Listed: Volume VI by Noelle Adams Read Free Book Online Page B

course, I’m going
to a school here in Philadelphia. Like I’m going to live in a different city
from my husband if I don’t have to.”
    He
relaxed back against the sofa and smiled at her, feeling inordinately fond
despite the woeful injustice of her earlier claims. “I just want you to know
that you can, if you want.”
    “I
know that, but I don’t want.” She scowled at him until she couldn’t hold the
expression any longer and broke into a smile instead.
    “I
know it makes it awkward for you here,” he murmured. “That everyone knows who
you are because of all the stories in the news, that you can’t feel like a
normal student.”
    She
shrugged. “I’m not a normal student. I mean, I just don’t feel like the rest of
them. I feel ancient or something.” She sighed and stared down at her ice
cream. “I’m the same age or younger as everyone else in my classes, but I still
feel…I don’t know.”
    He
understood exactly what she meant, and he understood why. What she’d lived
through in the last months had changed her, and there was no going back from
that.
    He
wasn’t the same either. A lot of his friends were still playing video games
until late at night and getting drunk every weekend. He felt miles away from
all that now.
    He
wanted to encourage her, so he said, “Give it a little time. You’ll start to
feel more yourself eventually.”
    She
shook her head and slanted him a different kind of smile. “I feel like myself.
Just like I’ve been through a war. Plus, most girls my age aren’t married to
such a demanding, unreasonable man who constantly tries to spoil my fun.”
    He
chuckled. “That’s their loss.”
    Her
expression changed again, softened. She leaned into him until she was sprawled
against his chest. “It certainly is their loss.”
    He
put his arms around her and held her against him. She felt clingier than normal
somehow. “You all right, baby?” he asked, after a few minutes.
    “Yeah.
I’m good.” Her cheek rested against his chest, which rose and fell with his
breathing.
    “I
mean it, Emily,” he murmured. “It won’t take you long to feel like you fit in
at college. It won't matter who you're married to. People always like you…if
you let them.”
    She
snorted against his shirt. “I guess.” She lifted her head and met his eyes. “I
know it’ll be fine, Paul. I was just feeling kind of weird and lonely in class
today.”
    “I
know.” He stroked her hair when she leaned her head back on this chest.
    They
sat together in silence for several minutes, Paul holding her as the voices on
the television babbled on incomprehensibly.
    After
a while, she lifted her head and kissed him on the lips.
    “What
was that for?” he asked, since it had felt more like a gesture than a sexual
advance.
    She
frowned. “Why do I need a reason to kiss you?”
    “You
don’t. It just seemed like there was a reason.”
    “Just
because I love you.”
    “That’s
a good enough reason for me.” He pulled her into his lap so he could kiss her
more deeply.
    The
kiss was very nice, and his body was getting some definite ideas. So when he
tore his lips away, he asked, “Are you still sore?”
    “Yes,”
she admitted, stroking his neck with her fingers in a way that made him want to
howl. “A little. But maybe if you’re gentle, we could…”
    “I
can be gentle.” He leaned his forehead against hers and tried not to let the
building tension in his groin cause him to buck up against her weight.
    She
paused on her way into another kiss. Her voice broke as she whispered, “I know
how gentle you can be.”
    He
kissed her hungrily and was just getting into it when she suddenly broke away.
“Oh! I have a great idea!”
    “For
sex?” he asked, confused and disoriented as she scrambled off his lap.
    “No,
this is something else. But it’s a great idea.”
    “I
thought sex was a great idea.” His body was definitely feeling her loss.
    “That
can wait for a minute.” She stood up