That took some of her bluster. “What problem?” she asked.
“That thing you wanted me to do,” he whispered, glancing at Shane who was behind her.
“Yeah, what’s the problem?”
“I need a signature from each parent.” He eyed Shane and she wasn’t sure what he was getting at. “If I put it down in front of him, he’ll read it.”
“What’s going on?” Shane asked.
Ginger ignored Shane. “Can’t you just cover it up?” she asked. “Just put something over the top of it and leave the signature line free.”
Owen scowled at her. “Do you know how many times I’ve lectured him for signing things without reading them?”
“Then let this be a lesson to you,” she said. “Wise advice normally, but I guess there are exceptions.”
Owen sighed. “So what do you want me to do?”
Pushing her lips to the side, she considered it. “Do you have it here ready?” Owen nodded. “Go get it.”
Murphy was already in his room, Owen passed them to go into his own bedroom and when he came back, he was hugging a pile of papers to his chest. Spinning around, she smiled up at Shane. “Owen and I need you to sign something… without reading it.”
“I got that,” Shane said, peering at her with suspicion. “Something for Cameron.”
“What?” she asked. “How did you know that?”
“He said two parental signatures, not spousal signatures.”
Nudging Owen, she growled at him. “Good going.”
“What is it?” Shane asked.
Owen leaned in to mutter in her ear, “Flash him, that will distract him.”
She tossed her response back over her shoulder at her brother. “He doesn’t care about my breasts, he’s seen them too many times.”
Shane raised his hand. “Do I get a vote?”
“No,” she and Owen said together and she returned to smiling, hoping if she was sweet, he’d be charmed enough to do as she asked. “You have no reason to trust me—”
“Other than the fact that I love you.”
“Yes, other than…” Her blood pressure plummeted. “What?”
His smile was genuine and he traced the back of his finger down her cheek. “You heard me, Bit… You want me to sign it, I will.”
“You will? Just like that?”
He nodded. “If it makes you happy then it’s what I want too… and Owen’s read it, so I know you’re not signing away the store.” That was going to be her point before he dropped that last bomb. “So if you want me to sign it, I’ll sign it… after our next kiss.”
Jarring her from the daze of his admission, she had to switch mental gears fast. “What? After our what?” He could make her mad as fast as he could make her laugh. “You’re demanding payment per signature?”
“No,” he said. “Doesn’t matter if it’s now or next week. I’ll wait. Soon as you’re ready to share those lips again, I’ll sign whatever you want me to sign.”
Owen leaned in behind her again. “We actually need three signatures to cover everything.”
That pleased Shane no end and he rocked back on his heels while sliding his hands into his pockets. “Great. Three.”
“What about last night?” she asked. “Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“That was spontaneous,” he said. “A wet dream come to life.” Her narrowed focus made him shrug. “Ok, I’ll give you one for last night.”
“I need to get this in,” Owen said and she gritted her teeth.
“Ok,” she said and grabbed the document from him to search for the place she was supposed to sign, but Shane tried to peek over her shoulder so she snatched it to her chest and covered his eyes with her hand. “You’re getting what you want, big boy, ok?” He smiled and even when she couldn’t see his eyes she felt the heat of them. Grabbing the back of his neck, she pulled him down and pressed her mouth onto his once.
Owen laughed when she shoved Shane away. “Sexy,” Owen said and laughed.
Shane was shaking his head. “Nope, that’s not what I mean,” he said and grabbed her hips to lift her onto the vanity. It was shocking how entitled he was. He parted her legs and grabbed her ass to pull her core against the mass behind his fly without even thinking about asking permission. He wasn’t even hard, but the feel of him there, pressed into her intimacy made her gasp.
His half-smile was almost sinister and he winked. “That’s right, Bit.”
“Uh, can you both sign so I don’t have to witness this?” Owen asked.
There was enough of a distraction going on that he managed to cover the documents and only reveal the signature lines. She didn’t really know what she was signing either. Every time she leaned to the side to sign, she rubbed against Shane and by the time they were done, he was solid and she was finding it hard to breathe.
Owen held up the completed document. “Ok, I’ll get out of your way for the… payment part…”
Her brother went out and closed the door and before she’d breathed in, Shane was leaning in, but she leaned back. “You’re not really going to make me do this, are you?”
“Oh yeah,” he said. “It’s a step back to normality… We used to trade sexual favors all the time. Kissing is nothing compared to what we used to promise each other.”
“That’s just it,” she said, resting her hands, one on top of the other on top of his heart. “This isn’t normal. We’re not normal. Last night, it was…” Shrugging, she found a little bit of that confidence. “I was horny.”
“And you came to me,” he said and though his eyes were drowsy, he looked ecstatic. “More normalcy.”
She’d have gone to her husband if she was aroused in the past, but there was something she had to make him understand, even if it was embarrassing as hell. “There’s… something have to tell you.”
“Ok,” he said, brushing his lips on her jaw and then beneath it. “Tell me, Bit.”
“I’m a virgin.”
He stopped kissing and drew back to meet her eye. “What?”
“Figuratively speaking.” Gripping his shoulders, she found comfort and confidence in their stability. “I… I know I have a child and… I have done it before, but I have no memory of having sex.” Pushing through the embarrassment, she found her calves pressing deeper against his outer thighs. “I can’t do anything, you know? I don’t remember how to do… stuff.”
Brushing his hands up and down her back, he pulled her closer. “I’m a good coach. We’ll do fine… is that why you didn’t do anything with him?”
Calvin. Shane wasn’t even going to say his name, which made some sense because the reminder filled her with guilt and she pushed him away. “I’m not saying that I’m going to do anything with you. Last night was a one off… Calvin and I… we’ve only been together about six months. I was in hospital and then with the pregnancy, I wasn’t thinking about sex. Then I had Cam and he… he was my focus, my world. I wasn’t thinking about relationships, I just wanted to be with my little boy… I guess I knew Calvin was interested, I just… wasn’t sure what I was doing with a man and he kinda had to spell it out.”
“And that’s when you got together?”
She nodded. “With feeding Cam, and getting up in the night with him, there wasn’t much time for intimacy and we wanted to do it right. I’ll admit that I was nervous and Calvin was really turned off by the whole breast-feeding thing. So… I thought it might be romantic to wait, until the wedding night, you know?”
And then he’d come along and busted up the day, what perfect timing. “That would be romantic… but we’ve had our wedding night,” he said.
That she didn’t remember. Ginger didn’t want to be talking about sex any more, her mind was so screwed up about all of this. “I can’t have sex with you, Shane.”
“We’ll do it properly the first time, not like this in our brothers’ bathroom… all I want now is a kiss.”
“A kiss,” she said, touching his lips with her fingertip
s. “Just a kiss.”
But even that was too much. This time when he bowed forward, she parted her lips and let him slide his tongue beneath her lips. It was so warm and natural that she just fit against him and her legs slid higher, coiling around him. She rubbed their centers together, stimulating parts of herself that had been neglected.
His hand skimmed down her back and she folded her hands one over the other on the back of his neck, holding him closer, tugging him hard when she angled to take his breath into her lungs. His thumbs were first to pick their way under her top at the small of her back, then they were moving up and a second later her bra popped loose.
Gasping, she pushed him back to glare. “Boo! Did you just unhook my bra?”
“Oops,” he said with a grin a chancing teenager would be proud of.
Her legs had to tighten as Ginger reached around herself to hook it again. Murphy came in and stopped in the doorway again. “Fuck, are you not done yet?” He examined them and laughed. “It been so long you’ve forgotten how to take a bra off, bro?” he asked and reversed out still sniggering.
Shane gestured at the closed door. “Now you have to let me take it off.”
It did look like she was unfastening it for him rather than re-hooking it. Ginger scratched her nail on his stubble, the sensation was kind of primal and made her wriggle again. But when he came in for another kiss, she pressed a hand on his chest. “We have to cool off. We can’t be doing this… it looks like we’re…”
“Like we’re what?” he asked, putting his weight on his hands on either side of her thighs. “Being man and wife?”
“Having an affair,” she whispered.
“Murph and Owen won’t say anything… But we are together… right?”
Exhaling, she examined his face and had to admit that whatever they were doing, it was unfair to Calvin. “Maybe,” she said. “No.” He frowned. “I don’t know.”
Shane was quick to take control while soothing her at the same time. “If you’re worried about telling him, I can deal with it. You can stay right here and I’ll deal with everything.”
Yeah, ‘cause that wasn’t a ridiculous idea. “Hide in my brother’s bathroom? No. What about Cam?”
The sensation of his hands brushing up and down her neck and shoulders beneath her hair was making her shiver. “I’ll protect him. No one hurts my family… Are you concerned Calvin will hurt our son? I can get round the clock protection for you both, if—”
“No, of course not, don’t be silly.” Drawing a line around his pec through his tee-shirt with her fingernail, she confessed something else. “Boyd is coming in today… He’ll be here any minute… might be here already.”
“I have Murph behind me, we can take them.”
He’d missed her meaning and jumped straight into assuming there would be a physical altercation. “No… he’ll bring the paternity results.”
The envelope would be sealed, so they’d have to wait, but they’d find out today and maybe that was why she was so edgy. But instead of being anxious, he smiled. “So it will finally be official.”
Ginger maybe should have waited to read it before sending Owen off with the documents about Cameron’s name, but Shane wasn’t worried. She could always ask Shane to call Owen to stop him filing if they had to. “Everything could fall apart when we open that envelope,” she said.
He tipped her chin up. “He’s mine. I’m not worried.”
He really was confident and it was sweet if nothing else. Stretching her arms around his neck, Ginger smiled. “Well maybe it’s me who should be telling you off… you were the one cheating on me after all.”
Although he frowned, he didn’t relax his hold on her. “Was I?”
She nodded and bit her lip. “The blonde in your bed… in our bed.”
It only took him half a beat to understand. Shane laughed then hooked her hair away from her face. “Yeah, mybad, she was too hot to pass up…” He kissed her lightly and brushed his nose on hers. “That’s what you meant about feeling like her… and why you were horny last night?” She nodded, her nose bumping his. “How many did you watch?”
“Just a couple,” she said. “I can’t believe we… did that.”
“It was just a wig. You’ve worn crazier stuff in bed—”
“No, videoed ourselves, there seem to be a lot of them.”
He shrugged. “We have security cameras in every room of the house, and the office. We have dash-cams too that film inside and out our vehicles. Sometimes we use them for… recreational reasons.”
“I never thought I was the kind of woman to… do that. Video? That’s risky, isn’t it? What if someone hacked us or something? That’s a thing right? What if they got out?”
His wide smile and bold laugh were too exaggerated and knowing, leaving her feeling like she was missing something. “Oh don’t worry about our security, baby. No chance of anything electronic getting out there without us knowing.”
They’d been cooped up in here for quite a while. Ginger eased him back and slid down off the vanity to put some space between them. Shane groaned in protest, kind of like Cam would do if she took his toys away. “We’ve been in here too long. Murphy needs his bathroom.”
“He can pee in the yard,” Shane said, trying to grasp her waist, but she dipped away. “If it’s good enough for Rocky, it’s good enough for my brother.”
“I have to go find Calvin,” she said.
Hope made his brows rise. “You’re going to tell him?”
Ginger patted his chest, trying to dampen his expectations, but when she made contact with the solid muscle beneath his shirt, she sighed and bit her lip. “I have to hit the gym before I get naked with anyone,” she muttered, thinking aloud.
Yanking off his own tee-shirt, Shane erased her resolve like he knew just how to manipulate her by flashing his form. “I saw your body come out of my bed the other morning,” he said, ducking in a swooping motion to taste her neck and push her against Owen’s bedroom door behind her in the same move. “It’s perfect.”
The breathy words made her whimper. Her body wasn’t hers, it was reacting to his like it was an extension of his form. Boneless and powerless to resist, Ginger moaned when he kissed around to her throat, and back up to her ear. “Oh, Shane…”
“You’re mine,” he growled.
Her mouth opened wide in a yelp and she grabbed the back of his head to haul his mouth up to his. Bending his knees, he scooped her up, guiding her legs around him, as their kiss deepened. Supporting her weight with one arm, his other came around to let his fingers massage her through her panties. “Shane,” she whispered.
“Let me go down on you,” he mumbled on her mouth, tasting her again. “Please, baby. Let me eat your sweet pussy. I’ll make you feel so good.”
“Let you…” Her eyes opened on their kiss and she seized his shoulders to give him a shove. “Shane… no, we can’t.”
Ginger was sure she was being strong and right, then he pushed his fingers against her opening through her panties and she gasped, failing to catch a breath. Pushing up, her nails dug into his shoulders, but she smiled instead of protesting, because wow, that one pulse of sudden pleasure had felt good.
“I remember how to do stuff,” he said. “When you’re ready.”
Shane put her on her feet and she didn’t know if she was more disappointed or guilty. A whine on the monitor that had been pushed to the other side of the vanity brought her back to her senses. “I have to make sure he’s settled,” she said, struggling to switch back to mommy mode. “Cam has to stay down until we find out what Doctor Guinness wants to do about therapy.”
“Will there be a session after Calvin finds out?” Shane asked.
But Ginger was sure of one thing. “No one will be making any big announcements today, ok? This is supposed to be… medical not recreational.”
He dug his hands in his back pockets. “So we’re not telling him we’re together?”
She was getting tired
and frustrated. “Please, Boo, don’t push. Just… be patient. We have to figure this out one day at a time and today it’s paternity results, ok? If they come back negative… I guess we’ll need therapy.”
“Ok,” he said, squeezing her shoulder. “Whatever you want, Bit.” She retrieved the monitor, but he took it from her as she passed him. “Go see if Boyd is here with the envelope… I’ll check in on our boy.”
Searching his eyes, Ginger was as worried as she was sorry. This could be the last time Shane went to Cam thinking he was his. If the results were negative, that was it, over. Nodding, her smile didn’t go far enough to allay her concerns, but as was becoming his habit, Shane read worries and kissed her head to console her as he passed to go to Cam.
Straightening her clothes, Ginger looked at her reflection in the mirror and touched her reddened lips. She was something else, something different. The same woman was looking back at her but there was something different in her aura, she just hoped Calvin wouldn’t see it before she got the chance to talk to him.
11
Boyd was here. Ginger found him and Calvin in the dedicated dining room located in back of the lower floor. The door was open and she went over, but never got a chance to say anything because Calvin noticed her and stood up.
“Come in,” Calvin said, gesturing to her. He came over to take her hand and drew her inside, leaving the door ajar behind her.
Boyd stood up and she could tell straightaway that there was something going on. “What is it?” she asked, wondering which of the men were going to fill her in. “Did the results come back?”
“Yes,” Calvin said, pushing some papers aside to pick up an envelope that she immediately noticed was already open.
“Well?” she asked, reaching to take it.
Calvin was reluctant to hand it over and kept hold of it even after she put her hand on it. But she couldn’t read why he was reluctant and her heart got faster as she began to panic that maybe it didn’t say what they expected it to say. Maybe she was a slut after all.
When Calvin let go, she ignored her urge to bury her head in the sand and slid the paper from inside. “It’s positive,” Calvin said.
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