Nice and Easy: Boys of the Big Easy book three

by Erin Nicholas

“Hey, I use the Crock-Pot sometimes.”

  “I’m just…surprised there were any left. I never forget about donuts.”

  He laughed at that. “They were pretty stale.”

  She nodded, a slight curve to her lips. The lips he still really wanted to kiss.

  “I forgot about those. But I promise you won’t find any in the crystal serving bowl in the high cupboard over the fridge or in the box of kale chips in the back of the cereal cupboard.”

  He narrowed his eyes, enjoying this more than made sense. “You ate the kale chips and then kept the box so you could stash donuts?”

  She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “I got that box from the break room at work. Kale is disgusting. In every form.”

  She gave him a grin and Caleb felt a kick in his gut. She was teasing, almost flirting, with him. It wasn’t sexual but, apparently, it didn’t have to be. Just that little smile, that little spark in her eyes, just the idea that she was stashing food in his house in places she knew he’d never find them—kale chips, really? He was so glad that even she didn’t actually eat those.

  She was…charming. That was the only word that really applied.

  “The donuts don’t stay in that box very long, though,” she said.

  “But you definitely don’t share them, right?”

  “These kids don’t need that much sugar.” She cast an affectionate glance at the little ones in the backseat.

  “But you do?”

  She looked back at him, her expression serious now. “Yes, Caleb. Yes, I do.”

  He laughed. “I won’t tell anyone.”

  “And you better not eat any of my donuts.” She pointed a finger at his nose.

  Impulsively, he grabbed the finger and tugged her close. She stepped on his foot, but he didn’t mind. Because now he could smell the bubblegum. “Or else?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” Her voice was breathless.

  He fucking loved that.

  “Or else what?”

  “Um.” She swallowed. “I don’t…know.”

  He loved affecting her. And he was questioning this let-her-take-the-lead thing. Already. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t encourage her to take the lead. “Well, lucky for you, donuts aren’t my favorite thing to eat.”

  Her pupils dilated, responding to the way he was looking at her, and the innuendo. “Oh. Good.”

  “Ask me my favorite thing to eat, Lex,” he said, dropping his voice to the low drawl that he knew she loved. Or that she responded to, anyway. Which he loved.

  “Um…”

  “Bubblegum,” he said, leaning in and taking a long draw of air near her ear. He leaned back. “And all things that smell or taste like bubblegum.”

  She blew out a breath. “Holy crap.”

  It was practically a whisper, but he heard it. And grinned.

  “Should we go?” he asked, stepping back.

  “Yeah. I…guess.”

  “What are you unsure about?”

  “How to prepare myself for you to be…so you, no matter what we’re doing.”

  He lifted a brow. “So me?”

  She nodded and licked her lips. His cock twitched.

  “What’s that mean, Lex?”

  “You’re just…” She took a deep breath. “We don’t spend a lot of time together. Doing normal stuff. I guess, I didn’t think that…I didn’t realize that you’d just take up so much space even doing everyday stuff.”

  He pretended to be offended, but he knew what she meant. He still wanted to hear her say it. “So you’re saying I need to lay off on the junk food?”

  She shook her head, almost looking frustrated. “Not physical space. Well…”

  She trailed off, looking him up and down and his cock liked that, too. He coughed slightly and shifted. “Well?” he prompted.

  “I’m not used to having you around. And you’re definitely hard to ignore,” she told him. “But you’re so…”

  “I’m taking up a lot of your attention,” he finally supplied. Because he knew exactly what she was talking about. They’d spent half a day in the house together and he was acutely aware of where she was and what she was doing every minute. He felt like he was on alert. Ready for…something. Seeing her. Hearing her. Smelling her.

  “You do,” she agreed.

  “We’re just getting used to sharing a space.” But he didn’t think it would actually change. He couldn’t imagine his mind not being on her if she was in the house with him. Hell, he thought about her when she wasn’t there. Hearing the water running upstairs and knowing she was in there, wet and soapy and slick, was pretty damned hard to ignore.

  “Do you think if we—” She glanced at the kids. Shay was kicking her feet and looking out the window, humming to herself. Jack was running a toy airplane back and forth over the padding on the front of his car seat. Lexi looked back to Caleb. “Sleep together,” she said softly. “That it will be less intense? Is this just anticipation or something?”

  Fuck no. That was his initial reaction and he knew it was right after he thought about it seriously. Once he had her, all of her—every sigh, every cry, every orgasm—he wouldn’t be able to walk into a room without him wanting it all again.

  He slowly shook his head. “I really don’t. It might be even worse.”

  “Worse?”

  “Once I know what it’s like to be inside you, I’m not sure I’ll ever recover.”

  He wanted to put his hands in her hair, push her to her knees, and slide his cock past the “O” that her gorgeous lips made in response to his answer.

  Damn. This was intense. More than he’d expected, too.

  But something he did very well, believed in very strongly, was wallowing in the good stuff. And the idea of fucking Lexi Scott every way he knew how was very good stuff.

  She finally blew out a breath. “I thought I was in charge.”

  “You are.” Stupidest idea he’d ever had.

  “Then what’s this?”

  “Honesty.”

  “That’s what you call it? You want to be honest so you’re going to go around talking about”—she lowered her voice—“being inside me?”

  His entire body went hot and hard in an instant. He was going to die if she ever said fuck me.

  “Total. Honesty.” He said it firmly. In the voice that made her nipples hard. Yeah, he’d seen it. More than once. He’d ignored it—and then used the image later when he was jerking off—but now, he didn’t have to ignore it. And he wasn’t going to let her ignore it, either. “You’re in charge. I won’t throw you over my shoulder and take you up to my bed.” He leaned in. “I won’t tie you to my bed and worship you from head to toe, making sure you come twice before I fuck you.” His voice dropped even lower. “I won’t lift you up on the kitchen counter after the kids are in bed and eat your pussy until you cry.” He paused, taking in her bright, wide eyes and the way she was barely breathing. “Until you say the word.” Then he straightened. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t talk about it.”

  Then he took her by the waist and lifted her up, the way he’d love to do onto his countertop, and tossed her onto the passenger seat of his truck. He slammed the door and rounded the front bumper, feeling a swirling mix of lust, impatience, and arrogance. Because her nipples were hard. And now she was going to the zoo with him and their kids with all of that going on, along with the images he’d just put in her head, and very wet panties.

  Of course, he was going to have to walk around with one of the hardest erections he’d had in a long time, too.

  He shifted, trying to ease the pressure against his fly, and started the truck.

  Jack was wiggling in his seat by the time Caleb had the truck parked at Audubon Park.

  The park was made up of acres of land in the Uptown neighborhood of New Orleans and had everything from a jogging trail to a golf course, soccer and baseball fields, riding stables, a historic café, and the zoo, aquarium, and insectarium. They also held many special events from private
parties to Boo at the Zoo in October, light displays in December, and several educational activities throughout the year.

  Lexi knew that Caleb had a family pass to the zoo and the kids often talked about the animals, fish, and bugs they’d seen. She didn’t, however, realize this was an every-week thing. Or that there were other women involved.

  Truth be told, Lexi was wiggling in her seat, too. Sitting next to Caleb, seeing his big hands on the wheel, and his thigh muscles bunching as he stepped on the brakes and gas, after what he’d said to her was driving her crazy.

  Caleb Moreau, the guy she’d been fantasizing about for two years now, her hero, had said the word fuck to her. About her. Not to mention the word pussy. For the second time in twenty-four hours.

  She swallowed hard. If she’d thought he was taking up a lot of her head space before, now she was pretty much doomed. The man was hot when he was drinking punch at a single parent support group, for God’s sake. Now? She was pretty much melting in her seat.

  “Kawa!” Jack squealed as Caleb got out of the truck and came around to the passenger side.

  He pulled her door open and Lexi worked on breathing. Just in and out. Simple.

  But she was a mess. And a pervert. Because the only thing “in and out” made her think of was sex. She gripped her hands in her lap and told herself that she couldn’t touch him.

  “Lex?”

  His deep voice rolled over her and her nipples perked up. Again. This wasn’t the I-know-what-I’m-doing-to-you deep voice, though. This was just his regular voice. It seemed that her nipples had gone from we-like-when-he-gets-bossy to we-like-him-all-the-time.

  She swallowed. “Yeah?”

  “Need you to get out so I can grab Jack.”

  “Kawa!” Jack hollered louder.

  In her peripheral vision, she saw Caleb grin.

  “Yeah, bud, we’re going to see Kara.”

  “I want to see the kitties,” Shay said.

  She was struggling to unhook her seat belt, and Lexi took advantage of having something to focus on other than Caleb. She pivoted on her seat to reach back for Shay’s buckle.

  She heard a little groan behind her.

  “A thong? For the zoo?”

  Lexi’s hand flew to her butt and she realized that her sundress had pulled up as she’d twisted and reached for Shay. Yes, she was wearing a sundress. It was Louisiana. It was hot.

  But the truth was, she’d loved the way Caleb had checked out her legs when she’d been wearing his shirt and she’d put the dress on with that in mind.

  She kept one hand on her half-exposed butt cheek and unhooked Shay’s belt with her other hand. Then she turned back and met Caleb’s gaze. “It’s July in New Orleans,” she said. “I try to wear as little as possible as often as possible.”

  His eyes flared and bolts of electricity shot straight to her pelvic muscles. “Remind me to turn the AC off when we get home.”

  God. Had she known how he’d be with her if she moved in, she would have begged him to let them live with him long before this. But honestly, if he didn’t make good on the threat to tie her up, she was going to lose her mind.

  “Kawa!” Jack yelled.

  Caleb leaned in, close, reaching for her. Lexi sucked in a breath. Then he reached past her. He unfastened her seat belt, pulling it off of her. The belt brushed over her breast and she was proud of the fact she held the little whimper in. But it was right there.

  Caleb held out a hand. “Let me help you down before Jack loses his shit.”

  She shook her head and grabbed her purse. “I’m good.”

  He, thankfully, stepped back and let her slide to the ground by herself. She quickly turned to help Shay, who had climbed into the front seat, out of the truck. With the little girl’s hand in hers, Lexi started for the zoo entrance.

  “Ow, too tight,” Shay protested, tugging on Lexi’s hand.

  “Geez, sorry, baby,” Lexi apologized, loosening her grip on Shay.

  Shay started to run, pulling Lexi with her. Fortunately, with Lexi holding on to her, Shay didn’t do a face-plant when she caught her left toe on the curb. “Whoa.”

  Shay smiled up at her. “Oops.”

  Lexi smiled in return, but something nagged at her. Now that she and Caleb had talked about the fact that Shay was behind on things, that little “oops” bugged her more than usual. Shay said “oops” a lot. Because she tripped and stumbled a lot. Lexi had only recently really started noticing as Jack became more mobile and independent. She hadn’t been around kids a lot and hadn’t had a clear idea what things were easy or hard for them at different ages until she’d done her pediatric section in nursing school. With Jack two years behind Shay, and Lexi not knowing Shay until she was past the early stages of learning to crawl and walk, she hadn’t been fully aware that anything was off. But it was becoming more obvious as Jack started to do more, that Shay wasn’t quite where a four-year-old should be.

  Caleb and Jack caught up with them as the girls stopped at the ticket counter. Caleb produced their family pass and they went through the gate.

  “Kawa!” Jack reminded them.

  As if they could forget, Lexi thought, rolling her eyes. She’d never heard of Kara before. Interestingly. This seemed to be a with-Caleb-only kind of thing.

  “We’re going to see Lauren first,” Caleb told the boy as he handed over ten dollars and set Jack in the rented wagon. “She’s the first one. Then Kara.”

  “’Kay,” Jack agreed. “Lauwen first.”

  Lexi tried to ignore the prick of jealousy she felt. So her son had another girl that he couldn’t wait to see. Two or three even. That didn’t mean anything.

  “Lauren!” Shay said bouncing up and down.

  And Lexi could also be jealous of Shay being this excited to see someone else. Great.

  “Where do your hands go, Shay-doodle?” Caleb asked.

  Shay moved in and grabbed a hold of his belt loop.

  “And how about your hands, Lex?”

  Her head came up quickly at the drawled question. So they were even going to do this in public? Sure, her becoming completely turned on and super horny while looking at tigers with their kids wouldn’t be awkward at all.

  “My hands are good right here,” she said, holding them up. Not touching him.

  “You sure?” he asked. “Wouldn’t want to lose you.”

  There were so many things she wanted to say to that. Most especially, are you so sure you have me to start with? But she’d never say that. And he did have her. Completely.

  “I’m good,” she said again.

  “Okay, well, you know you can hold my hand while we look at the spiders.”

  He gave her a little wink and Lexi sighed. She fucking hated spiders. Dammit, he knew her better than she’d thought. Which made her feel warm even while she wondered if he’d be surprised to find out she had a little kink in her. Knowing about her passion for donuts was one thing. Nipple clamps were something else.

  She took a deep breath and banished thoughts of sex toys from her mind. “Fine.”

  They rounded the pond with several pink flamingos and suddenly Shay took off running. “Lauren!”

  Lexi’s deep, resigned breath turned into a gasp as Shay tripped and went sprawling across the stone path. Lexi quickly knelt next to her, running her hands over her knees. “Oh, baby, here we go,” she said soothingly. Shay stumbled and tripped, but she didn’t often fall. However, when she did, she ended up with bruised kneecaps along with a bumped chin, a split lip, or once, a huge goose egg on her forehead. Lexi hated that she got hurt and worried that, if her coordination didn’t improve, she could seriously injure herself sometime.

  “Kiss them?” Shay asked, sitting on her butt and bending her knees up.

  “Of course.” Lexi kissed each knee. Shay wasn’t crying and was, thankfully, too young to be self-conscious about taking a fall in public. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell the little girl that she needed to slow down and be more careful,
but she bit it back. Shay was four. She should run and be excited and be fearless. Especially when Lexi and Caleb were right there with her. They’d take care of her. They’d pick her up when she fell. They’d kiss the hurts away. And that was all Shay needed to know right now.

  “Shay! Jack!”

  A woman’s voice from behind her made Lexi pivot. The woman was in her mid-twenties, only a little older than Lexi. Her hair hung in gorgeous long black braids and she wore a tan zoo polo tucked into dark gray shorts that showed off long, bare legs. She was beautiful.

  “Lauwen!”

  So this was Lauren.

  Shay got up quickly and met Lauren halfway between her spot on the ground and the entrance to the Wildlife Stage exhibition.

  “How are you, sweet girl?” Lauren asked.

  “Good!” Shay said, her tumble clearly completely forgotten.

  Lauren took Shay’s hand and gave Lexi a quick smile. Lexi got to her feet, returning the smile. Shay seemed fine, or at least distracted as Lauren led her to a little table outside of the exhibition where another woman had a face painting station. But instead of having Shay wait in line behind the two kids already there, Lauren began painting Shay’s face, talking and smiling with the little girl as if they’d been friends forever.

  Jack kicked his short, denim-clad legs, and Caleb took him out of the wagon and set him on the ground to go running over to where Lauren was just finishing Shay’s face.

  “I’m a sea otter!” Shay told Jack.

  “Me, too!” Jack insisted, grabbing Lauren’s hand.

  “Well, of course,” she said with a laugh. “You have to be ready to meet Ollie today, right?”

  Jack nodded enthusiastically. Shay asked, “What does Ollie eat?”

  “Oh, that’s a good question,” Lauren told her. She painted Jack’s nose brown with a black tip and added whiskers as she went over Ollie the otter’s diet.

  Lexi felt Caleb move in next to her, but she had to admit she was fascinated watching Lauren with the kids. She was friendly and clearly adored both Shay and Jack, giving them special smiles as they hung on her every word. Clearly the adoration went both ways.

  “No apples?” Shay asked.

  Shay hadn’t liked apples until about four months ago. Lexi had thought it was strange that Shay would eat applesauce but not raw apples. Then suddenly, Shay had announced one day she did like apples and that was that.