Ocean Jewel by Cassie Mint
Ten
Damian
Five Years Later
I stroll up behind my wife where she’s curled in her favorite armchair, a sketchpad balanced on her knees. Her lump of charcoal moves swiftly over the paper, drawing two plump faces, two tiny bodies, two pairs of grasping hands. I lean over Roxy’s shoulder, smirking when she jumps, and hum at the half-done drawing of our twin sons.
“You scared me!” She blows out a breath and laughs, turning her face for a kiss. “The boys just went down.”
I straighten, peering into the shared crib, so much burning emotion in my chest that it chokes me. Roxy is my world. And now these boys…
There is no luckier man on earth.
I nod at her sketch “Is that for your gallery show?”
She scoffs, brushing a speck of charcoal off the page. “No. This is garbage. It’s for Jake.”
“I’ll try not to be offended.”
Roxy squeals at her big brother’s voice, launching out of her armchair and sending her sketchpad flying. I round the chair and pick it up, smoothing the pages flat as she hurls herself across the room for a hug.
Jake’s a busy man. Everyone wants a piece of his talent. But the only people who get a piece of him are in this room.
Even me. It took a while, but we’re finally back where we were. He just needed to see me treat Roxy right, like the angel that she is.
I don’t blame him. He’s right to demand the best for her.
“How long are you here? Will you stay for a few days? Where are you going next—” Roxy blasts him with questions, talking a mile a minute. She grabs his arms and drags him towards the crib, her voice dropping to a stage whisper as they near the babies.
“Jeez.” He peers down at them, eyes wide. “They’re cuter in real life than on paper.”
“I know, right?” Roxy beams, unoffended. She’s so proud of our sons. She showed them off to the delivery man yesterday. And suddenly, seeing her smile in the shaft of sunlight from the window, I’m eager to know when Jake will leave.
We scarred him for life once. We won’t do it again. But god, my wife is fucking gorgeous.
True bliss is when I’m lodged deep inside her. When she urges me on with her heels at my back, her moans ringing out through the room. She catches me looking at her now, and she must read the thoughts right there on my face, because she smirks. Sultry and knowing. Jake bends over the cot, cooing and blissfully ignorant, so I let her see a glimpse of it.
The maddening force of my love. My need for her. I’ve only been gone for a few hours, and already I’m half-mad with craving.
Roxy shivers and bites her lip.
Yeah. Jake better not stay too long.
My wife and I have some catching up to do.
* * *Want more delicious instalove goodness?
Harlow runs away from her past—right into the arms of a scarred mountain man. Check out Arctic Star!
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