"What's on your mind, Jackson? I can sense that you're upset. And considering what we just did for the past two hours, you should be anything but upset."

My extremely handsome husband was gloriously naked as he lay beside me on our king sized bed, my fingers stroking his black hair. Since today was Sunday and we were both off work, we did our usual routine that consisted of staying in bed together for the whole day. We had just finished an amazing session of Jackson savoring every inch of my body with his mouth before finally releasing himself inside me.

We were still trying to get pregnant. Unfortunately, we haven't had much luck as of yet. When I was in my fertile window last week, we not only had an abundant amount of sex, but I even tried little things like putting my legs up afterwards. I was willing to try anything at this point. Now I was out of the fertile window so all we could do was wait and see if I get my period or not.

"Jackson?" I asked again when he stayed silent. I could tell by the harsh frown on his beautiful face that something was wrong. And the fact that he couldn't seem to meet my gaze was telling. "Baby, talk to me. Communication, remember?"

In the beginning of our relationship, we learned the hard way that not communicating with each other and keeping things inside only led to pain and heartache. Even though Jackson Reese had always been the type of man to keep emotional stress to himself, he's been extremely open with me over the past couple years we've been together. That's why this silent treatment had me so worried.

When he finally spoke, his voice was low and hoarse, as if there was an internal battle going on inside him to keep himself from losing it.

"So much death," he rasped. "We've had so much death in this family over. Too much."

My chest ached at his words. Over the past couple years we've lost not only Jackson's mom, Everly, but Karma's mom and also Jamie's mom. The latter being the most recent. Not to mention we almost lost Lanie and her unborn son when they were in a car accident.

"I know," I replied softly. "It's so awful that—"

Cutting me off, his blue eyes finally met mine. "You don't understand. I can't take anymore of this. I can't—" Words failed him and he choked back a sob before reaching up to place his hand against my check. "I can't lose you, princess. Do you hear me?"

"Jackson, I'm not—"

"If you die, I die. Do you understand me, princess? I cannot live without you."

Reaching out, I tried to smooth his worried brows with my fingers. "Jackson, I'm fine. There's no need to worry about me. I'm yours. Forever yours, remember? I'm not going anywhere."

He shook his head in my hands. "I worry about...everything. I can't help it. Every time you leave for work I worry about car accidents. Anytime you go out with the girls, I worry about you getting mugged or some asshole trying something. I worry about you slipping in the goddamn shower. I just...worry. All the time."

Even though my heart broke at his words, I understood where it was coming from. When there was so much death around you, you couldn't help but grab on to those you loved with everything you had, just hoping that that was enough to keep them in your life.

"I love you so much," I whispered to him before pressing my lips softly against his. When he deepened it, my lips parted to welcome his tongue inside so I could taste even more of him.

"I love you, too, princess. Forever."

I knew I was breaking a promise with what I was going to tell him next, but I was desperate and willing to do anything to pull him out of that downward spiral into the rabbit hole of worry and despair he was about to go down.

"I have something to tell you," I said abruptly.

"Do you mean..." His eyes were wide with hope as he placed his hand on my stomach. And it nearly shattered my heart.

"No. It's too soon to know." Feeling a little emotional by his assumption, I cleared my throat before speaking again. "It's about Jamie. I spoke to her a few days ago."

There was a brief flicker of disappointment on his face when I told him I wasn't pregnant, but that changed quickly to a combination of worry, relief, and curiosity.

"What did she say? Is she alright?"

With a smile I couldn't seem to bite back I said, "Yeah, she's good. She told me she moved into Ollie's room with him."

"Wait, wait, wait. She what?" His surprised tone was to be expected.

"Yeah, she said that Ollie's parents randomly showed up to surprise him for his art show. There was some kind of issue with their hotel so Jamie offered for them to stay in the loft that she was renting."

His eyebrows nearly disappeared in his hairline. "She offered? What the bloody hell is happening? It's like a damn twilight zone."

"I felt the exact same way when she told me."

"So is she okay? With his parents there and basically moving in with the bloke?"

Shrugging a shoulder I said, "I think so. At first I was worried that his parents might upset her by asking about her and trying to get to know her. You know, in case they asked about..."

Jackson squeezed my hand and gave me a soft kiss when I trailed off. "Tell me more, princess."

"Well, she said she was getting along fine with his parents. That she was enjoying herself."

"Do you think they are officially together? As a couple?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly. "Jamie said she didn't know what they were." Brief silence from me. "He told me he's in love with her."

An amused snort came from the other side of the bed. "Now that is not surprising. I saw the way that painter was looking at her before our wedding." Jackson brushed his lips against mine. "It was the same way I look at you, princess."

A blissful sigh escaped me when Jackson rolled me over in the bed, kissing me slow and deep as he hoisted himself over my body. I could feel that erection of his, hard and thick against my thigh. Desire shot to my core, instantly making me wet between my legs. Wet and ready for him. It seemed I was always ready for him.

The sudden knock at our front door went ignored and unanswered. Jackson started kissing along my jawline before finding that sweet spot on my neck. After giving it some thorough attention which would surely result in another hickey, he moved to my breast, taking my hard nipple into his mouth and flicking that talented tongue against it.

With my hands buried in his hair, I arched off the bed as a deep moan slipped past my lips. God, his mouth...

"Jackson." His name was a plea for more. I needed so much more.

"Princess," he whispered, his breath skating across by stomach as he continued working his way down to where I really wanted that mouth of his to be. The anticipation was almost unbearable.

Just as he softly kissed my hip bone, there was another knock, this time harder than the last. Then it was followed by multiple rings of our doorbell. It was obvious that whoever it was wasn't going to take the hint and leave.

With a harsh curse, Jackson got up from the bed and glared in the direction of the front door before looking back at me, his hungry gaze roaming over every inch of my naked body.

I understood his frustration. Jackson was not ashamed to let our friends know that we would always be unreachable on Sundays. Or as he liked to call them: Insatiable Sundays. It was the one day that we had no work or anything else. Just us.

When he started out of the room I asked, "Can you at least put some pants on this time before you go yell at whichever of our friends is at the door?"

He scoffed at my request and I shook my head with a chuckle. The one other time he answered the door naked was when Lanie woke us up in the middle of the night, pounding on our door because she was freaking out about sleeping with Ayden for the first time.

I reached for the dark blue comforter that we shared and pulled it over my body while I waited for him to return to the bed. The front door was within the eyeline of our bedroom. So I watched when he reached for the knob and opened it. Then I saw his body tense up.

"Jackson?" I called with concern. When he didn't say anything back or turn around, I got up from the bed and slipped on a robe. "Who is it?" I asked as I made my way through the condo to see who was there.

Once I was beside him, I sucked in a sharp breath. "Jamie? What are you doing here?"

She stood outside our door with a bookbag hanging off one shoulder and her large suitcase next to her. Jamie looked from Jackson to me with pleading eyes. "Can I stay here awhile?"

"Yes, of course you can." As I helped her with her things, Jackson went into our bedroom to throw on a pair of pants before returning to take the heavy suitcase from me.

Filled with shock, I could only stare in shock as my husband helped my best friend to the guest room. Jamie was supposed to be across the world right now with Ollie. It had only been a couple days since I spoke to her. So what the hell happened that brought her to our doorstep?