“It’s about time.”
“Okay, then.” She shrugged, then took a drink of the pinot noir I’d selected. “I was willing to pacify you with a blowjob, if you started freaking out.”
My dick thickened and lengthened. “Now that you mention it … I am feeling a little cold sweat—”
A furry ball rolled out from beneath the coffee table, jolting me so hard I nearly spilled red wine onto the Aubusson rug beneath my feet. “What the hell is that?”
The ball shook itself out and became a puppy not much bigger in size than my shoes. It stumbled toward me on shaky legs. Mostly black and tan with a white belly, it had huge ears that flopped around a sweet face alight with joy and excitement.
“He’s yours,” my wife said, with laughter in her voice. “Isn’t he adorable?”
Speechless, I watched as the tiny dog made it to my feet and began licking my toes.
“Aww, he likes you.” She set her glass onto the coffee table and sank down on her knees, reaching out to rub the puppy’s silky head.
Confused, I looked around and noticed what I hadn’t before. The duffel bag Raúl had carried in had ventilation mesh on the top and sides.
“Oh my God, you should see your face!” Eva laughed and picked up the dog, rising to her feet. She took my glass and shoved the puppy at me instead.
I caught the squirming bundle of fur because I had no choice, arching my head back when it started licking madly at my face. “I can’t have a puppy.”
“Sure you can.”
“I don’t want a puppy.”
“Sure you do.”
“Eva … No.”
She took my wine to the sofa and sat, curling her legs beneath her. “Now the penthouse won’t feel so empty until I move in.”
I stared at her. “I don’t need a dog. I need my wife.”
“Now you have both.” She drank from my glass and licked her lips. “What will you name him?”
“I can’t have a puppy,” I repeated.
Eva looked at me serenely. “He’s an anniversary gift from your wife, you have to keep him.”
“Anniversary?”
“We’ve been married a month.” She leaned back into the sofa and gave me the fuck-me look. “I was thinking we could go to the beach house and celebrate.”
I readjusted my hold on the wriggling dog. “Celebrate how?”
“All access.”
I was hard instantly, something she didn’t fail to notice.
Her gaze darkened as it caressed my erection where it tented my pants. “I’m dying, Gideon,” she breathed, her lips and cheeks flushing pink. “I wanted to wait, but I can’t. I need you. And it’s our anniversary. If we can’t make love then and have it be just you, me, and what we have—with no bullshit—then we can’t make love ever and I don’t believe that’s true.”
I stared at her.
Her lips curved wryly. “If that makes any sense at all.”
The puppy licked my jaw frantically and I hardly noticed, my attention focused on my wife. She just kept surprising me, in all the best ways. “Lucky.”
Her head tilted to the side. “What?”
“That’s his name. Lucky.”
Eva laughed. “You’re a fiend, ace.”
By the time Eva went home, I had new dog crates in my bedroom and home office, and fancy water and feed bowls in my kitchen. Puppy food in an airtight plastic storage container sat in my pantry, and plush dog beds took up space in every room in the house. There was even a patch of fake grass, which supposedly Lucky would urinate on—when he wasn’t relieving himself on my priceless rugs, as he’d done not long ago.
All the items, including treats, toys, and enzymatic sprays for accidents, had been left waiting in the foyer outside the elevator, telling me that my wife had enlisted Raúl and Angus in her plan to foist a pet on me.
I stared at the puppy, who sat at my feet, looking up at me with soft, dark eyes filled with something akin to adoration. “What the hell am I supposed to do with a dog?”
Lucky’s tail wagged so hard, his back end shifted from side to side along with it.
When I’d asked Eva the same question, she’d laid out her plan: Lucky would ride with me to work, and then Angus would drop him off at doggy daycare—who knew there was such a thing?—and pick him up in time to ride home with me.
The real answer was written in the note she’d left on my pillow.
My dearest Dark and Dangerous,
Dogs are excellent judges of character. I’m certain the adorable beagle you now own will worship you nearly as much as I do, because he’ll see what I see in you: fierce protectiveness, thoughtfulness, and loyalty. You’re an alpha through and through, so he’ll obey you when I don’t. (I’m sure you’ll appreciate that!) In time, you’ll get used to being loved unconditionally by him and me and everyone else in your life.
Yours always and forever,
Mrs. X
Rising up onto his back legs, Lucky pawed at my shin, whining softly.
“Needy little thing, aren’t you?” I picked him up and tolerated the inevitable face licking. He smelled faintly of Eva’s perfume, so I pressed my nose into him.
Owning a pet had never been on my wish list. Then again, neither was having a wife and that was the best thing to ever happen to me.
Holding Lucky away from me, I eyed him consideringly. Eva had put a red leather collar on him with an engraved brass plate. Happy Anniversary. Next to that was the date of our wedding, so I couldn’t give him away.
“We’re stuck with each other,” I told him, which made him bark and wiggle harder. “You may regret that more than me.”
Sitting alone in my bedroom, I can hear Mom yelling. Dad pleads with her, then shouts back. They turned the television on before they slammed their bedroom door shut, but it’s not loud enough to cover their fighting.
Lately, they fight all the time.
I pick up the remote to my favorite radio-controlled car and drive it into the wall, over and over. It doesn’t help.
Mom and Dad love each other. They look at each other for a long time, smiling, like they forget anyone else is around. They touch each other a lot. Holding hands. Kissing. They kiss a lot. It’s gross, but it’s better than the screaming and crying they’ve been doing the last couple of weeks. Even Dad, who’s always smiling and laughing, has been sad. His eyes are red all the time and he hasn’t shaved the hair off his face in days.
I’m scared they’re going to split up, like my friend Kevin’s parents did.
The sun goes down slowly, but the fighting doesn’t stop. Mom’s voice is hoarse now and scratchy from tears. Glass breaks. Something heavy hits the wall and makes me jump. It’s been a long time since lunch and my stomach is growling, but I’m not hungry. I really feel like throwing up.
The only light in my room comes from the television, which is showing some boring movie I don’t like. I hear my parents’ bedroom door open, then shut. A few minutes later, the front door opens and shuts, too. Our apartment goes all quiet in a way that makes me feel sick again.
When my bedroom door finally opens, Mom stands there like a shadow with light shining all around her. She asks me why I’m sitting in the dark, but I don’t answer her. I’m mad at her for being so mean to Dad. He never starts the fights, it’s always her. About something she saw on television or read in the paper or heard from her friends. They’re all talking bad about Dad, saying things I know aren’t true.
My dad isn’t a liar or a thief. Mom should know that. She shouldn’t listen to other people who don’t know him like we do.
“Gideon.”
Mom flips the lights on and I jerk in surprise. She’s older. She smells like stale milk and baby powder.
My room is different. My toys are gone. The carpet beneath me is now a rug over stone floors. My hands are bigger.
I stand and I’m the same height as her.
“What?” I snap, crossing my arms.
“You have to stop this.” She swipes at t
he tears streaming from her eyes. “You can’t keep acting like this.”
“Get out.” The sickness in my gut spreads, dampening my palms until I clench them into fists.
“These lies have to stop! We have a new life now, a good life. Chris is a good man.”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with Chris,” I bite out, wanting to hit something. I never should have said anything. I don’t know why I thought anyone would believe me.
“You can’t—”
I jerked upright, panting, the sheet in my hands tearing violently. It took a moment for the pounding of my blood to subside as I tuned in to the incessant barking that woke me.
Scrubbing at my face, I cursed, then jumped as Lucky scrambled up the hanging comforter, pulling himself onto the bed. He leaped, tackling me in the chest.
“For fuck’s sake, calm down!”
He whined and curled into my lap, making me feel like a dick.
I caught him up, holding him against my sweaty chest. “Sorry,” I muttered, stroking his head.
Closing my eyes, I pushed back and leaned against the headboard, willing my pulse to slow. It took several minutes to get my bearings, and about that long to realize that petting Lucky was calming me down.
I laughed to myself, then reached for my phone on the nightstand. The time, a little after two in the morning, gave me pause. So did the need to be strong, to handle my own crap.
But a lot had happened since I first called Eva to talk about a nightmare. Good things.
“Hey,” Eva answered, sounding groggy and sexy. “You okay?”
“Better now that I’m hearing your voice.”
“You having puppy troubles? Or a nightmare? Maybe you’re feeling frisky?”
Calm settled over me. I’d been braced for a push. Seemed she was going to ease me into it, instead. Yet another reason for me to try harder to give her what she wanted, regardless of my first instincts about it. Because when Eva was happy, I was happy. “Maybe all of the above.”
“Okay.” Sheets rustled. “Take it from the top, ace.”
“If I latch the crate door, Lucky bitches about it and I can’t sleep.”
She laughed. “You’re a softie. He’s got your number. Did you put him in your office?”
“No. He barks in there and I still can’t sleep. I ended up just closing the crate door without locking it and he settled down.”
“He’s not going to learn to control his bladder if you don’t crate-train him.”
I looked down at the beagle curled up and sleeping in my lap. “He woke me from a nightmare. I think he did it on purpose.”
She was quiet a minute. “Tell me about it.”
I did and she listened. “He’d been trying to jump up to the bed earlier and couldn’t make it,” I finished. “He’s too little and the bed’s too high. But he hauled his ass up here to wake me.”
Her exhale drifted across the line. “Guess he can’t sleep when you’re making noise, either.”
It took me a second, then I laughed. The lingering distress from the dream dissipated like smoke in a breeze. “I feel the sudden urge to take you over my knee and spank you, angel.”
Amusement warmed her voice. “Try it, babe. See what happens.”
I knew what would happen. She was the one who couldn’t see it. Yet.
“Going back to your dream …” she murmured, “I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. I really think you need to bring Hugh up to your mother again. I know it’ll be painful, but I think it has to be done.”
“It won’t change anything.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“I do.” I shifted and Lucky gave a protesting grunt. “I didn’t get around to telling you earlier. Chris filed for divorce.”
“What? When?”
“I’m not sure. I just heard about it today from Ireland. I talked to Chris after work, but he just went over their prenup and let me know that he wanted to make some added concessions. We didn’t discuss his reasons for wanting to end the marriage.”
“Do you think it’s because he found out about Hugh?”
I sighed, grateful I could talk to her about it. “I think it’s too much of a coincidence to be totally unrelated.”
“Wow.” She cleared her throat. “I think I really love your stepfather.”
I couldn’t say how I felt about Chris. I didn’t know. “When I think about my mother being upset about this … I can picture it, Eva. I’ve seen it before.”
“I know you have.”
“I hate it. I hated her like that. It hurt me to see her that way.”
“You love her. That’s okay.”
And I loved Eva. For her lack of judgment. Her unqualified devotion. It gave me the courage to say, “I’m also glad. What kind of asshole feels good that his mother is hurting?”
There was a long pause. “She hurt you. She’s still hurting you. It’s a natural animal instinct to want to see her wounded, too. But I think what you’re glad about is having a … champion. Someone who’s telling her it really did happen to you and it’s not okay.”
My eyes closed. If I had a champion, it was my wife.
“Do you want me to come back over?” she asked.
I almost said no. My routine after a nightmare was a long shower, followed by losing myself in work. It was what I knew, how I dealt with it. But soon she’d be living with me, sharing my life in a way I needed but wasn’t wholly prepared for. I had to start making adjustments for that.
More than the logistics, though, was that I wanted her right then. Wanted to see her, smell her, feel her close.
“I’ll come get you,” I told her. “I’ll take a quick shower and text you before I head out.”
“Okay. I’ll be ready. I love you, Gideon.”
I took a deep breath, let the words flow through me. “I love you, too, angel.”
I woke again with the sun, feeling rested despite the hours I’d spent awake. Stretching, I felt something warm and furry shift against my arm, then the lash of a friendly tongue against my biceps.
Opening one eye, I glanced at Lucky. “Can’t you keep that thing in your mouth?”
Eva rolled onto her back and smiled, her eyes still closed. “Can’t blame him. You’re extremely, lickably delicious.”
“Bring your tongue over here, then.”
Her head turned my way and her eyes opened. Her hair was mussed and her cheeks pink.
I grabbed Lucky and tucked him against my stomach as I rolled to my side. Propping my head on one hand, I took in the sight of my sleepy wife, feeling a rare contentment just from starting the day with her in my bed.
Fact was, I shouldn’t have risked it. Eva hadn’t seen the state of my sheets, since I changed them before leaving to get her, but they were only a small sample of the damage I could cause when sleeping. Neither Lucky nor my wife was safe near me while I was sleeping. It was only because I never had multiple nightmares in one night that I’d taken the chance.
And because I missed Eva fiercely. She wasn’t alone in her craving.
“I’m glad you called me,” she murmured.
Reaching over, I brushed my fingertips down her cheek. “Didn’t turn out so badly.”
She moved slightly and kissed my hand.
Eva saw the worst there was in me and loved me more each time she did. I’d stopped questioning it. I just had to deserve her and I would. I had a lifetime to work on it.
“You’re not planning any more ambushes on enemies today, are you?” I asked.
“No.” She stretched, drawing my eye to where her full tits strained against the ribbed cotton of her tank top. “But I’m ready if someone decides to ambush me.”
I dropped Lucky to the floor and snatched Eva close, rolling on top of her. Her legs widened instinctively and I settled between them, circling my hips to rock my cock against her cunt.
She gasped and grabbed my shoulders, her eyes wide. “I wasn’t talking about you, ace.”
“I’m not someone?” I buried my face in the warmth of her neck, nuzzling her. She smelled heavenly, soft and sweet. Totally sexy. Hard, I rubbed against her, feeling the heat of her through her underwear and the silk of my pants. She softened for me, melted in the way that turned me on ferociously.
“No,” she whispered, her eyes darkening. She reached down and grabbed my ass, digging her nails in, urging me on. “You’re The One. The only one for me.”
As luxurious and feminine as Eva was, she’d grown stronger through Krav Maga. That turned me on, too. My head lowered, my mouth brushing over hers. My heart pounded, struggling to accept what she meant to me. The way she made me feel was so fresh and new, yet would never get old.
Maybe that was why I’d gone through everything I had, so I would be able to appreciate her when I found her. I would never take her for granted.
A tongue that wasn’t my wife’s licked my side, tickling me. I jerked, cursing, and Eva laughed.
I glared over my shoulder at the little offender, who hopped with excitement, tail wagging madly. “Listen, Lucky. You’re not living up to your name.”
Eva giggled. “He’s helping you live up to your promise to behave.”
I turned my glare back to the wife whose nails were still firmly dug into my ass. “Which had the caveat that you behave as well.”
Pulling her hands away, Eva held them up by her head, waggling her fingers. But her gaze was hot and her lips parted with rapid breaths. She shivered beneath me, even while her skin felt feverish. Her desire for me soothed my own raging need. And her commitment to waiting, now that I knew the reason for it, gave me the strength to move away.
It was physically painful to separate from her. Her low moan of anguish echoed inside me, reflecting my own. I flopped onto my back and was immediately subjected to a tongue bath, Lucky-style.
“He really loves you.” Eva rolled onto her side and reached out to scratch behind his ears. That had the welcome effect of luring him over to her. Her squeal of laughter as Lucky proceeded to slather her face made me smile despite my aching dick.
I could complain about the damn dog, lack of sex and sleep, and more. But really, my life was as close to perfect as I could want.