She couldn’t believe that she’d survived an entire month without him. She’d missed him so much. Most days it had taken everything that she had along with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and a bag of Hershey Kisses to stop herself from hunting him down and wrapping her arms around him. Even though she loved him, more than anything, he was first and foremost her best friend and up until a month ago she’d never gone a day without talking to him before.

“Come here,” he growled, making her shiver as he suddenly pulled out, flipped her onto her back and slid back inside her, all before she could manage to take her next breath.

When she reached for him, he came willingly with a smile on his handsome face. She wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes as she savored the feel of him in her arms. “Don’t ever leave me again,” she whispered, sure that she wouldn’t survive the next time.

“I won’t,” he swore, wrapping his arms around her and pulled her close. “Never again.”

“And don’t ever withhold sex from me again or I’m going for your balls the next time,” she decided to add just to make sure that they were on the same page.

He chuckled as he rolled over onto his back, bringing her with him. Smiling, she cupped his face and leaned down to kiss him as she shifted her hips and pushed back, moving just enough on him to hit all the right places. Darrin groaned as he moved his hands down her body and cupped her bottom, encouraging her to ride him.

“I’m never letting you go, Marybeth,” he promised and for the first time in her life, those words didn’t make her want to cry.

Chapter 30

“You really need to let me go, Darrin,” his inconsiderate wife said as she squirmed in his arms, desperately trying to get away from him, which of course was rather insulting after she’d just made him promise never to let her go less than an hour ago.

“No,” he said, tightening his hold around her as he closed his eyes and snuggled closer, intent on basking in the afterglow of victory, but it seemed that the frustrating woman that he loved more than anything was intent on trying to escape their love.

“Darrin-”

“Shhh, not while I’m sleeping,” he whispered mockingly as he reached up and gently pat her head.

“Look, you freakishly big bastard,” his loving wife said, slapping away his hand, “I’m hungry and I need to use the bathroom. So, if you don’t remove those freakishly large arms so that I can go to the bathroom and maybe scrounge around in my bag for a bag of peanuts or something to eat before I die of starvation, I will kill you!”

Sighing heavily and making sure to sound put out, he released his hold on her, mostly because that demonic thing she did with her voice at the end there kind of freaked him out. “Fine,” he said, with another sigh as he rolled over onto his back and gestured benevolently towards the bathroom, “go.”

Muttering some unkind words that he chose to ignore, she threw her legs over the side of the bed and sat up while he lay there, contemplating grabbing her and snuggling back up since he’d been comfortable when the angry little woman reminded him of something very important.

“Those snacks had better be there when I get back,” she snapped, sounding unreasonably cranky when all he’d done was keep his word to her and ignore her pleas to be released for the past thirty minutes.

“I’m going back to sleep,” he said, rolling back onto his stomach and hugged his pillow as he closed his eyes.

“I’m serious,” she said and he didn’t need to open his eyes to know that the angry little thing was still standing by the bed, glaring down at him.

“Mmmhmmm,” he mumbled sleepily as he made a show of trying to go to sleep.

“I’m serious, Darrin. Don’t touch my snacks. I’m starving.”

He didn’t bother answering her since lying to her would only bite him in the ass later. Instead, he laid there waiting for her to give up glaring at him and storm off to the bathroom where she would most likely end up taking a quick shower, giving him a little more time to do what needed to be done. Sure enough, a few minutes later he heard the unmistakable sounds of the shower being turned on, but he didn’t make his move.

Not yet.

He lay there feigning sleep as he waited for it. Thankfully she didn’t make him wait long before she was quietly opening the door and poking her head out, making sure that her precious snacks were still safe.

“Darrin?” she whispered, sounding unsure. “Are you awake?”

He kept his eyes closed and his breaths even as he waited for her to close the door, but after a minute it became obvious that she didn’t trust him, which was pretty damn insulting. He listened as she did her best to tiptoe quietly across the room, pick up all the snacks that were now rightfully his, at least in his opinion they were, and tiptoe back to the bathroom and shut the door behind her. When he heard the lock click in place he couldn’t help but shake his head as he opened his eyes and threw his legs over the side of the bed.

“So little trust,” he muttered as he walked over to his bag and grabbed the paperclip off the welcome packet the hotel had handed them at check-in.

Sighing with disgust, because she really should have known better, he straightened the paperclip, slid it inside the pinhole and popped the lock. She clearly didn’t want the snacks, he decided as he tossed the ruined paperclip aside and pushed the door open, deciding that if she really wanted them she would have found a better way to protect them. When he spotted the snacks sitting on the counter, unprotected and unloved, he reached for them and-