“I love you,” he whispered against my temple, even as he brushed a kiss there.
“I love you too,” I gave him the words back freely, needing him to know that. “Thank you.”
His chuckle rumbled through me with the power of a freight train.
“Oh, sweetheart, the pleasure’s all mine.”
Chapter 11
Max
Six Weeks Later
Miami was boiling hot.
I knew I was a whiner; I complained about Chicago being freezing and then, my hometown, being scorching hot.
But seriously. Where was the air conditioning? They needed it out on the streets; needed to do something to make it cooler because I was close to melting. Had it really been so long since I’d been back?
It made me recalculate a lot considering we were only in Spring and I already felt like I had central heating in my veins. I suppose it had been a long time, and that made me feel ashamed because that meant I hadn’t seen mom for years.
What kind of son was I if I hadn’t seen her in ages and didn’t even realize it?
I made a vow to myself to change all that.
My mom wasn’t getting any younger, after all; neither was I. Just giving her money wasn’t enough. She’d long since moved out of that shitty building we’d lived in when I was a kid, because that had been one of the first things I’d insisted on when I’d made a decent living out of my coding. She’d moved into a better building, but as I’d earned more, I’d insisted she move too, and now, she had a house in one of the more expensive parts of town, didn’t have to work and had a monthly allowance that had probably been her annual salary back when she’d worked three jobs to make ends meet. That was no longer the case.
Even though I knew she appreciated what I gave her, I knew she wished she saw me more. All her kids lived in other states now, and I knew she missed us all. It was just shitty that she was scared of flying and that I never had any time to do anything with my life save for work.
Work was and always would be important. I’d never be able to completely separate myself from Avalon, but neither did I have to work crazy hours, and live in my office. Hell, some days, I’d never left the building. Had woken up and worked then slept, eating takeout and just living at my damn desk. Well, no more.
Jessica was strong, in her own way. She wouldn’t wither away without my attention, but I wanted her to have my attention. I needed her as much as she needed me.
Now that I was a soon-to-be-married man, I’d have to make alterations to my schedule because I refused to be the kind of husband who neglected his wife, his family.
I’d proposed that same day Jessica first fully gave herself to me. I couldn’t resist, I had to know she’d be mine forever. That she’d allow me to protect and cherish her always. And she hadn’t said no!
I would have whisked her to a registry office that very same day too, but she’d wanted to meet the rest of my family first. So, here we were.
Our connection went bone deep. I wanted to be with her, to be in her.
Last night, I swear, we’d almost been glued together after one such occasion of being in her. We always ran hot, of course, but in these temperatures?
As we’d come, our bodies seeking release as a fluid line, we’d almost seared each other with our body heat. Then, afterward, flopping back against the mattress had been way too hard.
My cock, already thickening with morning wood, got a little harder as I thought about her soft moans as I ate her out, and the way her thighs got a workout as she tightened them about my head. I loved her taste, the slick juices that she gifted me with when I hit the right spot. The way she clung to me and begged me to fill her.
I loved it. After having her push me away for so long, I seemed to crave her demands. Loved hearing her cries and pleas when she called out for me, wanting me inside her.
I usually teased her, because that was my way.
She called me a jerk but I just loved knowing that she felt that way about me. Sliding into her was like coming home,
and considering I’d come home, it was a double whammy being inside her in Miami.
In fact, I wanted inside her again.
Just thinking about her slickness, the way she writhed underneath me, the way her breasts jiggled as she rocked into me… I shuddered a little, making my way out of the deep sleep that had overcome me after our night’s passion.