Goddamn.
“Again.” I gathered his legs around me so I could fuck him harder and deeper.
“Christ—I love you,” he groaned and arched his back. “Right there—shit, just like that. Oh fuck.”
I fucked him just like that. To the sound of skin slapping and our breathing turning harsh and shallow, I fucked him into the mattress until we found the release we needed. Or wanted…? Because as my orgasm subsided, I needed to get some intense cuddling and possibly a nap, and I didn’t have time for any of it.
“We shouldn’t have fucked.” I collapsed next to him and stared up at the ceiling, trying to get my breathing back to normal. “Now I’m tired and starved for cuddles.”
He chuckled, out of breath, and pushed himself up on his elbows. “Well, I feel great. And you already volunteered to wake up the hellions.”
I did, didn’t I?
Damn.
“But you know what?” He leaned over me and kissed me. “I love you.”
I felt my mouth stretch with a lazy grin. “I love you too.”
“Jason! Jamie! Loki!” I yelled, running up the stairs. “Up you go, ankle biters!” I reached the room Loki shared with Kyla first, and he was not amused.
“Go’waaaay, Shep,” he whined around his pacifier.
“Never in a million years.” I hauled him up from his kiddie bed and positioned him on my hip. “Time for chow, time for brushin’ teeth, time for day care, no time for pacifiers.” I stole his and dropped it on his nightstand.
He made it abundantly clear that I was a pain in the ass, but it didn’t stop him from clinging to my neck and burying his face there. So he was essentially giving me a reward for being an obnoxious motherfucker.
Toddlers weren’t very bright.
“Wake up, Jamie!” I knocked on his door next, before I continued to Jason’s. “Jason!”
“Don’t come in here!” Too late. As the last word left him, I pushed the door open and instantly realized I’d barged into a situation that would either be a horrid memory in twenty years, or nothing at all. Poor kid looked like I’d felt when Pop had caught me with a nudie magazine at that age.
Jason was dressed and ready to go, but there was only one reason an eleven-year-old boy would be in the process of yanking the sheets off his bed at five-thirty in the morning.
Think fast.
“Good, laundry day—drop the sheets in the hamper by the stairs before you head down, and don’t forget the pillowcases,” I said firmly. “Breakfast is ready.” With that said, I shut the door and returned to Jamie’s room.
I hoped that was enough to appease him. As close as Jason and I had always been, certain topics had to be approached with finesse, of which I had zero.
“Why are you yelling, Greer?” Jamie complained and threw his covers over his head.
“Am I yelling? I thought I was whispering. Shit, why didn’t you tell me?” I pulled down his covers and exposed the same set of superhero pajamas that Loki had. “Let’s go, son. Archie’s got breakfast on the table already.”
“Dad?” I heard Jason call down the stairs. “Can you come up?”
Jamie blinked sleepily at me and picked at his belly button. His hair pointed in every direction, and he had a sleep line across his cheek.
I couldn’t deal with that level of cute.
“You got work pants on,” he informed me.
“You are correct,” I replied. Then I extended my hand. “Come on. Or I’ll eat your cereal.”
He grinned and shook his head. “No, it’s mine!”
“Then you better hurry up.”
“Fiiine.” He let me drag him outta bed, and then we were heading downstairs, running into Sloan somewhere in the middle.
“Good morning, sweethearts.” He smiled and pressed a kiss to Jamie’s forehead, same with Loki’s.
“Mornin’, Daddy,” Loki yawned. “Shep is yelly.”
I growled playfully against his cheek, and I finally coaxed a grin out of him, reluctant as it was.
Breakfast wasn’t shared around the kitchen bar when the kids were home, but at the long dining room table next to the living room area. And every morning since Sloan brought the kids here and said they were staying…? This very moment had been one of the highlights of my day. Seeing Kyla crawling on the floor, Emma-Jo keeping an eye on her and helping Archie put food on the table, the dogs excited to see who was coming down the stairs, and Archie’s good-morning smile as I joined him.
I gave him a big kiss and a discreet ass-grab.
His version of a “simple breakfast” was anything but simple. It was a spread of milk, yogurt, different types of cereal, oatmeal, toppings like nuts and berries, juice, milk, tea, coffee… And one by one, we all took our seats around the table. Me at one end, Sloan at the other.
It was a loud affair. Someone was always mad at someone else. Someone usually spilled. Someone took the last blueberries, which infuriated Emma-Jo. Sloan made sure Jason had finished his homework. Kyla ended up in my lap, and we shared breakfast from the same bowl of oatmeal. Because, frankly, her version was much tastier than my plain one. She got to add mashed banana and honey or little pieces of apple and cinnamon.