7. Gareth

Me: You know, if you need a TV put in your room for private viewings, I can arrange that.

Isent the text from the safety of my own bed, unable to get what I saw earlier out of my head. Walking in on her watching porn had me in knots. God, I didn’t know discovering a woman in my living room watching softcore porn could be so fucking sexy, but it was.

Not any woman, Serenity.

My wife.

Serenity: Thank you for the offer, but I’d rather spend my time in here doing other things.

Me: What other things?

Heat spiked through my blood, twisting it with need. God, I wanted her. Needed her.

Serenity: I’ve gotten pretty good at visualizing, it’s the other stuff that isn’t coming naturally.

My heart kicked up in speed. I loved how open she was with the safety of a phone screen between us.

Me: Tell me.

Serenity: What?

Me: Tell me what you visualize and what you’re struggling with.

Serenity: I’m not sure you want to know.

Me: I do. I want to know everything you’re willing to share.

Serenity: Okay

Serenity: …

The little dots flashed so long on the screen I was worried she’d backtrack and shy away.

Serenity: Laying here, in this bed you’ve gifted me, I’m surrounded by your smell. It’s so good. So my waking dreams are filled with you. Your hands, your body, your mouth on mine.

Jesus fucking Christ. Her words shot straight to my dick, an ache pulsing there.

Serenity: I can’t get you out of my head. Can’t ease the ache that’s haunted me since you kissed me.

Serenity: I try. Gareth, I try. But…no matter how hard I picture it, my hands aren’t yours.

Fuck me, I was hard. Every sense begged me to get out of bed, cross the hall, and give her everything she needed.

But…I couldn’t. She was still healing. What kind of asshole would I be if I took advantage of her like that?

Maybe…maybe I could help her though, in other ways.

Me: Goddamn, angel. You’re so damn sexy. You know that? The idea of you touching yourself has me hard as fucking granite.

Serenity: Really?

Me: Yes. I need you to do something for me angel.

Serenity: Does it involve coming to your room?

Me: Stay where you are, please. But, I want you to do what I say.

Serenity: Okay

Goddamn, this woman. Submitting with all that trust. I shifted in the bed, holding the phone with one hand and lazily stroking my cock with the other.

Me: Use your free hand and tease your breasts for me.

Serenity: How would you do it?

Me: I’d glide my hands over your perfect globes before plucking your nipples and making them rosy for me. Then I’d soothe that sting with my mouth.

Serenity: God, that sounds amazing

Me: Move your hand lower, Serenity.

Serenity: How much lower?

The little tease.

Me: Between those luscious thighs. Slip your fingers between your flesh.

Serenity: Gareth

Me: Are you wet, angel?

Serenity: Yes. I’m slick and achy.

Fuck. I gripped my cock harder, my strokes rougher.

Me: Good. Glide your fingers through your heat for me. Back and forth.

Serenity: I wish it was you

Me: I’m right here with you. You’re in control though. You’re safe. You’re making your own choices. Now lift your hips off the bed, arch into your hand.

Serenity: Jesus

I grinned, working my cock harder.

Me: Tell me what that feels like

Serenity: Hot. Slick. Achy. Gareth, I’m

Me: Fuck, angel you’re close, aren’t you? Keep doing that. Rock your clit into your hand, faster.

The texts went silent, but I cherished it. The image of her in the bed, rocking into her own hand had me stroking my dick so hard I could feel my orgasm rising up?—

A surprised gasp rang out from across the hall, and Serenity’s breathy moan sent me right over the edge. I jerked into my hand, coming hard and long.

Catching my breath, I hurried to clean up, then scooped up my phone again.

Me: Better?

Serenity: I can’t believe I just did that.

Me: I can. You’re so damn amazing, angel.

Me: Sleep well.

I quickly added the last text before I crumbled and crossed the boundary I’d set in place. But, she’d taken the power here, the control. She’d worked herself on her own terms and I was just lucky enough to be a part of it. She was healing, and that gave me more joy than I knew what to do with.

Charleston in February was something I never tired of. Its winter was so different from Chicago’s, and while it was still cold, it wasn’t brutal.

Serenity in Charleston was something to behold.

Each day she settled a little more into a new lifestyle where she had control of her choices. It was a marvel to see her finding herself in new ways, not to mention the hot-as-fuck text session we had a few days ago. It almost felt like a fever dream, neither one of us commenting on it in person.

Of course, Serenity still had a heavy dose of trauma lingering in so many facets of her life, but that healing process would take time. For now, I just felt lucky as fuck to be a part of the it.

She’d been my wife for over a month now, and no war had broken out between our families. While I was still working diligently with Dante to find a way out of this situation where we all won, things were quiet.

Charleston acted as my second home, and I spent almost as much time here as I did in Chicago. Now that the NFL season was over, I wanted Serenity to meet some of my friends on this side of the map.

“Your room is just over there,” I said, carrying our luggage through my house. I pointed at a closed door, a guest room that was directly across the hall from mine.

“You don’t have any staff here,” she said, her hand lingering on the knob of her bedroom door. It was already well past midnight, since we’d left Chicago after I’d put in a late night of work. I could see the exhaustion lining her eyes.

“The size doesn’t really merit a staff,” I explained. “And that’s one thing I love about this place. I bought it under a different name, so no one knows it’s mine. It’s just off the grid enough to not merit attention and gives me exactly what I need.”

“Space,” she said, and I nodded. “Time to get away from the business in Chicago.”

“Exactly. Now it’s that for you, too. None of that will touch us here. You should be able to fully relax.”

Serenity smiled. “How long will we be here?”

“A week,” I explained. “Unless you want to stay longer, then I’ll rearrange some things.”

“I’m fine,” she said, then followed the words with a sleepy yawn.

I smiled at her, pushing past her and into her room to set down her luggage. “Get some rest, angel,” I said.

She dug through her suitcase and hurried to the bathroom, quickly returning in one of those sinfully tempting pajama sets she loved to wear in front of me. But she didn’t try to tease me tonight, she just plopped right onto the bed. “I love your sheets,” she said, burying herself in the covers. Her eyes were already closed.

My heart expanded in my chest at the sight, at the way she was so comfortable around me, and I closed her door quietly before heading to my room. I understood her exhaustion. Marrying me had drastically shifted her daily schedule. The strict regiments forced on her by her father were gone, and that was a huge change to tackle. Suddenly having freedom where there’d been none before meant Serenity was still learning about balance. She stayed up late most nights simply because she could, but I could see the lack of sleep was weighing on her.

After unpacking, I triple-checked the security systems I’d installed when I bought the place. It might’ve been off the grid and under another name, but that didn’t make me na?ve. If someone wanted to find me—like a begrudged father-in-law hell-bent on revenge—he could. The system was in place to give me an edge. I didn’t think he was that stupid though, because crossing onto private property gave me grounds to shoot him.

I thought about the guns I had hidden around the house and checked them too. I promised myself when I got out of the family business, I’d never use one again, but I would break that promise if it came down to protecting Serenity.

Once I was satisfied we were locked in and safe for the night, I finally made my way back to my room, only to stop outside my door.

“No,” a low whine came from Serenity’s room. “No! Please!”

I bolted through the door, already reaching for the gun I had stashed behind a mirror in her room, but stopped when I saw her thrashing on the bed. Relief barreled through me that she wasn’t under attack, not physically anyway.

“Serenity,” I said gently, sinking onto the bed and smoothing my hand over her face. Her brow creased like she was in pain. “Serenity,” I said a little firmer.

Her eyes snapped open, fear icing over her usual warm blue color. She bolted upright, her eyes darting around the room like she didn’t know where she was before she locked eyes with me. Tears immediately rolled down her cheeks and she threw her arms around my neck, clinging to me.

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her into my lap to hold her closer. “It was just a dream,” I said, trying to soothe her. She was trembling.

“A nightmare,” she said, sucking in a breath. “Bad things happen in my dreams at night. I’ve been trying to control them, trying to think about anything else while falling asleep, but I can’t. It’s always the same. He finds me. He hurts you. Hurts me. And I can’t…” Her voice trailed off, and she breathed deeply again, her face buried in my neck. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to bother you.”

I held her tighter, shifting an arm beneath her knees as I stood from the bed, cradling her against my chest.

“You never bother me,” I assured her, walking her across the hall and into my room, kicking the door shut behind me. “From now on,” I said, gently laying her in my bed. “You sleep with me. And whenever the nightmares come, I’ll wake you up. I’ll assure you that you’re safe.”

She sighed, eyes tracking mine as I walked around the bed, shedding my shirt and pants until I was just in my boxer-briefs. I moved the blankets back, and the two of us climbed under them, settling on our respective pillows.

She turned on her side to face me, and I did the same, smoothing some of her blonde hair off her cheek.

“Talk to me, please,” she said. “Anything. I just…I can’t go to sleep without a distraction. That nightmare was a bad one. You got shot…”

Fuck, the pain that shaped the lines of her face gutted me.

“No one is going to shoot me,” I promised. “Or you. No one is going to take you away from me. I don’t give a fuck if your father sends his entire army after us. They wouldn’t be able to take you from me.”

She blew out a breath, a sort of peace settling over her face. “I believe you,” she said. “But, could you still distract me?”

I swallowed hard, heat slicing through my veins. A primal need to protect her, even from her dreams, twisted me. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized I had Serenity in my bed with barely anything separating us.

“There’s only one way I know how to distract you, angel,” I said, my voice sounding like it was scraped raw. “And right now we don’t have the safety of a phone screen between us.”

“Please,” she begged, her eyes on mine. “Show me.”

“Serenity—”

“I want to know what that’s like,” she cut over me. “To be distracted by you. Even if it’s only just this once.”

Just this once.

I could do just this once, couldn’t I?

I wouldn’t take her virginity, but I could give her what she needed without breaking my word.

I reached across the distance between us, dragging her to me with one arm. She gasped as I brought our bodies flush, her fingers splaying along my bare chest. Her eyes dropped to the ink I had there, and she slowly started tracing the lines of the designs.

And I was hard.

Jesus, it didn’t take much with her, and with the flimsy fabric between us, it would be so easy to sink deep inside her?—

Nope. This was about her, not my cock.

“Beautiful,” she whispered, eyes still on my ink.

“I’ve never been called that before,” I said.

“No one was really looking then,” she said. “Did it hurt?”

I shook my head. “Some people say it hurts.”

“You like it, though,” she said. “Don’t you?”

I swallowed hard. “Yes,” I said. “It’s more like a burn.”

“I want to know what it feels like someday.”

“You want a tattoo?” Surprise made me smile.

“I was never allowed to think about it before, but I’ve always loved yours. Especially this one,” she said, trailing her fingers over a piece on the inside of my arm. It was a line design with two triangles sitting atop each other and flipped, creating two points in either direction. “Why did you choose these?” she asked, pointing inside the triangles where other symbols were inked.

“They each mean something to me,” I said. “A feather, because my mother loves birds,” I explained as Serenity touched each element. “A moon, because I’m always my best self at night. And a compass in case I ever forget where I came from.”

“I love it,” she whispered, then dipped her head down, grazing her lips over the design before shifting her head back toward me.

Slowly, I inched my lips down to hers, groaning when we touched.

Fuck me, I’d wanted to kiss her every day since that first time.

She tasted just like I remembered, all sweet and warm. She arched against me as I slipped my tongue between her lips, and I slid my free hand down her side and over her hip before hooking her leg around my waist.

“Gareth,” she said between our kiss. Her hands roamed over my chest and around to my back, her fingers greedy like she couldn’t get enough of me.

We were on the same page then, because I couldn’t stop touching her, relishing every inch of her smooth skin as I explored her delicate curves.

She kissed me back, harder, more demanding, and it made my cock ache. She reached down between us, her fingers just barely grazing my cock over my boxer-briefs. I thrust into her touch, then gently grabbed her wrist and pushed it up and over her head, the move putting her on her back with me above her.

“I want to touch you,” she said, breathless.

A warm shudder ran the length of my spine at her words. I’d never wanted a woman so much in my life, but I managed to shake my head. “Not tonight, angel,” I said. “Tonight is about distracting you.”

I leaned down, kissing her again before moving to the line of her jaw and lower. “If there’s something you don’t like, you need to tell me, okay? Don’t keep it in. You don’t like something, don’t want something, I stop. Understand?”

“Yes,” she said. “But I have no clue what I do and don’t like.”

I smirked at her. “Trust me,” I said. “You’ll know.”

I dipped down even lower, shifting so I could palm both of her breasts in my hand. “Fuck,” I groaned. “You’re not wearing a bra.”

“I don’t sleep in underwear,” she said.

My cock throbbed with the realization that there was nothing beneath any of the silk covering her.

I used that silk while I rolled her nipples, using the sensation to get them to peak for me. Then I tugged it down, needing the pebbled bud in my mouth. I sucked it until it was rosy, then soothed the small hurt with my tongue, my eyes flashing up to her face to make sure she was enjoying it.

“Told you I’d put these in my mouth,” I said.

“Yes,” she sighed, her eyes were closed and mouth parted open with little breathy gasps coming out of it with every graze of my touch.

She arched against me as I moved to her other breast, her body so damn responsive. I shifted above her, placing my thigh between hers to give her something to move against, knowing if I let my cock down there that would be the end of me.

She gasped when I pressed my thigh against her warm flesh, and I groaned at the feel of her heat through the silk. I was more than ready to get down there, but I wanted to play first.

I kissed her breasts, working my hands over her body, burning into my memory every spot that made her gasp or whimper.

Sliding my hands beneath her lower back, I lifted her slightly, helping her create that pressure she sought against my thigh while moving to the side of her breast, nipping at the sensitive flesh there.

“Gareth,” she moaned at the bite, and I about fucking came at the pleasure laced around my name.

My wife liked a little pain with her pleasure, just like me.

Fucking hell, this was harder than I ever thought possible.

I grinned against her, kissing the little red mark I’d made on her breast, and moved lower. I pushed her shirt up, kissing along her soft stomach, then hooked my fingers in the band of her shorts, eyes looking up to her.

“This okay?” I asked, wanting her to know she was in full control.

She immediately lifted her beautiful ass off the bed, nodding hurriedly, like she was more than ready for me to take them off. I grinned, pride swelling in my chest as I slid the silk down her legs and tossed it behind me.

“Fuck, Serenity,” I said, unable to help myself at the sight of the thin strip of blonde curls that covered her glistening, pink flesh. “You’re so goddamn beautiful.”

I softly kissed just above her pussy, then around it, ramping up the anticipation as much as I could. My fingers grazed the inside of her thighs before I rose up enough to look down at her as I lightly dragged them through her heat.

She gasped, eyes flaring wide at the single touch.

I trembled as her wetness clung to my fingers. She was so ready for me. “Did you touch yourself like this?” I asked, teasing her.

“Yes,” she breathed the word. “But you’re better. So. Much. Better. More,” she whispered.

Who was I to deny her?

I glided my fingers through her wet pussy again, slowly dancing around her entrance before teasing her swollen clit.

I shifted up until I was at her mouth again, my hand still teasing her as I brought my mouth down on hers. And as she parted her lips for me, letting me in, I slid one finger inside her heat, the combination making her shudder around me.

I stroked her slowly, not wanting to hurt her, but she was already so slick. She made it so fucking easy to play with her.

In and out, I dragged my finger from her, using my thumb to lightly move around her clit, enjoying the needy way she rocked into my touch, chasing her pleasure in an unabashed way that made me fucking weak for her.

I kissed her harder, deeper, drawing the gasps from her lips as I slid another finger inside her, pumping into her until I felt her walls flutter around them.

I drew my hand back, and she whimpered.

“Gareth,” she begged, and I could hear how close she was to the edge by the neediness in her voice.

I grinned at her before moving down her body, positioning my face between her thighs. “I want you to come on my tongue tonight, angel,” I said, my warm breath hitting her needy pussy.

I turned my head, kissing her thigh before biting it just enough to hear her moan. She rocked into my face on instinct, and I slid my tongue along her slit.

“Fuck,” I groaned against her swollen flesh. “You taste so good.” I lapped at her, savoring her salty sweet flavor on my tongue.

“Omigod,” she whispered, fisting the sheets as I pumped my tongue into her like I had been with my fingers seconds before. “Omigod,” she said again, and I couldn’t help but grin as I ate at her.

She definitely wasn’t thinking about her nightmare now, and it brought out something so fucking primal inside me, claiming her this way, in a way no one else ever had before.

I licked her again before sliding an arm beneath her, hefting her up slightly so I had the perfect angle to feast on her.

God, she was a dream.

A fucking fantasy I shouldn’t be allowed to touch.

But I was here.

And there was no going back.

Not when I could give her this.

I thrust my tongue inside her until her words were unintelligible, until I felt her walls flutter again. I sucked her clit into my mouth, hard?—

“Gareth!” My name came in time with her release, and I continued to lap at her, to drink down her flavor as she came, shuddering against me, her moans increasing every time I glided my tongue over her sensitive clit again and again.

It wasn’t until she went limp that I lowered her back to the bed, gently kissing her thighs before drawing back, licking the rest of her off of my lips.

Her breaths were slow and deep as she looked up at me. “That was…amazing.”

I smiled down at her, telling my aching, needy cock to shut the fuck up.

“You were amazing, angel,” I said, settling beside her.

“I’ve never…I didn’t know it was like that.”

My pride swelled, and maybe that made me a caveman of an asshole, but I didn’t care.

She glanced down at herself, noticing the mark I’d given her on her breast, and I worried for a second she’d be furious?—

“I want more of those,” she said.

I literally stopped breathing for a moment.

I forced myself to be still, to shut down every need to keep this going, to give her everything she was asking for.

She smiled at me, exhaustion settling over her as she curled up against me. I allowed myself the touch, tucking her against my chest.

“Not that I’m complaining,” she said. “But what made you change your mind? First the text and now this. I know we didn’t sleep together but…”

“Denying you is fucking hard,” I admitted. “But I also don’t want to leave you aching and unsatisfied. I still believe you need to feel safe, feel in control, need to heal, but…I don’t want to be someone who doesn’t give you what you need.”

“You’re…you’re too good to me.” Her hand splayed on my chest, lazily threatening to go lower. “Are you sure I can’t touch you now? I feel bad leaving you without.” She yawned after the question, and I laughed.

“Not tonight, angel,” I said. I laid my hand over hers, bringing it back to the center of my chest. “Sleep.”

She nodded against my chest, and after several quiet moments, her breathing evened out, her body growing a little heavier against mine.

I couldn’t stop the smile that spread over my lips.

Couldn’t stop the warm sensation growing beneath my skin.

I’d never felt this sort of happiness just holding a woman before…

And I wondered what the fuck I’d just gotten myself into.