The bed sinks with Henry’s weight as he slides under the sheets at 3:05 a.m.
Instantly, I reach for him, smoothing my hand over his biceps.
“Sorry, I tried to be quiet,” he whispers.
“It’s okay, I was awake. The thunder...,” I murmur, using the nasty storm that’s rolling through as my excuse. Really, I’ve been lying in the dark, waiting for Henry to come back from the office, where Miles confirmed he’d gone after the reception ended.
Lying here, imagining all the things I’d say to him when he finally came home, so he wouldn’t end this—us.
Now I can’t seem to find the words.
It’s Henry who finally breaks the silence. “I heard them fighting one night, right before she left. He told her that it was over, that no Wolf would put up with a cheating wife. She was screaming at him, blaming him for her affair, telling him that it was his fault for not paying enough attention to her. That he was a cold, uncaring bastard who was impossible to love.” Henry’s hard swallow fills the air. “And apparently I’m just like him.”
“She’s wrong.”
“Is she?”
“Yes.” I shift closer and he fits an arm beneath me, pulls me against his bare chest. I listen to his heartbeat for a moment. “So... how much did you hear today?”
“Enough.”
I hold my breath.
“You didn’t need to defend me.”
“Yes, I did. She’s a horrible human being. She doesn’t get to pretend to know you.”
“Maybe she’s right.”
“She’s not.”
He plants a soft kiss on my forehead. “Either way, she’s out of our lives. Let Scott take care of her. He’s the one she’s kept in touch with.”
I release a shaky sigh of relief. Henry’s not mad at me.
“So... you’d rather I be a farmer?” There’s a hint of playfulness in his voice.
“Yes, I would actually.” I trace his collarbone with my fingertips. “As long as you’re topless and sweaty while riding around on the tractor.”
“What would the good folk of Greenbank, Pennsylvania, say about that?”
“I’m sure the female population would be quite happy about it.”
“And your mother?”
“She’d accuse you of trying to get in everyone’s good graces while you sell the land out from under them to build condominiums.”
His deep, throaty chuckle makes my heart swell. “Make sure you pass on my thanks for the flowers, by the way. That was kind of her.”
“I will.” I’ve been gone from home for almost two weeks and didn’t leave on the best of terms, after Mama resorted to taking a handful of adrenaline pills and giving herself what appeared to be a heart attack to foil my plans to visit Henry in Alaska. We’ve shared the odd text, just to touch base and to let her know that Henry’s father passed and I’d be in New York with him until further notice. And then there were the two voice mails—one to tell me that my father almost fell using his walker and how bad it would have been, and another to note that there would be a floral arrangement arriving at the funeral home from Mama and Daddy and the Enderbeys, and that I should look out for it because those big city florists can’t be trusted.
Henry sighs, his arm curling around my body, pulling me closer to him. “Get some sleep.”
I guess we’re not going to talk about all the other things that were said—like how I’m madly in love with Henry and want children. Henry’s children. Lots of them.
Does he even want children? Will he ever consider marrying me?
There’s no mistaking how serious I am about him now. I proclaimed my feelings in the hotel bathroom, with him standing behind me, listening to every word.
His heavy sigh fills the dark room. “Yes.”
I frown. “Yes, what?”
“Yes, I do want children.”
“How did you—”
“Because I know you, Abbi. I can practically hear your thoughts.”
“Oh.” I let my hand trail from his chest to his abdomen, farther down, to grasp his flaccid dick.
My whole body shakes with his chuckle, followed by his groan. “I didn’t mean right now.”
I smile. “But definitely one day, right?” I run my thumb in circles over his tip. He begins to harden almost instantly.
“Yes, one day, with the right woman. I won’t make the same mistake my father did.”
Will I be that right woman? His words spark a memory from yesterday. “You told Scott that your dad knew about us?”
“I came clean before we left for France. Figured it was better he heard it from me than the media, should it for some reason become an interesting story.”
“What did he say?” Henry had sworn that there was nothing going on between us. How would a man like William Wolf have taken being lied to, straight to his face?
Silence meets my question.
And wariness creeps in. “Henry?”
“He said that I must be pretty serious about you.”
I bite my lip to stop myself from asking the question he must know I’m desperate to ask.
Suddenly I’m rolling onto my back, my grip of Henry lost as he fits himself between my legs, resting his elbows on either side of my pillow to cage me in with his arms.
I inhale that heavenly cologne as he fits his face into the crook of my neck to lay a trail of kisses along my jawline. “What do you think? Am I serious enough about you?” he whispers, gently grasping my earlobe with his teeth as he expertly finds my entrance without the use of his hands and pushes into me.
I moan, as much from the feel of him invading my body as from his words. I wrap my arms and legs around his body, trying to bring him as close to me as humanly possible as my emotions for this man overwhelm me.
I don’t want to spend any more days without him.
I would die if anything ever happened to him.
Is it even healthy to feel this way about another human?
I can’t say for sure, but it’s the truth.
And I can’t keep it in anymore. “I love you.”
It’s a whisper in the night, against the rhythmic thump of the headboard. And yet it’s out there, and my chest suddenly constricts with fear that I’ve somehow misinterpreted his words.
Henry slows his thrusts to a pause, to peer down at me. I can just make out the handsome, hard curve of his jaw. His eyes are piercing, even in the darkness. “I can’t remember the last time I used those words. With anyone.”
I run my hands through his thick mane, pushing the strands that have fallen forward back off his face. “But you can feel them, right?”
His long lashes flutter with each blink. “Every damn day.” He closes his mouth over mine, ending any chance for more words as he begins thrusting into me once again, this time with the strength and intoxicating beat that is Henry.
We climax together within minutes, shrouded in darkness, to the sound of rumbling thunder around us.