~Alexander's POV~
"Why is it so hard for you?" he asked, his voice a ghost of a whisper. "Why is it so hard for you to admit that your mother doesn't like me?"
The words hit me hard enough to steal my breath. For a moment, my voice disappeared entirely.
"Why not just say it?" Alis continued, his body tense and rigid in my hold. "Why not just tell me the truth? She doesn't want us to be together, Alex."
"No, babe..." I stammered, my grip tightening instinctively as I tried to deny the truth that was staring us both in the face. I pressed my forehead against his damp shoulder, closing my eyes tight. "She... she loves you. She just has a difficult way of showing it. She's old-fashioned, she's protective, she—"
"You call that love?" Alis interrupted. He let out a sharp, jagged laugh that sounded more like a sob. "Sending another woman into our home? Keeping you away from me? Treating me like an intruder in my own family? If that's her version of love, Alex, then I don't want any part of it."
I knew how hollow my words sounded. I sounded like a coward.
He finally turned in my arms, forcing me to look at the wreckage in his eyes. "Which part of this is love, Alex? The part where she tries to replace me with Clara? Or the part where she treats our marriage like a mistake she's trying to erase?"
I flinched, the truth of his words cutting through my final defenses. I reached out, my fingers desperate to touch his face, to smooth away the pain I had allowed her to inflict.
"Babe," I pleaded, my voice cracking as I stepped closer, desperate to bridge the distance he had just put between us. "Can you please stop thinking about her? Please, think about us, think about how far we have come to be here."
I reached out, my fingers trembling as I sought his hand. "Give her time, honey. Please, just focus on us. Focus on me. I promise I'll make this right."
"It hurts me so bad, babe," he murmured, his voice breaking as he finally looked at me. The raw pain in his eyes was too much to bear. "It hurts to feel like a guest in my home."
"I know," I rasped, drawing him closer until our foreheads met. "I know it hurts. I'll try harder, I promise. I'll do whatever it takes to make this right. Just… please, baby, don't let her win. Don't let her be the reason you give up on us."
He studied me for a long, weighted moment, his eyes searching mine for something he needed to believe in. At last, he gave a small, exhausted nod.
"Okay," he murmured.
He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around me tightly, clinging as if letting go might undo everything. I held him there while the steady drip of the shower filled the silence. After a while, I eased back just enough to cup his face and press a slow, lingering kiss to his lips.
"I can't lose you," I murmured against his mouth. "I love you so much, Alistair."
He offered me a soft, genuine smile that reached his eyes. "I love you more."
"Have you forgiven me?" I asked, needing to hear it.
He nodded gently. "Yes, Babe. I forgive you."
I kissed him once more, soft and reassuring, feeling the last of the tension drain from my body.
"Go wait for me in the room," I murmured. "I'll be out in a minute."
A mischievous spark replaced the tears in his eyes, a sharp contrast to moments ago.
"Okay, Daddy," he said softly, a teasing lilt in his voice. "I'll be waiting."
I smiled, watching him walk out, and quickly finished my shower. I didn't want to keep him waiting a second longer than necessary.
When I finally stepped out of the bathroom, steam rolling out behind me, the view waiting for me made my heart stop. "Fuck, babe," I hissed, the air leaving my lungs.
Alis was at the center of the bed, completely naked. He was propped up against the pillows, his legs raised and spread wide, offering me a view that was nothing short of a masterpiece.
He had already prepped himself; the scent of slick lube hung in the air, and he was already hard, his cock pulsing as he stroked it with one hand.
But it was the toys that caught my breath. He had a sleek, humming vibrator pressed against his tip, the vibrations making his skin twitch and flush. Deep inside him, a glass plug was already settled, stretching him beautifully and catching the low light of the room.
I didn't move toward the bed. I let my towel drop to the floor, my cock swaying heavy and stone-hard with a single twitch. I pulled a chair over, sitting directly opposite the foot of the bed so I could watch him play.
"Don't stop," I commanded, my voice dropping to a low, hungry growl.
Alis let out a high, melodic moan as he increased the speed of the vibrator.
"Fuck me, baby," he moaned, his hips bucking rhythmically against the mattress, the glass plug inside him catching the light with every desperate movement. "Alex, please..."
"Fuck… baby."
Alistair's voice was a wrecked, breathless sound that cut straight through me. He bit down hard on his lower lip, his head lolling back as he arched his spine. One hand was occupied with the vibrator on his cock, but the other moved to his chest, his fingers punishingly tight as he twisted and rubbed his own nipples, seeking out every possible spark of sensation.
He watched me watching him, his eyes hooded and dark with lust. He moved his hand from his nipple to spread himself even further, showing me exactly how the toy was buried inside him.
"Does it feel good, baby?" I asked, my hand finding my cock, beginning a slow, steady stroke as I watched my husband seduce me.
"So good... Alex... look at me," he whimpered, his hips arching off the bed. He began to stroke himself faster, his moans turning into dirty, broken gasps as the combination of the vibrator and the plug drove him toward the edge.
I sat there, gripped by the sight of him, my pleasure building just by watching the way his body reacted to his own touch. My hand moved in a frantic, heavy rhythm against my cock, matching the pace of his gasps.
Alis was a vision of pure, unadulterated lust. The vibrator was a steady, buzzing blur against his sensitive skin, driving him into a frenzy. His eyes were rolled back, showing only the pre-cum as he lost himself in the sensation. Every time the toy buzzed against the head of his cock, his entire body buckled, a high, sharp moan ripping from his throat.
"Faster, Alis," I commanded, my voice a dark, guttural rasp. "Stroke it harder. Let me see how much you want it."
He obeyed instantly, his hand becoming a blur. The glass plug inside him moved with every arch of his hips, stretching him and forcing out wet, needy sounds that made my vision swim.
The view was making me lose my mind, the way his thighs trembled, the way his chest heaved, and the raw, dirty way he was pleasuring himself just for my eyes. I was seconds away from lunging onto the bed and burying myself inside him.
"Alex... Fuck oh god, Yeah… Just like that…Alex, it's too much!" he cried out, his voice cracking as he reached a fever pitch of arousal.
"Don't you dare stop," I growled, my own release tight in my throat. "Keep going. Give it all to me, baby."
Just as the tension was about to reach a breaking point, and Alistair's moans turned into a desperate, rhythmic chant of my name, a sharp, aggressive knock thudded against the bedroom door.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
A voice came from outside the door. The moment it spoke, it was my mother.
"Alexander?"