Page 91 of Against The Tide

Breathless, I can’t vocalize any of the feelings coursing through me. I want him inside me, and I never want him to leave me empty again.

“Doc…” My rasping moan echoes around us as he lifts me into his arms and slowly steps into the bath. Lowering into the water, he sits me between his thighs.

Hum after hum sigh from me as his hands massage over my stomach, up between my breasts to stroke across my collarbone, my neck and jaw.

The only sounds are our ragged breaths and the lapping of the water while our legs tangle and Rhett’s hands roam over my body.

“I thought…” I pull a deep breath into my lungs as his arms wrap tightly around me, a prison I never want to be set free from. Tipping my head back, I cup his handsome face, angling it to mine so I can look into his eyes. “I thought you were mad at me.”

“I am mad, sweetheart. I’m angry at what you’re going through. That I can’t fix everything the way I want to for you. I am not mad at you. Even if you think that you’re to blame for something, I have nothing but love for you, Avery.” Kissing my nose lightly, Rhett cups my face to his chest with one hand while tightening his hold on me with the arm around my waist. “That will never change. No matter what. Whether we’re mad, hurting, or living the best life. Whether we’re up high or down as low as life can go. I’m going to love you, and it will only grow with every day.”

“Every second I love you so much more.”

“More than your last smudge of frosting?” He smiles, thumb stroking over my cheek.

“More than my heart can bear. So much so that it’s impossible to contain.”

The smile on his face broadens as he lowers to kiss me chastely. “Nothing will ever change that, and I won’t let anything come between us. Not anger. Not sadness or hurt. Not fault or guilt.”

“Because I’m yours?”

“No, sweetheart, because I’m yours. You had me the instant you looked at me, and then you spoke and your voice is the only sound echoing in my ears since.”

What can I possibly say to that? There’s nothing I can say to tell him all that he means to me. No words could reiterate the depth of my longing for him.

Instead, I hold on to him tight while I press my lips to his, slowly savoring the warmth of his breaths and taste of everything I’ve ever wanted as I turn in his arms, straddling his muscular thighs.

“I’m giving you everything, Rhett, and I’m letting you love me no matter what. I’m giving you my soul. It’s the only thing I’ve never parted with.”

Trailing a hand down his chest to his erection, I guide him inside me, holding his darkening stare as I lower myself over him. The stretching ache as he fills me is agonizing, ebbing through me until my fingers tangle in his hair and claw at his flesh and every muscle pulses to pull him deeper, needing more and more of him.

“You’re the only one that has and will ever possess my soul. No matter what, Doc.”

The air pushes out of my lungs in a hiss as he flexes deeper, curling his arms around my shoulders to pin me to him as he takes my mouth in a scorching kiss.

Wordlessly, he loves me relentlessly, giving me every part of himself as surely as I’ve given him me, and he doesn’t stop until we’re both boneless and spent.

“Don’t leave me,” I murmur into his chest as we lie in my bed after our bath, my fingers tracing over the lightest golden smattering of hair.

“Never.” He clasps my hand in his as he holds it tight to his chest.

“I meant this bed. Tonight.”

“I meant never.” As if to reaffirm his words, the arm wrapped around me coils a little more, pulling me half on top of him. “This bed and your side. Tonight, tomorrow night, every day and night after.”

Listening to his steady heartbeat, I’m half lulled to sleep when he whispers into my hair, “You are my soul, sweetheart.”

It takes a little over three weeks for the court to issue an emergency protective order to ensure Carl doesn’t come near me or Iris. Although I’m still hyperaware of all the unfinished business, it does mean that the court is more likely to schedule a divorce and custody hearing sooner. It also tips the scale in my favor.

“You doing okay?” I ask Jo as she holds on to my arm.

We’re spending the day on Duke’s boat, where Rhett and I had our date, and although Rhett offered to carry her down to the shore, she insisted on doing it all herself. Of course.

“I’m fine going down. It’ll be the coming up that will be worse.”

“Maybe we should move the boat to the marina, that way it’ll make access easier.”

Rhett turns to look at her with Iris on his shoulders, and I can’t help but smile at the way they look so content. I still can’t believe that this is our life now.