“That’s not true,” she murmured, but made no move to push him away. “I’m not going to sleep with you no matter how much I want to.”
He chuckled against her neck, dropping one little kiss there but he didn’t say anything, just continued to torment her with his touch.
Her body wasn’t on the same page as her convictions; to illustrate the point, she curled her leg around him, pulling his pelvis closer to hers. Unmitigated pleasure unfurled inside of her when the evidence of his arousal pressed up against her.
“This is bad,” she whispered, managing to keep her hands on his shoulder, when she wanted to explore the muscles of his back again. It had been so, so long….
“I disagree,” he informed her, moving the hand that had been on her hip up under her shirt, just enough to make her tense—it didn’t go any higher than her stomach.
Like a bucket of ice cold water dumped over their heads, a knock on the door cut through the lusty haze.
Ethan pulled back, a look of confusion on his face, and Willow stood there, dazed.
Frowning, Ethan crossed the kitchen and went to the door to peer through the peephole.
“Fuck,” he whispered, spinning on his heel and regarding her with a look she could only possibly interpret as desperate.
Even as her stomach plummeted, she whispered, “What?”
Ethan was panicking. His hand moved over his face, pausing on his forehead, and he looked around as if for somewhere to hide.
Another knock at the door, that one lighter, and if she wasn’t mistaken, lower.
His kids were outside that door. She knew it in her bones.
Suddenly he was at her side, grasping her arm and leading her out of the kitchen, into the living room and toward the hall. “I hate to ask this…”
“You want me to hide,” she said slowly, allowing him to lead her down the hall.
Regret was etched all over his tense features as he hustled her down t
he hall. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to do right now. I don’t know why… They probably won’t be here long. Please? I’m so sorry.”
Willow walked into his bedroom—not how she imagined she would end up there, to say the least—and sat down on the edge of his bed, watching as he closed the door behind him and made his way back out to greet his family.
There was no time to prepare herself—the walls in the apartment were thin, and as soon as he opened the door, she heard his enthusiastic greeting and a burst of child-like noises that she couldn’t quite make out as they all rambled at once, and a more womanly voice tried to talk over them.
Somehow sitting on the bed felt wrong, considering she felt about two inches tall.
Lowering herself to the floor, she pulled her knees up close to her chest and sat in front of the bed instead, trying not to listen to the noises coming from the other room, while at the same time wanting to listen.
Ethan hoped he didn’t look as guilty as he felt.
Alison and Jackson were trying to talk over each other, while Caleb sat on Amanda’s hip, babbling at him and pointing.
And Willow was hiding in his bedroom.
After… whatever almost happened in the kitchen.
His gaze jumped to the discarded shoes by the door—where Alison was kicking hers off—and he was thankful Willow had kept hers on.
His heart raced as he tried to nod with casual enthusiasm while Alison told him about their day.
Lowering her voice a little, Amanda remarked almost cautiously, “You said you wanted to see them more.”
“Of course! I did. I do.”
She nodded her head. “We’re not staying for long, guys, we have to get you home and ready for bed.” Then, glancing back at Ethan, she said, “Anyway, they kept talking about you, so… I thought we could stop by and say hi before bed.”