“Why did you…?” I gestured at my thighs, stomach, and chest, hoping he understood.
“I know for damn sure you aren’t on birth control, so unless you want Braden and Kate to have a baby brother or sister right now, coming inside you probably wouldn’t have been the best idea.” He winked at me and grabbed a towel off the bar.
I immediately began shaking my head, surprised I hadn’t thought of that myself. “I should get on the pill.”
“Already planning round two, are we?” His intoxicating words slid over me as if they were his very hands. I watched as he slipped the towel over every inch of his body; I couldn’t make myself look anywhere else.
“I don’t want any more children,” I whispered while observing his movements.
His hands froze and he swung his eyes in my direction. “Really?” He sounded surprised and almost confused why I would say something like that. I finally hopped down from the sink and grabbed my own towel from earlier.
“Yeah. At least, I’m pretty sure. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything by not having another. Braden and…” I paused because I didn’t know how to approach this considerately. “Braden is enough.” I almost physically grimaced from my own words, because my heart wanted to say ‘Braden and Kate were enough.’ But what right did I have to claim his child?
“You can say it, Rae. I think Kate is as much yours as she is mine, at this point,” he stated, looking directly at me.
“I just… I don’t want to insult Ash or tarnish her memory.” I looked down at my hands as they fumbled with the towel, which I wrapped tightly under my arms, hoping to find comfort from its imitation of a hug. His feet appeared in front of me and I felt his fingers pushing my chin up.
“I think Ash would be grateful that, in her absence, Kate has a wonderful mother figure. I’m battling it too. I wish Ash could be here, but… she’s just not. Kate loves you and I don’t plan on taking that away from her.”
There were so many conflicting lines in that statement, but I just didn’t have the strength to break it all down and examine his meaning. He leaned down and kissed me until all of the thoughts seeped away.
When he pulled back, he looked at me sternly and asked, “Can I ask where Braden’s dad is? I’m not jumping into some guy’s territory, am I?”
“What? No! Lane, what kind of person do you think I am?” I shrieked in shock, but my tone was still light enough that he knew I wasn’t really pissed.
“Okay, okay!” he said with his hands raised in surrender. “I just didn’t feel like kicking anyone’s ass… well, not today anyway,” he laughed. I swatted at his chest and then my hand didn’t leave the warm, tempting skin. He grabbed it and kissed it lightly while looking down at me.
“It was the typical immature-guy response. He bailed at the first positive sign on that little white stick. Couldn’t get enough of me one day and the next day—gone.”
“Damn, now I am going to have to kick someone’s ass,” he grumbled. This time the words were joking, but his tone was absolutely not.
“Save it for someone who’s worth it, trust me.”
- TWELVE -
LANE -
After Raegan and I finally succumbed to the desires we had been feeling since almost the first day we met, we escaped the house for the rest of the day. I needed to get out because if we found ourselves at any moment with privacy, I would have jumped her again. As it was, I had to pry myself away from her because all I wanted to do was keep kissing her… well, among other things.
Since it was pretty warm out, we took the kids to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and the look on Kate and Braden’s faces was worth the hour it took us to walk there. I definitely wasn’t accustomed to New York life anymore and having to get around everywhere by your own two feet. We could have taken the subway, but I had this feeling the last time we took it that Raegan was having a hard time. I didn’t know if it was the screeching of the train on the tracks or the people bumping into us at every turn, but I realized then it was best to keep us all above ground.
I loved watching the differing personalities of Kate and Braden shine through. They were always attached at the hip and did everything with one other, but at the museum we really got to see them individually. Kate was all about socializing and talking to the other kids, and I was already cringing at the idea of fighting the boys off my front porch.
Braden, on the other hand, was mesmerized—absolutely captivated—by the greenhouse. He dug right in and covered his hands with dirt, locating all of the worms within the vicinity. Then he convinced Kate to race leaf boats in the pond, and when an employee told him he could actually plant his own flower into the dirt, he looked as if she had just told him Christmas would now be every day.
It made me want to take him back to Texas and plant a garden with him in my backyard. But that kind of thinking was the kind that would get me in trouble. That kind of thinking led to questions that I don’t think Rae and I were ready to approach. We were already walking on thin ice, just trying to test out these new parenting waters, and neither of us wanted to step on the others’ toes.
That night Kate and Braden barely made it through dinner before they crashed hard on the couch. Raegan laughed as she looked down at their snoring forms. We really had worn them out today. I checked that the alarm was set and then grabbed Rae’s hand, pulling her down the hall.
“Lane…” she tried to protest, but there was no conviction in her words. My hands were on her waist before we even made it into the bedroom. My mouth immediately zoned in on her neck and she tilted her head to let me have access.
I pushed her back onto the bed and immediately crawled above her. She giggled at what I assumed was my eagerness, but I couldn’t deny that right now ‘eager’ was my middle name. This girl was smoking hot and I’d had to watch her strut around in front of me all day, now knowing what she had been concealing under those clothes for the past few weeks.
“You sure are excited to go another round, but I think I remember you being the one to warn me off this morning,” she laughed.
“What?” I tried to sound innocent. “This is just me trying to get to know you better.” I actually had no idea what was coming over me. Raegan had me wagging my tail when she walked in the room and panting like a dog when she even so much as grazed past me.
She moved her mouth and I pulled her lower lip in between my teeth. Her groan confirmed my earlier suspicion that this would be my go-to move to turn her on. With each transfer of our lips, she managed to push her bottom one into my mouth, inviting me to suck and nip on the fleshy area.
I kissed down her neck. Slowly, I moved between her legs and worked my way down her body. Her pants were easy to pull off her toned legs, but I realized if I removed any more clothes this would go a lot faster than I had originally planned.
So I situated myself between her thighs and kissed the tops of them. I rested my cheek against the silky smooth skin and stared up at her. She had her eyes closed, but when she realized I had stopped, she looked down at me curiously.
“What happened when you talked to Mrs. Flores at the park that day?” I asked gently. Her body locked up, but I kissed her legs again until she relaxed again. “You know I don’t blame you anymore, right?” She nodded slowly and I continued, “I was an idiot, but I really do want to know what happened. It kills me to not know, Rae.”
“You want to talk about this now?”
“I don’t see why not. We actually have some time alone,” I reasoned.