by Tammi Lynn
“Mind if I take her?”
“Go ahead, Bro, I need to get to bed anyway. The last time the little heathen woke me up from falling asleep on the couch, she poured a cold glass of water on my face.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t trust her either.” We both laugh, we love the little thing more than anything. I look down at Mia, well, almost more than anything. Both girls have us wrapped around their fingers. For the longest time, I assumed that Emma would be the closest thing I had to a daughter, but meeting Mia? I mean shit, I want to settle down and experience those moments with her. I never in my life thought I would feel that way.
He grabs her up into his arms and turns to head back up the stairs, but I stop him. “Cade?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think she’ll stay? Or do you think she’d move back to be with him.”
He knows who I am talking about.
“She isn’t fucking leaving, Jesse. I won’t let her, we can’t let her.” His vein starts throbbing in his temple. He’s not at all happy with the thought and looks down into her face. “She can’t.” That softer commentary has me assuming I was correct about hearing him say, ‘I love you.’
“So, we don’t let her ever getaway.”
“Nope, and if any of you fuckers scare her away, I’ll kick all of your fucking asses.”
“Same for you, man, don’t hurt her.”
“Never.” He turns back around to continue up the stairs, and I get up to follow so I can go to my own room.
“Cade?”
“Yeah?” He answers, still making his way up the stairs. Mia is sleeping, and it warms my entire body to think she trusts us all that much. It takes a lot of fucking trust to fall asleep around someone.
“I think I’m in love with her.” I know I am.
“Yeah, man, me too.”
Chapter Eighteen
Snow Angels
I woke up in Cade’s bed and snuck out before he woke up as well. We would have to take my mom to the airport in two hours, and I wanted to make her breakfast and spend some alone time with her.
Slipping down the hallway, I could hear Roman’s shower running and decided it was the perfect time to sneak up on him. I mean, my mom was probably still sleeping anyway, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Opening his door slowly, I go inside his room and see that he left the bathroom door open. This is going to be too easy. I peek in the bathroom before going in, and he’s standing facing me in the floor to ceiling glass shower. His eyes are closed, and the water is streaming down his face, to his muscular chest and abs and then down over his… Okay, before I start to feel like a creeper watching this Adonis of a man shower, I tip-toe in and very very slowly open the shower door. I keep my eyes on him, hoping they don’t open. Just when I’m about to reach out to grab his waist and yell out, a smirk crosses his face, and quick as a whip, he grabs me and pulls me against his chest. I scream out anyway.
“Good morning, Angel.” He’s laughing at me.
“I was supposed to surprise you.” I’m drenched, my dark purple satin pajama top and bottoms are wet and sticking to me. I’m not wearing a bra and my shirt forms over my breasts like a second skin. I look up into his gorgeous blue-grey eyes. They really are beautiful, enhanced by his smooth mocha tone. I stick my bottom lip out in a pout, and he leans down to nip it between his teeth.
“Angel baby, I heard you coming through the bedroom door. Did you know you giggle whenever you’re trying to be sneaky?”
Damn, I thought that was under my breath, and he couldn’t hear. “You always hear me coming, don’t you?” I have to learn to be quieter.
“Yeah, but I love it. And Mia? I happen to love hearing you coming.” The suggestive tone in his voice has me blushing.
He loosens his hold around me, and I bring my hands up to his waist and trail them up to his chest. I feel him shiver slightly under my hands, which spurs me forward. With a grin, I look up at him again and slip one hand down his body to grab his fully hard erection. Squeezing and adding pressure to the base before guiding my hand up and down, he lets out a groan, his eyes closing and head falling back against the tiled wall.
“Angel.” Bringing his head back up, he starts undoing the buttons on my shirt, pulling the sides open and running his hands over me. My nipples are already hard as he runs a thumb over them before tugging on them gently. He turns me around in front of him and sits on a built-in tiled bench before pulling my pants and underwear off together over my ass and down my legs. His hands run up my inner thighs as he brings them back up, slipping fingers between my folds and creating friction against my clit.
“Please, Roman.” I’m panting heavily now and feeling very much like the wanton sex nympho I have apparently become since meeting these amazing men. But what do you expect? That two-year itch went deep, and they have been more than accommodating in relieving it for me.
He grabs onto my waist and bites my left cheek, making my sex clench, before pulling me back to straddle over his closed legs that are between mine. “I got you, Angel.” He lowers me down, centering my core over him, and I slowly move the rest of the way down, his cock stretching and filling me.
I hissed in a breath and stay still for a second as my body adjusts to his size. Leaning forward, I place my hands on his knees to help me start bobbing up and down, his hands on my hips, controlling the motion.
“That’s it baby, take all of me.” His words ignite more pleasure to run through my body added to the already building climax he’s bringing between my legs. I clench around him, holding him tight.
“Fuck.”
His legs straightened out in front of him, his feet hitting the other side of the shower, and he pulls me back against his chest. With a hand on my mound, his finger circling my clit, and his other hand on my stomach to keep up our up and down pace, he has me writhing in seconds. My orgasm hits, and I see stars behind my eyes. I whimper out his name as I ride through the waves of pleasure, and he starts thrusting jerkily, hitting his own release, filling me.
I continue to lay back against him as we both catch our breath and slow our heartbeats. “What did I ever do to deserve you guys?” It’s true, I’m still waiting for the metaphorical ball to drop and everything to change again. I’ve never had this before, this feeling of both being wanted and needed at the same time. Finally, feeling like I’m enough. Things never go this good for me, and I hope I can survive the downfall. They wouldn’t just break me... they’d obliterate me.
“I think you have that the other way around Angel. What did we ever do to deserve you?” He kisses my neck, and I feel glued against him if I could only stay in their arms forever.
∞∞∞
I finished showering with him, and then he went to get me some of his dry clothes while I braided my hair in pigtails using some hair bands of his from when he needs to keep his curls back. He brought me back a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie sweatshirt, Nope, he’s not getting this hoodie back. It was black and looked newly made with their Briggs Construction logo across the front.
When I got downstairs, I find Emma eating cereal and watching morning cartoons. ”Good morning, Emma.”
She turns to looks at me, her spoon enclosed in her tiny fist, and gives me a smile. “Morning, Mia. Want to watch cartoons with me?”
“I wish I could, but I need to get home so I can get my own breakfast.”
“This cereal is really good, it has marshmallows!”
I can’t help the smile I give her in return to her excitement, she’s just the cutest. “I love Lucky Charms, but I need to visit with my mom before she goes home today. Would you like me to fix your hair before I go?” She’s wearing a pair of pink sweats with a unicorn on them, and her hair is pulled back into a sloppy lopsided ponytail.
“Yeah, Dad’s not the best at hair.”
“Hey! I didn’t think I did that bad today.” Jayson walks out of his room and brings me a brush, having come prepared. “Good morning, Sweetheart.” He gi
ves me a kiss on the forehead before releasing the brush to my hands.
“Good morning, sexy.” Sexy as hell! His hair is wet too, having apparently just gotten out of his own share, and he is wearing dark jeans and a grey henley that hugs across his chest, the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. Damn my weird forearm obsession, he’s getting me excited.
“Oooh!” Emma looks over at us with wide eyes and rubs her two forefingers over another. “Shame, shame, I know your names! Those aren’t them!”
I sit down behind her and take out her ponytail as Jayson goes into the kitchen and grabs a glass of orange juice. Braiding her long bangs to one side, I then pull it back into a smooth ponytail. “There you go, pretty girl.” I stand up and grab my blanket that someone folded up and placed over the back of the couch. “I really have to go now, I’ll see you later though okay?”
“Okay!” she continues on with her cereal and cartoons as I head to the door.
“Here, I’ll walk you over.” Sigh. Jayson, my knight in shining armor with some amazing forearm porn. He comes up to me, wrapping me in a hug and kisses me fully on the lips. “Mia and Daddy sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G.” Oops, I didn’t think she had looked back over at us. Both of us laugh as we head to the door, and Jayson opens it.
“Holy shit! I mean crap.” Sometime during the night, it snowed, and a glistening white is covering everything outside. The cold air that rushed over me instantly had me shivering, and I unfold my blanket to wrap around me.
“Yeah, it doesn’t really snow this soon in the year, normally not until a week or so into December, but they said we were in for some crazy weather.”
“I love the snow.” Living in Southern Arizona, we didn’t get to see snow very often, always having to drive a few hours north in the winter to take a day to go play in it. I look around in amazement, it looks so beautiful. The earth is covered in glitter, the little sun peeking through the clouds shining against the white surface and making it sparkle. “It’s so beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful.” My cheeks pink and warm in the chill, and I bump my hip into him, knocking him aside. He pulls me into his side and walks me across my lawn to my front door. “Let’s all go play in the snow today, we have sleds in the garage, it’ll be fun.”
Like a kid in a candy store, I start bouncing on my feet excitedly. “Yes! Miklo and I love playing in the snow, he’s going to be so excited!” I wrap my arms around his neck in an embrace him lifting me slightly as his arms go around my middle.
“Alright, you go spend some time with your mom, and when you get back from the airport, we’ll all be ready to go.”
*****
My mom’s visit was way too short, I didn’t want to see her get back on that plane. Even Miklo was getting a bit teary till she reminded us that she would see us soon after Christmas but before the new year. I sort of wish the boys could see where I used to live, but the turnaround time for traveling would probably be too much.
This time Cade had gone with us this time having shown up looking all frantic just before we were about to leave. He held my hand through the whole airport and kinda turned into a bit of a grump ass, the scowl I hadn’t seen in a while on his stern face.
Now we are all piled into Jayson’s truck headed to play in the snow. I’m scrunched in the back between Emma and Cade, him once again holding my hand and not letting me go. Miklo is next to Emma, and they are playing an I Spy game out the window. We also picked up Andie, who is probably feeling a little intimidated between Roman and Jesse in the front with Jayson.
Cade’s looking out the window watching the scenery go by, and every once in awhile, I feel his hand tighten around mine. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
He doesn’t look at me at first. “I woke up, and you were gone.” Fuck! I didn’t even think about it when I left his room this morning. He had been sleeping so peacefully I didn’t want to wake him up. But when he finally does look at me a sadness in his eyes, I can’t believe I could have forgotten the reason he hates to sleep alone in the first place. Afraid of who would be gone when he woke.
I can understand him having PTSD of the heart, and I feel guilty as hell for making him go through it. Leaning my head on his shoulder, I snuggle closer. “I am so sorry, Cade. I didn’t even think.”
“Please don’t ever go.” He murmured quietly against my temple.
“Hey, I’m not going anywhere. I’m right here.” My heart hurts, it physically hurts as if someone has reached in and started squeezing it in their fists. I don’t know how to handle all the emotions running through me. Does he really care that much for me? He does tell me he loves me, whispers it in my ears where no one else can hear. A moment just for us.
I’m saved from crying right then and there when Jayson pulls the truck to a stop, and everyone else starts to get out. Looking around, I recognize the clearing as the one we parked in before when we hiked for our picnic date, only we are facing the other direction this time. The small field covered in untouched snow and the mountain on the other side of the clearing is at a shallower angle and has a less thick forest of trees. Perfect for a fun day of snow play.
When Cade helps me down, I tug him along after me and head straight for Miklo and grab his hand with my free one. “You ready?”
Smiling down at me, he grabs Andie’s hand next to him. “Ready.”
“What are we doing?” Cade and Andie happen to say at the same time, and at the same second, Miklo and I throw ourselves back to land in the snow and pull them down after us.
“It’s a tradition. We’ve always made snow angels first thing whenever we got to see snow.” We start bringing our arms up and down in the snow and sliding our legs open and closed to make snow angels beneath us. They follow along as Emma plops down next to Cade to make her own. When we all stand up, there are five perfect angels in the powdery snow. Roman leans down and draws a halo over mine, giving me a sexy wink.
After that, a huge snowball fight erupted. We split up in teams, Jayson, Emma, and Cade with me, and Miklo and Andie on a team with Jesse and Roman. Building snow barricades, the game goes on forever. Jayson and Roman played baseball in High School and are pelting them back and forth with precision. Our team did finally win though, we played dirty and sent Emma over to distract her favorite Uncle Ro, while we bombarded in on the rest. Sledding came after that, and I made sure to take as many pictures as I could of everyone with my phone. My favorites being one of Jayson and Emma coming down the mountain together and one of all of us selfie-style but all fitting in the frame. I even got a really cute one of Miklo and Andie on a sled and texted it to her right away. I want to start taking pictures of everything from here on out. Document everything and put it all together in a scrapbook. The start of a new life, a new chapter to my story.
By the time we all packed up into the truck, I was completely soaked through. What’s with this place and me always leaving soaked? Ha! I didn’t have any proper snow clothes, yet so I had just grabbed a pair of thermals to wear under Romans sweats, and they were no match for the hours playing in the snow. We got home, and I didn’t even want to eat dinner, choosing to go take a warm shower instead. My whole body was starting to ache, and my throat was getting raspy. Cade showered with me, helping me into my onesie pajamas I like to wear when I’m sick. Because yep, I was starting to feel sick. After taking some Tylenol, he got for me after saying I felt warm, I snuggled into him and fell asleep.
It didn’t surprise me because, with the stress of the holiday and the indoor season, people were bound to be more germy. Plus, I’d been at the airport. Hub of all germs. Ever.
I wake up in the morning, and my head is throbbing, my body still aches, and I can barely talk. My voice had come out in rasps and squeaks when I said goodbye to Cade earlier when he left for the shop to work for a few hours. Why he wanted to go to work on a Saturday was beyond me. I was sleeping peacefully when a knock at the front door woke me up. Who’s here that knocks?
I get up with a groan and make my
way to the front door. I really didn’t want to leave my bed. Looking out the peephole, I see Jesse outside wrapped in the comforter from his bed. Opening the door for him, he quickly scoots past me to get inside. Brr, I quickly shut the door the air that burst in when I opened had my teeth clacking together. “Why didn’t you use your key?”
“Cade took them all. Said you were sick and to let you get some rest.”
So protective. “And you decided to come over anyway?”
“I’m sick, too, so we can be sick together.” I put the back of my hand to his forehead, and he does the same to mine, and we both laugh. Yeah, two sick people both with fevers, we’re not going to be able to tell if the other had one. He coughs into his fist and whimpers, sounding so childlike it’s adorable. I can already tell he’s going to be a big baby. Why are guys always on the cusp of death whenever they're sick? Why was it so freakin’ cute?
“Awe, does your man-gina hurt?”
“Why yes, yes it does.” His grin would melt my panties if I didn’t already feel so crappy. “Come here Beautiful, you sound terrible.”
“Gee, thanks.” I squeak out as he opens his blanket and wraps it around me in a hug. I melt against him, drawing in his warmth. “Come on, let’s go lay down, I can’t even hold myself up anymore.” Grabbing his hand, I lead him into the bedroom and make us both take some Nyquil before laying down.
Jesse puts on a random movie, and we snuggle in together. I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open, and he keeps looking at me like he wants to say something. “Cade told us about the pictures and texts. You aren’t going to go back to that guy, are you? You're happy here, right?”
I forgot that Jesse had abandonment issues, too, because of his nonexistent father. My heart reached out to him, and I ran a hand down his slightly clammy face. “I’m not going anywhere, Jesse. I love where I am.”