arms. So protected.
“Tell the others to leave,” I said.
“They’re already gone.”
I felt my body relax in my husband’s arms, then remembered the bath. The water would be cold now, but it still sounded good, and as much as I’d enjoyed the sex, I wanted every trace of those other men gone. “Bathtub?”
He nodded and carried me to the bathroom, now lit with candles, and again I marveled at how and when this had happened. Instead of setting me inside the tub, Thom stepped in himself and then gently lowered us both into the water.
“It’s still hot.”
“I think the tub is heated,” he said.
We settled down, and I sat between his legs, leaning back against his chest.
“Your shirt.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
And he was right. It didn’t matter. I let the heat of the water and my husband’s body engulf me, easing out the pain of spent muscles, leaving only fatigue.
“I’m sorry I hurt you.” His voice broke. “I’m not a pro like those guys. I lost control. Watching you being fucked by those men, watching you in ecstasy like that...”
I reached up to cup his head behind me. “Why did you watch? Why put yourself through that?” Why did you even set this up? I wondered.
“Truth?” he asked.
“Of course. Always.”
“Watching you was incredibly hot. The most fucking sexy thing I have ever seen.” His voice was husky.
I shifted and realized he was still hard. Or hard again. “Really?”
“Ever since you told me your fantasy”—his hand stroked up and down between my breasts, tracing the space between my throat and my belly—“I couldn’t stop thinking about the idea.”
Oh no. My fantasy had been haunting him, making him feel like he wasn’t enough. “I’m sorry, baby. I shouldn’t have told you about it. You’ve always been enough for me. I didn’t mean for the fantasy to ever come true.”
“You misunderstand,” he said. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it because it was my fantasy, too.”
“You want to have sex with strangers?”
“No.” His leg slid against mine as one of his knees rose above the water, and I traced my fingers over the freckles there. “I wanted to watch you having sex with other men. I wanted to see you pleasured and fucked, taken in a way I didn’t think I could take you myself. I wanted to observe you, enjoy you visually in a way I can’t when I’m the one inside you.”
“Baby.” I turned to face him, and his eyes were full of uncertainty.
“Years before you told me your fantasy,” he continued, “from the first time I watched you masturbate, I started to imagine watching you having sex with someone else.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“I should have. I thought about it. And after we planned this trip, I found out about Fantasies Unleashed and realized that I could hire them to make both of our fantasies come true.”
“Thank you,” I said realizing that with everything else, I still hadn’t said it. “What you did for me tonight. It went beyond my wildest dreams.”
“Until the end,” he said. “Until I hurt you. I was too rough, too fast.”
“No.” I stroked his thigh. “You weren’t too rough, or too fast, you were just last. By that time I’d had too much, I’d felt too much; my body just couldn’t take anymore.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I said. “In fact, I’d love it if you fucked me that hard sometimes.”
He kissed my cheek. “I’d love that, too.”
We sat together in silence, the water soothing the pain, my body molding into his in such a familiar way. The night had been fantastic, exciting, overwhelming, but I couldn’t stand the thought that it might have broken us in any way. Damaged what we had. After tonight, would our marriage be the same?
CHAPTER SIX
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A s we relaxed in silence, I trailed my fingers along his thighs, enjoying the rise and fall of his chest at my back. He took off his shirt and socks and threw them in a soppy mess to the floor. He