“Give up yet?” Scotty asked, red-faced and sweating from exertion.
“Never.” Nick ran his fingers over Scotty’s ribs, knowing the ticklish spot would ruin his opponent’s concentration.
“No fair!” Scotty said, screaming with laughter.
Watching them, Sam’s heart ached with love and contentment that was tinged with anxiety as she remembered the trip Nick would leave on in the morning, the trip that would take him far away from them and into danger she couldn’t begin to fathom. A lump formed in her throat, and she got up to leave the room before she embarrassed herself by breaking down in front of them.
She loved him so much that it hurt to think about being away from him for even the short time he’d be gone. But to picture him in any sort of danger made her crazy, which really wasn’t fair when she considered what she put him through on a daily basis with her job.
In the kitchen, she fixed herself a glass of ice water and downed half of it before putting the glass on the counter. She stared into the darkness out the window over the sink, lost in thoughts she’d rather not be having. When Nick’s hands landed on her shoulders and squeezed, she startled.
“Hey.” He nudged her hair aside to gain access to her neck. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Samantha...”
No one else had ever called her by her full name. She’d been Sam her whole life until he made her his Samantha.
“Where’s Scotty?” she asked, her voice sounding shaky and fragile to her own ears. She wondered how it sounded to her oh-so-observant husband.
“In the shower.” With his hands on her hips, he compelled her to turn and face him.
At the look of concern on his face, her eyes filled with tears that infuriated her.
“What’s wrong, Sam?”
“I’m scared about you going away and not coming back.” She hated how vulnerable the statement made her, but it was the truth.
“Oh, baby, come on.” He gathered her in close to him, so close she could feel his heartbeat as she breathed in his familiar scent. “I’ll be fine. I’ll be back before you have time to miss me.”
“No, you won’t.” She rested her head on his shoulder, absorbing the sweet comfort that only he could provide. “I hate myself for this. I know I put you through far worse every day.”
“I don’t like to see you worried or upset, but knowing you love me enough to worry is very sweet.”
“I love you too much.”
“Not possible.”
“It’s not in my nature to be gushy, so maybe I don’t say it often enough or show you—”
He stopped her with a soft, devastatingly sensual kiss. “Baby, you show me every day, in every look and every touch. I never wonder how much you love me. I always know.”
Reassured by his words, she clung to him, needing him more than she’d ever needed anyone.
“I promise I’ll be fine, and I’ll be back before you know it.”
She tightened her hold on him. “For the record, I’m disgusted by myself. It’s so not like me to be a needy female.”
His soft chuckle drew a hesitant smile from her. “You’re my needy female, and I love you so much. I had no idea it was possible to love anyone as much as I love you.”
They stood there, wrapped up in each other, for a long time, until the water turned off upstairs, and he released her with a kiss that promised sensual delights the moment they were able to be alone. “Let’s get the boy in bed so we can spend some time together.”
“What time do you have to get up?”
“I have to be at Andrew’s by three.”
“Is your detail going on the trip with you?”
He nodded. “Where I go, they go.”
After they shut off the lights and locked the doors, they walked upstairs together.
Scotty was in bed when they got to his room, and they went in to say goodnight.
Nick sat on the edge of the bed. “So I won’t see you tomorrow or Saturday, bud, but I’ll be back early on Sunday.”
“Is Mrs. Littlefield still coming up on Saturday to see me?”
“Yep,” Nick said. “I talked to her today, and you’re on for lunch and a movie.”
“Cool. I can’t wait to see her. Have a good time on your trip with the president, and make sure you memorize all the sick stuff about
Air Force One
so you can tell me about it after.”
“I’ll do that.” Nick leaned forward to receive a tight hug from Scotty. “Keep an eye on Sam for me while I’m gone.”
“I’ll do my best, but she won’t make it easy.”
“I can hear you,” Sam said dryly, which made them laugh.
“Dude, you’re feeling my pain.” Nick kissed Scotty’s forehead and gave him another hug. “Have fun with Mrs. L. Tell her I said hi.”
“I will.”
Nick released him, and Sam moved in to pull the comforter up and over him, leaning in to kiss him.
“Come get me if you wake up during the night.”
“I will. Thanks, Sam.”
“Night, buddy.”
“Hey, Nick?”
At the doorway, he turned back. “Yeah?”
“You’ll be okay on the trip, right?”
The hint of anxiety in Scotty’s voice touched Sam in the same place her anxiety dwelled.
“You bet. Nothing to worry about.”
“Okay. Night.”
“Love you, buddy. Sleep tight.”
Knowing Scotty wasn’t comfortable with the door closed tight, Nick left it propped open far enough to let in the faint glow of the night-light they’d bought when they discovered he was afraid of the dark. After Nick had found the door open and the light on in the closet one morning, he’d put two and two together and bought the night-light for the hallway.
They were all doing their best to navigate their new lives together, letting their love and affection for each other lead the way past any obstacles that might arise.
“What did we do before he lived with us?” Nick asked when they were in their room with the door shut and locked—for now.
“I have no idea, but it wasn’t anywhere near as much fun as it is having him here.”
“As I recall,” he said, slipping his arms around her, “we had plenty of fun when it was just us.”
That sexy smile of his always made her knees weak. “Yes, but this is better. We have us, but we have him too.”
“I love our little family. It’s the best thing to ever happen to me.”
Sam combed her fingers through the silky strands of his hair. She never got tired of looking at him in all his glorious male perfection. “I’m so glad. I wanted that so badly for you.”
He drew back from her to tug her shirt over her head and release her bra.
Sam took advantage of the opportunity to remove his shirt, and gasped at the exquisite sensation of her hardened nipples rubbing against his chest hair.
His arms encircled her, infusing her with his heat and his strength and his overwhelming love for her.
“You’re everything to me,” she whispered, needing him to know what was in her heart before he left.
He held her tight enough to cause pain, but it was the best kind of pain. “Sam, God, you’re killing me tonight.”
“I need you to know.”
“I know, baby. How could I not know?”
“I’m not very good at saying the words.”
“I don’t need the words when I have the actions. You show me all the time, in a million little ways. Such as when you turn all my pictures upside down because you know it’ll make me laugh when I find that you’ve left your mark on my desk—again.”
Sam dissolved into laughter that went a long way toward relieving the tension that had gathered inside her as his departure drew closer. “I didn’t do it.”
“And then when you lie to my face,” he said, his hands sliding down to cup her ass, which was still covered by denim, “it makes me hot.”
“Everything makes you hot.” She tugged at his pants, unbuttoning and unzipping so she could wrap her hand around the steely length that throbbed and grew as she stroked him.
His head fell back in surrender that touched her heart. “Everything about
you
makes me hot,” he said through gritted teeth.
Sam dropped to her knees and had him in her mouth before he could gauge her intentions.
The groan that surged from deep inside him thrilled her as she sucked and stroked him to a fast, explosive finish.
“Christ have mercy,” he whispered when she licked him clean in the aftermath.
She looked up at him, filled with female satisfaction at having had her way with him and breaking his control in the process.
His fingers in her hair gave a gentle tug, urging her up. He backed her up to the bed and laid her out before him, his eyes hot and needy despite the recent satisfaction. When he looked at her in that particular way, he could have anything he wanted from her—anything at all. Hoping to incite him, she raised her knees, letting her feet cling to the very edge of the bed as she spread her legs in blatant invitation.
He took the bait, all but pouncing on her in his haste to get rid of her jeans and panties. His suit pants came whipping off next and when he flung them across the room, Sam’s sex clenched in anticipation. She loved him like this—wild, out of control and so hot for her he couldn’t be bothered with his usual need for order.
She held out her arms to him, welcoming him into her loving embrace.
He came down on her, molding himself to her as only he could do. His lips and hands were everywhere, triggering all her senses as she tried to keep up with his seemingly ravenous need. The tug of his lips on her nipple had her hips arching off the bed, trying to get closer to the erection that lay already hot and full again on her belly.
She worked a hand between them, clasping him in her tight grip and stroking him hard and fast, the way she knew he liked it.
His head dropped to her chest as he pumped into her hand. “I can’t believe you’re doing this to me again,” he whispered roughly.
“What am I doing?”
“Don’t act all innocent with me, Samantha.” He pried her hand free, raised it up and over her head and then reached for her other arm, holding them together with one strong hand.
Captured by him, surrounded by him, overwhelmed by him, she waited breathlessly to see what he would do next.
He began with deep, drugging kisses, licking into her mouth in an erotic rhythm that had her squirming under him, looking for so much more. “Easy, baby,” he whispered as he kissed her jaw and neck and then her ear, rolling her lobe between his teeth and biting down just hard enough to make her moan from the jolt of pure sensation that tightened her nipples.
Seeming to know what she needed, he shifted down ever so slightly, letting his erection slide through the slickness between her legs, bumping her clit on every pass.
Suddenly she wanted her hands free and fought against his tight hold.
“Wait,” he said. “Let me love you.”
“I want to touch you. I need to touch you.” The need was so big, so huge it threatened to swallow her up. It mixed with the fear she’d been battling since she heard about the impending trip and made her tremble from head to toe.
He released her hands immediately. “Sam, honey, you’re shaking. What’s wrong?”
She wrapped her arms around him, bringing his head to rest on her chest. “I hate myself for feeling the way I do right now.”
His sigh was long and tortured. “I never should’ve agreed to this trip.”
“No, don’t say that. Everything in our lives is about me and my job. There’s nothing wrong with it being about you for once.”
“There’s something very wrong when it makes my strong, fearless cop shake with fear.”
“I’ll get over it. I promise.” With her hands on either side of his face, she urged him into another carnal kiss as she raised her hips in invitation.
“Not yet.”
“Yes. Now.
Please
.”
Responding to the urgency he heard in her plea, he entered her fully in one quick stroke that stole the breath from her lungs.
Her hands slid over his back and down to grip the tight, muscular ass that flexed under her hands as he went impossibly deeper.
Sam cried out from the sheer power they created together, every damned time.
He gave it to her hard and fast, the way she liked it best, and then he reached down to where they were joined to stroke her to an orgasm that seemed to go on forever. The first orgasm rolled into a second.
She came down from the incredible high to realize he was still hard, still moving, still possessing her with every deep stroke. And then he withdrew suddenly, and made her want to weep from the loss as he kissed his way down the front of her until he was kneeling on the floor next to the bed and her feet were propped on his shoulders.
Every muscle in her legs quivered with anticipation and aftershocks from the full-body orgasms he’d already given her. Deep down, she worried that nothing this amazing could last forever, not that she’d ever be stupid enough to share that thought with her devoted husband. She knew for certain that the only way it wouldn’t last was if something happened to one of them. Since he told her about the trip, the fear of something happening to him had been as real and as palpable as her love for him.
“Why did you just get all tense again?” he asked, his lips soft and soothing on her inner thigh, even as she anticipated where his attention would soon be directed.
“Because I know what you’ve got planned, and I’m bracing myself.”
“That’s not why.” His fingers slid between her legs, teasing and stroking. “Tell me the truth.”
“I’m trying not to be afraid. I’m trying really hard.”
“I must not be doing a good enough job getting your mind off it. Clearly, I need to work harder,” he said, punctuating his words with searing strokes of his tongue over tender, sensitive tissues.
Sam fisted his hair to hold him there as one big hand clutched her bottom to anchor her for his fierce possession. Using fingers, lips and tongue, he reduced her to a trembling, needy, orgasmic disaster area and managed to wipe all worries and fears from her mind, one stroke at a time.
And then he withdrew his fingers and forced one of them past the tight barrier of her anus and sent her reeling into the strongest orgasm yet, crying out from the sheer power of it. She came back to herself to find he’d entered her again, surging into her over and over and over again, until he found his release deep inside her.