The Apartment: The Complete Affair (66 page)

“Mason, would you stop fussing, please?” Ethan scolded. “We told Grandma that we would have you there by now. Don’t you want to go play?”

“Is Edie there?” he asked hopefully, always enjoying when his older cousin Eden came to stay.

“No, sweetie,” Ethan frowned. “I told you earlier; Edie is with Uncle Eric and Aunt Maggie on her book tour. They won’t be visiting until next month.”

“Then I don’t wanna go!” he yelled, kicking his newly donned sock off his toes before Ethan could pull it over his foot. Lily grabbed it and handed it back to Ethan, asking with her eyes if he needed help. He shook his head quickly before turning his attention back to Mason.

“What are you talking about? You love Grandma Barbara. She’s been looking forward to this all week.”

“I wanna go fishing with Bampa George!” Mason cried, gearing up for a Grade-A hissy fit.

Ethan took a deep breath and sighed, deciding that it would be pointless to remind his son that he had whined and cried out of sheer boredom the only time George had taken him out fishing. Mason had recently decided that no matter what he was supposed to be doing, it was nowhere near as fun as anything else he could think of.

“Bampa George is hunting with friends today,” Lily chimed in over her shoulder as she finished brushing out her hair in the mirror. “We’re gonna see him on Sunday.”

“No,
now
!” he whined, kicking his leg again and nearly hitting Ethan in the jaw as he pulled the tiny jeans into place.

Lily paused for a moment, as if she was considering it. “Well, I can call him if you want…but Grandma might be sad. She’ll have to throw
all
those cookies away.”

“Cookies?” His tiny voice was suddenly very serious.

“Yeah. She said you are such a good helper in the kitchen, she couldn’t wait to make tons and tons of cookies today. But now they’ll have to go in the garbage because she won’t have her helper.”

“I help?” His wide eyes looked back and forth between his parents.

“Of course, silly!” Ethan laughed, leaning over to blow a raspberry on Mason’s stomach. “You help her
eat
them.”

After letting out a loud peal of giggles, Mason sat up and looked at him. He nodded his head once decisively before declaring, “You’re right, Daddy. Gramma needs me.”

“She certainly does. I’m proud of you for making the right decision, son.” It took every ounce of strength Ethan had to keep from laughing at his somber expression.

“Alright, you two,” Lily called out, grabbing a duffel bag full of Mason’s clothes and toys that was sitting in the bedside chair. “Let’s get a move on.”

Ethan jumped up and reached for the bag. “Let me carry that, baby.”

“No, don’t be silly; this is nothing. If you wanna grab something, grab him.” She pointed at their son, who was trying to do somersaults on the mattress, causing his thick brown hair to stand up in tufts all over his head.

“C’mon, mister, you heard the lady.” Ethan grabbed Mason around the middle, lifting him up sideways and carrying him like a football down the hall, Lily following closely behind them.

When they had made their noisy way to the car, Mason watched his mother from his car seat as she awkwardly tried to fasten her seatbelt. “Mommy, why does your tummy look like a basketball?”

“Because there’s a little baby sleeping in there, remember?” She looked back between the seats and smiled at him.

His face brightened with recognition. “Oh yeah! Daddy said he put it in there.”

“Oh he
did
, did he?” She shot a sideways glance at Ethan, who simply shrugged before returning his attention to the road.

“Yeah, he said that he made a teeny tiny baby seed, and he needed to plant it somewhere for it to grow bigger, so he buried it in your tummy.”

“Well, that’s…disturbingly accurate,” Lily smiled uncomfortably.

“When will it wake up?”

“A little over a month from now.”

“On my
birthday
?” Mason’s eyes got wide and he sat up excitedly. He had become obsessed with the thought of his birthday ever since he had been to his cousin Noah’s first birthday party the month before in Chicago. Emma had thrown a ridiculously large event for her son that had been nowhere close to age-appropriate, and Mason had become convinced that
everyone’s
birthday meant cowboys and jugglers and balloon animals. He also still didn’t understand why his own birthday didn’t happen every week, and it had been a dark, dark day in the Foster house when Ethan finally sat him down with a calendar and made him count the months until October.

He still didn’t quite grasp the concept of months, but he definitely understood
not for a long time
. Of course, that only meant that he now asked about his birthday every
other
week.

“No, sweetie. It will probably be the middle of August. But that’s good, because that gives the baby time to go shopping for your birthday present.”

“I’m gonna be
this
many!” Mason suddenly yelled out, holding up three pudgy little fingers, the topic of newborn siblings quickly forgotten.

“That’s right, buddy,” Ethan chuckled, glancing at him in the rearview mirror. As he turned off the highway onto the long drive that led to his family’s house, he was suddenly struck with a familiar ache in his chest and a lump in his throat. It happened more and more lately, usually when he was playing with Mason or watching him do little mundane things with Lily, when he would be absolutely blindsided with emotion. It was almost a panicky feeling, as if his mind just couldn’t wrap itself around the fact that he was sublimely happy for the first time in his life.

Ethan had thought that love and happiness weren’t in the cards for him, that he was destined to be an outsider…an observer. If anyone had told him six years ago that he would be married with one child and another on the way, he would have laughed in their face and said that he didn’t believe in happy endings. But now, looking between his son and wife and the growing lump in her belly, he had a
reason
to believe…and sometimes it simply scared the shit out of him. They were his entire world, and he often found himself getting choked up at the thought of losing them.

Noticing the tight set of her husband’s jaw, Lily reached over and grabbed his hand, smiling sweetly when he looked at her. She knew. Somehow, Lily always knew when he was feeling overwhelmed. With a slight squeeze of his fingers and the stroke of her thumb across his knuckles, she was able to tell him with no words
exactly
what he needed to hear.

We love you, too. We’ll
always
love you…and we aren’t going anywhere
.

And that was all it took. He felt the heaviness lift from his chest, replaced by a feeling of peace. Pulling her hand up to his mouth, he leaned over and quickly kissed the back of her fingers in a silent thank you.

The heat generated in the long look they shared had Ethan stepping on the accelerator, desperate to get on with their day.

They pulled into the drive to find Barbara waiting at the front door, and made quick work of dropping off Mason for the day. They begged her not to let him eat
all
the cookies again, and promised to be back before his bedtime to pick him up.

“Don’t rush,” his mother smiled. “He can always lie down in the spare room.” Ethan couldn’t resist rolling his eyes; the “spare room” Barbara was talking about was an enormous suite that she had remodeled last year, knocking down a wall and making two rooms into one gigantic play land for her three grandchildren. They had all tried to explain to her that such a large room wasn’t necessary since they were rarely all together at the same time except for the holidays, but her mind had been made up.

“Thanks again, Mom,” Ethan smiled, leaning down to give her a quick peck on the cheek.

“Nothing to thank me for, darling. I love having him here.” She and Mason stood on the top step and waved goodbye as Ethan and Lily drove away, watching in the mirrors as they became two little dots in the background.

When they were officially on their own, Ethan smirked at Lily in the way that he knew made her weak in the knees. “You’re mine now. For the next eight hours at least, you’re all mine. Are you sure you’re up to the challenge?”

Lily took a deep breath to settle the butterflies in her stomach before she arched an eyebrow at him. “I think I can handle anything you give me,” she teased playfully.

“Ooh, you better watch that sassy tone, young lady, or else I’ll give you something to
handle
right now.”

She sighed in mock boredom. “Just keep your lame comments to yourself and drive the car. I don’t know how I let you talk me into
this
again.”

“I don’t exactly remember twisting your arm. I think you like it. Matter of fact, I think just the thought of it turns you on…almost as much as it turns
me
on.”

Lily smiled wickedly and leaned over the console, biting his earlobe quickly. “You
know
it turns me on.”

“Good,” he said abruptly, stomping on the gas and steering the car in a direction so familiar he could drive it with his eyes closed. He glanced down at her swollen belly and felt the tightness beginning in his chest again. “Because I really need this today.”

Her soft voice whispered against his cheek, her gentle breath fanning over his skin. “Me too.”

* * *

An hour later, Lily was sprawled out naked along a chaise lounge in their old apartment.

Sexy music filled the room, and the only words spoken were Ethan’s gruff commands: “Yeah baby…just like that. Arch your back for me a little…fuck
yes
, that’s hot.”

Lily was getting into it herself, her breath coming in shorter pants with each new instruction he gave her. She found it incredibly erotic when he was so carried away and intense, but she also found it terribly frustrating.

He hadn’t laid one finger on her yet.

“Stay right there—I’m just going to adjust the lighting a bit more.” She held her position and watched him as he walked away from his easel to a lamp that was positioned at the foot of the chaise. While he tilted and shifted the shade to cast just the right angle of lighting on her skin, Lily couldn’t resist drinking him in with her eyes.

He had discarded his shirt quickly, not wanting any more paint stains than necessary and enjoying the freedom of movement it gave him. His jeans were slung low on his hips, so low that she could see he had gone without underwear. Whether it had been laziness on his part or a conscious decision to slowly drive her insane with lust was yet to be seen; but if she had to guess, she would always err on the side of lust when Ethan was concerned.

As her eyes traveled back up his beautiful torso, stopping briefly on the flat copper nipples and light dusting of sandy hair that made her mouth water, her gaze finally met his…and he threw her another smirk and a wink.

Oh, yes—it was all intentional. He knew exactly what he was doing to her.

Picking up his brush again, Ethan did his best to ignore his growing arousal and focus on Lily’s. He didn’t simply want to pant her nude; he had done that plenty of times. He had also painted her pregnant many times before with Mason; his
Mother & Child
series had sold out in record time. But those had all been more heartfelt works; they were filled with his excitement at becoming a father and the beauty of how sacred he’d found her pregnancy to be.

Her clothes had stayed on for those.

This
painting, though…this was for him. Through the years, he periodically did pieces for his private collection, all starring Lily, all meant for their eyes only. Many of them were painted from his vivid memories, but on a few special occasions she had sat for him. This was just such an occasion, and Ethan had big plans for this piece.

Now, rather than focusing on the ethereal beauty of her pregnancy, he wanted to tap into the primal, wanton sexiness of it. He made no secret of the fact that he somehow found her even
more
irresistible when she was carrying his child, and it had only gotten worse the second time around. With Mason, they had both been so nervous at first that he was almost afraid to touch her, not wanting to cause any harm. That had lasted until her hormones kicked into overdrive, leaving them both exhausted almost every night until right up to her ninth month. Now that Lily was pregnant for the second time, none of the uneasiness was there. They had already been through it and knew what to expect, so this time had been a wild ride from the beginning.

And now, Ethan knew exactly what he was doing. He had denied Lily sex when they first arrived at the apartment, stating that he needed to get straight to work and “perhaps they might find time later.” He was walking around in nothing but his jeans—a quick way to stoke the fires in his wife; she had told him repeatedly how much she went crazy for his bare chest. He wanted to get her good and worked up, hoping to capture the erotic vision that haunted him every night in his bed: his gorgeous wife, full with his child, a look of pure need in her eyes. That was the epitome of sexiness to him. Lily became lust personified… His own personal sex goddess.

Ethan swept his brush across the canvas, filling in the larger areas of color before starting in on the finer details. The more vigorously he worked, the more entranced he became. After another hour, his body was covered in various streaks of color. There were even patches in his hair from whenever he would absentmindedly shove his fingers through his wild locks.

He kept throwing out commands and encouraging words, wanting to make Lily comfortable, but also hoping to coax out her darker side. When he noticed her breathing becoming choppy, he knew he was close.

“
Ethan
,” she whined, “when will we take a break?”

“You just went to the bathroom less than five minutes ago.”

“Not that kind of a break. When will
we
take a break?” She jutted her lower lip out in an exaggerated pout, making it very hard for him to concentrate. She was testing his willpower, and every ounce of him wanted to go to her. He was sorely tempted to stop for a half-hour and relieve some tension, but he needed to capture her hunger, not her gloating satisfaction.