His Inheritance

The Wedding Present

It was unusual for Steve to sleep past dawn. When he grabbed his phone from the nightstand, he saw it was nearly noon. Dyson had been texting him once an hour since around seven. Did he need anything? Should Luca get started on breakfast?

He sent a quick text back about breakfast, to have all her favorites ready in an hour. Not before.

Putting his phone back, he smiled. She was sound asleep next to him, sprawled on her stomach right in the center of his bed like she'd always been there. The bedding just covered her from the waist down.

His wife.

Rolling on his side to face her, Steve trailed his fingers over the smooth skin of her back. She was soft, warm, and all his now.

Along with her came a vital tie to her family, her father. Despite how everything started, he got what he wanted. He was head of the Boston families now, ready for all the responsibilities that came with it. The time he spent with her father in the months before he passed had helped him immensely.

Steve had even resigned himself to being tied down to a wife because a man in his position needed a lovely wife and children.

And he'd decided he'd marry her the day they met. She'd been promised to his family once. That she was beautiful despite what he'd been told was one thing. That she'd been inexperienced and sheltered, well, that had been a gift. Once Dyson moved in with her, Steve had a measure of control over the situation. Over her.

Tracing his fingers over her bare shoulder, he watched the gooseflesh rise in the wake of his touch. The way her body responded to him? Oh, he couldn't wait to explore more of that. There were so many things he wanted to do with her. To her.

But so far, nothing about his marriage had gone the way he thought it would.

She had no other family once her father was gone. She didn't know his world. She didn't know much of anything outside of the posh nest she'd lived in all her life. Steve had assumed that she'd have no choice but to obey him, to need him for her very survival.

Sliding his hand down her back, under the covers, he grinned when she shifted restlessly in her sleep.

His new bride was a literal maelstrom at the center of his life.

She resisted him at every turn, challenged him when she wasn't doing that. She'd run from him, tried to bargain with him. Even spanking her when she disregarded his wishes and went to the hospital with Nat really didn't get him the response he anticipated.

Yesterday, Barnes showed up with Kat on his arm to their wedding. The slight couldn't be ignored, and he'd deal with that. That Hansen had come along just added insult to injury and he'd address that too.

How his little wife dealt with that? Well, that got his attention. Trading barbs with Kat at the reception had seemed to come naturally to her. That she'd made it through the entire wedding without telling him about the confrontation with Kat and Hansen made him realize he had an idea of who she was in his head.

But that was far from who she truly was.

He liked that mystery. He'd never tell her so, but it was almost fun to try and guess her reaction to the situations she was presented with. And she never did what he expected.

Wearing a gun beneath her wedding gown? Bargaining with him to have Yelena as her personal protection? And he'd have to do that too. She wouldn't let it go. He knew that much about her.

Steve's hand smoothed over her ass under the bedding. Her flesh was firm, soft. The heat of her was enticing. Her sigh was a restless sound as he explored her, but she was still asleep.