Southern Playboy (North Carolina Highlands 4)

He smells so, so good.

This feels good. Working together, getting Liam cozy.

“Aw, come on, A, it was better’n decent.” Rhett’s focused on Liam now, eyes averted like he’s very much aware of the tension sparking between us.

How did this happen? And how can I stop it?

“You know what’s not decent?”

Rhett lets out a soft grunt as he yanks on Liam’s pajama shorts. “What’s that?”

I scoop Liam into my arms and hold him against my chest. A barrier? A life vest?

“How cute this kid looks in his pjs.” I give Liam a quick squeeze. He doesn’t hug me back, but he does rest his head on my shoulder, and my heart about melts. This. I need to focus on this, the connection I’m making with Liam.

I need to remember the only connection I have with his daddy is a contract. A legal document that states he’s my boss and I’m his employee.

That’s.

It.

Even if I’m already thinking I’m not going to press charges against Jim’s wife because I’ve got better things to do.

Because I’m busy being a part of something awesome. Something I’m not going to let my past ruin.

“He likes you,” Rhett says softly and runs a hand over Liam’s back. “I want him to like me that way too.”

My heart swells, and I look away. Look at the blue-green light that peeks through the slats of the shutters on a nearby window. Everything feels heavy—this kid, my feelings. The moment.

“Here.” I pass Liam to Rhett. “Y’all enjoy a bedtime story. I should—I’m going to go.”

My face feels hot as I pull the door shut behind me.

“Amelia?” Rhett calls quietly.

I pause with my hand on the knob, pulse thumping as I reopen the door a crack. “Yeah?”

“Thank you. For everything. I had no appreciation for how much time and effort it takes just to keep kids clean and fed. It’s a lot of really hard work that’s somehow invisible—”

“Screwed up, right?”

“Totally. The point being, I see all the work you’re doing for us, and I appreciate it. So damn much. I’d be dead in the water without you.”

My eyes fill with heat, and I close them, even as I grin. “You’re never going to let that boat pun go, are you?”

“Nope.”

“Good night, Rhett.”

“Night, A.”

Chapter Fifteen

Rhett

“Morning, baby,” Amelia says with a grin.

Padding into the kitchen, I bend down and press a scruffy kiss to her lips.

Soft. She’s so fucking soft.

She sets down the paper she’s reading at the table—The New York Times, naturally—and her grin deepens into a smile.

Her brown eyes are hot, and suddenly so am I.

She’s wearing this nightie and robe set thing. Pale pink. I look at her tits, and her nipples pebble to hard points underneath the fabric.

“Aw, honey, you’re beautiful.”

Amelia reaches down and unties her robe. The nightie underneath is trimmed in lace. It’s gossamer thin. My mouth waters, and this feeling—this full, happy, excited feeling—settles in my center.

Heat prickles low in my groin.

“Show me how beautiful you think I am,” she murmurs.

I glance at the monitor on the counter. “Liam still sleeping?”

“Hasn’t made a peep.”

The kitchen smells like coffee. Sunlight streams through the windows. I have nowhere to be and nothing to do, and the sense of freedom I feel is glorious.

“Good.” I turn back to Amelia and drop to my knees in front of her chair. I gently part her legs, and Amelia bites her lip, running a hand through the hair at the nape of my neck.

My dick gets hard. Only when I reach down to stroke it do I realize I’m naked.

Aw, fuck yeah.

Pushing her nightie up her thighs, I see that she’s bare, wet, and swollen.

“I fucked you last night,” I growl, distressed. “Why didn’t you tell me you needed me?”

Her smile softens. Touches her eyes. “I’ve always needed you, baby. That hasn’t changed.”

And then she curls her fingers into my hair, makes a fist, and pulls, tugging me none too gently down to her center.

My dick pulses at her urgency, her decisiveness, and I fall face-first into her pussy. I nudge my nose up her slick folds, inhaling the scent of her, reveling in her heat and her willingness and the way her stomach hollows out when she sucks in a breath.

I open my mouth and kiss her. Kiss her clit, lick her clit. Bite it and play with it and she laughs, and I laugh, and the whole time I’m telling her: See? See how good this is?

“You’re good,” she breathes, hips rolling against my mouth.

“You read my mind now?”

I stroke myself and look up to see her smiling down at me. “You’re not exactly a mystery, Rhett.”

I pause at a faint ringing sound.

“Ignore it,” Amelia says.

I do.

My balls tighten. I put my other hand on her thigh and inch my thumb up the tender skin there until I reach her pussy. I use that thumb to open her wider, and then I press the pad of it inside her. Her hips buck, and I’m stroking myself faster, and she comes, clamping down on my thumb as she cries out.