I held on to Devin, letting my breath calm. We had this need that only the other could assuage.

Damn, we shouldn’t have done this. It was only going to confuse our situation. How was Devin going to understand how important it was for him to support me if I gave in and fucked him every time he was in the vicinity?

I ran a hand over my face.

“Don’t.”

I lifted my head. “What?”

“Don’t turn this into something wrong. We’re married. We love each other. Making love is part of it.”

Devin stood, kicking his pants the rest of the way off and holding my legs around him. He carried me to the sofa in the living room and sat with me straddling his thighs. His cock still pulsed inside me and from the feel of it, there was little chance of it going down soon.

“Our sex life has never been the problem. We use it to mask our issues.”

I attempted to slip off him, but he held me tight.

“What do you need from me to prove I’m willing to change?”

“I need to know that your career doesn’t come before me. I need to feel like I’m your wife in and outside of the bedroom.”

“I can do that.”

“Dev.” I gazed into his piercing blue eyes. “I’m not kidding about running.”

“I know, but as you said, you haven’t announced anything yet.”

I shook my head. I was only waiting for the most opportune time to make it official.

Before I could clear up his misconception, he said, “There is something I want in return.”

I tried to focus on his words, but his growing erection was making me lose my train of thought. “This isn’t a negotiation.”

He gripped my thighs and ground his cock into me. My breath quickened and my pussy flooded around him.

“This is something we talked about years ago. Something I know you want as much as I do.”

Dev lifted me and then slid me down. I gripped the back of the couch as my body ignited once again.

Then it hit me. He couldn’t be talking about what he asked for yesterday.

“No,” I said.

“Hear me out before you make a final decision.” He tugged me up, biting the tips of my breasts.

“No. Not happening,” I stuttered out as my pussy swelled and his lips moved to the other hardened nipple. “Fuck, this is not the time for this discussion. I can’t think when you’re distracting me.”

“Then it’s the perfect time to say this. I want a baby. I want you to stop taking birth control. I want a family.”

I rose and glided down his length again, ignoring his words.

He couldn’t be serious. When I’d brought up having a baby a year into our marriage, he’d shot the idea down. He insisted he wanted time with us as a couple first. Later, I figured out it had more to do with his family and his career. After mentioning it a few more times over the years, I gave up any hope.

A small part of me wanted to be spiteful and refuse. I’d waited so long, and Dev wanted a child now when it was convenient for him. But a more significant part of me wished for a baby.

God, how was I going to make any rational decision while riding his cock? All I could think about was him fucking me.

“We’ll discuss it later and focus on this now.” Dev thrust hard into me, forcing me up, and then he clutched my thighs to pull me down as he ground his girth into my cum-filled, sopping core. “Let me fuck you and then lie to me and tell me that you do not want what I want.”

“Dammit, Dev, you make absolutely no sense. How the hell did you become a judge?”

He fisted my hair and yanked my head toward him, sealing our lips and making me forget everything but his throbbing cock.

He flipped me onto my back and began pounding into my quivering pussy. The ache inside me blazed into an uncontrollable euphoria. I clenched Dev’s shoulders and arched against him.

“Dev,” I called out. “Please.”

He grinned down at me. “Come now, baby.”

I detonated, squeezing and contracting around his pummeling cock. My mind clouded, and all I could see was this man who was never going to let me go.

* * *

Later that afternoon, I walked out toward the edge of the patio and stared at the Sound below. The view was beautiful. The blue-green water glowed against the sapphire of the sky.

Today was one of the rare true summer days where there wasn’t a cloud in sight, and the temperature was a balmy eighty-five degrees.

I shouldn’t have slept with him. And twice in a row. What was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking, that was my problem. Whenever he was near, I was a crazed horny teenager.

This new situation with Dev gave me hope but also made me fear it would all end in disaster.

I had been planning to go ahead with the annulment that Dev said our parents had hoped would happen and begin a new life and senatorial campaign as a single woman.

When Jacinta visited, we’d discussed my options for both my personal and political future. The girl loved her brother, but she understood the pain he was causing me. I’d thought she was joking when she suggested kicking her brother to the curb and taking him for everything he had until I realized she was dead serious.

After she finished giving me her opinion on Devin, she pitched a campaign focused on the combination of my fiscally conservative and socially liberal views. Something Jacinta insisted the state of Washington and our nation needed desperately.

If only Jacinta had known that Representative Tracy Jones’s daily calls had all but convinced me to take on the incumbent, Anthony Sanders, a condescending little man who had tiny dick syndrome and viewed women as disposable. Jacinta only helped solidify my decision.

I shook all thoughts of campaigning and elections from my mind as I refocused on the man who was showering in the house behind me.

I wasn’t stupid enough to think sex wouldn’t happen again between us, even if it was better that we restrain ourselves.

However, I couldn’t live my life the way we’d done for the past five years.

He promised things would change, but I couldn’t help being apprehensive. It would be so easy to fall into the fairy tale I’d thought I had before reality had shown me otherwise.

Could I trust him?

Would he pretend that we didn’t exist to further his career, again? Would he cave under the pressure his father would inevitably put on him?

I closed my eyes and inhaled the salty air.

On top of everything, I was about to get on a plane and return to the heart of Texas, a place I’d left behind.

Would Papa come to see me when I was so close to Houston? At least Ashur was going to be there. I could always depend on my big brother to support me.

Hopefully, he’d convince Papa to let him bring Mommy to see me. I missed her so much. We spoke on the phone every few days, but there was nothing like spending time with her.

When I’d picked Devin over Papa, Mommy had become collateral damage. Papa understood the best way to hurt me was to keep her from me. He’d hoped I’d grow to resent Dev for separating me from Mommy, but it only solidified what a manipulative bastard Papa was.

No amount of money was worth being controlled for the rest of my life.

“Stop worrying. We’ll figure this out.”

I turned to face Dev. “We shouldn’t have slept together.”

He gazed at me and then pressed me against the railing.

“Yes, we should have, and expect it to happen again and again. That’s the privilege of being married. We can fuck like rabbits, and no one can say anything.”

“You’re incorrigible. No wonder the duped residents of Washington State love having you on the bench. Your Southern charm bamboozled them.”

“If only my cloak-and-dagger skills worked on you.”

He had no clue how well they did. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have let myself fall into the situation I’d lived in for the past twelve years.

“Give me your left hand.”

I lifted a brow and placed my palm over his. The next thing I knew, Dev was sliding my wedding band and engagement ring on my finger. A tingle shot up my spine, making my heart skip a beat.

I could never get over how beautiful the rings were. A pink diamond halo surrounded a princess-cut solitaire in an exquisite platinum setting with a matching diamond band.

I hadn’t worn my rings in years, something I’d resented for the longest time.

“I want the world to know who you belong to.”

“For a man who wouldn’t acknowledge me in public, you’re a bit possessive aren’t you?”

“The Neanderthal I’ve kept a tight rein on for the past few years is coming out in full force. I plan on making up for lost time. There won’t be a single event either of us will attend again without the other. Everyone will know we are a couple.”

“Dev, don’t go crazy on my account.”

“Sami, I’m serious about us. I don’t ever want you to doubt how I feel about you or that you’re a priority.”

“What if I said I’m filing the paperwork tomorrow, and I’ll be an official candidate by the time we land in Texas?” I gazed into his sapphire eyes.

“I’d support your decision and stand by you.”

“I’m not sure I believe you.”

“I won’t lie. Elections are ruthless. The last thing I want is my wife dragged through the mud by her political opponent. However, I’ll be there with you, no matter what you face. Hell, I’m an expert in campaigns and elections. Dad’s run for some form of office or the other since before I was born.”

I ran a thumb over his bottom lip, peering at his face.

The determined look he’d get when he meant what he said was etched all over his face.

I had to give him a chance.

The true test would come when we were in the midst of his family’s Southern political world.

“Trust me, baby.”

“I’ll do my best.” I leaned up on tiptoes and kissed him. “Come on. We have some work to do before our flight tomorrow.”