“I’ll get your purses from the back” Remi quips and I can’t even muster enough umbrage to do anything but grin my thanks.
They’re almost seven, and normally don’t countenance being carried, but they cling to me, talking in that uncanny rhythm they have where they complete each other’s sentences as I make my way to the door.
“Okay, you two, let him breathe,” Eva says as she walks out of the front door with Bianca trailing behind her. The twins buck authority every chance they get, but their big sister’s word is law and they scramble down.
“Hello Empress Eva,” I open my arms and she walks into them.
“Hey Dadd-yo,” she wraps her arms around my shoulders and hugs me long and hard. “I’m so glad you’re back. Mom is so miserable when you’re gone.”
“She is?” I ask, pulling away so I can look into her eyes.
She rolls them at me. “Duh. She’s got it so bad.”
“I do, too,” I admit.
She grins and pats my cheek in sympathy. “I know.”
I look past her at the empty doorway. “If she’s got it so bad, where is she?”
“She went to the bathroom right before you pulled up.” Bianca steps out into the foyer from the study, and I’m struck by how much she looks like Kal. “Hey kiddo,” I wrap an arm around her for a quick hug before she makes a beeline for Remi.
My eyes, hands and mouth are all itching for a taste of my woman. With all three kids unlatched and preoccupied with searching my luggage for what I brought them, I cross the threshold into the house and go in search of her.
I’m halfway down the hall when she steps out of the powder room. Her dark eyes are wide as she takes an inventory of me. And I allow myself the luxury of the same. Dressed in pair of tiny grey shorts and my old ratty Columbia t-shirt, with her hair spilling from the huge bun she tried to gather it in, she’s never looked more beautiful. And for the millionth time I marvel that I managed to persuade this goddess to be my wife.
“You’re home,” she sighs and opens her arms wide. I walk into them, savoring the way her body curves perfectly into mine.
I nestle my face into her neck and inhale the sweet, familiar scent of her. I let it revive the parts of me that don’t know how to breathe when she’s not near. “Now, I’m home.”
She wraps her arms tighter around me and strokes her hands up and down my back. “How did live without this for a whole ten days?”
I press kisses to her neck and shoulder. “Don’t ask me. I’m wondering the very same thing.”
“Nobody wants to see all that,” Remi grumbles behind us.
I let her go and turn to him. “Take your ass home and you won’t have to.”
“Stone,” she gives me a reproachful look and goes to hug her brother. “I’m sorry about Kal’s flight.”
He smiles but, he’s tense. “It’s all good. Can Bianca stay another night?”
Regan and I exchange a quick glance. The text I sent her said Bianca had to go home with Remi tonight. If she’s there, he’ll have to wait for Kal to call.
“Oh my God, can I?” Bianca cries as she and Eva come bounding down the hall.
“Please, can she?” Eva chimes in.
Regan looks helplessly between them and then back at me.
“Well, Reggie?” Remi presses.
“Sure, she can stay.”
Bianca squeals like Beyonce just walked into the room and hugs him. And then she and an equally giddy Eva disappear up the stairs with the boys hot on their heels. I squeeze Regan’s waist and give her a wide-eyed look that says, “What now?”.
She pats my side reassuringly and turns back to Remi. “Actually, I was going to ask… if you’d take Phoenix tonight.”
He frowns. “Uh, why?”
“Because, I’m exhausted. I had a crazy day, and Stone’s back. He only needs a quick bath and I have all his meals ready; it’ll be easy. Please. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t really need your help.” She presses her hands together as if in prayer.
I feel a prick of guilt at how miserable he looks as his resistance crumbles. But take comfort in the knowledge that I just saved him from making a colossal mistake.
He and Regan walk out to the car and I marvel at how quickly he folded. And then, I laugh at myself because I shouldn’t be surprised in the least. I know exactly what it is to be under the thrall Regan Wilde.
I’m showered, changed, and sprawled out on my couch with my eyes closed cataloguing my contentment.
The kids are tucked safely in their beds. My wife is humming while she works on the couch next to me. And I’m in the one place I don’t need to ask permission or apologize for anything.
"A penny for your thoughts?” She asks suddenly.
I open one eye and grin at her. “Oh, but they’re worth so much more.”
“I love how humble you never are.” Her chuckle is broken by a huge yawn and she closes her laptop. She arches her neck, raises her arms over head, and stretches her legs out in front of her and wiggling her toes in a full body release of tension.
“Honestly, I was half asleep. How’s it looking?” I ask, nodding at the laptop she just placed on the coffee table in front of us.
“Not as bad as I’d expected given what a terrible year oil had.”
I grab one her foot and work my fingers into the soft sole.
“That feels so good.” She closes her eyes and lets her head loll back on the back of the sofa.
“So, everything’s funded?” I run my knuckle over her arch, and she groans in pleasure and nods.
“Thanks to Houston’s booming healthcare industry. Or we’d be hard pressed on a few of them. The Children’s Museum donated everything for the toy drive.”
“Isn’t that tomorrow night?”
“Yup.”
I lift questioning brows at her. “Shouldn’t you be there?"
She shakes her head. “It’s Matty’s event. I’ve handed it over to her completely. And she’s got it.”
I blink in surprise and drop the foot I was rubbing. “You did what?”
“Why’d you stop?” she complains.
“Regan, what happened?”
She lifts one delicate shoulder and smiles. “I let it go.”
I eye her skeptically, disbelieving of what I’m hearing. “You said that program was your baby.”
She sighs and sits up. “I was wrong. You are my baby. They -- " she nods in the direction of the stairs, "Are my babies. The toy drive is a project. So, I gave it over to Matty, and she’s so much better all of this than I am.”
I let out a low whistle. “Wow. I’m proud of you. Dare I ask what other life altering decisions you made while I was gone?” I ask wariness mingling with pride when her smile grows even wider.
“I'm resigning as director of Venus Rising altogether. Matty is going to apply and I’m going to submit my letter of recommendation to the board.”
I sit up all the way now, too. "Woah, I was just kidding.”
“Well, I’m not.” She shrugs again.
“Okay… Who are you and what did you do with my wife?”
She leans forward and takes my hands in hers. "I’m right here, Stone. But, I realized that when you are here, I hardly see you. And, I didn’t want to run out of here on your first night home. And this week, because I had time, I actually got to go to one of Eva’s rehearsals. Oh, Stone, she’s really good.” Her smile is full of pride.
I nod in agreement. “I know.”
“See! I didn’t know. It’s the most important thing in her life and I didn’t know.” She shakes our joined hands. “That gutted me. I want to help make costumes, run lines, do her make up. Not just show up and clap. So, I’ll stay on the board, fundraise for them, but I have my podcast and running Venus Rising isn’t what I want to do every day. I finally have a choice in how I live my life. And so, I’m making it.”
I feel like I have whiplash, but she sounds more sure than I’ve heard her in a while.
“Aunt Regan?�
�
We turn simultaneously at the sound of Bianca’s tentative voice in the doorway. She clasps her hands together and looks at us sheepishly “I’m sorry to bother you.”
“Then, go back to bed.” I deadpan.
Regan nudges my thigh with her foot and straightens fully. “You’re not bothering us, come on over.” She pats the couch and moves over to make room for her.
She smiles nervously and joins us. Regan puts a hand on her shoulder and squeezes. “What’s up, buttercup?”
“I…I wanted to ask about tomorrow. Is Nana Tina going to be okay?”
Regan and I exchange a quick smile of surprise. Given the barely civil nature of Kal and Tina’s relationship, it’s been an irony not lost on anyone that Bianca and her step-grandmother are so close.
"Oh goody, I got here in time for the good part," Eva strolls into the living room and without waiting for an invitation squeezes herself in the space between me and Bianca.
Regan looks between the two of them. “Why are you two even awake?”
"We were talking about it and we disagreed. So, I told her to come ask you,” Eva responds.
Bianca nudges her. “You weren’t supposed to come with me.”
“I’m nosy. You know this.” Eva shrugs.
Regan shakes her head, but the twinkle in her eyes belies her disapproving frown.
“You guys shouldn’t worry about your grandmother.”
“I can’t help it. I know they’re like family and everything, but why do they have to rub it in her face like that?”
Regan smiles patiently. “He hasn’t been her husband for more than thirty years, honey.”
“But she’s still single.”
“Because she wants to be,” Regan says with a reassuring smile.
Bianca frowns. “Fine, but I wish she had someone with her so people won’t think she’s still into him.”
“Oh, no one thinks that. At least no one who knows her.” Regan runs a hand over her back. “She wants all of us, especially you kids, to have a relationship with him.”
“I like Grandpa Lucas,” Eva chimes in. “No. I love him actually. If he hadn’t been missing all those years, I know he would have been a good dad to you. He's wise, and funny and encouraging."
Regan smiles. "We can't write a different past--"
"But we can decide what's coming next and make it so, " Eva finishes for her.
Regan laughs “Well since I’m so predictable, and it’s so late, why don’t you two get yourselves back up to bed.” She stands. “I need to shower and hit the sack. I have to be at the Rivers’ at the crack of dawn to help Confidence.”
I follow her lead. “And I need to finish unpacking.”
The four of us walk upstairs and when we get to the second floor, the girls head to their room and Regan and I start the climb up to our bedroom on the top floor.
"Hey guys?” Eva calls up and I lean over the railing to.
“Yeah?”
“Can you shut your door all the way the time so I don't have to explain to my brothers that you’re not really dying?”
I glare at her but heat blooms on my cheeks. These are the hazards of parenting and I fully accept them. I chase my wife up the stairs, narrowly missing her ankle and then finally snagging her by the waist. “I’ve been dreaming of this since the minute I said goodbye to you ten days ago,” I confess as I lift her up.
Her legs wrap around my hips and she curls a hand around my neck to tug my head closer to hers. “Then please, for the love of God, put me out of my misery.”
I carry her into the bedroom and make sure to close the door firmly behind me before I kiss her.
I start gently, intent on making this last, but then she moans, and my tongue slips into her warm heat of her mouth and she tastes so damn good and it’s been too damn long.
I walk her over to the bed and put her down so I can step out of my shorts.
She pulls her shirt over her head and kicks her shorts off. She’s wearing a nude bra and black panties and seeing her like that puts me into a near frenzy.
I press her back until she’s flat against the mattress and drop my head to her breast and suck her nipple through the lace. She moans, her hips undulate against mine. I slide a hand between us and tug the scrap of lace aside and slip a finger into her hot, grasping pussy.
She grabs my ass and pulls me toward her. “Yes. I need you now. Please.”
I pull my fingers out and suck them into my mouth. I tug her panties down and she pushes them off the rest of the way with her feet and I settle myself between her luscious thighs.
I fist my aching cock, glide it through the soft wet lips of her pussy and then guide it home. My breath leaves my lungs in a long hiss she closes around me, so tight and hot and perfect. I cup the back of her thigh and push, one inch at a time, until I’m fully seated inside of her.
I roll my hips and she groans. “Move, Stone.”
“If I move, I’ll come, and I want this to last.”
She rocks her hips up and clenches even tighter around me.
“Regan. Fuck. Wait.” I grab her hands from around my neck and hold them over her head.
I lift up and grab her hip with my other hand and pull out of her slowly. Her eyes flutter closed, her mouth falls open on a silent moan and she tosses her head back into the pillow.
“You’re so beautiful.”
Her eyes open and she nods. “So are you. And I’ve missed you almost more than I could bear. I can’t breathe when you’re not here. I love you so much.”
Her words are like a knife slicing through the thread binding my self-control.
“And I love you even more than that,” I groan and then I press my face into her neck and make her mine forever, all over again.
Chapter 6
Kal
The Way You Love Me
I used to think domestic bliss was for other people. But here I am, married to the man who was the very first person to love me without limits. After all these years, even as everything else changed, even when it felt impossible, it's the one thing that’s remained the same. There’s not a day that I don’t think that I'm the luckiest person I know.
I walk over to the bed and gaze down at Remi and little Phoenix. The baby’s back is pressed to his ribs, his head resting on the Remi’s curled bicep.
I put my hand on my stomach and my heart expands when I imagine our baby stretched out on his broad chest, her cheek to his heart, his shirt clutched in her tiny fist.
I decided to drive home as soon as my flight was cancelled but it was only when we were talking while I stood in line at the car rental counter that I decided to surprise him.
I drove as fast as I dared. I only obeyed the speed limit when I crossed the same stretch of highway Sandra Bland did, and only stopping when my bladder demanded it of me. I hated driving by myself, but I did it because all I could think was that this is what he'd do for me. His love for me is limitless and I want to show him mine is, too.
Remi's dark lashes flutter open though I haven't made a sound. When he sees me, a soft smile spreads on his lips. Then my presence registers. He blinks and shoots up to sitting. "Am I dreaming?"
I stifle a giggle while simultaneously tears fill my eyes. "Oh baby, no. I'm here."
"How?"
"I drove."
"You drove? All the way from Atlanta?"
“Yes,” I smile and lean down to kiss him, but he puts a hand up to my shoulder to stop me.
“Let me put him in his crib first,” he whispers. I nod and try not to worry. But, Remi has never ever shied away from a kiss or a hug from me.
He scoops Phoenix into his big arms, and I stand back to give him room to slide off the bed. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be waiting,” I call after his retreating back and my heart swells at how tenderly he’s cradling Phoenix.
I sit on the edge of the bed and tug the zipper on my knee length boots, both at the same time but suddenly exhausted from my
drive and dizzy from the butterflies in my stomach, I lay down instead.
The surprise was almost ruined. He was in a lather when I called him back. He’d already called the hotel and knew I checked out. So, I lied and told him I’d checked in somewhere closer and had fallen asleep. That was three hours into my eleven-hour drive.
He’d been short and told me to call him when I woke up. I knew he was annoyed but thought that would disappear as soon as he saw me. But clearly, I misjudged this.
And it makes me wonder, for the first time, if maybe I’ve also misjudged what he was feeling that day in the kitchen. I hope not. Because since I realized he wanted us to start trying for a baby, it’s all I’ve wanted, too.
I stopped taking my birth control and decided to let nature take its course. I’m thirty-six and I had no idea how long it would take, but yesterday morning, I got confirmation that it didn’t take long at all. And when I got the news, a decision I’d been grappling with, was made for me.
I sit up when I hear his approaching foot falls. He strides in, eyes on my feet. “Let me help you with those.” He kneels and starts tugging at my boots.
“Thank you.” I run a hand through his close-cropped curls.
“Mmhmm.” He pulls the second boot off but doesn’t move from his crouched position.
“Remi, are you okay?” I ask when he doesn’t say anything.
He looks up at me and his eyes are bloodshot and narrowed in annoyance.
“What’s wrong?”
“I spent all day wondering where the hell was going on. You said you were at a hotel, but I knew you weren’t.”
I grimace, apologetically. “I’m sorry. I was trying to surprise you.”
“I wish you hadn’t.”
I flinch at his words and his stony expression. “You’re not… happy that I’m home?” the words come out in a croak.
He sighs and puts a hand on each of my thighs. “Of course I am. But…why did you something so reckless and drive all that way by yourself when you could have caught a flight in the morning?”
I slide off the bed and kneel in front of him and take his hands in mine. “There are a million reasons why I shouldn’t have. But I only needed one to overrule them all. I was desperate to get back to you.”
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