Kody

“Awww, look at that puppy that needs fostering!” Nova turned his laptop toward me on one of the pages of Santa’s Helpers Animal Shelter that showed the picture of a fluffy and absolutely adorkable corgi staring at the picture all sheepish and scared standing on three legs.

Across the top was a red banner with his name. Charlie.

“Oh Charlie!” I said and sat down on our brand new Christmas red couch and leaned in closer to Nova so I could coo at the dog on the screen. “What happened to him?”

Nova adjusted the laptop on his lap and put his arm around me so I could get comfy. The couch, that had only just arrived the day before, was big enough for both of us and all our pets—and then some—to cuddle and snooze on at the same time, a fact that had played a very significant role in us picking it over other couches. We might not have a lot of stuff in our new house yet but we were building our dream home one day and one item at a time.

“He was born this way. But poor thing was abused in his previous…environment.”

Nova’s frustration made me pull him closer. I loved my husband when he was being so perfect and passionate, especially about a subject we both loved. Pets.

“I have a feeling we’re about to add another guy in our collection,” I said and looked over at Milk and Cookie fast asleep at our feet.

“Yeah?” Nova asked as if he couldn’t believe I’d said those words.

“I don’t see why not. Charlie needs all the love he can get and we’ve got it by the dozen, don’t we?” I looked into his beautiful brown eyes and my heart skipped a beat.

It tended to do that a lot. One would think time would diminish the effects of true love, but if possible it only intensified them. At least when it came to us.

Nova clapped his hands and put his laptop away.

“Yay. I’ll call Elias tomorrow to arrange everything.” He leaned back and took a deep breath. “I also need to go to the pet store, get him a nice warm bed. And some calming spray so he doesn’t get too nervous with the dogs and the cats. And we can set him up in the guest room on the second floor to start with, until he feels more confident. That is assuming he isn’t. I mean it could just be a bad picture day. Just because he looks sad in the photo doesn’t mean he’s a scaredy cat—”

My heart thudded in my chest and my stomach fluttered with all the butterflies that had taken shelter in there since the day I met him. And I couldn’t take it any longer. I kissed him. I kissed him again and again with a passion I hadn’t felt in a very long time.

I lay down and pulled him down next to me, our kisses turning into an intoxicating dance that I didn’t want to sober up from.

He brought his hands to my face, delicate fingers ghosting over my skin as if afraid I would break if not handled with care.

I looked at him, the way he held me, the way his lips followed mine as if there was no way for them to exist if they weren’t slotted into mine and something in me…sparked. It was like throwing a lit matchstick into gasoline. It wasn’t there and then all at once it scorched every part of me.

“I love you, my supernova,” I mumbled and he smiled with his eyes closed, savoring my love like he always did.

“I love you too, my prince Charming,” he replied and I claimed his lips again.

He wrapped his hands around me and I slid my leg between his legs bringing us even closer.

I was so hot and tense and excited that when our hips clashed together, his eyes popped open and he stared right at me.

“Baby?” he said.

“Yeah?” I asked and I couldn’t help the smile that took me over.

“Is that…what I think…”

I shushed him.

“Don’t. You might scare him away and who knows when he’ll be back.”

He bit his lip for a second, running his thumb over my cheek when he said, “And…does that mean you want to…”

I nodded.

“If you do.”

He reciprocated my smile and pulled me in for a kiss again. We’d never been like that. So passionate, so messy, so…urgent. It was a whole new level of intimacy and appreciation that I hadn’t felt with any of my partners in the past. It figured my husband would be the one to awaken this side of me too.

Our tangle of tongues turned into a symphony of moans and before I knew what was going on we were laying there naked as anything, on our brand new red couch and with our pets completely out of view as if they knew whatever was about to happen was not for them to witness.

My hand trembled as I reached for him and wrapped around him but I found that as soon as he touched me too, the nerves dissipated, replaced by a need. A need for him that only my supernova of a husband could satisfy.

The more we touched each other, the more we kissed and licked and rubbed against each other, the more my need grew and I found my way down on my husband and for the first time in my life I didn’t feel forced or scared, or any of the other mix of emotions I’d gone through in all my previous attempts at love making.

In fact, pleasing him was the only thought in my mind as I helped him reach his climax. It was a thing of beauty. Seeing him come undone, unravel under my love and control. If only I could frame it and look at it every moment of every waking hour.

But I didn’t need to. Because I had him in my life. Every single day. And that was better.

Even though his thirst was quenched, mine wasn’t and Nova took charge, making sure to handle me and taste me with a gorgeous hunger that made him look even prettier. I might not have needed the release but I wanted it and my God did it feel good when I melted under him.

But what felt better was cuddling up after, naked together for the first time but more comfortable than I’d ever been.

“I love you,” I said again. Because I could never say it enough. Not now, not ever.

“I love you too, my prince.”

He studied my face for a second and I raised an eyebrow.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing. I…well, now that we don’t run the fear of scaring anything away, mind if I ask what brought that on?”

I shrugged.

“I don’t know. You looked so cute and you were talking about rescuing an animal. Did…did you not like it?”

Nova laughed and shook his head.

“Of course I liked it. I loved being so close to you. I might have to suggest rescuing the entire shelter if it makes you this needy.”

I gasped.

“Hey! I’m always needy.”

“Yeah. I know. Just not that kind of needy. It’s cute.”

“Good. I’m glad you like it. Though don’t expect me to make a habit of it.”

Nova smiled and kissed me.

“I wouldn’t dream of it, my prince.”

I breathed him and closed my eyes.

“I’m the luckiest man in the world,” I said. Because it was true. I was. I truly, really, was.

“Uhm, what? Excuse me, Mr. Campbell. I believe I’m the luckiest man in the world please and thank you.”

I chuckled.

“Let’s just agree we’re both lucky.”

He grinned.

“Fine. We both are lucky. And we both just got lucky. How cool is that?”

I laughed so hard I almost gave myself a hernia.

Life with Nova was good. Better than I could have dreamed or hoped for.

And we were only just getting started.

“So, Charlie. Now what Christmas-themed name are we going to give him?”