Page 61 of Edge of Stars

Opening…

“Turn around while you take off the rest,” I instruct. “You came out here to look at the water, so you will.”

As soon as the sarong drops, I’m behind her, molding my bare skin against every inch of her that I can. I press my hands to her belly, savoring the small bump there now, before bending and fitting my lips against her ear.

“I understand why you were drawn,” I say in a sparse whisper. “It’s nearly as spectacular as you, sweet woman. See all the colors that the moon makes on the water? They’re like the different shades of your fire…your passion. All the ways you surprise and amaze me, each and every day. And look there, on the horizon. There’s no telling where the starlight ends on the water and begins in the sky. That’s us, sweetheart. The same light, in different forms. The whirling particles that were destined to meet and come together.”

“Maximus.” She utters it like worship, small soul-felt rasps that mesh together nearly as one. “Oh yes.”

But then she’s quivering against me, rocking and writhing, and I already know what she’s asking for. Pleading me, with flesh against flesh, for. How I tease her, sliding one hand until my fingertips play with the edges of the curls at her core, though nothing more.

“Please,” she chokes out. “Please.”

“Soon,” I soothe back. “But not until you listen to me. Not until you understand.”

I steel myself for an aggravated comeback, maybe at a full shout. But I’ve underestimated the fortitude of my girl. The way she nods to me instead, jerking her head like a possessed but lusty doll, does things to my shaft that I hadn’t expected. Her obedience is my downfall. Her willingness translates to my wetness, already soaking my cockhead with astounding fullness.

I don’t let it go to waste.

With a terse groan, I roll the drops around my crown. With a darker sound, I bend in to find her entrance…to ease the tension for us both…

I’m there. Except…not.

My cock notches into a tunnel. Except, as soon as Kara bursts with a sharp hiss, I already know it’s not the one I was aiming for.

But holy fuck…it feels so good.

My balls swell. They’re not the only body part heeding that memo. I grunt hard as my mind reels, a tangle of need and lust and carnality—

That, remarkably, weave themselves into a new blanket of coherency. Spreading themselves before me with vivid, even electric, colors. Eagerly and swiftly, my bloodstream plugs in.

I dictate to her with unalterable authority, “Get on your hands and knees, wife. Use your clothes for cushions.”

Holy shit. Even with the extra charge in my favor, it’s going to kill me to watch her move.

And oh God, how it does.

In all the best ways.

A kinky man I am not, but this has to be one of the best sights of my life. This addictingly headstrong woman, tenderly trusting me enough to fulfill my direction, even as her rosette still grips me so tight that my tip stays rooted inside her.

Now go deeper. Stretch her farther…

I shake my head to free it from the taunting devil on my shoulder. Damn it, there’s no angel on the other one, figurative or otherwise. I’m not in need of either. This decision isn’t based on the temptation towards wrong or the inclination towards right. This isn’t a simple multiple-choice exam.

But it’s not a pop essay either.

It’s more.

It’s an illustration of a vital point between us. A lesson that isn’t just essential for Kara to see. I’ve got to figure this out too. How to see when she’s masking the real things of her heart, especially her fears and ragings, when she thinks something or someone’s more important. Someone like me.

But I have to learn how to see it better. How I haven’t, before now, is a testament to the challenges of our journey so far. So many corkscrew turnpikes and high-speed switchbacks. Too many blind intersections.

In order to ensure it could go any further, maybe our engine needed exactly this. Fried spark plugs. Bald brake pads. A complete strand on the shores of a Crete lagoon.

We can’t keep ignoring the dashboard warning lights. And Kara can’t keep stowing her truths in the trunk for the sake of irrelevant optics.

I can’t keep letting her.