive of whatever dreams I’ve decided to chance.
Taking a breath, I look down at the screen… and freeze.
“For the love of all that is holy, how is he that good looking?” I exclaim, looking up at my sister and then back down at the screen. My body, after six months of dormancy, begins to tingle all over. My eyes rake in every single detail of the picture before me. His dark eyes pin me in place, and I find myself searching the digital image of him for some kind of flaw, only to find none. “Sweet Jesus.”
“Well, are you going to swipe right?” I barely hear her question before my finger moves in action, swiping his photo to the right and opening a chat box.
“Fuck,” I swear, feeling a wave of panic hit my gut. The moment his photo disappears from my sight, reality sets in. “What did I just do?”
Delilah chuckles before taking the phone from my hand and types out a message in the chat box. It pings a second later, but she hands it back to me without looking at it.
HEARTfire_All Heart Series Page 6
