Four months later, Vivian was lying in bed, checking in on Pinterest on her phone. Grace had been responsible for the social media accounts for the past two months, and she’d gotten a lot better with writing the commentary on her pins.

In the past week, Vivian hadn’t had to suggest any changes, which was a definite improvement.

Occasionally, Vivian missed doing it herself. She’d always liked social media, and Pinterest was her favorite, but it was a relief not to always feel like she had to make time to get it done.

She had plenty of other things to do, most of which she also loved.

She had a pretty amazing job, so she wasn’t going to complain about not getting to do Pinterest anymore.

She adjusted in bed slightly, pulling down the little red gown she was wearing since it had gotten hiked up over her hips. She’d switched to Facebook to check things out when the door to the connecting bathroom opened and Jeff walked out.

He’d been taking a shower, and now he was wearing nothing but a towel.

The sight of his lean body distracted her briefly from her phone. He was a very good-looking man—with and without his clothes on. She had no idea how she’d missed recognizing it for so long.

He was frowning at her as he got closer to the bed. “Are you working?”

“Just looking at Facebook.”

His frown deepened. “Grace is doing a great job with that.”

“I know. I wasn’t trying to take over. I just wanted to see what she was doing. Is that allowed?”

Jeff dropped the towel, and her eyes lowered irresistibly to what had been hidden before. “As long as you’re not working in bed.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not working in bed. Just remember this when you’re doing email in bed at five o’clock in the morning.”

“I only do that when you’re asleep.” His frown had relaxed, and he was gazing down at her with warmth, affection, and also something hotter, something that was making her pulse race. “I like to get rid of the easy stuff before I get into the office.”

“I get that, but I’m not always as asleep as you believe.”

“You aren’t?” He crawled into bed beside her and rolled over on top of her, his body hot and heavy and hard against hers.

She twined her arms around his neck and smiled up at him. “I’m not. So I don’t need to be bossed about looking at my phone in bed.”

“I wasn’t bossing.”

“I know bossing when I hear it, and you, Mr. Owen, are sometimes rather bossy.” She was still smiling, but her whole body had tightened as he rubbed himself very slightly against her.

“Okay, Mrs. Owen. I promise to work on not bossing you so much. But maybe we can get rid of the phone for the time being.”

It was still amazing to her that she was actually Mrs. Vivian Harper Owen now. His wife of two weeks.

They’d only been engaged for three months, and even that had felt like too long.

But they were married now. He’d sold his big house in the suburbs and moved into her apartment with her since they had no need of a huge house yet. She couldn’t remember ever being happier.

She couldn’t remember ever seeing Jeff happier either. It gave her a thrill of pride and pleasure to realize she was the one who had made him so.

“Vivian?” Jeff prompted, breaking into her thoughts.

“Yes.”

“Can we get rid of the phone?”

“What phone?”

He shook his head with a half smile and raised himself up enough to expose her phone, which was now resting on her belly.

He picked it up and put it on the nightstand.

“You have a thing about taking away my phone, you know,” she told him, tangling her fingers into his thick hair. “You’ve done it many times now, going all the way back to Balm in Gilead.”

“And you snuck a secret phone in back there. For Pete’s sake, Viv.”

She giggled fondly as she always did when he used that particular expression. She could see on his face that he enjoyed her response to it.

“Don’t try to distract me,” he said with a sternness that didn’t make it to his eyes. “I haven’t forgotten about you sneaking that phone in.”

“Which you then took away from me! Just like you’re doing now.”

“You could stop me if you want,” he said, his eyes growing hotter as he gazed down at her lying beneath him.

She gave a little sniff. “I don’t really need my phone at the moment. I can think of something better to do.”

“So can I.” He leaned down to kiss her, smelling of soap and toothpaste and warmth and Jeff.

She loved the smell of him.

She loved everything about him.

And her body was responding already to the feeling and to his touch.

For a moment she had to wonder how she’d gone so long working side by side with Jeff and never letting him touch her this way.

He was a very good kisser. He was very good at everything. And every time it seemed to get better.

It might have taken them a long time to get together, but it was more than worth the wait.

***

If you haven’t yet read it, the first book in the Balm in Gilead series is . The third book, Retreat, is about Zeke and Cecily, and it will be coming out in October. You can find an excerpt from Retreat on the following pages.

 

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