Every muscle in her legs quivered with anticipation and aftershocks from the full-body orgasms he’d already given her. Deep down, she worried that nothing this amazing could last forever, not that she’d ever be stupid enough to share that thought with her devoted husband. She knew for certain that the only way it wouldn’t last was if something happened to one of them. Since he told her about the trip, the fear of something happening to him had been as real and as palpable as her love for him.

“Why did you just get all tense again?” he asked, his lips soft and soothing on her inner thigh, even as she anticipated where his attention would soon be directed.

“Because I know what you’ve got planned, and I’m bracing myself.”

“That’s not why.” His fingers slid between her legs, teasing and stroking. “Tell me the truth.”

“I’m trying not to be afraid. I’m trying really hard.”

“I must not be doing a good enough job getting your mind off it. Clearly, I need to work harder,” he said, punctuating his words with searing strokes of his tongue over tender, sensitive tissues.

Sam fisted his hair to hold him there as one big hand clutched her bottom to anchor her for his fierce possession. Using fingers, lips and tongue, he reduced her to a trembling, needy, orgasmic disaster area and managed to wipe all worries and fears from her mind, one stroke at a time.

And then he withdrew his fingers and forced one of them past the tight barrier of her anus and sent her reeling into the strongest orgasm yet, crying out from the sheer power of it. She came back to herself to find he’d entered her again, surging into her over and over and over again, until he found his release deep inside her.

Sam wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding him as close as she could get him.

His lips moved softly against her neck, whispering words she couldn’t hear but understood just the same. “I’ll come back to you, Samantha.” This was said so she could hear it. “I promise. I’ll never leave you.”

She blinked back tears and strengthened her already tight grip on him. “I’m sorry to be this way. I suppose I deserve it after what I’ve put you through over the last year.”

“Yes, you do,” he said, making her laugh, which of course had been his goal. He raised his head and looked down at her, his hazel eyes searing her with their intensity. “Anytime you feel afraid while I’m gone, I want you to remember I’m with the best protected person on the planet. They won’t let anything happen to him, so nothing will happen to me either. Okay?”

She bit her lip and nodded.