Adam raised his eyebrows. “Are you kidding? Because if you’re kidding, it’s really cruel.”
I giggled. “I’m not kidding. Just you and me, sweetheart.”
He kissed me, a soft kiss that promised more, and then he pulled back to whisper against my mouth, “We’ll drop off the kids’ stuff and then we’re going home so I can fuck you as hard as I want and you can come as loudly as you want.”
A streak of arousal shot straight between my legs, and I nodded, speechless.
His eyes heated. “Let’s go now.”
I grinned and nodded. “I have another present for you.”
“Please say see-through lingerie.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “Better.”
He looked doubtful that there was anything better than see-through lingerie.
“We’ll do Disney World with the boys in the summer and have a ball with them.” Because as much as he teased about the predicted chaos of the upcoming holiday, he loved hanging out with his boys.
His real issue had been that he never got to see me… alone. “And afterward, you and I are going to Joss and Braden’s villa at Lake Como for four nights. They said we could have it, and Mum and Clark are happy to look after the boys.”
Adam stared at me a moment as if in disbelief. When he realized I was serious, he kissed me again, harder this time. We broke the kiss to gasp for breath, and he said, voice hoarse, “I fucking love you.”
“Kind of hard to hate me, sweetie,” I teased.
“You’re not joking,” he grunted, backing me up toward the door. “Home, kids’ stuff, back here, home, screwing like teenagers. Now.”
Well, he didn’t need to tell me twice.
Joss
“Mum, are you writing?”
My fingers stilled on the keys of my laptop at the sound of my eldest’s voice behind me. “Is this the room in which I write?” I said without turning around.
“You didn’t look like you were writing.”
I turned in my chair to find Beth hovering in the now-open doorway of my office. “Did the closed door and the sound of keys tapping not give it away?”
My eleven-year-old grimaced in a way that was so like me. “Dad’s with Ellie, Luke is playing a video game, and I’m bored.”
“I thought you were reading.”
“I was, but my book is boring. Plus… it is a Saturday, you know.” She put her hands on her hips and glared at me.
I felt that glare hit me in the chest and a little ache spread out from it. I tried my best to balance my writing and my life with my kids and with Braden, but clearly sometimes I got it wrong. “Go and get Luke ready and I will go get your dad. We’ll go out for lunch and to see a movie. Sound good?”
“I really shouldn’t have to drop these hints about how to be a parent, Mum.” She raised her eyebrow at me in this seriously schoolmarmish way. I honestly didn’t know where she picked up this crap.
I raised my eyebrow right back at her. “Okay, smart-ass. Message received.”
She grinned triumphantly and dashed off to get her brother.
I chuckled as I saved my document and shut down my computer. My kid was getting too smart for her own good. It was difficult to rein in the smart-assness, however, when she had a mother like me and a father like Braden.
Finding said father in the sitting room, I stopped in the doorway to stare at him for a moment.
Braden’s long and still deliciously well-kept body was sprawled over our couch. Our baby girl, Ellie, was sprawled across Braden’s chest. They were both sleeping.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and started taking pictures.
“What are you doing?” Braden mumbled sleepily.
I looked up from my phone to see him rubbing his eyes with one hand and stroking Ellie’s back with the other.
“Putting a photo of you and Ellie sleeping on Instagram. My readers will love it.”
Looking more awake now, he frowned. “What?”
“Didn’t you know, babe? You’re their favorite book boyfriend come to life.”
“You’ve been sharing photos of me with your readers?” he grumbled sleepily.
“I had to get some use out of you. You’ve increased my social media followers. Oh look. Twenty likes already.” I grinned over the top of my phone at him, and his eyes narrowed.
“You owe me for that.”
My body warmed just at the thought. “What did you have in mind?”
He smiled, slow, wicked, and sweet. “I’ll think of something.”
“Will I like it?”
“Are you flirting with me while our child is sleeping in the room?”
I strode over to them. “She can’t hear me,” I whispered, bending down to my haunches to stroke her soft hair. “She’s out.”
“I thought you were writing.”
I turned my attention from Ellie to Braden, falling like always into his pale blue gaze. “Beth misses me. Although she didn’t put it quite like that.”
“She wouldn’t.” He smiled affectionately. “She’s too much like her mum to admit outright when she’s missing someone. Always has to wrap up the feeling in sarcasm.”
I chuckled. “It makes life entertaining for you.”
“I wouldn’t want it any other way, babe.”
Leaning over, I pressed my lips to his, intending it to be a soft kiss, but like always, it turned deeper.
“Yuck!” Beth’s voice broke us apart. “It’s bad enough doing that in front of me, but in front of Ellie?”
At her loud entrance, Ellie stirred on Braden’s chest and began to whimper at being awoken.
“Beth, your sister was sleeping,” I admonished.
She immediately looked guilty and crept on her tiptoes into the room as if her now-silent entrance would undo waking up her sister. Coming right up to my side, she knelt down and put her hand on Ellie’s back. “It’s okay, baby girl,” she said softly. “We’re going to go out. You want to go out?”
Ellie reached sleepily for her sister, and Beth took her into her arms with ease and stood up. “I’ll go get her changed.”
I tugged on the hem of Beth’s skirt. “Thank you, baby.”
Once they were gone, Braden sat up, running his hands through his mussed hair. “We’re going out?”
I nodded and sat down on his lap, mussing his hair even more with my hands. “Beth was bored.”
He frowned as he wrapped his arm around my waist. “I could have taken the kids out, left you here to write.”
“No.” I kissed him again. “Beth was making a point. I need to spend more time with you and the kids. I want to spend more time with you.”
“And tonight with me?” He brushed his mouth teasingly over mine.
“Every night with you,” I whispered back, and he kissed me harder.
“Yuck!”
We broke apart this time to find Luke standing in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Problem?” I arched my eyebrow at my eight-year-old.
“Yeah.” He said it like it should be obvious. “You’re not supposed to do that in front of your kids.
That’s what Beth says. She says it’s, like, a rule.”
Braden chuckled. “Son, the only ones making rules in this house are Mum and Dad. Got that?”
He nodded obediently but still looked consternated. “Perhaps it should be a rule?”
I bit back laughter at the hope in the question.
“Believe me, bud,” Braden said, squeezing my hip for emphasis. “That’s the one thing that’s least likely to become a rule in this house.”
“But there’s a chance?”
I turned my face to Braden’s neck to hide my grin from Luke.
“No. There is zero chance.”
“When I turn eighteen, will I be able to make rules?”
Sensing where this was going, Braden chuckled. “Son, when you’re eighteen, a no-kissing-girls rule will be the last thing you want to put in place.”