She stumbled through the lyrics to “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” and I did my best not to laugh.
Not because it would somehow affect her delicate sensibilities, but because it might ruin my best-ever run as a voyeur.
Muted voices from the pool area below trickled up and through the window, but not enough to distract from my family in front of me. It was actually quiet in comparison to New York, markedly less hustle, bustle, and overall mayhem, and I’d lost sleep the first night while I tried to get used to it.
Of course, now that I’d gotten over the hump and was sleeping like a fetus in the fucking womb, I was sure the transition back would be even worse.
Maybe we need to move out of the city…
“What are you doing?” Cassie asked on a whisper, surprising me. I’d thought I was still under the radar, blissfully unnoticed in my perusal and enjoyment of the picture the two of them painted.
My eyes sought and held the wild maturity in hers, and I fell in love all over again.
“Watching you,” I admitted, moving from the intensity of her eyes to the softness of her body. Cassie was still so honest in her individuality, perfectly consistent with the wild, crazy woman I’d fallen in love with, and yet, she’d somehow managed to deepen the softest of her dimensions and make room for the tiny little human in her arms. She didn’t always do what the other moms did, but she did everything with ten times the love.
Because when Cassie held you in high regard, her affection was genuine in a way that most people only dreamed of or faked really well.
“Stalking me,” she clarified with a hushed laugh, and it was one of those things that fell under past precedent. I’d always be known as the man who stalked her, and I was okay with it. Ace, safe and sound in her arms, was all the evidence I’d ever need that nothing in our past needed regret or change.
I shook my head and crossed the room, dropping to my knees in front of her chair and putting a hand to her throat and the other to the soft fluctuation of my son’s breathing back.
“Loving you.”
Her head tilted just slightly, into my touch, and contentment stronger than I’d ever felt before filled any hollow space in my body entirely.
“You’re everything. For me, for Ace. The best wife and mother and the most interestingly intense woman I’ve ever met. I never know what to expect, but I never worry that I won’t like it. Ace feels the same way.”
“He can’t talk.”
“That’s not what you told Georgia.”
“Yeah, well, I’m a bitch and a liar.”
“You are the woman we never could have dreamed.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t even know all the words to this stupid Cinderella lullaby.”
I chuckled. “Maybe not. But you’ve got all the feelings down pat.”
She pulled Ace tighter to her chest with one arm and reached one hand out to slide a finger along my neck. “Aw, baby.” She laughed quietly, and it mixed with tears. “Right now, I feel numb.”
“Are you—”
“In my arm. My arm is numb. Your fluffing huge kid weighs a million pounds already.”
I smiled and held out my hands. “I’ll take him.”
“No,” she denied, pulling Ace tighter to her body and my lips to hers. “I’m good right like I am.”
“Me too,” I agreed.
I’d be good like this for a while. Forever.
Ace huffed out a deep, content baby breath as I laid his now sleeping body down for the night and padded out toward the living area of our hotel room. The creak and whine of a shower turning on echoed from the bathroom.
I was headed for the couch when Thatch peeked his head out of the master bedroom with a sly smirk. “Want to join me, Crazy?”
Normally, I would’ve jumped on that kind of opportunity, but I had something I wanted to research on my laptop. Something of utmost importance, actually.
I shook my head and linked my hands together behind my back to keep them from gesturing aggressively in opposition to the mission. “Nah. I’ve got some work emails I need to respond to.”
Lies.
Thatch flashed his most persuasive pout in my direction, but I stayed strong.
“Go take your shower, you big ogre. I’ll be on the couch when you’re done. Maybe we can just order some room service for dinner?”
He moved his big, muscular, and very naked frame into the hallway on purpose, standing like a proud peacock in his birthday suit, his nipple ring winking in the lights. It shone almost obscenely, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from homing in on the Supercock. It was like a magnet to my horny gaze. I actually swore it was scientifically magnetic, put there by the aliens or something, so strong was its power.
And my husband was no fool. Goddammit. He knew my weakness, the devious bastard.
“Are you sure, honey?” he asked with a sexy smirk. “I’ll even massage your shoulders a little under the hot water…”
Oh man, he was really pulling out the big guns.
“Nope. I’m good,” I bit out, even though my pussy was all but screaming, Wait a minute! We’re not good! We want the shower! We want the massage! We want the Supercock!
“Oooooookay,” Thatch said with a wink. “Suit yourself. I’ll be in the shower all wet and naked and stroking myself clean.”
“Sounds like you’re about to have a grand time.”
I fought the urge to scowl. I wanted to have a grand time. I wanted to have a grand boning time and fuck my Jolly Green Giant in the shower, but I needed to stay focused. I had research to do, and I needed to do it while Thatch was otherwise occupied.
Thatch eyed me curiously, and I knew I had to get him out of there.
“Go take your shower and then we can order room service. I’ll even let you play with my tits a little while we wait for them to deliver it.”
“Fifteen minutes?” he brokered.
“I’ll be generous and give you twenty minutes.”
“A twenty-minute playdate with two of my favorite girls?”
“That’s what I said.”
He smirked. “Get ’em ready for Daddy. And time my shower. I’ve got this feeling I’m going to set some kind of world record. Actually, you better call an official from the Guinness book while you’re at it.”
“You got it, Daddy. Just make sure you get nice and clean so I can get you all dirty again,” I taunted, grabbing both breasts and squeezing them together. His smirk turned into a full-on, megawatt smile.
The second his naked ass was out of sight, I jumped into action. I’d stupidly shortened my own clock by offering titty play, but now I had to deal with the consequences. I plopped down on the couch and set my laptop on my thighs, and as quickly as I could, found my favorite realty website and entered the criteria into the search field.
I scrolled through all of the listings and mentally approved or declined the possibilities.
Nah. That one is too big. She’d need a maid to keep it clean.
Hmmm…I bet a six-year-old would love a backyard like that. Add it to the list.
Okay…Yeah… This has a nice man cave… He’d probably love filling it with football memorabilia and other stupid shit like that…
Ohhh…This master bedroom is gorgeous… I bet they’d enjoy a sex swing in the corner of that little nook by the window…
I’d worked as quickly as I could, but I knew I was down to the wire. Luckily, I had three perfect homes saved just in the nick of time. I honestly didn’t know which one would work best, but I had a feeling the options I had would make them more than happy.
“What are you doing, Crazy?”
His booming voice startled me, and I glanced up from the screen which held a picture of the last pretty house I had looked it and found Thatch leaning over the couch and practically cheek-to-cheek with me. A hand went to my chest, startled again by his close proximity this time.
“For fluff’s sake,” I muttered and took a deep, shaky breath. “Do you understand personal space? I mean, hell, you scared the sneakers out of me.”
He tilted his head to the side and looked at me closely. “Why are you so jumpy? That’s not like you.”
“I’m not jumpy,” I refuted.
He smirked. “You just about jumped off the couch when I asked you a question, and when you saw I was right beside you, you practically dove out the window. You’re real fucking jumpy.”
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “You don’t exactly have a quiet voice or a small head. When you’re not expecting either of those things to be in your ear or in your face, I gotta be honest, baby, they can be fluffing terrifying.”
“You don’t seem to have any complaints with my big head when it’s between your thighs.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “Maybe you should just keep your head there all the time. Then, you can’t scare the shit out of me, and my pussy will be one happy girl.”
He chuckled at that. “Your pussy is the greediest fucking girl I know.”
“So?” I flashed a pointed look in his direction. “What are you trying to say, Thatcher?”
“That I…love her.”
Yeah…that’s what I thought…
“What are you looking at anyway?” His eyes moved to my laptop. “Houses? Why are you looking at houses?”