“I love it,” she said, an understatement. It was the most beautiful, thoughtful gift that anyone had ever given her. It also made her realize just how much she meant to him.

              “I’m glad,” he said, leaning in to kiss her, only this time she didn’t let him go.

              “It’s my turn to give you your anniversary gift, Mr. Bradford.”

* * *

              He was dying. There was no other explanation for it. His limbs weakly trembled as he dragged himself across the room. He couldn’t think of a time when he’d been so thirsty or hungry in his life. Several times over the last twenty-four hours he considered yelling for help, but he was beyond help. He knew that.

              The cause of his destruction stirred behind him. He picked up the pitcher of water and chugged the lukewarm liquid. It did nothing to quench his thirst or ease his empty stomach.

              “I think I’m dying,” he mumbled.

              A weak laugh came from the bed. “I know I am,” Elizabeth said. “We have to stop…we have to…I need food…and water…..the baby, Robert,….think of the baby,” she implored weakly.

              He took a deep breath. The baby needed food. His baby. He couldn’t help grinning. His minx was making him a father again, hopefully giving him a little girl to spoil this time. He hugged the pitcher to his chest and brought it over to her.

              “Here. Drink this and I’ll get dressed and have Mrs. Brown send some food up.” He frowned as he looked at the door. “I wonder why they haven't checked on us by now.”

              “Probably because we scared them away,” she said as she took the pitcher from him. She almost dropped it. Her arms were so weak, but she couldn’t drink lying back this way. She got up on her knees with great difficulty. The only thing that mattered was the water. She didn’t care about being ladylike or anything else. She drank greedily, not caring about the water that spilled down her chin and down her chest and stomach. She was so thirsty. When she had her fill, she placed the now empty pitcher on the bed. Her eyes met Robert’s intense gaze and she knew that things were about to take a turn for the worse.

              “Oh no,” she whimpered.

              Robert stared at the water dripping down his wife’s breasts. He licked his lips. Every part of him save one was protesting the sight. He followed her frightened eyes downward. He was more than ready to go again. It felt like he hadn’t had her in years instead of minutes.

              Elizabeth threw a pillow at him so she could scramble off the bed, desperate to make an escape. It was like that piece of his anatomy was in charge. He crawled after her. She didn’t bother with a nightgown or a wrap as she ran to the door and started pounding on it.

              “Mrs. Brown!”

              “Oh, thank the lord!” came Mrs. Brown’s worried voice from behind the door. “We were afraid you’d both perished.”

              She looked back to see her husband trying to escape from the tangled sheets his foot got caught on. “We will if you don’t help.”

              “Mrs. Brown, listen I haven’t much time. Can you arrange for a large tray of food and drink to be delivered,” she looked over her shoulder to discover that Robert was close to getting free, “and water for a bath as well. Please!”

              “Certainly,” Mrs. Brown said, sounding amused.

              “Robert?” James suddenly said as he joined Mrs. Brown in the hall.

              A soft growl behind her was the only answer. Elizabeth slowly turned around, plastering her back against the door. James knocked on the door. “Robert? Come down with me to the tavern, I’m bored. Robert?”

              “I’m busy,” Robert answered in what sounded mostly like a snarl.

              James’ answer was a pained sigh. “Come on, you’ve done your duty. Let’s go.”

              A loud whimper escaped Elizabeth as he pounced on her. He was handsome, wicked and all hers. No matter how tired or weak she was at the moment he still had this strange affect on her body after all these years and in that moment, she wanted him more than anything.

              “Robert?” James asked, sounding unsure.

              Robert couldn’t answer at the moment. He was busy licking the water from Elizabeth’s skin. She was pinned tightly against the wall, her arms wrapped around his shoulders and her legs around his waist.

              In one quick move, he was sheathed inside her. He wrapped his arms around her, protecting her from the door as he thrust inside her. The door groaned its protests as its hinges and frame were put to the test. If the position hurt Elizabeth, she wasn’t saying.

Just the opposite, in fact.

She demanded him to move harder and faster. At that moment Robert didn’t care that his brother and Mrs. Brown were standing outside the door or that he was on the verge of starvation. He only cared about her, about his minx. He slammed into her, once, twice, three times and then she began screaming his name and doing her best to milk him dry.

              “Lucky bastard,” he thought he his brother mutter, but he didn’t really care as he lost himself in the woman that he loved.

              “Happy anniversary, Mr. Bradford,” his minx said minutes later as she pushed him to the floor to give him his gift all over again, making him wonder if he should call another truce before they ended up killing each other.

Epilogue

Present Day Massachusetts

Fifteen minutes until the party……..

              “The end,” his father said with flourish as he shoved a bite of pizza in his mouth, making Jason wonder when they’d ordered out and how he’d missed that.

              “Hey!” Trevor gasped in outrage as Jason reached over and snatched the slice he’d been seconds away from devouring out of his hand. “You bastard!”

              “Thanks,” Jason said, finishing off the slice of pizza quickly before he wiped his hands off and gently picked up the necklace that was finally finished and placed it in the small wooden box that had taken him less than an hour to make and stain.

              “About time,” his father grumbled as he stood up and grabbed two pizza boxes off the counter and headed for the door. “I’m starving.”

              “We would have been done a lot sooner if you hadn’t embellished the story,” Trevor pointed out, grabbing the other two pizza boxes and followed.

              “I didn’t embellish a damn thing,” his father snapped over his shoulder.

              “Really? Not even when you said that Robert wasn’t nearly as good looking as you?” Trevor asked, chuckling.

              “I had to give you a visual! A good story teller does that sort of thing!”

              “Grandpa did a better job of telling that story,” Trevor pointed out as Jason reluctantly followed after them, his attention on the small box in his hands as he prayed that he did it the justice that it deserved.

              “You ungrateful bastard!” his father snapped in outrage.

              “Ungrateful? You made me pay for lunch and then you wouldn’t even share the chicken fingers!” Trevor snapped.

              “I needed sustenance!”

              “No, what you need is-”

              “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” his father suddenly demanded, cutting Trevor off. It took Jason a moment to realize that his father was talking to him and that both men were now frowning at him.

              “To the party,” he said, returning the frown. “Where else would I be going?”

              His cousin and father both shook their heads, sighing in exasperation as his father gestured for him to sit his ass down on the couch. “You’re not going to the party.”

              “What the hell are you talking about?” Jason demanded, wondering what the hell was wrong with the men in his family. For the past two hours they’d been snapping at him to move his ass so that they wouldn’t be late for the party and now they were purposely trying to make them late.

              “This party isn’t for you,” Trevor said, giving him a gentle, okay, not so gentle shove, towards the couch. “Your job is just to sit here and wait.”

              His father nodded in agreement as he gestured for Trevor to leave. “We’ll check on you from time to time,” his father said, opening the door. “We’ll bring the kids and Haley’s grandmother back in a week unless you think that you’ll need more time.”

              “More time for what?” Jason asked in confusion as he watched his father head out the door.

              “Don’t worry about food. We start taking shifts tonight. Just make sure that you leave the door unlocked so that we can get in to fill the fridge,” his father said, but before Jason could ask him anything else he was gone.

              What. The. Hell?

              Deciding that they were screwing with him, Jason got to his feet with a sigh and headed for the door, but he didn’t get far before the door opened and the most beautiful woman that he’d ever seen was walking in.

              “Haley,” he said, smiling as she stepped inside, looking just as beautiful as she had five years ago when he’d married her. “What are you-”

              Before he could get the words out, she was running towards him and jumping in his arms. Her arms and legs quickly wrapped around him as her mouth found his. She kissed him like she hadn’t seen him in years instead of hours.

              “I love you,” she said against his lips as she reached down and started tugging his shirt out of his pants.

              “Haley?” he said, wrapping his arms around her so that she didn’t fall.

              “Bedroom. Now,” she demanded as she kissed her way down to his neck and when her lips reached his favorite spot, she suckled, making him groan in pleasure.

              Somehow he forced himself to focus on something besides the wicked way that she licked and suckled his neck. “What about the party?” he asked even though he’d much rather take his wife up on what she was so sweetly offering him. His entire family was waiting for them. His mother had been cooking since last week and they needed to-

              “I want you naked, Jason,” she said, shattering what little control he had.

              With a growl of approval, he carried her to the bedroom, kicking toys out of his way, while making a mental note to build the kids another toy box. Along the way he paused here and there to help rid his wife of her shirt, pants, shoes and socks, leaving her in the matching lace lavender panties and bra that he was going to tear off with his teeth, her glasses that made her look utterly adorable, and that sexy little smile of hers that had his cock twitching with the need to be inside her.

              “On the bed, sweetheart,” he said, giving her one last kiss before he placed her on the bed and gently tossed the box by the pillows.

              As soon as her bottom touched the soft comforter, she was getting on her knees and wrapping one arm around his shoulders and pulling him down for a hungry kiss that had him struggling not to come in his pants like some kid. Even after all these years it still amazed him that she could manage to get him this hot from a simple kiss. He had no idea what had gotten into his wife, but he wasn’t going to complain. He couldn’t remember a time when he wanted her more.

              He moaned in pleasure when she cupped him through his pants, squeezing and tugging on his erection as he reached down and undid his pants. As soon as the zipper was down, Haley was reaching inside his pants with one of her small hands and pulling his hard shaft out. Wrapping her warm hand around his length, she gave it a tug that had him sucking on her tongue. The sexy little whimper that she gave let him know just how desperate she was to have him.

              “On your hands and knees,” he said, pulling back so that he could kick his shoes off.

              As he finished undoing his pants, he watched as Haley turned around and got on her hands and knees so that her beautiful bottom was facing him. He shoved his pants off and stepped out of them as he moved closer to his little grasshopper. Reaching out, he gripped the sides of her panties and drew them down, loving the way her ass wiggled in an effort to help him.