Black Wings Read online

“If you’re worried—” he began, but she shushed him with another kiss.

  “It’s not that,” Marian admitted and tucked her head into the curve of his neck. “I’m jealous.”

  Dean pushed her away to look at her face. He frowned before a slow, teasing smile tipped one corner of his lips. “Of that jackass?”

  “She was so excited to go with her dad. And she’s been acting so different lately.…” Marian swatted him. “Stop looking at me like that.”

  Dean gathered her close again to nuzzle her mouth, then the line of her jaw. The sensitive places on her neck. When he nibbled her there, Marian shivered, her body responding the way it always had – and, if they were lucky, the way it always would.

  “Briella loves you, baby. If she’s excited about going with her dad, it’s because she doesn’t get to see him a lot. And he’s usually taking her to fun places and doing fun things. He gets to be the good guy, and that’s automatically going to make him more popular.”

  “He’s not the good guy,” Marian said with a frown, biting out the words before she could stop herself.

  She’d promised herself she wouldn’t keep holding Tommy to account for his mistakes for the rest of his life. She’d vowed to give him the chance to prove he could… Well, if he couldn’t make up for the shit he’d pulled in the past, at the very least she could give him the chance to prove he wasn’t going to keep making the same mistakes. He’d asked her for that much, and even if she didn’t believe she owed him anything, what did it cost her to be kind?

  “You’re the good guy,” she said anyway, because that was the damned truth. “You’re the one who’s been there for her. Not him. I guess it makes me mad and jealous that he gets to swing in here with a handful of balloons and make her life a party.”

  Dean didn’t answer that. Not with words. He rested his forehead against hers, his breath softly puffing over her face, until Marian closed her eyes and breathed him in again. This time with long, slow breaths, until she felt like he’d filled her up.

  “She deserves a little bit of a party, though. Doesn’t she?” Dean kissed her temple again. “The kid’s had a bunch of shit going on lately. Big changes. The new school, new kids, all of that. She’s been working herself hard. Let her have the party. She’s going to have to buckle down and deal with reality soon enough.”

  Marian wanted to be the one to give Briella that freedom. She wanted it to be Dean, not Tommy, who made the girl’s eyes light up. She frowned, trying hard to be a better person.

  “You’re my everything, Dean. You know that? I love you so much.”

  Dean’s hands slipped down her back to her ass, nudging her closer to him. “I love you, too. You okay?”

  She wasn’t, but she didn’t want to waste their first night alone in so long by dwelling on stuff she couldn’t change. Marian nodded. She kissed him again, pressing closer to him. Heat grew in her lower belly as the kisses deepened. Her breath caught, rasping in her throat.

  “Yeah. I’m fine.”

  “I know something that will make you feel better.” Taking her hand, Dean led her from the living room into the kitchen.

  Marian gasped. He’d set the table with a real cloth and those disposable plastic plates that looked like real china, with matching plasticware that looked like silver. He’d even added wineglasses. Candles flickered, and on the stove a pot of something smelled good.

  She faced him. “What…? How did you…? Oh my God, Dean, what did you do?”

  “Made you dinner,” he said as though it were the most natural thing in the world for her to come home to something fancier than pizza or reheated turkey leftovers. “I figured you deserved it. You spent all day cooking yesterday. And I don’t get to do nice things for you too often.”

  “You do nice things for me every day,” Marian protested. Instead of arguing further, she kissed him again. “But thank you, this looks awesome.”

  “Sit.” He pulled out the chair for her, then poured them each a glass of wine as he took the seat across from her. “Toast.”

  “You go first,” she said, feeling shy. Not sure what to say that would be meaningful enough to compete with this effort he’d made.

  Dean lifted his glass. “To me and you.”

  “To us.” Marian laughed, relieved he hadn’t come out with some kind of fancy toast. Cloth napkins were a big enough change. But Dean was looking at her expectantly, and she had to say something. “Umm…let’s hope we’re always as happy as we are right now.”

  “Amen.”

  They clinked glasses, and Marian sipped. He’d picked an earthy red. The first sip went down hard. Thick, almost. She wasn’t sure she liked it, but she wasn’t about to complain, not when Dean got up to bring plates of steaming pasta with a hearty meat sauce to the table.

  “Wow, you made your mom’s sauce,” she said.

  Dean grinned. “Just like our first date.”

  Marian didn’t mean to cry, but something about Dean’s smile had the tears coming. She swiped at them quickly, not wanting to worry him. “Our first date was at the bowling alley.”

  “Okay, so the first time I cooked for you,” Dean said with a shrug and another lift of his glass. He sipped, then frowned. “I guess one of the only times I ever cooked for you. I wanted to impress you.”

  “You did. You do.” It was not likely that the wine was already going to her head, but Marian felt a little wobbly. She took another sip. It went down better this time. She lifted the glass again. “To my awesome husband. You’re a better man than I ever thought I’d deserve.”

  It was Dean’s turn to blink rapidly. “Ah, baby. That’s…”

  “It’s the truth,” Marian repeated. “You have been nothing but good to me and Briella since the first time you took me out. I couldn’t ask for a better husband than you. I love you, Dean Blake.”

  Dean’s chair clattered on the worn linoleum as he pushed back from the table. She was in his arms in the next second, wine sloshing as the glass tipped over. Marian didn’t care. Their mouths were hungrier than her belly in that moment. The heat that had begun with his earlier kisses flared, roaring the way a campfire does with the push of wind against it.

  “Bedroom,” she said. “Now.”

  They were naked before they got through the door. The bedroom was so small it took only a few steps to get them to the bed, where they tumbled in a tangle of arms and legs. Mouths open, tongues stroking, Dean rolled them both so Marian was on top, straddling his thighs.

  She reached between them to tease him fully erect, her breath catching at the feeling of him in her fist. “God, you feel so good.”

  Marian slowed, leaning forward to kiss him. Her hair fell down around them, tickling and shadowing his face. She let her mouth brush over his mouth, cheeks, forehead. She nuzzled his ear. Maybe Tommy wanting to spend more time with Briella wasn’t going to be so bad, after all.

  Marian wanted to slow down, but she hadn’t been this turned on in…well, she couldn’t remember how long ago it had been. She stroked him a few more times until she lifted up to fit him inside her. They both groaned as she took his length all the way, her knees gripping his hips.

  “Yeah, that’s it.” Dean moved beneath her, a hand sliding between them so he could give her the sweet pressure of his knuckles right where she needed it.

  She was going to get there fast. Hard. Marian rode him, oblivious to anything but how good it felt. She closed her eyes. Her mind, heart, body, all focused on this. Being with the man she loved. This pleasure.

  This life.

  Marian threw back her head as her breath came in short, panting gasps. A flicker of motion from the hallway caught the corner of her gaze. Shadows.

  Too caught up in what was going on, she couldn’t pay attention at first. She was tipping over, over the edge into mindlessness, more than ready to give up to it. Another flicker of moveme