Every time he entered her, she arched into him until finally he felt her go stiff beneath him, a soundless scream on her lips, her warmth pulsing around him. And he let go. The rhythm forgotten, the steadiness gone. Only a blinding race to the finish remained as his blood roared in his ears, the strength of his release savaging him, tearing him to pieces inside and leaving them scattered, impossible to collect. Impossible to ever be whole again in the way he’d been before this. Before his orgasm.
Before Leah.
Somehow, in one wrenching moment, his wife had changed everything. And he felt nearly desperate to find a way to change it back.
CHAPTER NINE
LEAH’S WORLD WAS rocked. Completely. Ajax in theory was one thing. Ajax in reality was another thing entirely.
He had been firm, gentle sometimes, commanding, and OMG those years where his sexual activity had been dormant had clearly not affected him adversely. He knew about hot buttons on the female body that she’d never discovered on her own, and he knew how to do just the right things to them.
She could hardly breathe. What had it been, ten, twenty minutes since they’d parted? Since her orgasm had shattered her? Or maybe it had been two hours. Or thirty seconds. She honestly had no idea.
Ajax rolled into a sitting position, his back to her, his muscular, perfect back, to her. She reached out and traced her fingers over the lines on his back.
Ajax’s body was sculpted, well-defined, without a spare ounce of flesh anywhere. Almost like he worked out to the point of punishing himself. Or to the point of exhaustion so he couldn’t want anymore. She knew a little something about that. If she was faced with the choice of rolling around, tangled up in her sheets, dying of sexual frustration brought about by Ajax fantasies, she often opted to go and run on the treadmill.
When she didn’t opt for a shower to uh...alleviate things in a different way altogether.
Maybe he would shower with her later. That was an optimistic thought.
He stood and she cocked her head to the side, taking in the view. Oh, the view. She’d admired that view many times. When it was covered in denim, or black, well-fitted dress pants. But naked? Oh, that was its own pleasure. She would happily buy tickets to this show.
“Where are you going?” she asked, when he started to move away from the bed.
“I have some work to do,” he said, bending down and picking up his pants from the floor, tugging them up, covering her peep show.
“What? You have...work? What kind of work could you possibly have to do after...after that?” Oh, no, she sounded so...needy. So raw and exposed. But she’d had to let her guard down for that, to be with him that way.
And she hadn’t had a chance to protect herself again. Like she’d just shed her scales, leaving behind new, shiny skin that was tender to the touch. To Ajax’s coldness.
He turned, the muscles in his stomach rippling. “The world didn’t stop turning just because we had sex.”
She could only stare at him, words frozen on her lips. Her world had stopped. It had been rocked, in fact, she’d just thought that it’d been rocked; and it turned out everything was going on just fine in Ajax land. No big deal. He had work.
Screw that.
“Well, I think the world should stop for a second,” she said. “This is supposed to be a real marriage...this is supposed to be our honeymoon. I know we’re trying to make it look like things are good for the press, but you said this was a forever kind of thing. And...and that means you need to get back here and start acting like a husband.”
“I just acted my part,” he said. “Were you not satisfied?”
“I am not satisfied,” she hissed, sitting up, tugging the covers over her breasts.
“Your screams during your multiple orgasms tell a different story.”
“You... You... That was uncalled-for. And rude. And anyway, sexual satisfaction and my satisfaction with this moment are not inextricably linked!”
“This is a real marriage, agape, as I said it would be. I was in your bed tonight as you requested, but what happens after that, that’s up to me.”
“This isn’t how marriage is,” she said, her throat closing on the last word, making it sound choked. Betraying her emotion. What was wrong with her? Her armor wasn’t protecting her now. She was breaking apart behind the layer of protection she counted on. The damage coming from the inside out.
“It’s how our marriage is.”