For the Children

Judging by the reaction he was getting, she liked what she saw. Eyes wide, in spite of passion and wine, she stared. Licked her lips. Glanced at his face, and then up and down his body again.

“So, Judge, do I meet your standards?”

“I—” She coughed. Swallowed. “I don’t think I had standards,” she said shakily, “but if I did, you definitely surpass them.”

He pushed her farther back into the bed. Kissed her hard. Long. And unclipped her bra. Then, with his face only an inch from hers, he said, “You kiss like you’ve had plenty of experience.”

His hands covered her breasts, holding them, supporting their weight. Their softness ignited him all over again.

“Believe me, it’s surprising me as much as it is you,” she said slowly, gasping.

Because her hands and arms were supporting her weight, she still wasn’t touching him while he caressed her everywhere. An experience more erotic than he’d ever have guessed.

“Have there been many others besides your husband?”

Her eyes locked on his, filled with smoky desire and an admiration he knew he didn’t deserve but accepted anyway. For the moment.

“One before him.”

He pushed his naked hips against the silk of her panties.

“And afterward?”

“Do we count this?”

Oh, God, if the woman got any sexier he wasn’t going to be able to last.

Still keeping her gaze captive, he hooked a finger under the top edge of her panties, sliding them off her hips. “Okay,” he answered her. “Sure.”

“One.”

Her panties on the floor at her feet, Kirk lowered unsteady hands to her thighs. He intended to explore, to bring her to the heights beside him. But when her legs parted at his touch, he had no ability left to carry out his intentions. He quickly pulled on a condom that had been in his wallet and then, with a hand on each of her thighs, he thrust himself inside her, dying a small death when her tightness took him in, hugged him, as though that special place had been waiting just for him.

VALERIE HAD A HARD TIME waiting until four o’clock Saturday afternoon to drop off the boys’ uniforms. She wanted the excuse to see Kirk again. After all the other kids had come and gone, she’d invited Kirk to have burgers with her and the boys, and she didn’t feel a single qualm about doing it. She’d already promised the twins a trip to their favorite gourmet-burger restaurant.

The resiliency of kids—or was it their oblivious self-centeredness?—was something she didn’t think she’d ever get used to. She was almost shocked to find that apparently she’d worried for nothing all those months when she’d been so anxious about how her sons would react to their basketball coach joining them in private. Other than a hastily offered “cool,” their biggest concern was how soon they were going to get to the restaurant.

Not even the stomachache Blake couldn’t quite hide marred the evening. He’d just neglected to take his pill at the sleepover Friday night.

She swore to herself that she wasn’t going to assign too much significance to the changes the weekend had brought, but as she lay, relaxed and peaceful in her bed Sunday night, drifting off to sleep, her heart was filled with possibilities.

BY TUESDAY NIGHT, Valerie had finished all her Christmas shopping and had a lot of the wrapping done. She and the boys had gone to her office Christmas party Sunday afternoon, and then she’d spent most of the night wrapping their gifts from Santa Claus. She was on call for emergencies, but she had the next two weeks off as the courts typically shut down over the holidays.

To celebrate the last day of school, she invited Kirk over for dinner. At least that was the excuse she gave everyone. The invitation had nothing to do with the fact that the woman who’d slept with the crossing guard on Friday night was dying to see him. She wouldn?

??t let her obsession with him mean that much.

At least not yet. Whether the boys made a big deal about Kirk’s entrance into their lives or not, she knew how vulnerable they were. Brian was much better, miraculously better, but she’d had her warning. She was going to take things very slow where her sons were concerned.

He joked with the boys over dinner, helped with the dishes, evened up the teams for shooting hoops and spent an hour in their room when he went in to say good-night to them.

“What was that all about?” Valerie asked, beside herself with curiosity by the time he emerged. She’d been sitting at the counter in the black sweats and tennis shoes she’d changed into after dinner, writing out her grocery list for the next morning, planning the kinds of cookies she was going to bake, making certain she had everything for Christmas dinner.

Hands in his pockets, Kirk stopped behind the stool where she sat, looking over her shoulder at the list on the counter.

“Basketball, mostly,” he said.

“You’re evading again.”