The Private Serials Box Set(67)

"What if I want to take my time?" His words were garbled against my  skin, which felt awesome, but it also made me smile. He never wanted to  be rushed when we made love.

"Well, you take all the time you need. I just put the baby down for a  nap, but you never know when he'll wake up, so you might not get to  finish, if you get what I'm saying."

"It's only really important that you finish, if you get what I'm saying."

I laughed. "That's sweet of you, but it's a big lie. You know just as  well as I do that you need to get off just as much as me. It's been  days."

That's right. Days. Preston had given me so much-everything, in fact-but  he'd paid the price as much as any man does with small children. The  sex was spread out and not the marathon exploits we had been used to  pre-babies. Now, there were hurried quickies and stealthy shower  escapades as we tried to not only orgasm, but connect on that level we'd  thrived on for so long. Most nights, sex was off the table because we  were both so worn out, so sex in the middle of the day while the baby  napped? Yup. It was our new normal.         

     



 

I just wanted to feel him inside me. To feel how perfectly he fit, to  get that rush that always accompanied him, to feel the calmness and  rightness that came along with sex with my husband. Oh yeah, and to  come. That too.

At my words he put me down, my legs wobbly on the floor of our walk-in shower, and he kissed me hard before spinning me around.

"Bend over; put your hands on the wall, sweetheart."

Oh, hell, yes.

I did as he asked, aided by his hands on my waist, then his hand on my  back, between my shoulder blades, gently pushing me down. When my hands  reached out for the wall, his slid down my back, right along my spine,  until he reached my backside, which he gave a gratuitous squeeze.

"Fuck, I love your ass," he said, still squeezing and groping. I smiled  lazily, enjoying his praise. His hand moved lower and slipped inside me.  "Jesus, Lena, you're soaked already."

"I'm just-" I stalled on a gasp as he explored. "Anticipating what's  coming to me." His fingers moved in and out, slowly turning and  stretching me. "God, I love your fingers."

"Not as much as you love my dick," he said with an obvious smile in his voice.

"True," I replied, also smiling. My smile faded when I felt his hardness  pressing up against me, just barely there, but still making my heart  skip a beat and my breath quicken.

"Do you want it?" he asked, rubbing the head of his cock along my entrance, teasing me.

"Yes," I panted.

"Tell me you want it," he demanded, his voice hard and ridiculously sexy.

"I want you inside me, Preston."

"Good girl," he said as he sank into me slowly. I groaned with every  movement, loving the feel of him sliding into me, filling me, giving me  every single inch of him. "You feel so fucking amazing, Lena. You always  feel so perfect."

There weren't many words after that, just moaning and the sound of wet  skin meeting with every pounding thrust. He let out a long hiss when he  was close, as he tended to do, and reached around my waist and touched  me to urge me over the edge with him. I came hard, as I tended to do  with Preston, and loved the sounds he made as he came with me. It wasn't  terribly romantic, it wasn't champagne and rose petals, but it was him  and me, connecting, giving each other what we promised we would never  again give to anyone else: ourselves.

I would take a quickie in the shower with Preston for the rest of my  life over flowers and chocolates with anyone else. No contest.

He splayed kisses over my shoulder, his hands finding their way to my  breasts, making me laugh. "Aren't you done yet?" I asked, laughing.

"Never," he said with so much sincerity it made my heart ache.

Eventually he spun me back around and gave me the slowest and deepest  kiss, then we just proceeded to shower, making sure we took the  opportunity to soap each other up.



Hours later, after the baby had woken up from his nap, we were pulling up to his parents' house for our weekly Sunday dinner.

It had taken me a while to decide that Portland was where we needed to  be, or to believe I could even go back to Portland and be happy there.  But, the truth of the matter was, our whole family was there. Well,  Preston's whole family-who had become my family-and my Sam. When we  found out in Athens we were indeed pregnant, the idea of raising a child  without the support of everyone who loved us seemed not only stupid,  but also unfair to all the people who loved Preston. I had lamented for  my whole adult life my lack of family, so who was I to take Preston away  from his? And the thing that sealed the deal was that Preston would  have lived somewhere far from them if it was what I wanted. He would  have resigned himself to yearly visits and Skype calls, if he thought I  would be happier anywhere else on the planet.

So, we'd moved to Portland when I was seven months pregnant and never looked back.

Piper opened her parents' front door and my little Nadia came bounding  out, reaching directly for her father. He knelt down, scooped her up in  his arms, and kissed the side of her head as she snuggled him.

"That one is a handful," Piper said as she hugged me. "We stopped at  nearly every store in the mall that could have even possibly had  anything princess related."

"Well, your first mistake was taking one of Lena's kids shopping. Nadia  here inherited her shopping gene. I avoid malls like the plague,"  Preston said those words as he pressed his forehead right against  Nadia's, making her giggle. I slapped his arm playfully, pretending to  be offended, but laughing because he was pretty right.

"Daddy, Auntie Piper bought me this pretty princess dress and even a  tiara. I was a good girl so she took me to get ice cream, even though I  hadn't had dinner yet."

"Oh," Preston said, giving his twin sister the stink eye. "Sounds like  Auntie Piper gets to take you home for a sleepover in that case."

"Really, Auntie Piper? I get to sleep at your house?"

Piper laughed. "We'll see, sweetie. First I need to snuggle your little  brother." She took the car seat from my hands and almost ran away with  it. I would have tried to stop her except I didn't mind not having to  carry it and I knew I'd never be able to wrestle the baby from her. And  once Preston's mother got hold of him, it would be game over for sure.

If Nadia was the princess of the Reid family, our son Devlin was the  prince. He was beloved by all and could do no wrong. I happened to agree  with their assessment so I never argued with anyone about it.

We walked into the kitchen and my eyes found Piper lifting Devlin from  his car seat and pressing her nose into his neck and taking a long,  gratuitous sniff.

"Oh, my God. My ovaries are firing like a freaking machine gun," she whined. "He smells delicious."

Preston's mother greeted me with a hug and I didn't miss how her eyes  found my hickey. "How's my favorite daughter-in-law?" she asked, as she  always did. Preston was the only child of hers who'd married a woman.  Parker was married, but his husband was her favorite son-in-law.

"I am well, thank you."

"Yes, I can see that," she replied with a knowing wink. I tried not to  blush but it was no use. I liked it better when she didn't comment on  the hickeys.

"Oh! Happy Anniversary!" Piper whisper-yelled, as Devlin lay asleep in her arms.

"Thank you," Preston said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and holding me close.

"Six years of marriage. That's pretty exciting," his mother said. "I still wish I'd been able to be at your wedding."

There it was-the obligatory guilt trip that we'd gotten married in Las  Vegas with no one but Elvis as a witness. We endured it every year, and  his family didn't mean any harm. They weren't trying to make us feel bad  about it; they just genuinely wished they could have been at our  wedding.

"Maybe when we hit ten years we'll renew our vows," I said. It was my  automatic answer to their obligatory guilt trip. But I meant it-maybe we  would renew our vows. I never got to throw a big party when I married  Preston, and if there was anything worth celebrating, it was our  marriage. Marrying him was the best decision I'd ever made and  everything that had come after that day had been nothing short of  perfect. He'd practically rescued me from the worst kind of marriage and  given me something I'd only ever dreamt about. He was my knight in  shining armor. Well, my knight in a shiny black Lotus, anyway.

"I'd like to say that we invited you to dinner because we wanted to  spend time with you, but actually, we invited you so we could kidnap  your children for the night. You've got the night off from parenting."  Preston's mother was making shooing gestures at us and pointing toward  the front door.

"Here," Piper said, holding keys out to us with her free hand. "Take the  keys to my car. You've got reservations at Bartini at six, and a room  reserved for you at the downtown Hilton. Happy anniversary."