Page 94 of The Wedding Planner's Manny
“You don't have to.” I wanted everything he could give me. I would take it all. But even so, Ethan took his time preparing me for him. Of course he did. He would never want to hurt me. Hecaredabout me.
Slowly, he traced his fingers along my rim before entering me, first with one digit, then another. He was almost being a tease, he took so much time. I didn't want his fingers, I wantedhim.We were still flexible in how we had sex; sometimes it was him on top and sometimes it was me, but tonight I wanted to feel him as deep inside of me as I could get him.
After a moment, his fingertips brushed that sensitive point in me and I bucked my hips, wordlessly asking for more.
“You're so beautiful like this,” Ethan murmured before pressing his lips to mine again. I didn't respond; I merely dug my fingers into his back, pure need pulsing through my veins.
Fortunately, Ethan didn't make me wait much longer. He put on the condom, lubed up, and entered me.
The moment he bottomed out in me, I felt complete. In the past, I never understood what other people were on about when they described sex that way, but with Ethan, I did. Being with him made me happy in a way that nothing else could. I knew that our lives were going to be good from here on out; that we were going to stick together and weather every storm whatever it might bring.
“I love you,” I got out in the short moments between one thrust and another.
Ethan paused to gaze into my eyes. “You know I love you too.”
I did. That was the best part. It was the reason I could never last long once Ethan really got going. I'd enjoyed sex with Jeremiah too, but sex with Ethan was so different it was weird to even call the two things by the same name. When Ethan pushed into me, I could feel the love he held for me in every one of his movements. It sparked a fire in me that threatened to consume me every time we came together like this. But that was all right. Iwantedto burn, to go up in flames fueled by the heat of my alpha's love—and he did all he could to get me there.
As predicted, I didn't last long, and neither did he, but that was okay. We had all night.
We had the whole rest of our lives ahead of us.
E P I L O G U E
RHYS
Caleb's first day of Kindergarten was a beautiful early fall day in September. Ethan and I took him to school together, seventeen-months-old Henry safely strapped into his car seat in the back of the car.
Henry loved the car. He liked to look out the window and point at things as we drove. When we stopped in front of the school after only a few minutes, he was disappointed and started to whine until I took him out of his seat. He only liked to be in the car while it was moving. Standing still bored him, apparently. “It's okay, baby,” I tried to soothe him as I got out of the car. “We're going to see your big brother off now. You like your big brother, don't you?”
Henry focused his brown eyes on Caleb as I spoke. He understood the word 'brother'. He still had trouble pronouncing it, but he knew who his family was. “Kayah” he said, stretching his hand in Caleb's direction.
“That's right,Caleb.”
Caleb, sweet as always, reached up and shook Henry's hand. He wasn't as crazy about babies as Nathan was, but he'd adjusted to Henry's arrival pretty quickly. In fact, he'd grown by leaps and bounds over the past year, and not just in height. Gone was the shy boy who barely spoke the first day I met him, replaced by a lively young boy ready to tackle his first year of school. “No crying, okay?”
he said to his baby brother now. “Be a good baby.”
Henry said something unintelligible in response, but Caleb nodded as if he understood.
“Ready to go?” Ethan asked, pointing at the school in front of us, a large brick building that housed the kindergarten as well as the elementary school.
Caleb pulled on the straps of his bright red super-hero themed school bag. “I'm ready!”
“Okay then,” I said, and then I noticed something. The flap of Caleb's school bag lifted and sank back down. The movement was small, but definitely unusual. I'd helped him pack it last night and then placed his lunch inside this morning. I knew exactly what was in that bag, and none of it should move.
Had something crawled in? “Caleb, wait a second.”
“What's wrong?” he asked, while Ethan shot me the same confused look I saw mirrored on my stepson's face.
“Let me see your bag,” I said to the boy.
“Why?”
“Just want to check something.”
“Okay.” Reluctantly, Caleb took the bag of his shoulders and handed it to me.
“Here, take Henry,” I said to Ethan. Henry went to him gladly. He loved hisdada.
