As caught up in her body, her flavor, her reactions as I was, there was just enough rational power left in my head, the big one, to remember that her alarm would go off in mere hours before she’d likely work another twelve-hour day. This woman was incredible and would pull it off with or without sleep—God knows we’d tested that theory since our wedding. There were nights we were doing well to sleep for three hours before she headed in for a long day of work. Tonight, as she gave me so much free rein with her body and her passion, I had the urge to take care of her in every way possible, my own physical needs aside.

I doubled down on my devotion to driving her out of her coherent mind. With my fingers and my mouth, I worshiped the sexiest, most responsive, most entrancing woman in the world. When she cried out and stiffened and her body clasped to my fingers, I drew more passion out of her until she begged me to stop.

“I can’t…” she managed between gasps and full-body contractions.

I lightened my touch, gave her oversensitive spots a moment to recover as I nipped some less sensitive areas. Chloe’s gasping became a little more like regular breaths, and I gave her a few seconds before I swirled my tongue over her again, lightly, teasingly at first, until a switch seemed to flip and she went from allowing me to lave and suckle at her to needing me to yet again.

It didn’t take long for her to climax again, clutching to me, calling out my name, making me feel like the king of the universe. As she gradually went limp beneath me, I kissed another path up her body, a slow, worshipful trail. When my mouth reached hers, I asked, “You okay?”

Her response was more of a moan than a word, but it was unmistakably affirmative and accompanied by a lazy, satisfied grin.

I shifted to the side of her, draping my arm across her chest, kissing her shoulder as I curled up against her.

“It’s your turn,” she whispered, her words nearly slurred with fatigue and the ultimate relaxation.

“Another time, darlin’,” I said. “Tonight’s about you. Go to sleep now.”

Was I still hard? Oh, hell yes. But oddly, my urge to please Chloe, to do what she needed most instead of what I wanted, overrode everything.

She was incredible. She kept me leveled. She’s what had calmed me tonight and helped me believe everything with the brewery would be okay in the end. That I’d opened up to her about my longstanding insecurities spoke to how much I trusted her, maybe even how much I needed her. I’d never felt this close to another person.