“You assumed I’d go looking for it somewhere else.”
It’s not a question. I cringe at the cold edge of his voice and focus down at his chest.
“I’ve never given you a reason to believe that, Stacy.” God, he sounds angry, and I can’t blame him.
“You’re right, and I’m sorry. But you seemed to be hiding something from me, and the texts were a shock. You haven’t flirted with me like that since long before the baby.”
“I know.” He runs his fingers down my cheek before gripping my hands tightly in his. I love how big and strong his hands are. “When we were in Tahiti for the wedding, you were so relaxed and fun, and I realized that I miss you, too, babe. The sex was great, and we laughed like we haven’t in a long time. It’s time to reconnect. I want to start dating again.”
“Dating?” I giggle.
“Well, yeah. I want to do things with just the two of us. It doesn’t have to be all the time, because Sophie is part of us, but we have a huge family who would love nothing more than to keep her once in a while, so I say we take advantage of it and spend some time together.”
And I melt. This is exactly what we need, what I’ve been missing. “We only leave her with family,” I reply sternly.
“Of course. I wouldn’t leave her with just anyone. But you know our parents would love to spend extra time with her every few weeks or so.”
He’s right, they would, but it’ll be hard to be away from her. Yet, mending the connection between Isaac and me is imperative.
“You’re right. How should we start?” I ask.
“Well, right now…” He gives me that smile, the one he uses when he’s seducing me, and damn, if it doesn’t always work.
“Right now?” I whisper.
He leans in and lightly brushes his lips across mine, once, then again, nibbling lightly at the edges of my lips.
“Right.” Kiss. “Now.”
Oh, hell yes.
He pulls me to my feet and yanks my blue long-sleeved T-shirt over my head, then pulls his own gray tee off and throws them aside. While I make quick work of my jeans and underwear, he swipes his hands over the bed, sending bags and boxes to the floor.
“I hope there wasn’t anything fragile in there,” he remarks with a grin, and I shake my head, smiling back at him. His blue eyes light up at the sight of me naked, and he pulls me close, wrapping his arms around my waist and holding me firmly against him. “Did you eat lunch?”
Lunch?
“Uh, yeah.”
“Good, you’re going to need the energy.” He buries his face in my neck, nibbling and sucking his way up to my ear and across my jawline. I reach for his jeans and unfasten them, slide my hands between his boxer-briefs and skin, and push them over his hips and down his legs, kissing his chest and sculpted abdomen.
His erection is full and hard, and without touching it with my hands, I circle my tongue around the tip. Isaac gasps, sucking air in through his teeth, and I grin as I stand back up.
“God, I want you.” His eyes travel from my face down my body, over my breasts, my stomach, legs and back up again, and I return the favor, taking in his amazing body. Working construction for almost fifteen years has kept him in fantastic shape, his muscles tight and firm. His skin is still bronze from our trip to Tahiti. He’s clean-shaven, but he needs a haircut. His dark blond hair is wavy and unruly from running his fingers through it. Mine are itching to get into it, too.
But it’s his Montgomery blue eyes that have always captivated me, that prompted my nickname for him, Eyes, a variation on his name. They’re smiling at me now, hot and full of promise and lust, and if my panties were still on, they’d be soaked.
He takes my hand and pulls me flush against him, links our fingers and rests our hands at the small of my back. I trace his chin with my nose and push the fingers of my free hand through his soft hair.
“Stace,” he whispers.
I gaze into his eyes as he gently kisses my lips. “Yeah?”
“If you ever even think about me fucking around on you again,” he mutters, deceptively softly, against my lips, “I will spank the living shit out of you.”
My eyes go wide, and I gape at him. Holy shit, this is new.
“Okay.” How the hell do I respond to that?
“I’m not kidding.” He pulls his fingers down my face, down my neck and cups my breast in his palm, worrying the tight nipple in his fingers. My head falls back, and I bite my lip. “I haven’t looked at another woman in ten years.” His lips skim down my neck, and finally he cups my ass in his hands and lifts me, pivots, and lays me back on the bed. He crawls over me and rests his hard cock against my pussy while his mouth does incredibly naughty things to mine.
His tongue is strong and sure, insistent, dancing against my own. His elbows are planted on the bed at either side of my head, and his fingers are buried in my hair. I run my hands down his smooth back to his ass and back up again. I love the feel of him. It never gets old.
I roll my hips and gasp as the tip of his cock brushes against my clit.
“Ah, baby, you’re so wet,” he murmurs against my mouth and pulls back to rest his swollen head against my labia.
I press my feet against his ass, urging him inside. “I want you.”
With a growl, he pushes inside me, burying himself to the root, and rests his forehead against mine. I gasp at the intrusion, my body still unused to making love after giving birth to our daughter, but he stills and lets me acclimate to him, and the tiny pain subsides.
“You feel so good.”
“I’ve been doing my Kegels.”
“Gesundheit.”
I burst out laughing, tightening around him, making him moan. “It means I’m exercising the muscles down there to tighten them back up from the pregnancy.”
“I know. I just love it when you laugh when I’m inside you.”
I grin up at him and take his face in my palms. “I love you, Eyes.”
He crushes his mouth to mine and moves faster, harder, grinding his pelvis against my clit with every stroke in, and I feel the building inside me begin, my muscles tighten, my thighs clench. I grip his hair in my fingers and throw my head back as I come around him, surprised at how strong my orgasm is, and so happy that my body is starting to feel back to normal again.
“That’s right, baby, I wanna feel you come on my cock.”
“Shit!” I wrap my legs more tightly around his hips as I spasm around him, and I feel his own orgasm work its way through him. He thrusts once, then again and grinds into me forcefully, spilling himself inside me.
He collapses over me with a big sigh, rests his cheek on my shoulder and murmurs, “Only you, babe.”
***
I wake alone, disoriented. There’s a full moon shining brightly, illuminating the room. The bed is cold where Isaac was asleep a few hours ago, and the house feels still.
I rise from the bed, stretching my arms over my head, feeling the pull of muscles well used this afternoon from our unexpected and hot lovemaking. I grin and push my hair back from my face. Perhaps we need an encore.
I wonder where he is.
I pad quietly down the dark hallway, expecting to go downstairs and find him in the kitchen, but as I pass Sophie’s room, I hear Isaac’s voice, speaking in hushed tones. The dim light on the dresser is on, sending a shadow across the hallway floor. I peek in to see Isaac rocking gently in the lovely, plush, sage-colored rocking chair he got me when I was pregnant. Sophie is resting in the crook of his elbow, suckling a bottle, her big blue eyes watching her daddy’s face.
God, I love them.
Isaac brushes his hand gently over her little head and smiles down at his daughter.
“You’re as pretty as your mommy, you know. I hope you get her hair. I love the color of her hair.” He’s whispering down at her, like they’re having a deep conversation, and Soph’s eyes are pinned to his, listening while she eats.
“You have her temper, too, don’t you?”
I grin to myself and lean my forehead against the door frame, listening out of sight. “That’s okay. It just means that you know what you want. You’ll give some poor bastard a run for his money. But not until your forty.”
Sophie sighs.
“Okay, burp time, baby girl.” I hear rustling as he settles her on his shoulder to pat her back. “What should we get Mommy for Christmas?”
As much as I really, really want to stand and eavesdrop, I decide I’ve heard enough and walk into the room. God, she looks so small against his wide shoulder and with his big hand on her back. He glances up and grins at me.
“Did I wake you?”
“No, I woke and you were gone, so I thought I’d come find you.” I kiss Sophie’s soft head and inhale her baby smell and then lean over and kiss my sweet husband’s lips.
“Her highness was hungry.”
“So I see,” I reply with a chuckle. “You’re so good with her.”
“I hope so. She’s stuck with me.”
“Yeah, that’s not such a bad deal.” Sophie has fallen back to sleep. “Let’s put her back down and go back to bed, Eyes.”
He smiles. “That’s the best offer I’ve had all day.”
Chapter Four
“Why in the name of all that’s holy is it always so much colder at Christmas tree farms than it is anywhere else? Do they secretly have AC piped in vents under the trees or something? Because, I swear to God, it was not this cold at home.” I shift side to side, trying to keep warm and lift the blanket covering Sophie to check on her. She’s snuggled in her sling across my chest, warm as can be, sleeping soundly.
At least one of us is warm.
“I know how to warm you up, baby.” Isaac winks at me and flashes a wolfish grin, and I can’t help but laugh.
“Yes, I’m aware, but I’m not taking my clothes off out here, buddy. So which one do we want?”
We are wandering around a tree farm, Isaac with ax in hand, trying to find our Christmas tree. I’m not exactly sure why we’re getting a real tree, especially one we have to cut down ourselves, when I have a perfectly good fake tree in a box at home.
Isaac thinks that Sophie needs a real tree for her first Christmas.
“You know, Sophie isn’t going to remember this tree, Isaac. The fake tree would be fine.”
He turns to glare at me. “I’ve let you put that ugly-ass fake tree up for the past eight years. We are getting a real tree this year.”
“What if we get it home and it has spiders in it? Or a squirrel?” I bite my lower lip, trying to keep my smile at bay. I love irritating him.
“I am not Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation.”
“Oh, I’m so relieved.”
“You’re a smart-ass today,” he mutters as he continues to peruse the trees.
“I’m cold. If I keep talking, my lips won’t freeze shut.”
Suddenly, Isaac’s gloved hand grips the back of my head and pulls me to him. His lips claim mine, and he kisses me long and slow, his tongue tracing my lips and then tangling with my tongue. He nibbles the side of my mouth, rubs his cold nose against mine and sinks into me again, his lips soft and lazy. Finally, he pulls back, his blue eyes shining, and exhales.
“Lips warmer?”
“Yes, thanks.” I’m struck speechless. Wow.
“Good. Let’s find Sophie’s tree.”
“This is a nice one.” He points to a large, full, tall evergreen.
“It’s way too tall.”
He eyes me speculatively, like I’m deliberately raining on his parade, and I giggle as he reaches for his tape measure.
“Damn it,” he mutters and looks to the next tree.
Finally, we find the perfect tree, and Isaac quickly chops it down, yelling, “Timber!” as it falls to the ground.
“You’ve always wanted to do that, haven’t you?” I ask.
He laughs. “Yeah.”
He grips the freshly cut trunk and lifts it, ready to pull it behind him as we make our way back to the truck. On the way out, we stop by the farm store and buy some fresh garland, a wreath for the front door and poinsettias.
Isaac grabs some mistletoe and throws it on the pile and winks at me. “I love getting you under the mistletoe, baby.”
“Yeah?”
He grins again.
“You don’t need mistletoe for that.”
“It doesn’t hurt.”
Our house is going to be very festive this year.
***
“So, where are you?” I ask Brynna and glance around the pub from my corner table. Isaac asked me to meet him here for drinks when he got off work, thus beginning our new dating life, and I’m excited to see him.
“We’re somewhere in nowhere North Dakota,” Brynna responds drily.
“How has the weather been?” I ask.
“Shitty. That’s why we’re in nowhere North Dakota. We’re taking it slow. I’m in no huge hurry, other than we’re running out of clean clothes and the kids are restless so I can’t drive as many hours of the day as I’d like.”
“I’m sorry, Bryn. What happened?”
“I’ll tell you about it when I get there,” she responds with a sigh. “There are listening ears in the back seat.”
“Okay.” My really cute, young, and possibly-working-to-pay-the-bills-until-his-modeling-career-picks-up waiter brings me my drink and winks at me.
“Thanks,” I mouth at him.
“No problem. I’ll check on you in a minute.”
The margarita is cold and tart, and that first sip is heaven.
“How are you and Isaac doing? Any better?” she asks. I’ve confided in Brynna about the recent distance between Isaac and me. She’s the only person I’d confide everything in.
“We are doing better. As a matter of fact, I’m sitting in a bar waiting for him to meet me. We’re dating.”
“Dating?” she asks with a laugh. “Where’s Sophie?”
“With Isaac’s parents. They were thrilled to take her for a few hours. I’m getting used to that part. I text poor Gail like crazy.”
“I bet.”
“And, let me tell you, the sex has been fantastic.”
“Well, at least one of us is getting some. Good for you guys, girl. I’m so glad it’s going better.”
“Me, too, thanks.”
“Okay, well, our rest stop is over, so I’m going to get back on the road. I’ll be in touch.”
“Okay, sweetie, drive safely. Love you.”
“Love you, too. Bye.”
I set my phone on the table and look up as my adorable waiter has a seat across from me.
“Hi, there, beautiful.”
“Uh, hi. Can I help you?”
He laughs and sips on a glass of water he’s brought with him. “I just thought I’d spend my break time with a gorgeous woman.”
What the hell?
“I’m Scott,” he continues and holds his hand out for me to shake.
“Stacy,” I respond and shake his hand.
“Great name.” He flashes another smile, and I see two deep dimples wink at me from each cheek. He’s adorable. What is he doing here?
“So, why are you here alone?”
“She’s not.”
We both turn our heads at Isaac’s cold voice. He’s glaring at the poor kid.
“Oh, sorry, man, didn’t know she was taken.”
“Right. The wedding ring wasn’t a clue?” Isaac asks sarcastically, not taking his intimidating gaze away from Scott’s face as he hastily climbs off the stool.
“I was too blinded by those amazing hazel eyes and wavy auburn hair to notice her hands, bro. You’re a lucky guy.” He winks at me, grabs his water and is gone, leaving me with my mouth hanging open.
Isaac takes the seat Scott just vacated and glares over at me.
“What did I do?” I ask innocently.
“Do you have to make yourself look that good in public?” He’s dead serious.
I glance down at
my white button-down blouse and dark denim jeans. “I’m not dressed up,” I reply.
“You don’t have to get dressed up. Now that you’re not pregnant anymore, I’m gonna have to kick ass again.” His eyes soften, and he takes my hand in his, linking our fingers.
“Yeah, right.” I laugh and toss my hair over my shoulder. “Besides, you didn’t have anything to worry about. That kid was way too young for me.”
“He was old enough.”
I glance over toward the bar, where Scott is talking to the bartender, and he smiles at me again, his dimples winking in his cheeks.
Holy hotness.
Isaac sighs, and I glance back over at him. His eyes are narrowed on my face. His too-long hair is brushed back and disorderly from his fingers. He’s all broad shoulders and tanned skin and sexy blue eyes.
“I prefer men over boys.” I grin at him and take a sip of my margarita. “I especially prefer the man I’m looking at right now.”
He smiles and kisses my fingers. “That’s better.”
“Would you like a drink?” I start to signal for the waiter, but he stops me.
“No, we’re not staying.”
“We’re not?”
He flashes me that cocky grin and shakes his head. “Nope.”
“Where are we going?”
“I have a surprise for you. We’re going away for a couple days.”
My eyebrows climb into my hairline, and my jaw drops. “Days? Have you forgotten that we have an infant?”
“Of course not.” He frowns at me and links our hands. “My parents are going to keep her.”
“Isaac…”
“She’ll be fine. We’re not going far. We can be home in the blink of an eye.”
Leave Sophie for a couple of days? “Is there cell reception where we’re going?”
“Yes, and Wi-Fi. We can be in constant contact if need be.” He kisses my fingers. “I’ll miss her, too, baby, but I really think we need this.”
“But, you have work. It’s the middle of the week.”
“Babe, we own the company. I can take all the time off I want. And I want to spend a few days alone with my gorgeous, hazel-eyed, wavy auburn-haired wife.” He winks, and I laugh loudly.