“We should read that one for bedtime,” she tells me.
I almost laugh, but I manage to stifle it and offer a little smile instead. “Maybe when you’re in college.”
Wrinkling her nose up at me, she says, “Nikki, you’re silly. I won’t need bedtime stories in college, I’ll know how to read by then!”
Before I can get us back on track, Derek leans in the doorway to look in on us. “What is taking you two so long in here?”
“Hi, Daddy,” Cassidy says brightly. “We did some book shopping.”
Derek shakes his head. “I can’t leave you two alone for twenty minutes and you’re buying more books.”
“You need a lot more books,” I inform him. “This house is sadly lacking in the book department.”
“We have a whole stack of them,” he argues, pointing at the ones stacked haphazardly atop Cassidy’s dresser.
I grimace at the sad stack, then turn my rueful gaze on him and shake my head. “You build things for a living. Build your child a bookshelf.”
Propping her hand on her little hip, Cassidy turns to look at him. “Yeah, Daddy, build me a bookshelf.”
Derek cocks an eyebrow and points his finger at her. “You need to get to sleep, munchkin. No more book shopping tonight. Get that story read and get those little eyes closed.”
Cassidy harrumphs and I grab the book. “Fine, fine, fine,” I say, shaking my head. “Ruin all our fun.”
“Without remorse. I want to go to bed, and we can’t go to bed until she does,” he says meaningfully.
“I will read as fast as I can,” I promise.
“See that you do.”
I can’t help smiling at his impatience as he ducks back out of the room. I read Cassidy her bedtime story, thankfully without interruptions tonight since Derek preempted her stalling. I kiss her on the forehead, tell her good night, and turn out her light.
Sighing with something like contentment, I wander down the already-dark hallway and into Derek’s room, where he’s lying on the bed, shirtless at the very least, but he might be naked beneath that blanket. Assuming he is and his back is in good enough shape to bang me, I close the bedroom door. Next, I unbutton my jeans and strip them off, remove my top, then I proceed to unsnap my bra and let it fall to the floor.
My fingers flirt with the lacey edges of the blue panties I’m wearing. “Should I take these off, too?”
“You better take ‘em off right now if you don’t want me to tear them off you,” he informs me, casually.
I smile, pushing the panties down and stepping out of them. “If you rip my panties, you owe me new ones.” I hit the lights and approach the bed. I don’t make it to my side. As soon as I’m close enough for him to reach, he grabs me around the waist and drags me on top of him. “Be careful,” I murmur, trying to catch some of my weight on the mattress. “Your back.”
“Fuck my back,” he replies, before crushing his lips to mine. His hand fists in my hair and a pang of arousal hits hard and fast. I love the feel of his hands roaming my body, the hard bar of his arm locked around my waist, keeping me close to him. I love the taste of his kisses, the hard ones, the soft ones, and every kiss in between. I just love being here with him.
I know with every fiber of my being I shouldn’t say this, but as his lips brush my jaw on their way to my neck, I close my eyes and sigh. “I don’t want to go home tomorrow.”
“Then don’t,” he says easily, his hungry lips moving down my neck. Between kisses, he says, “Stay.”
“I wish I could,” I tell him, reaching up to run my fingers through his hair.
“You can,” he informs me. “You don’t need a genie or anything. You already have your laptop here. Nothing’s stopping you.”
“I’m getting too used to being here,” I admit. “The longer I stay, the harder it is to go home.”
“Then maybe you should stop going home,” he tells me. “Make this your home. Move in, then you’ll never have to leave.”
“You’re a crazy man,” I inform him, smiling faintly.
“I’m a man who spent a lot of years figuring out if you don’t take what you want when you want it, you lose it. Nothing crazy about knowing what you want,” he informs me.
“Can I ask you something?”