Marriage: Impossible (Voretti Family Book 1) by Ava Blackstone

cloud of euphoria. “Then be with me. That’s what makes me happy. Because I love you, too. So, so much.”
    Unfortunately, she couldn’t stay up in the clouds forever, and when she came back to earth, the panic was right there, waiting. “But we have to talk. There’s something—”
    “Later.” He cut the engine. “You love me, and I love you. We can talk about everything else in the morning.”
    *
    Sean had no memory of getting from his truck to his bedroom. Time had stopped, only starting again when he pulled Keri to him. His lips touched hers, and sparks flew.
    He’d kissed her hundreds of times in the past week, but this was different. This was more than her lips meeting his. More than frantic desire. This was their bodies saying the words they’d only just shared with each other. I love you.
    He laid her down in his bed, on his sheets. Covered her with his body. Caught her breathy moan in his mouth.
    He didn’t understand how he’d gotten so lucky, but he was done fighting it. She loved him, and that changed everything.
    “Hurry, Sean. I need you.”
    “Need you too, honey. But I want this to last.”
    He undressed her as slowly as he could bear. Urgency pulsed inside him, but he refused to rush this. He was going to remember every sigh, every touch, every heated kiss because this was the best night of his life.
    You don’t deserve her. You don’t deserve to be happy.
    The familiar voice was faint. Easy to ignore. Sometime in the past hour, it had lost its power.
    And then Keri pulled him closer, and he couldn’t hear the voice at all. Not when she was making that catchy moan, arching against him like he was all she wanted. Everything.
    Somehow, he found a condom. She came almost as soon as he thrust inside her, and the feel of her, tight around him, was almost too much.
    I love you. He tried to say it, but the pleasure was building too fast. He couldn’t speak. Couldn’t do anything but go where it took him, higher and higher until he fell back to the earth, broken—forever changed.
    But as he lay there panting, his arms wrapped around Keri, the pieces inside of him bonded back together stronger than before.
    She had done that. She had shown him how to heal.
    *
    Sean came awake to a piercing cold.
    He’d kicked off the covers sometime during the night, but summer temperatures in Southern California rarely dipped below sixty degrees, so that wasn’t it. The problem was, Keri was gone.
    He sat up. It was after 0900, hours later than he usually slept.
    The blinds were closed. Still, the room was small, and enough light leaked between the slats to see that Keri wasn’t looking through his closet for a clean shirt or sitting at his desk checking her email.
    His heart pounded like he’d sprinted ten miles uphill.
    Calm down.
    If he had a panic attack every time his wife had to use the bathroom or decided to get some breakfast, this marriage wouldn’t last a month. But as he pulled on jeans and double-timed it down the hall, he couldn’t regain the fragile sense of peace that had soothed him to sleep last night.
    The apartment had that deadly silence that fell before a balls-out firefight, and he knew even before he pushed through the half-open door that he wasn’t going to find Keri in the bathroom. She wasn’t in the kitchen either.
    A faint rustle drew his attention. Keri was curled up in the middle of his couch, where the cushion sagged because he always sat in the exact same place. Her feet were drawn under her, and a blanket was wrapped around her shoulders, and she was here . Right here in his apartment where she belonged.
    The relief was so swift, so powerful, it almost took him down.
    He drew in a breath. Of course she was here. She’d woken up before he had and come out here to—
    His thoughts cut off there, as if he’d triggered some kind of automated warning system. Danger. Do not proceed any further down this mental path .
    Too late. He’d already seen what she was staring at—a