Page 41 of Just Forever

“And it’s not working?” he asks.

I turn over onto my back. “What if I’m too dumb?” I say. “What if I flunk out my first week there because I can’t hack it?”

“What if you don’t?” Ryk counters.

I send him an unimpressed look. “Are you just saying things to say things?”

His lips twitch, but he has enough common sense not to laugh. Good for him. Smart choice.

“You won’t know until you’ve tried,” he says reasonably.

I’m sure a lot of people would prefer their husband to say something like ‘You’ll never flunk out because you’re incredibly smart, fabulously beautiful, and the sexiest person I’ve ever laid my eyes on, so they’d never expel you ever.’

I prefer Ryker’s answer to my existential crisis. It’s not like he can guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen, so it’s preferable that he doesn’t pretend like it never could.

I feel marginally calmer.

“You know what my PT told me when I was bitching about the physical therapy being pointless because I was never going to make it back on the ice anyway?”

I shake my head slowly.

“He told me not to say no to myself. That he couldn’t promise me everything was going to go my way in the end, but I shouldn’t sabotage myself by giving up before I’d even started.”

I mull that over for a second before I nod. “That’s pretty solid advice.”

“I know,” he says smugly. “What time is it?”

I pick up my phone and glance at the display. I’m up way before the alarm because of all those damn nerves. “Barely six.”

“Plenty of time, then.”

“For?” I ask, but before he can answer, I narrow my eyes. “If you’re going to say something like, to go for a morning run, then forget it. I’ll pretend I’m still asleep, just a word of warning.”

“I had something else in mind, actually.”

“What?” I ask, still somewhat suspicious.

“Something physical.”

“I just—” I start to speak, but he sends me a grin that’s pure heat, and then suddenly he’s straddling me.

“Oh,” I say as awhooshof breath escapes my mouth. “Yeah, I can definitely get behind this kind of physical activity.”

Ryk sends me a smug smile. “Somehow, I thought you would.”

“You know me so well.” I sigh happily.

He lowers his head and kisses the corner of my mouth, and my dick jerks in anticipation.

He sends me a look that’s burning with heat and starts to kiss his way down my body. He nips at my throat and his teeth graze my right nipple. His tongue traces its way down my chest and over my stomach, and before I know it, he’s worked his way down between my thighs.

He takes me in his hand and gives my cock a few pumps. My breathing picks up when he twists his hand, opting for slow, torturously gentle strokes. He lowers his head again and his tongue laves over the ridges in the muscles of my lower abdomen. I yelp when he nips at my hip bone and glare at him, but then he’s suddenly down on the floor, and before I can fullycompute what’s happening, he’s dragged me to the edge of the bed so he’s kneeling between my thighs.

A shiver runs through me at the look of lust in his eyes as his gaze tracks over every inch of my body. There’s pure hunger in the way he looks at me, but he seems in no hurry to get a taste just yet.

He trails his hands down my flanks and hips until he’s cupping my ass, massaging the cheeks. My cock is rock hard; so hard it’s painful when it bounces against my stomach.

Still no mouth on it.

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