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She didn’t need to fall in love with him. He’d be disappointed if she no longer wanted to have sex, but he could live without it.

He wanted her with him anyway.

He shifted his hand slightly so the edge of his pinky was pressed up against her small hand.

He liked how their hands looked together. Their wedding rings.

He was almost smiling as he fell back asleep.

Two days later, in the afternoon, he was waiting in a high-end men’s shop for a dapper gentleman to package his purchases.

This was his father’s favorite place to buy clothes, and he’d visited so often that they had all his sizes on file. So Jude and Eve had picked out his dad a tie, a pair of shoes, and an overcoat from their new collection.

They’d had a good time in Rome today and yesterday. Yesterday they did some of the normal tourist sites and visited a couple of literary landmarks he’d picked out. Today they’d gone to visit the Vatican, returned to the hotel after lunch to rest for a couple of hours, and then gone out to do some shopping for the rest of the day.

Last night Eve had given him a blow job. She’d been sweet and teasing as she’d kissed her way down his body, and then she’d taken him in her mouth and sucked him off. Like on their wedding night, he’d completely lost control at the feel of her hot little mouth around his dick. And also like the first time, he hadn’t lasted very long, coming hard and loud after barely a minute of her sucking.

He’d felt incredibly good afterward, and she’d been so pleased with herself and with him that it was impossible to be genuinely embarrassed by his lack of stamina. He’d wanted to please her too, but she’d said she was kind of tired and didn’t feel like it.

He hadn’t argued. Of course he hadn’t. But it had worried him.

It made him think he was right about her attraction for him changing after he was so sick. She was still happy to take care of him—even intimately—but she no longer wanted him forhim.

It was upsetting. It couldn’t not be. He wanted her to still want him. He’d tried hard to make sure she’d enjoyed the sex they’d had, and he was sure she’d been into it no matter how quiet she was.

But things had changed. She’d nursed him while he was disgustingly sick and absolutely helpless.

She hadn’t pulled away from him in any other way, but maybe she didn’t want him inside her body anymore.

He worked through it mentally until he was convinced he’d accepted the reality. He would be fine. At least he’d still have her as a wife.

He glanced out the window of the storefront and saw her across the street, looking at the window display of a nearby boutique. She’d helped him pick out the gifts for his dad but then said she was going to check out a small art gallery next door since packing the items up was taking so long.

The gallery must not have interested her because she’d come out and was now focused on the boutique. He moved closer to the window so he could see better. There were a couple of dresses in the store window. They weren’t the sleek high fashion they’d seen all afternoon. They were softer, unconventional, artistic.

Exactly the styles Eve had always gravitated toward.

She’d been supremely uninterested in looking at clothes for herself although he’d tried in Paris and again here in Rome. He bought her anything she showed more than a passing interest in, but those items so far had been a few rare-edition books, a couple of small oil paintings, and a handbag. He tried to get her to look at clothes and shoes and jewelry, and she simply didn’t want to.

But she was gazing at the window display in a way that made clear she liked what she saw there.

He was excited by catching her in an exposed moment. He tried not to hurry the store attendant as he finished placing the purchases into a large shopping bag.

Jude accepted the bag at last, thanking the man and then striding out of the shop and across the street, dodging a car coming too fast.

Eve turned around before he reached her, smiling at him warmly. “Did you get everything?”

“Yep.”

“The gallery wasn’t very good. But there’s another one down the block that we can check out.”

“We can do that,” he said, taking her by the shoulders and turning her around to face the door to the boutique. “But first we’re going to go in here.”

“But Jude?—”

“We’re going in here.”

She was giggling as he guided her inside. “I don’t need more clothes.”