Page 76 of Beneath the Midnight Sky
Everyone busted out laughing except Hudson, who looked around, his brows scrunched together. “Why would she have Uncle Theo arrested?”
“Your uncle is just joking, Hudson. Don’t worry about Uncle Theo,” Ivy said quickly before anyone could think of an actual response. Hudson nodded and went back to sipping his apple juice. I glanced over in time to see her and Oliver lock eyes, but I forced my eyes away before I interrupted a moment. “Anyway, my turn?” Ivy questioned as she stood, her still half-full wine glass in hand.
She released a small huff and looked over at me, a wobbly smile on her face. “Are you already fighting tears?” I asked, my voice quiet.
She nodded and wiped her face as tears rushed down it. Rowan stood, reaching around Payton and me to grab Ivy’s wine glass and set it on the table. “For when you two launch at each other,” he whispered to me as he leaned back in his chair.
“Thanks, Ro,” Ivy said quickly. “Woo, okay. I had this all planned in my head, and I thought about waiting for the wedding to do this, but then you blurted mid-makeup earlier that you wanted me to be your maid of honor, and fuck, Aspen, now here I am.” She wiped her face again quickly, and Oliver reached across the table, handing her a napkin. “Thanks,” she muttered quietly, and then looked back at me. “You are by far the best friend a girl could ever hope to stumble upon. Meeting you the day you walked into The Roadhouse? I don’t know—I couldn’t walk away from you. We didn’t even need help, but I told Lucas I’d bash his head in if he didn’t give you a chance.” Everyone around the table started laughing.
“I can see that honestly,” Theo muttered, causing Ivy to roll her eyes playfully.
Ivy looked back over at me, our eyes locking as I felt tears run down my cheeks. “I just…saw something in your eyes that matched my own. The need and desire to belong somewhere outside of yourself—true love, and while I know what you and Rowan have is beyond true, you’re welcome by the way, Ro. I helped a ton there,” she said as Rowan chuckled and nodded his head. “What I’ve found with you, Aspen, can only be described as finding your other half. That’s what you are to me, and while I hope to find love as amazing and crazy as what you and Rowan have, at the end of the day, I have the greatest friend in all the world, and I couldn’t imagine life without you. You are the definition of true love for me, Aspen, and I’m so fucking thankfulto have you.” Thankfully, Payton chose that moment to scoot her chair back, and I was in Ivy’s arms before she could wipe away another tear, our arms wrapped around each other.
“I love you so much,” I whispered.
“I love you so much more,” she replied.
“Good lord, I’m not following that dude. Not sorry,” Wyatt said from across the table. “To the happy couple. May a love this deep and untouchable never find me,” he said with a laugh. This time, it was Abby who smacked him on the chest as she shook her head.
The rest of dinner went on like that once we calmed down and all the gals, plus Theo, wiped their faces of never-ending tears. Everyone took a moment to give a speech with pretty words, all of which I was able to swallow down tears—post Ivy—that had my chest heating with love.
I genuinely didn’t know how in less than a year I’d managed to find a group of humans so incredibly loveable and welcoming, but I’d never take them for granted. They were everything I’d ever hoped for.
37
BEFORE I EAT
Rowan
“So tell me,little angel, how many pages did we manage?” I asked, my tone rather inconspicuous. Aspen had her next therapy session tomorrow, so she’d finally sat down to journal like Harper had asked her to. Maybefinally,wasn’t fair since I had distracted her this week with engagement proposals and family dinners—plus just never being able to get enough of her. It hadn’t allowed for the best of circumstances for her to find a quiet moment to think.
Aspen bit her lip and stared at me over the top of her leather-bound journal. She was sitting propped up on the couch in a pair of black leggings and one of my baggy t-shirts, her hair thrown up into a ponytail—easily one of my favorite looks she sported around the house. The other, of course, being her naked and sprawled across the bed, ready and waiting for me.
She slowly closed her journal and set it down beside her. I tried to read her emotions. Sometimes I was a pro in that department, but other times, she was an expert at hiding whatever was on her mind. She said she’d talked in therapyabout how it was a defense mechanism from her days trying to please her father or hide herself from Samuel, and it would take her some time to unlearn those behaviors. But honestly, she was doing so much better that I would never nitpick her about it.
“Three full pages, front and back, and no, I didn’t even write big this time.” We’d played this game before, and the first time she’d been so excited she wrote twice as large as she normally did, which resulted in ten pages or so of journaling. Needless to say, she didn’t go to work that night, and found that ten orgasms in one night wasn’t something that wasallpleasure, but a deal was a deal, and I’ve always been a man of my word
I nodded as I walked closer to her. “Three is pretty good. Did you learn anything?”
“Mmm, yeah. I’ll tell you all about it after my reward.” She stared up at me wide-eyed, her top teeth grazing her bottom lip. I leaned down, my fingertips skimming her up along the column of her throat before my hand wrapped around it, forcing her head back and her gaze to my eyes.
“My little angel has it all figured out, huh?” I growled. Running my nose from the corner of her jaw to her lips resulted in her letting out a small gasp as her lips parted. “Where should we start?”
Her hands ran down my chest and stopped above my belt as her fingers dipped beneath my shirt and found their way painstakingly slow up my chest.
“Is there an option?” No matter where I ended up, getting to devour every inch of Aspen’s deliciously curvy body, the living room always seemed to be one of her favorite spots. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the windows or if it just reminded her of our first time being under this roof together—of my confessing the entirety of my love and obsession with her.
“Here is always an option, little angel,” I replied as I reached down and peeled my t-shirt from her body. I groaned as I found nothing beneath it. “Always so prepared for me. Aren’t you?”
I started kneeling down in front of her, letting her pull my shirt up and over my head as I descended to my knees.
Our gazes met, her eyes wide as I smirked. “Will I find the rest of you just as ready for me?”
Her teeth sank into her bottom lip, and she shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
“Mmmm,” I hummed as I sat back on my heels, unbuckling my belt. Her feet came down to rest on the floor, her thighs wide on either side of my shoulders. I pulled my belt from my jeans, Aspen’s eyes watching me the entire time. “Enjoying the view, little angel?”
“You know I always do.”
