OUR BROKEN BEGINNINGS

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The weekend consisted of fucking. A lot and a lot of fucking. In the shower. On multiple beds. On the counter. On both couches. The stairs in the foyer. I hadn't fucked that much since... never. I'd never wanted—needed someone so fucking bad.

I looked up at my husband, who was seated shirtless on a stool watching me cook dinner. I had opened the front door two days ago to find the Chinese we had ordered. We didn't hesitate to eat it, badly needing sustenance in our bodies. I didn't even want to know how many calories I had burned just from riding that glorious man. In multiple different ways.

I decided to cook us dinner tonight with the few scraps of food that we had in the fridge and pantry. The only appealing option was pasta, so that was what we went with. Music played from the overhead speakers, and I caught Emerson laughing at me when I did a little shimmy to the stove.

The laugh that escaped me couldn't be avoided as I said to him, "Don't you dare laugh at me, Mr. Hale. Let me see you do better."

He stood up all cocky and did some sort of shuffle with his feet toward me. I tilted my head back and laughed loudly. I tried speaking through my laughter, clutching my stomach, "You call that dancing?"

His eyes were set on me and he kept shuffling toward me, swaying his hips. I took a step back and held up my finger, "Oh, no. Don't come near me. No. No."

My protests did nothing because he reached me and instantly got a hold of me. We both howled with laughter. This was the life I envisioned for myself. This was what I dreamed about but never believed I would have.

He placed his hand on the back of my neck, his thumb rubbing my cheek gently, and his eyes bounced around my face. Emerson leaned in and kissed me tenderly. My body melted into him even though I had spent all weekend kissing him.

I leaned back and said just above a whisper, "I have to finish dinner. Stop distracting me."

He kissed me one more time and let me go. "You started it." I missed him holding me the minute he let me go.

Dinner was finished and eaten quickly. We had been famished since we had been using so much... energy. At one point this weekend, we had decided to move our stuff up to the master and had been sleeping there. So, after dinner, we went straight upstairs and got ready for bed.

We brushed our teeth and lay in bed talking.

"Do you miss your mother?" I asked.

He looked up at the ceiling for a moment, but it didn't take him long to answer, "Yes. I do. I've only spoken to her a handful of times since the wedding."

I put my hand on his face and turned him, so he would look at me. "I would love to meet her."

He smiled and kissed my forehead, saying onto it, "So you shall, my love," another kiss, "So you shall."

I groaned as I turned on my back, my head still lying where his shoulder and arm met, "I don't want to go to work tomorrow."

He chuckled and said, "That's a new one."

"Work is all I've had. Circumstances have changed, and now I have something to make me want to stay home."

He cleared his throat, and I could sense his nervousness. "Well, maybe I could come to the office with you. I could easily move all my meetings there."

I looked up at him, raising my eyebrows, "Oh, so you assume I have the time and space to host you, Mr. Hale."

The right corner of his lip tilted up as he said, "Of course not. I know you're a busy woman, Mrs. Hale. I was hoping that with your generosity you could somehow spare the conference room for my meetings."