Page 34 of The Neighborly Thing To Do
“Finn, come on.”
“I’m being serious, baby. I think you might ruin me.” He pushes to his feet, and now I can see the wet spot on his jeans.I practically lick my lips like a cartoon character. “I need to get cleaned up. Too old to have sticky jeans.”
He strolls over to the bag he still hasn’t unpacked in the corner, moving leisurely. He unbuttons his jeans and slides them down his hips, not a care that I’m watching. “And, uh, on this ‘too old’ thing…” I begin. “Not too old to go again, I hope?” I remind myself he’s ten years older than me. He might need a break.
He turns back to me, now clad only in soaked briefs, and lets his eyes rake over my almost-naked form. “Trust me, baby,” he says, voice full of hot promise, “I’m nowhere near done with you.”
Chapter 17
Finn
This woman is going to wreck me. I leave my filthy clothes on the floor by my bag to deal with later, more worried about getting back into bed with her. By the time I make it there, she’s unhooked her bra, throwing it on the floor somewhere on the far side of the bed. I slide in next to her, looping an arm around her so I can pull her close. She should be right next to me. She should always be right next to me.
My wife. My pretty little wife who made me come the hardest I ever have, and I haven’t even been inside her yet.
I turn on my side, drawing her into my chest and wrapping one wing over us, closing us in and protecting us from the outside world. It’s likely some leftover primal instinct from whatever gargoyles were long before we had places like Hearthstone to keep us safe, but I can’t fight it. I need to know she’s safe in my embrace, that I’m protecting us from any harm.
She hums and snuggles closer. I had every intention of coming back to bed and fingering her until I could go again, but I remind myself that she hasn’t had sex in ten years. She clearly needs something different, no matter what she said about going again, and she’s turning to me for comfort. Maybe we both need it, honestly.
“When you told Caroline off earlier…” she begins, then trails off.
“Yes?” I prompt, curious where her thoughts have gone. I’ve been purposefully not thinking about that, about the simmering rage under my skin at the thought of what happened. But if she needs to talk about it, then I can manage to control myself.
“Nothing. Just—no one’s ever done that for me before.”
I suspected it, but it hurts to hear nonetheless. “No one?”
“Well, G would have. She doesn’t like people being mean. But I worked hard so she never saw the shit like this. Not that there was a lot of it. People aren’t awful. Even Caroline isn’t awful. Just—clueless, I guess? I didn’t want G to be any more aware of how little I belong here.”
I hold her tighter, my wing fluttering around us with dissatisfaction. “You do belong here.”
She laughs, the sound coming out as a tiny, dainty little huff. “Your wing tickles.”
“Cassidy.” We’re going to have this conversation.
She heaves a heavy sigh. “You heard her. Athrall. A pet for her kids to suck blood from. I was good enough to be G’s nanny foryears, not good enough to stay here on my own. Good enough to ring up their groceries—until someone else comes along that they think deserves the job more. It is what it is.”
No. I refuse to allow it to be that way. I know logically that I can’t single-handedly change everything that’s wronged Cassidy, but I can damn well try. “You do belong here,” I insist. “And I’ll fight anyone who doesn’t see it that way.”
She traces my chest with the tips of her fingers. “I don’t think you’re a fighter, Finn.”
I tilt her chin up. “Baby. You’re my wife. But even if you weren’t my wife, I’d still say the same thing. No one gets to treat you as lesser. You belong here. And I’ll make sure you—and everyone else—knows it every. Damn. Day.”
She shivers. “I’m your wife,” she repeats, and I think she’s finally getting the message, but then she says, “Don’t you think this is moving a bit fast? We barely knew each other, and now we’re married, and we’re starting a relationship but we’re already married, and—” She cuts herself off, shaking her head.
“Do you want to slow down?” I will, if that’s what she wants and needs. But fuck, I don’t want to. I want to go full steam ahead, showing anyone who ever looks our way that this is mywife.
I’ve never been public about anything before. I’ve been withdrawn my whole life. Even my prior relationships were all quiet things: not secret, but private. I’ve never wanted anyone around the way I want Cassidy; I will be public for her. I will be loud,and I will make sure this entire town and the whole damn world know how amazing she is.
“No,” she laughs. “I don’t want to slow down. But I don’t know how you go from being married to, I don’t know, a first date? It’s strange.”
I kiss the tip of her nose. “It might be,” I agree with her. “But it’s ours. And I swear to you, wife, that I will make every day of it worth it.”
“And what if in a few years, you want something else?” she asks. “Someone morerightfor this place?”
“Youareright for this place.” My frustration is spreading through me, growing bigger every time she questions it. I’m not irritated with her. I know where her worries come from. But the fact that she doesn’t know, that not everyone has made it crystal fucking clear to her, is infuriating.
“And children?” she presses. I jolt in surprise. I didn’t expect to be talking about kids today. “I’m just saying, someday you’ll realize that having kids with a human runs the risk of—well, of them being like me.”
