He Stood Me Up, so I Married His Brother novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Christmas on Jones Street
He didn't put me down.
He carried me straight across the room and up the narrow loft stairs, sideways, with my white skirt over his arm.
"You'll hit my head," I said.
"I've measured these stairs a thousand times."
He didn't hit my head.
At the top, he set me on my feet beside the bed, under the window.
He kept his hands on my waist.
"Hi," he said.
"Hi, husband."
"Say it again."
"Husband."
He kissed me, and it tasted like my aunt's wedding cake and the cold outside.
He didn't let go of my waist.
His thumbs pressed just above my hip bones through the white dress, and he looked at me like he was memorizing the way I stood there in his loft with the widow's porch light coming through the window.
"You're shaking," he said.
"I'm not cold."
"I know."
He reached around me.
His fingers found the top button at the back of my dress.
Then the next.
He undid every one of them slow, and I felt each button give like he was unwrapping something he'd waited to open.
The dress slid down my arms.
I stood there in the white slip my aunt had insisted on, and I didn't cover myself.
"Say something," I said.
"The first time I called your number, you argued with me about the form."
"I remember."
"You were wearing a white dress then too."
"That's the job."
He pulled the slip over my head.
His hands came back to my waist, and then up, slow, over my ribs.
"You're real," he said.
"Were you not sure?"
"Nineteen times I watched you stand at that counter. I wasn't sure you were anything I'd get to touch."
He unhooked my bra with one hand, which I would have teased him about if his other hand hadn't already found my breast.
Thumb over the nipple, rough from work.
I made a sound I didn't plan to make.
"There she is," he said.
"Shut up."
He smiled.
That slow one.
Then he walked me backward until the backs of my knees hit the bed, and I sat down on the blue quilt.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of He Stood Me Up, so I Married His Brother are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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