Page 17 of Resurfaced Passion

She held the real estate of his subconscious.

Sneaking in through the cracks and deep holes left behind from her love.

In sleep, there was nowhere for Reaper to hide—he could only face his lost love and bask in just how perfect she was.

Then and now.

In sleep he breathed deeply, his body relaxing.

His eternal torment was about to begin a slide show of everything he’d missed.

CHAPTER FIVE

“Always, ladybug.” - Reaper

Then

“Ladybug, get the fuck down from there before you break your damn neck.”

It was hopeless. She wouldn’t listen to him. She never did and it was because she knew he’d be there to catch her, even if it meant he broke his own damn neck.

She dared laugh down at him from the lofty height of the beech tree she’d climbed when his back was turned. Her face dusted in slight glow from the sun and he worried she wasn’t wearing enough sun protection. The bottom of her skirt billowing in the wind gave him dirty glimpses of her inner thighs and like always when he saw his wife’s body, he felt the drive to take her to the nearest surface and taste her all over.

His whole body tightened with love. Every goddamn muscle clenched and released to grab her down and hold her tight so nothing could ever hurt her. She’d already had a lifetime of neglect from family who didn’t deserve her kind of light, and miraculously their lack of affection hadn’t dimmed her personality at all.

Looking up, he sighed in a hearty gust.

This latest stunt was going to give him a coronary and he was too young to die yet.

His girl was a dare devil and a menace to his heart, and she loved pushing his buttons, making him react. It usually ended with them frantically fucking to cement their love for each other.

Jud swallowed around his goose egg sized worry and lust in equal proportions and shielded his eyes from the glaring sun, his stance meant business. Her smile said she was the boss in their marriage, and didn’t he just know it. He went for it anyway in hopes she’d listen. “Swear to god, bug.”

“You swear nothing, Judson Renner. You’re just jealous you can’t climb this high. I think I could fly if I tried.” She was gonna make him scale the fucking tree, he just knew it. And from the looks of the rickety branch she was balanced on, either he went up or she came down…soon.

His lips twitched at her happiness.

He couldn’t deny her anything, a fact of which she knew very well and tested him often. But it was a hard limit watching her break her neck.

He happened to love sucking on that neck and holding that neck when she took him into her mouth and hummed her favorite songs.

He changed his voice, made it sexy, just how she liked. “Climb down to me, baby.”

“What will you give me?” The little witch flaunted her bare legs by bunching her summer dress in one hand, trailing it up and up until it stopped before she got to her underwear. “What do I get, Jud, for leaving this beautiful scenery and coming back to earth?”

“You’ll come back to me, bug, and you know how much your man needs you.”

She beamed in that way that twisted his organs up and his hands itched to get on her.

It had always been that way.

The very second he’d seen her clowning around with two of her girlfriends. He’d been lost to those eyes, her young eighteen-year-old curves just coming out on her hips. He’d been so mesmerized in the strange girl uncaring who watched her antics, just so she could have fun.

He’d watched her for more than hour before approaching her.

That’s all it had taken to bring his heart alive.

And the moment she’d gotten near to him it was flint scraping up against metal in his veins.

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