Eight Days a Week (26 page)

She broke the kiss and sat back to look at me, a blush on her cheeks and neck. I lifted my hands to her hair, wrapped my fingers in the strands, and pulled her face to mine again, kissing her deeper, tasting her and wanting more with each pass of her tongue across mine.
 

“Andrew,” she sighed against my lips.
 

“Don’t say it’s over.” If she said it I would lose my mind. “I’m telling the truth.”

“Thank you,” she murmured before kissing me again, breathing hard against my mouth. “Thank you, thank you, thank you . . . for this. Tonight. Everything.”

I shifted away to press my forehead to hers, then took a shaky breath and stared into her eyes. There was an explosion of applause and catcalls from the kitchen as we pulled apart.

Xander placed his hands over his mouth like a megaphone. “Get a room!”

Gwen cradled her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking as I pulled her up from the chair.
 

“What do you think? Should we get a room?” I asked.

She nodded and straightened her shoulders. “I can think of somewhere we can go.”

We walked out into the balmy night air and she laid a palm against my chest. “My car is here.” Her hands were shaking as she lifted the keys, so I took them and drove us back to the house, one hand on the wheel and the other on her the entire way.
 

When we exited the car, I kissed the hell out of her, loving every curve of her lips and the feel of her tongue while it worked against mine in circles. I couldn’t stop touching, running my fingers across the zipper on the back of her dress and through the curls in her hair. Every inch of me needed to touch her.

I pressed my hands against her back just enough to keep our bodies connected. I was throbbing against her, my hips shifting into her of their own accord. I wanted her. Tonight. I wanted to be hers and to make her mine.

I scooped her up and carried her into the house and up the stairs. My lips were relentless against her neck and jaw, working their way over each and every sweet inch of skin they could find.
 

“What time are the kids supposed to be home?” She pulled on the front of my shirt to shove her hands under it and slide them along my skin.

I kissed my way up the side of her neck. “I told you. They’re spending the night with your mom.”

I set her feet on the ground, and she swiped her hand down the front of my belt and over the zipper of my pants. “Then what are we waiting for?”

We raced up the stairs. I caught her hand at the landing to spin her and shove her against the wall. My hands were up her skirt and clawing at her panties, my fingers sliding under the elastic and kneading her ass cheeks. I ground myself into her, and she moaned into my mouth while my fingers dug against her skin.

“I want to be inside you,” I said, rolling my hips and lifting her thigh to anchor my hard-on against her. She pushed back against me and led us to her room, where I wasted no time unzipping her dress and pushing it down over her hips until it hit the floor. I walked her backward until her ass hit the vanity, and I lifted her onto it and stepped between her thighs.

I dropped my forehead to hers, which gave me a better view of her bra, and ran my finger across the tops of her breasts, teasing and feeling smug when she moaned. Then I palmed her right breast, unable to resist the skin-to-skin contact. She rolled her head back against the mirror, her eyes closed.

“More,” she whispered, and I tugged on her nipple through the fabric.

My resolve crumbled, and my need was overriding my senses. She knew as well as I did that no one else would be enough for her. No one would ever know her like I did, inside and out. No one would know what made her cry, or laugh, or come. And no one would know the depth of the love she had for those children.

I knew all of those things.

I kissed a soft line between her breasts and lower until I was kneeling in front of her and trailing circles around her belly button with my tongue. Raining kisses on her skin, I parted her legs and then ran my nose up and down the inside of her thigh.
 

With the slightest pressure, I nipped her through her panties with my teeth and listened to her soft cries. As I hooked a thumb into each side of the lace and tugged, I looked up into her lust-hazed eyes.

“Wait.”

I dropped her underwear to the floor and stood to face her. She stood naked before me, trembling. She reached for my hands and averted her eyes to our intertwined fingers against her skin.
 

“Tell me one more time that you’re here because you want to be.”
 

I walked her to the bed and pulled her into my lap. She straddled my hips as I held her face inches away from mine.
 

“This is more than right. I don’t regret being here. With you. With the kids.”
 

Her eyes widened and welled with tears. “Go on.”

I swept her hair from her face and sighed. “When you leave, I feel like something is missing.”

She looked away and pressed her lips together to keep from crying.

“This is what I want. I’ll prove it forever if you’ll just let me.” I skimmed my nose across her cheek and willed the words to the surface. “I need all of you.”

“You do?” It wasn’t quite a question but more of a whisper.

“I do. Because I am . . . so . . . in love with you.”

Her face crumpled, and she whimpered while her eyes searched mine for truth.

“I want what’s best for everyone. I swear it. I put my inheritance into a college fund account for Bree and Brady, and I did it before Rae opened her stupid mouth and told you about all that. That was the night I’d wanted to tell you I was in love with you. I should have told you sooner, about everything.”
 

With steady fingers, she unbuttoned my shirt and removed it along with my pants. Then she crawled back onto my lap and ran the tip of my cock against her slick heat. She held still above me before lowering herself. Her chest rose and fell as she settled, and the moment I was buried deep inside her, she brought her lips to mine.

“I love you.”

I gasped for air when her body enveloped me.

Lifting against her, I dug my fingertips into her spine. She lowered her hips, and we moaned in unison at the sensation. She swiveled her pelvis, and I clamped my eyes shut. “Where have you been all my life?”

She rested her arms across my shoulders and around my neck, anchoring her body against mine. She let her head roll back and whimpered as she moved upward again. “I guess I was waiting for you to find me. I’m sorry I’ve been so scared.”

I shook my head and thrust against her. “No more sorry. I’m not sorry.” I pulled her lips to mine and kissed her, feeling more connected than I’d ever felt before. She was everywhere, every inch of her was touching me, and every breath she took was rocking against my chest. Every heartbeat echoed in my ears.

She lifted again before pressing herself down, clenching around me while she looked in my eyes. Each shift and thrust was marked with the words we’d been so scared to say and could no longer bring ourselves to stop.

“I’ll make you so happy,” I said, rocking into her with more force.

“You do.”
 

She gripped the hair at the base of my neck, and I tilted her forward to angle into her, needing to fill her and experience every inch. I shuddered against her, the raw honesty of the words hitting home as I sank into her again.
 

“I need you. I want you.”

She writhed against me, struggling for air while her thighs tightened and clenched. “You have me. I’m yours.”

I knew what made her come, so I concentrated on getting her there until release rolled over us both, her body tensing and shaking while she hissed out a low breath. I studied her skin, the porcelain goose bumps and light-pink nipples that puckered as she came. Her flushed neck and pink-tinged cheeks. Her swollen lips and long red hair hanging across her face. I held her to me and stilled, finishing inside her, pressing my face to her chest to listen to the beating of her heart.

That heart was mine, and I would do everything to keep it that way.

And for the first time in my life, Don and my inner kid gave me the privacy to bask in the perfection of my last few moments with Gwen before we retired downstairs to finish celebrating her birthday. With cake.

Chapter 29

Two of Us

“I wike big bus an a canna nie! You unna bunnas cannenie!” Brady paused his version of “Baby Got Back,” trying to remember what came next while shaking his butt around and pumping his arms in the air.

It was not how I’d envisioned waking up.

“Li’l man, who taught you that song?” I sat up in my bed, ran my fingers through my hair, and yawned.

“Keegan did. He’s my vewwy best fwend again!” he yelled and giggled. “Big bus!” he shouted, smacking his butt before singing the same two lines again.

“Brady! Leave Dee alone—it’s his day off.” Gwen rounded the door to my room. Her eyes raked over my face and hair, and she pursed her lips to keep from laughing. I’d been in my own bed for only an hour, and she knew it.

We were going to tell the kids about us. I’d asked to do it because I wanted to get their initial reactions so Gwen wouldn’t be hurt if they were negative.

Though I doubted they would be.

Brady jumped onto my bed, just missing my junk, much to Don’s relief. I caught him around the middle and wrestled him, pinning him down with very little force and tickling him while he squealed and thrashed.

Bree threw herself into the mix, and when Gwen attempted to pull the kids from the bed, she ended up in the middle of the fray. Then all four of us were tickling and rolling around, giggling like a real little family.

Gwen’s eyes danced as she wriggled away from the three of us and sat up to catch her breath.
 

“Okay.” I sat up and took a deep breath. “Brady needs to go get ready for our big day out.”
 

He beamed at me, but Bree crossed her arms, sulking.
 

“Why don’t I get to come?”

“Because we’re going to the woods to catch bugs,” I said, curling my fingers in what I hoped was a menacing, Vincent Price-y, yucky-bug gesture.

“Gross.” She scrunched her nose.

“You and I can go get ice cream this afternoon. Does that sound okay?”
 

“Okay.”

Gwen gave me an appreciative smile and ordered the kids upstairs to get ready for breakfast. They complied, and she watched them from the doorway, making sure they’d made it upstairs before she turned back around and jumped on the bed to straddle my hips. Her mouth was on mine and her hands were clutching at my hair while she kissed me and moaned against my lips.

“Good morning to you, too,” I said, pulling back to brush her hair away from her neck so I could kiss it.

“Mmm. Have fun today.”

“I will,” I breathed under her ear.

She made a sad groaning sound and slid off my lap to sit back on her haunches. Resting her hand against my obvious ship mast under the blanket, she sighed. “Give Don some rest. He’s got to be exhausted.”

I laughed. Like Don could ever get tired of plundering and pillaging like a pirate.

Brady and I arrived at the nature trail just before noon. He helped me carry the basket of food and a blanket. He led the way on the trail, talking the entire time about school and his new friend Keegan.
 

“And then what did he do?” I asked with a grin as I settled onto a large flat rock next to the creek. We spread out the blanket and pulled out the sandwiches and crackers I’d packed.

Brady waved his hands around in circles. “Den he gwabs it and frows it way faw ’way. Like . . . to de moon!” His little voice grew so loud that birds scattered from the trees above our heads. He looked up and watched them fly off in a
V
formation to a quieter place. “Wow. Dee, did you see dat?”

I smiled and patted the blanket next to me. He sat but kept his face turned toward the sky, his blond hair bobbing with his movements. His light eyes took in everything around us, soaking it up like a sponge. Which he kind of was.

“Hey, Brady.”

“Huh?”

Placing a piece of apple and a container of peanut butter in front of him, I cleared my throat. “You love Gwen, right?”

He made a funny face and took a bite of his sandwich. “I wuv Auntie G.” The words were smothered in peanut butter, but I heard them.

“Can you keep a secret?” I asked, leaning forward with a conspirator’s whisper.

God love that kid, he shook his head.
 

I laughed. “That’s okay. Well, I love Gwen, too.”

“I know.”

I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean?”

He took a sip from his juice box and sighed dramatically. “I seen you kiss hew. Like umuumumumumuu.” He made a kissy face and squinted his eyes shut.

“Did not.” I snorted, rolled my eyes, and took a bite of my sandwich.