“Then maybe you shouldn’t have picked me for a wife, huh?” I don’t know why I’m raring for a fight. Maybe it’s because I feel like I’ve done something wrong and I’m trying to create a defense, just in case.

Stupid, but in the moment, true.

“I didn’t say there was a problem with it. I said I wasn’t a fan of it,” he says stoically.

“You can drop the jealous husband act. No one’s here to watch.”

He takes a step toward me, hands in his pockets. “It wasn’t an act.”

“Then what is your problem? Why the cold shoulder? Why—”

“Will you shut up?” he says as he yanks me against him and slants his lips over mine in a kiss to rival all kisses. In a kiss that could start and end wars. It’s full of hunger and heat and want and desire.

One hand fists in my hair, tilting my head back so I have no other place to look than into his eyes—so that my entire world becomes him in my line of sight—and his other hand holds me firmly against him.

“I’m quiet because all I can think about is wanting to do that to you. All fucking night. I want to kiss you and taste you and fuck you. And even after today—after earlier—you’re still fucking here. I don’t know what that means to me. I don’t know what to feel, because I don’t deserve it. But you are still here. So I’m trying to not question it so I don’t push you away. That’s the last fucking thing I want to do right now.”

His rush of words, his startled confession, is mind-bending to me, and a part of me wishes he’d been drinking so I can blame it on that, but he hasn’t.

He knows what he’s saying.

And it’s what I think I need to hear, but in the same breath what I’m terrified to hear.

Something happened to him today. Something that he won’t discuss with me. He was vulnerable and instead of me being put off by it, I didn’t budge.

That’s all he’s talking about.

That’s all he’s implying.

And even I don’t buy the lie.

But he’s looking like he is—with emotion welling in his eyes and his chest heaving against mine—and I want more. Of him. Of whatever this is. Of the madness that we are together.

I reach up and run my palms down both sides of his cheeks, framing his face there. I feel the muscles in his cheeks turn up as he offers a stuttered smile.