“What’re you doing?” I murmured, staring at him.
“Get out of the car where it’s safe,” he ordered brusquely.
“Are you mad?”
“Mad? Are you kidding?”
I waited, not moving as he stared in at me from where he was standing on the curb.
“Brann, I was thisclose to attacking you right there in the driver’s seat,” he said indignantly. “Mad at you? Brann, honey. I want to wrestle you into the back seat and screw your brains out. Again.”
I smiled slowly.
He made a noise like he was dying, and I got out as well, closed the door, and came around the front to stand beside him as he shut his door too.
“You want me more?” I asked, waiting, staring at his lush lips, thinking about how great they had felt stretched around my cock earlier. “Em?”
He looked like he was in pain, squinting at me.
“Maybe in your bed next time,” I whispered, moving closer, my gaze locked with his. “Do you want me there? In your bed? In your room?”
His exhale was sharp, halting, as he watched me move closer.
“Emery?”
“That’s what I was trying to say before—I don’t want you to live with me. I want you to marry me. I want you there, with me and the girls, always.”
His eyes were glassy and dark and deep, and I wanted to be there, like that, be the guy he wanted to fuck and eat and hold down. I never before in my life had anyone desperate and hungry and consumed with a need to keep me. It was an altogether brand-new experience that I wanted to savor.
“I want permanent with you.”
“So then I shouldn’t go back to Chicago?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“You’re sure?” I barely got out as I reached him.
“Let’s go home and get in bed, and we’ll come back later.”
I broke into a huge grin. I could feel it on my face, and he groaned loudly and bent over, hands on his knees, taking deep breaths.
“I feel like I’m drunk or underwater or…. It’s like I need the normal to start right now.”
“Because this doesn’t seem real.” I said what we were both thinking, my hand on his back as he straightened up and stared at me.
“It doesn’t, not yet.”
We had moved so fast, from sex to the forever, and we both knew it didn’t work like that. There were supposed to be relationship milestones, and we’d hit them all, but backward. We learned how to be a family before we learned to be the two of us.
“But it will,” he promised me, taking my hands in his. “There are so many things we know already; give it all a chance.”
“I have no choice,” I assured him. “I want to be part of your family.”
“But not just for my girls. You don’t just love them.”
“No, you’re right,” I confirmed, chuckling. “There’s the dog too.”
I wasn’t surprised that he lunged at me, arms wrapping around my neck, yanking me close, crushing me against him.
“He’s a really cute dog,” I murmured, loving how tight I was being held. His muffled laughter made me smile.
“Don’t tease me anymore. Just profess your undying love,” he demanded hoarsely.
“Consider it done,” I growled before I captured his mouth and kissed him until he was breathless and panting, his fingers digging into my back. “You’re not the only one who’s dying to have his life begin.”
“Good to know,” he croaked, still clutching at me.
It took us a few minutes to get it together enough to go to the door and knock.
Julia Jezic hurled open the front door, and before Emery could get a word of greeting out, she flung herself at him so he had to scramble to catch her. Normally, Jules was a whirlwind of activity. She directed a booming pediatric practice by day and co-parented a household with four growing boys by night. I had never seen her slow down, never seen her quiet or still, and never, ever, seen her weep. At the moment, she was doing all four. Also, the woman with the honey-blonde hair and peaches-and-cream complexion, who wasn’t in any way short at five-seven, seemed tiny and delicate and breakable as she trembled in Emery Dodd’s arms. It was clear to see that she had missed him very much. It was also apparent from the way his eyes closed and he held her, protectively, tenderly, that she’d been missed just as dearly.
“Holy crap, are you people lucky I came to town,” I announced as Mal walked up behind Emery and his wife, still hugging furiously, and leaned around them with a cup of coffee for me.
“Yeah, we are,” he agreed, smiling. “Without question.”
The girls had come to greet us, quickly, out of obligation, because they needed to get back to playing with the boys in the adjacent room. Olivia and Luke, who was also six, and Romeo, who was seven, were playing Mario Kart, and April and Danny, who was April’s age, and Liam, the oldest at ten, were playing some role-playing game that I missed the name of, but that Jules informed me would most certainly give April nightmares.