Chapter 44

I stare out my office window and smile at the torrential rain outside. “Free up my schedule for the rest of the day,” I tell Sam. “I’m going home.”

“W-what?” he stammers, clenching his tablet. “You can’t! You have an acquisition meeting that’s been scheduled for months and a critical site inspection.”

I smile and shake my head. “I have something more important to do today.”

Sam stares at me in disbelief as I grab my things and walk out of my office, my heart at ease with my decision to prioritize myself for just one single day. I’ve hidden behind my work for so long, but I can’t keep walking the same road and expect my destination to change.

I’m oddly nervous as I walk into my house, wondering whether any of the steps I’ve taken lately were the right ones, or if they’ll lead me astray. My heart is racing as I change into gray sweats, leaving my torso bare — just the way my sweet wife likes.

My mind is filled with nothing but thoughts of her as I walk into her home library and light the fire in our marble fireplace, before grabbing a cosy blanket and placing it over the large armchair in the corner. I look around the room and pause for a moment, deciding to add a few candles too.

Just as I’ve made a hot chocolate with Sierra’s favorite white chocolate, the door opens, and I smile to myself. “Oh!” she says, shocked when I meet her halfway. “You’re home early!”

I grin as I walk up to her and place my index finger underneath her chin, tipping her face up to kiss her. She sighs happily and rises to her tiptoes, her hand roaming over my chest, her fingers lingering on my abs. “I had a feeling you’d rush home to read by the fireplace,” I murmur, taking her hand as I lead her into our home library. “So I thought I’d work on my laptop as you read.”

Sierra gasps when she realizes I’ve already lit the fire for her, and she turns to face me. That look in her eyes… it’s more than affection, more than I’d ever have dared dreamed of, more than I deserve. “Xavier…”

“Here,” I tell her, cutting her off. “I made you a hot chocolate.”

She takes it from me with trembling hands, and it pains me that she appreciates these little things this much. It means I haven’t been treating her well enough. She should be used to this, and I’ve failed her. “Actually, can you hold this for me while I get changed?”

I nod and tip my head toward the little electric coaster I asked Lex to make for her. “I got you this,” I tell her, showing it to her. “It’ll keep your drink warm. I know you hate it when your drink gets cold because you forget about it while reading, so I thought you might like this.”

She brushes the back of her fingers over my cheek, her eyes filled with longing. “You’re incredible.” Sierra rises to her tiptoes and presses a soft kiss to my cheek before rushing off, and I smirk to myself as I sit down in her favorite massive chair, her cup safely locked into her electric coaster.

I glance at the hardback I gave her, still every bit as nervous at the thought of her reading everything I wrote in the margins. She hasn’t said much about any of it, but the way she looks at me and the way she behaves around me has changed. My wife has somehow become even sweeter, and I suspect it’s because even though I can’t say the words she wants to hear, they’re still reaching her. I never quite understood the power of the written word until now, and I’ve never been more grateful for it.

“Kitten,” I growl when she walks in wearing the sexiest damn nightgown I’ve ever seen — one of the new ones Raven sent over. It’s mostly white, with small pink flowers embroidered on it, and my wife looks absolutely enchanting in it.

“What?” she asks innocently, knowing full well what she’s doing to me. She places her knee on our lounge chair and reaches over to grab her book, giving me a clear view of her cleavage, and it takes all of me not to grab her and bend her over.

She climbs on and spreads my legs, making herself comfortable against my chest, and I wrap my arms around her, hugging her to me. She sighs happily and tilts her head to kiss my neck, once, twice, before she faces forward and opens up her book. Looks like she got about halfway through, and the idea of sitting here with her as she reads all the little notes I left her is a little nerve-racking.

I place my chin on her shoulder and smirk when I realize the next chapter she’s about to read is a steamy one. My heart instantly begins to race when I remember the notes I left in the margins…

I imagined this to be us when I read this, and I wonder… do you do the same thing? Is it my face you see when you imagine your heroes? Don’t ever tell me if it’s not. I don’t think I could take it.

“Yes,” she whispers, grinding her ass against my rock hard cock subtly. “It’s always your face I imagine.”

I smile, pleased with her words. She squirms a little when my hands begin to roam over her body, my touches slow and leisurely. I bite back a smile when her nipples harden for me easily, the sheer fabric likely only adding to the sensations. “Xave,” she says, her voice filled with desperation.

I glance over her shoulder and read along with her as the emperor uses his magical shadows to bring the heroine to the brink of an orgasm. I might not have magical powers, but I don’t need them to have the same effect on my wife.

I keep teasing her nipples as my other hand slips between her legs, and I chuckle when I realize she isn’t wearing panties. “Were you hoping I’d do this?” I whisper into her ear as I slip my middle finger into her and coat it in her wetness before I circle her clit.

She whimpers, and I can’t help but be a little jealous of her book. She got this wet just from some words on a page? Sierra moans as she turns the page, and pure desire rushes through me as I slip two fingers into her and press against her g-spot, using the heel of my hand to caress her clit at the same time.

“Xavier,” she moans.

I nip at her ear before kissing her just below it. “That’s right, baby,” I whisper. “Your book might have made you wet, but it’s me that’s touching you. It’s me that’ll make you come.” She begins to pant, but she doesn’t put her book away, so I increase my pace, outright torturing her as I bring her to the edge and keep her there. “This pussy belongs to me, you hear me?”

“Yes,” she replies. “Yes. I’m yours, Xavier, as much as you’re mine.”

I grab her hair and kiss her as I give her what she wants, loving the way her pussy contracts around my fingers, her moans silenced by our kiss. My wife collapses against me, breathless, and I smile to myself. Take that, Felix Osiris. Fictional asshole. How fucking dare he make my wife wet when he isn’t even real? Fucking prick.

“I thought you said you were going to work while I read?”

“I am working,” I retort lazily. “Being married is hard work.” I tense involuntarily when I realize what I just said and shake my head. “No, I mean— I don’t mean that being married to you is hard work, Sierra. I⁠—”

My wife cuts me off by pushing her book aside and turning to straddle me. She looks into my eyes as she shoves my sweats aside and grabs my cock. “Fuck,” I moan when she aligns it and lowers herself on top of me, taking all of me in one smooth move.

I grab her ass as she begins to ride me, a beautiful blush on her face as she buries her hands in my hair. “It is hard work,” she says, “but you make it look easy, Xave.” Sierra lifts herself almost entirely off my cock, before coming down on me hard, drawing a helpless moan from my throat. “You’re mine, Xavier,” she says, her eyes never leaving mine. “Every thought you second-guess, every word you think is misspoken. I want it all — no exceptions.”

I grab her hair and pull her mouth to mine, drowning myself in her. How the fuck did I get to be this lucky? This kind of luck… it can’t last, can it?