Page 59 of His Kingdom

“Yeah?”

“What really happened to Owen?” I ask.

Louie’s hand, which was caressing up and down my arm, suddenly stills. “I can’t tell you that, Charlotte.”

“I’m supposed to be your wife. If you can’t tell me things, how is a marriage between us going to work?”

“There is nosupposed to be. Youaremy wife,” he says. “And I already told you I made sure he can’t hurt you again.”

“I don’t want you to do anything that will get you in trouble.”

Louie smiles. “I’m not planning on getting into any sort of trouble.”

“I also don’t know how I feel about it all. Owen being dead, I mean. I know what he did was horrible, but there was a time I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with him. We were happy once. I might not have been in love with him. I know that now. But he wasn’t always a bad person either.”

“Charlotte?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m more than happy to talk about your ex with you… to help you work through whatever it is you're feeling. But, let’s not talk about other men. Here. Now. The only people I want in this bed are you and me,” Louie says. “I want you completely. I get that you have a past with someone else, but I have your future.”

“You do.” I smile at my husband, then quickly shoot up in bed. “Holy shit.”

“What?” Louie props himself on an arm, his eyes roaming over every inch of my body like he’s looking for some invisible injury.

“You’re my husband.” I smile wider.

Louie’s features soften. “I am.”

“Hearts are going to break all over the strip as soon as people know you’re married,” I tell him. “I’ve seen the way women look at you.” I don’t like it either. This jealousy thing is new for me.

“Want me to tattoo it across my forehead? Property of Charlotte?” he asks.

“Not your forehead, no.” I laugh. My hands land on his chest, pushing him backwards before I straddle his hips. “But you are mine, which means all of this…” My fingers dance across the buttons of his shirt. “… is mine too.”

“All yours,” Louie repeats. His hips shift upwards, his hard cock grinding against my core. Then he sits up and reaches for something on the nightstand. “But hold that thought. I forgot to show you something.”

“What is it?” I ask when he hands me his phone.

“Our test results. Well, most of 'em. Doc said some shit’s pending. But so far, so good. We’re both clean as a whistle.”

“I’m clean. I know I am and I trust that you are.” I discard his phone, tossing it to the side of the bed.

“Does that mean we can forgo the condoms now?” Louie questions.

“As soon as I get on birth control, absolutely,” I tell him. I can’t just throw away all my good sense. Even if most of it has gone out the window with this man.

“I’ll set up an appointment tomorrow,” he says, his hands traveling higher along my bare thighs.

“Do you believe in love at first sight?”

“I do now,” he tells me.

“Me too.” I smile.

I thought it was just lust. I mean, when you look at this man… Six-foot-three, all muscle—like every inch of him is hard. Tan skin, dark hair, the five o’clock shadow on his chiseled jaw, and those eyes that penetrate straight through to my soul. Yeah, how could you not lust after him? But now, I know it’s more.

I lean forward, my lips a breath away from his. “Louie?”

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