She Took My Husband on My Wedding Night, I Didn't Find Out Until We Gave Birth Together novel · Chapter 16 of 32

Chapter 16: Stay

Cormac stood very still on the top step.

The bay light came up the stairwell behind him and turned his hair copper.

"Say it again," he said. "So I know I didn't make it up."

"Stay tonight."

"You're sure."

"I'm a lot of things right now." I held on to his wrist. "Not sure isn't one of them."

He came up the last step.

"Margo," he said.

"Asleep. The monitor's on." I unclipped it from my belt and showed him the little green light. "She ate at nine. She won't want anything from either of us until two."

"Two," he said. "That's a lot of time."

"Don't make it a joke."

"I'm not. I'm doing math."

I opened the door behind me.

The apartment was dark except for the streetlight through the window over the bay.

The crib stood in the old captain's office off the living room.

The big guy had put it together in June with the instructions upside down.

I looked in.

Margo lay on her back with both arms flung over her head.

I pulled the office door almost shut.

When I turned around, Cormac was standing in the middle of my living room in his navy T-shirt and jeans.

He was looking at me.

"I should tell you something first," he said.

"You're married."

"No."

"You're from Pittsburgh."

"You knew that."

"Then what?"

He rubbed the back of his neck.

"I haven't done this since I was alive the first time," he said. "Six years. The book wanted me with one woman, and she didn't want me, and I wasn't going to lie to somebody else while I was waiting to fail."

I walked to him.

"I've done it," I said. "With a man who drugged me afterward."

His face went hard, then very gentle.

"So if I stop," I said, "it's not you. It's the glass of water. Okay?"

"If you stop, I stop," he said. "That's the whole rule. You don't owe me a reason."

"I know." I put my hands flat on his chest. "That's why I'm not going to stop."

I was wearing the faded blue sundress I'd put on for his birthday, with a cardigan over it that I'd already pushed off one shoulder.

I took his hand and put it on the other one.

He pulled the cardigan off my other shoulder and let it drop.

"You first," I said.

I reached for the hem of his T-shirt and pulled it up.

He lifted his arms and let me.

The streetlight caught the freckles across his shoulders, the red hair on his chest.

I put my palms flat there.

His heart was still going hard.

"You've seen me in a hospital gown," I said. "Now I want to see you."

"You've seen me in a turnout coat."

"That's not the same."

I unbuckled his belt.

My hands weren't shaking.

That surprised me.

I wanted them to be steady for this.

I wanted him to see me choose it.

I pulled the belt free and dropped it on the floor.

Then the button, the zipper, and I pushed his jeans down with both hands.

He stepped out of them.

He stood there in black boxer briefs, and he let me look.

He was hard already, straining against the cotton, and he didn't move to cover it.

"Your turn," he said.

"No." I shook my head. "I'm not done."

I hooked my fingers in the waistband and pulled the briefs down.

His cock sprang free, thick and flushed, and I swallowed.

"Clem." His voice was rough.

"I want to touch you."

"You can touch me anywhere."

I wrapped my hand around him.

He exhaled hard through his nose.

His stomach went tight.

I stroked him once, slow, from base to tip, and he made a sound low in his chest.

"Is that okay?" I asked.

"Fuck. Yes."

"Good." I did it again, firmer. "Because I've thought about this."

"Have you?"

"Mm. Since the garage. When you kissed me against your truck."

"Tell me."

"I thought about your hands." I let go of his cock and pulled the straps of my sundress down. "What they'd feel like without the gloves."

The dress pooled at my feet.

I stood in my cotton underwear, the air from the window cool on my bare arms.

Cormac looked at me like I'd stopped his breathing.

His hands hung at his sides, not touching yet.

He was waiting.

"You're beautiful," he said.

"Keep going."

"Your belly." He reached out and splayed one hand low on my stomach, where I was soft and still round from Margo. "You carried her here. You made her out of nothing."

"Cormac."

"I love this part of you." He ran his thumb over the skin. "I love that you're soft here now. It means you're real."

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