by Lisa N. Paul
He ran his palm up the length of her outer thigh. “Your skin, Christ, so soft, so smooth. Missed touching you, honey, being wrapped up in all this silk.”
On his knees, he slid her legs farther apart, anticipation building with his every touch. Her shirt was a long blue number that she changed into when she got home from work. Soft and shapeless, covering her from torso to hips, it left nothing but a blue triangle of cotton panty exposed. Not the lacy thongs she used to wear, but he wasn’t complaining. Innocent…sexy. She could try to hide it, but she’d always be the sexiest woman he’d known. Leaning forward, he touched her over her underwear. His middle finger traced the seam of her pussy, immediately earning him a throaty moan.
“That’s it, honey. I can feel you getting wet for me already. Sweet little spot here on your panties.”
He went to lift her shirt, and her body stiffened. Her breath paused, and her eyes tightened, but not tight enough to hold in the tear that rolled off the side of her face.
“Julie?” His low question was followed by an even lower request. “Open your eyes and talk to me.” But it was more of a demand than a request. They’d come too far. No way would he allow her to bury her head back in the sands of denial.
“I can’t do this.” Julie opened her eyes, stared at her trembling hands, and cried. “All you talk about is giving me what I need. You keep standing by my side, supporting me. I can’t give you what you need. I can’t be what you deserve.” She wiped at her rapidly falling tears. “I’m not the woman you fell in love with anymore, and I never will be again.”
His heart splintered with each word that left her mouth.
“I’m barely a woman at all.” Her half-naked body was racked with sobs as she sat up and pulled into herself—knees up to her chest, arms wrapped tightly around her knees.
“So blind, honey. So goddamn smart, yet still so blind,” Danny muttered as he stood and moved toward their dresser. He grabbed his wallet and the handheld silver mirror that had belonged to her mother and returned to sit at Julie’s feet. “My love, since the day I met you, you were everything I needed and more than I deserved.” He stroked the soft bare skin of Julie’s arm. “What do you see when you look in this?”
He showed her her reflection in the mirror and had to refrain from roaring in frustration when she quickly flinched at her image.
“I see a broken woman.” The tremble in her words increased. “I see ugly, worthless, and unnecessary. I see someone who can never give you the children that we dreamed of, and it kills me.”
Her truth felt like a knife slicing through his soul. But he had asked. He had brought her to the cliff and it was time to put on their parachutes and jump together, or he feared she would fall alone. He wasn’t sure either of them would survive a solo fall.
Danny opened his wallet and pulled out a small photo. It had been taken by Chester the summer they met. “This is what I see when I look at you. The beautiful woman who stole my heart and captured my soul, who completes me in every fucking way. Your mere existence, Julie…your mere fucking existence…” His voice was clogged with emotion. “You’re right, Jules, you aren’t the woman I fell in love with, and guess what?”
Her eyes lifted to his.
“I’m not the same fucking man.” Shoving his fingers back into his wallet, he pulled out the plastic hospital bracelet that Julie had worn four and a half months prior. “See that? This reminds me every fucking day that I nearly lost you. I nearly had my wife, my goddamn lifeline, ripped away from me. Think the punk kid I was when we met would’ve been able to handle that? Because this man”—he pressed his finger to his chest—“would have never gotten over it. I thank God every fucking day they got you to the hospital in time. Yes, honey, we lost our child. We did. And I grieve that loss, but I grieve it with you, for you, for us. Without you, there would be no fucking life, no me. You understand?”
Her eyes stayed focused on the floral comforter, but she nodded.
“Julie?” Danny put his knuckle under her chin and tilted her head back so he could see her eyes. “We got the green light months ago from the doctor”—his eyes raked over her semi-naked body—“but you needed more time and I needed you comfortable. I gave you space, babe, but I see the space was misinterpreted.”
“It wasn’t you, Danny,” Julie protested. “I know you love me…it’s just…” She stretched the long shirt farther over her knees. “I have scars, physical reminders of what I can never do, never give you.”
Her scars had never crossed his mind—maybe because he hadn’t seen them since the hospital, maybe because he wouldn’t find them unattractive. Either way, they weren’t a factor for him. He needed to prove that to her and make her see past her skin and into the woman he saw daily. Moving his hand to her exposed thigh, his thumb drew small circles over the satiny skin before it climbed up her hip, waist, and torso and peeled the shirt from her body. Reaching behind her, he unclasped her simple cotton bra, then sat back on his haunches and stared.
“You’re beautiful. All woman,” he growled, his dick hardening by the second. “Every single inch of you, and lucky son of a bitch that I am, it was all made for me.” She was still tense but no longer crying, and Danny swiped the stray tears from her cheeks and sucked the saltiness off his thumbs. “All you, mine.”
He leaned forward and brushed his lips on her neck. The sweet smell of gardenias flooded his senses as his erection pulsed. When he felt another shiver go through her body and saw goose bumps reemerge across her flesh, he knew it was time to take back his woman. Not just take her, but claim her in a way they’d never tried before.
“Do you trust me, Julie?”
***
SHE DID TRUST him. She’d forgotten how to trust herself for months, but never once did she doubt her trust in Danny.
“You’re the one thing in this world I’ve never doubted,” she admitted. “I think that may be part of the reason I’ve kept away for so long.” I can’t believe I’m saying this, wearing practically nothing. I really am a disaster.
“What do you mean, honey?” There was an inherent strength visible on Danny’s handsome face. “Explain.”
She gnawed at her upper lip and looked away from her husband as she tried to put into words exactly how she felt. “You’re strong. You get knocked down and not only do you get back up, you get stronger. And when you love, my God, you love with your whole freaking being. I’ve never seen such dedication. I’m completely and totally head over heels in love with you, but I’ve spent months wondering if maybe you’ve only stayed out of loyalty. ‘For better or worse,’ right?” Silence fell between them as she continued to look around their bedroom, too cowardly to return her gaze to his.
“You done with that?”
Her brows snapped together. “Huh?”
“Obviously you know that’s bullshit. If you didn’t know before tonight, you damn well know now, yeah? Although, if we’re being honest, babe, gotta admit, that’s absolute bullshit.”
“Dan—”
“No, honey, you’ve known from the start how I feel, how I felt. Never made it a secret, never kept it hidden. Never will. You were scared. You had a good reason. We lost something special, something irreplaceable. But get this straight—you will never, I repeat never, lose me.” He touched his chest. “I’m yours.”
“Danny—”
He interrupted her a second time. “And as for me getting knocked down and getting stronger, I’m thinking a new mirror may be needed in this house, cause you and I ain’t looking at the same woman. My strength comes from you, and you’re practically a gladiator.” A forgiving smile played at the corners of his mouth. “Strength and beauty. Like I said, I’m one lucky son of a bitch.”
“Danny?” Julie released a stuttered sigh, relieved to have the tension between them gone.
“What?”
“Make me scream your name.”
***
FIVE WORDS, AND his dick was granite hard. If he was honest, no words were n
eeded for her to have that effect on him. But, Christ, those five together were like porn for his fucking brain.
“You wanna scream my name, Jules?” Danny rose from the bed, opened a drawer in the dresser, and pulled out a neck tie. His pulse raced as Julie’s eyes rounded and her lip tucked between her teeth. “That bottom lip, honey, can’t wait to taste it.”
“What…what are you planning to do with that?” She swallowed, her gaze going from the silk in his hands up to his eyes.
“I plan to make you stay while I devour you. You’ve been running for too long, baby. Time to stop. This will keep you steady ‘till I’ve had my fill.”
“Oh my God.” The whisper barely left her lips, and Danny chuckled.
“Don’t worry, Jules.” He looped a firm knot around her wrists before affixing them to the headboard. He felt her head tip to the side, her eyes scanning first the silk binding, then him. She was waiting for more…maybe an explanation or direction. “You’ve given me your love and your heart. Now you’re giving me back your body—your trust isn’t lost on me, honey.”
Love, desire, and hunger warred through his body, fighting each other for the chance to devour the delectable meal sprawled out before him. A flawless beauty from head to toe, including the pink scars that marked her abdomen, she was his sustenance—his water, his air, his North-fucking-Star—and he intended to prove just how vital to him she was.
And he did. Over and over again.
Chapter Sixteen
The Empty Contest
“HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, HANDSOME.” Julie rested her chin on Danny’s lower abs, a bemused smile gracing her swollen lips. “Did you enjoy your wake-up call?”
He could barely think, let alone formulate sentences. “Christ.” Shivers bounced through his body. “Babe, twelve years married, still…you rock my world like you did that first summer.” Staring down his torso at his wife, his mouth watered. Her long hair was twisted around his fist as the globes of her pert naked ass were lifted and exposed…so ready, willing, wanting.
She giggled. “Whatcha doing?”
Claiming control, he tugged his arm around her waist and flipped her beneath him, her gray eyes rounded but hardly focused as she stared at his naked body between her thighs.
“Oh, thought this was a full-service situation you set up here,” he replied innocently. “Got my wake-up call”—his brows waggled with humor—“want my breakfast.” Dropping wet kisses on her ribs, he moved south, not stopping until he reached the apex of her thighs. “Fuck, you smell incredible.”
Her nails scratched at the cotton sheets the moment his tongue lapped her clit.
“Mmm, love these organic meals,” he teased as his tongue made another pass at the engorged bud.
“Danny…” she gasped, equally embarrassed and aroused by the statement. But when he slid two fingers into her wet heat and found her sweet spot, her gasp turned to a moan, and all talk ended.
###
“TO DANNY AND Julie,” Danny’s father declared as he lifted a champagne-filled flute.
With Julie by his side, Danny peered at those who made up the dinner party of seven: Allan and his wife Anita, Chester, and Sheila and her husband, Chris. All people who had become integral parts of his and Julie’s life.
“I knew the minute I saw you together, there would be no tearing you apart,” Allan said. “Because while everlasting love takes years of building, reinforcing, and supporting, it doesn’t have a shot in hell unless the foundation is strong. You two are made of titanium, chromium, and diamonds.”
Danny reached for Julie’s hand under the table, loving the way she weaved their fingers together the second his hand made purchase, as if she had been just waiting for his touch.
“You started with the strongest of the strong and have built up from there. While many couples, both young and old, have crumbled under far less than the two of you, you’ve only seemed to flourish. As your father”—Allan’s gaze shot between them as if once again claiming Julie as his daughter—“I couldn’t be more proud. Happy anniversary! May there be at least fifty more.”
“Happy anniversary,” was chimed in unison as the tink of crystal glasses filled the air.
For hours, the small group reminisced about the holidays they had shared over the years: the snow storms that had gotten Julie stuck at work, and both she and Sheila laughed while listening to their husbands rant over the speaker phone about why they hadn’t closed the Ale House sooner and headed home, and of course the infamous Empty Contest.
“Seriously, that may have been the dumbest thing you boys ever did…EVER,” Julie howled as the other two women laughed loudly.
“I beg your pardon, missy.” Chester swirled the tequila in his lowball glass.
Some would fear his gravelly voice, but not Julie. She saw the sparkle in Chester’s eyes and snorted.
“Lookin’ around this table, there ain’t no boys here,” he said.
“Jules, let me handle this one, please.” Sheila snorted while Julie’s entire frame shook with unbridled laughter. “It is not men who intentionally decide to fill their tanks only to see how many miles each car can go before empty truly means empty. Those are the actions of boys. Little boys. Toddlers, in fact.”
Anita piped up, “Oh, and let us not forget that if there were men silly enough to have come up with such a ridiculous plan, they would have checked the forecast and known that a coastal storm was coming.”
A hiccup of giggles had the women nearly rolling from their chairs. Danny rubbed his jaw to hide his smile. Their laughter was infectious.
“All four of you idiots needed rescuing over the course of three days.” Julie’s stare bore into Danny.
It had been nearly three years since the Empty Contest, and still he remembered with precise clarity having to make that middle-of-the-night phone call to a less-than-happy wife.
“Already snug in bed when you called…” She shook her head. “Lucky I love you."
No matter how annoyed she had been that stormy night, with each retelling of the story, Danny saw the sparkle of humor and glimmer of love in her eyes and on her upturned lips. It had been there when she dropped off the gas container and shielded him with an umbrella as he replenished his tank.
“See, at least I didn’t drag my wife outta work or outta bed.” Chester grinned, knowing full well that Allan and Chris had faced similar unpleasant fates with their cars and their spouses. Little bastard.
“No, you dragged your poor bar manager out of her bed, you old jerk,” Julie partially teased. “Tara was pissed when she called me the next day.”
“Tara got real happy the next night.” Chester lifted his glass and winked.
“Nice.” Allan high-fived Chester, and Danny grimaced. No matter how old he got, thoughts of his father having sex still made him uneasy. “Wipe that scowl of your face, son, and let no one forget, I was the winner of the Empty Contest. Sweet Lil’ Jessi Jane rode me thirty-two miles once she read empty.”
Julie’s body trembled with laughter while Anita rolled her eyes.
“What? I name my cars,” Allan explained, “and they treat me well.”
The table erupted into hysterics before Allan had finished his sentence.
“Speakin’ of being treated well…” Chester’s confident words were spoken slowly, grabbing Danny’s attention.
Danny leaned in before making eye contact with Julie alone.
“I’ve spent my life servin’…first with America’s finest, then for them. It’s been an honor and a pleasure, but…I’m done.”
“What are you saying, Ches?” There was no hiding the concern in Julie’s voice, nor the strength in the way her small hand gripped Danny’s under the table.
Chester chuckled. “Julie girl, alls I’m sayin’ is I’m sellin’ the bar and moving to Key West. Time to stop servin’ drinks and start havin’ some sweet lil’ honeys servin’ me.”
With jaws collectively dropped around the table, Danny spoke first. “Wow, Ches
. Holy shit, man, I never thought the day would come, but I’m happy for you. For real, congratulations.” So few people worked as long and hard as Chester Murray had. The man deserved retirement while he was young enough to enjoy it.
Julie beamed. “Oh, Ches, I’m so excited for you. The women have no idea what’s headed their way.”
With another squeeze to his hand, Danny knew that Julie was about to share their news, so he squeezed back in approval. He swallowed back the excitement that he’d been dying to share the whole evening.
***
“WHEN IS THE move happening?” Julie couldn’t have been happier for the man who had been like a father to her for the past fourteen years. But there was a piece, a small piece that felt selfish, that wished Chester would live a short drive away forever. Especially now.
Chester explained that he had people in Key West, and one of them had been looking to sell their house. Chester had purchased it a month prior but kept it on the down low until he’d found someone willing to buy Chester’s Bar for a fair price. He hadn’t expected the bar to sell so fast for such a profit, but it did. “I’ll be leaving in about four weeks.”
“Four weeks…” Allan frowned. “Anita and I’ll come up here before you leave to say good-bye.”
“Fuck no,” Chester grumbled. “I don’t do good-byes. Not ever. You two wanna come to my place and help my old ass pack, be my guest. We can all go out for dinner or drinks—hell, we can hang out at this old place called Chester’s.” He winked. “Hear it’s under new ownership. But when you leave, it’s ‘see ya later.’ Got it?”
