Page 34 of His Forgotten Wife
“Did your AI bot tell you to say that?”
He shrugged.
Her eyes glowed with warmth. Gingerly, she lay back down. On her side, with her palm flat on his abdomen, her warm, soft flesh snuggled into him. Her nose tucked itself somewhere between his neck and shoulder, though she was very careful to not lean into him.
Ares closed his eyes, and the scent and feel of Dahlia, all wrapped around him, magnified. With her taste lingering on his tongue, he felt engulfed by her in the best way.
He had no memory of ever feeling such contentment in his life before. Of clicking into his place in the world. Of not wanting anything more in any way except to lie like that with her.
“Why do you like it when I demand things of you?” she whispered after a long while. “That’s like the opposite of everyone I’ve ever come across in my life.”
He lightly slapped her hip. “For a smart woman, you’re also a silly woman.”
“Hey! That’s mean,” she said, returning the slap on his chest.
He circled her wrist, keeping her palm there. His heart thudded under her touch.
“You should know by now that I’m not like anyone else you’ve ever met, Dahlia.”
Raising herself on one elbow, she grinned down at him. It rivaled the sun’s own warmth. “I will give you that.” Her nose scrunched.
He stared at her, taken in by the breathtaking shine in her eyes. “When you demand things of me, I can give them to you.And then when I see your surprise, I feel like I could own the entire world.”
“You would hate owning the entire world. That’s a lot of admin logistics and dealing with people.”
He gave a mock shudder and she laughed and this too, he realized, could become addictive. Making Dahlia laugh without restraint. Making her happy. Making her come.
Her laughter dwindled quickly. Her gaze drilled into his, her other hand tracing his scars with a proprietary gesture. “What does this mean, Ares?”
“It means that I desperately want to have sex with you, Dahlia.” He caught the pad of her palm with his teeth and bit into the flesh. Her lithe body shuddered next to him, her breasts rubbing against his side again. “I’ve been through so much trauma with the accident and the coma and all of it, you know. It could prove healing.”
“Oh, my God, you’re so bad, Ares. Where did you hide this wicked side all these years?” Then she was falling onto him, her carefree laughter sweeping him up into its warm embrace. When she began kissing him, Ares knew it was the best birthday he had ever had.
And as long as he could keep Dahlia by his side and the world at bay, he didn’t mind celebrating them.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Between hot-air balloon rides, swimming lessons, shopping trips with Juliana and going running with Arabella at the crack of dawn, in addition to the acquisition meetings she attended with Christina and Ares for a company he was buying, Dolly wanted to tell herself she was too busy to think of his outrageous proposition that they indulge in a red-hot affair.
She kept usingoutrageousevery time she thought of it, because she needed her mind to keep thinking of it as such. Her heart and body, the traitors, had already discarded the word and adopteddeliciousinstead. Especially when she remembered the heady free fall of her orgasm while she rode him.
She still couldn’t believe that she had been that wild, wanton creature who had simply demanded and then taken what she needed. Every time she thought it, her cheeks flushed and a pulse seemed to come alive at her core.
Now, in moments when she didn’t actively work on resisting the thoughts, she was reminded that it was her deepest fantasy coming true. God, she’d even crushed on him at Columbia. Nine whole years…
Spoken in such bare terms, the proposition should have felt anything but romantic. And yet, Dolly had never heard such naked, honest wanting before. Had never seen that need for her. And that it came from Ares still boggled her mind.
She kept wandering through her days, head in the clouds. While Ares hadn’t asked her again in the following week, he had kissed her at every opportunity.
Like during the hot-air balloon ride, when they were literally floating above the clouds. When she’d teased him that he was turning green and didn’t have to be all macho when he had a fear of heights.
Like when she’d panicked during the swimming lessons, had swallowed too much water and couldn’t breathe.
Like when she had drifted off during the virtual quarterly meeting with shareholders—imagining introducing Ares to her grandpa and letting his strategic mind beat Ares at chess—and he’d pulled her off camera with her braid twisted around his fingers and kissed her upside down…just as she’d put on the list.
Then there was the time just two nights ago when she had found him immersed in the Jacuzzi, his complexion deathly pale after a brutal physiotherapy session. Knowing that he didn’t like to see her worry over him, she’d joined him, hoping to distract him. Of course, the man had other plans. As he always seemed to do, when it came to her these days.
Instead of giving him solace, she’d ended up with his fingers inside her, working that glorious, deep spot that turned her into sheer sensation as if he was already a master at finding it, while his thumb tap-tapped against her clit relentlessly, urging her toward ecstasy. Teeth digging into his shoulder to lock away her moans, she had come so hard that she’d nearly blacked out,andhad needed his help to get out of the tub.
