But it was still there.
A weakness of sorts.
And I couldn't help but wonder if Cameron thought about it that way. As something weak or embarrassing.
"You worry too much," Annie had told me when I had said as much. "Cameron loves you just as you are. He tries to be so much like you. Little boys who are embarrassed of their dads don't try to emulate them."
"I saw that!" Annie said, sending me small eyes after I had passed my cookie off to Cameron as he passed.
"H-H-He's a growing boy," I tried.
"Growing boys need vegetables and protein and healthy fats. Not sugar," she insisted, reaching down to cover the corner of an open cabinet just a split second before Rhea would have slammed her forehead into it.
"I g-grew just fine," I reminded her. "N-need me t-to r-refresh your m-memory?" I asked, giving her a smirk.
"Oh, no you don't," she said, shaking her head. "The last time you looked at me like that, we became parents for the fourth time."
Moving across the room as the kids ran off after the dogs - Mike and Ike, more rescues from their Aunt Rey because she claimed as Taffy got older, that the puppies might help keep him younger longer - I slid inward, pressing my front against hers, my hips holding her against the counter behind her.
"Five is a good number, don't you think?" I asked, head tucked to the side.
"Says the man who doesn't have to have a baby come out of his body," she countered, but her body was already melting as my head ducked, lips pressing into the side of her neck. "We have dinner in the oven," she reminded me.
"Baked ziti needs a good half an hour," I reminded her as my hand slid up her belly, closing around her breast, squeezing, running my thumb over her nipple as it hardened.
"We have four children and three dogs running around," she added. Her voice was getting airy, needy.
"They're afraid of the basement."
"So am I," she said with a choked laugh that turned into a soft whimper as my thumb and forefinger rolled her nipple tightly.
"There is one room in this house the kids would never willingly step inside," I told her.
Her smile was brilliant as realization dawned.
"The laundry room."
Annie had a rule about the kids complaining they were 'bored.' If they came up to her with that phrase, she would go grab her 'boring jar' full of popsicle sticks with various age-appropriate chores on them. After pulling sock-pairing a time or two, they learned really quickly not to say they were bored when they had a house and yard full of toys. They also avoided the laundry room like the plague originated there.
Rhea was still young enough to get into trouble when left unsupervised for any length of time.
But we had enough baby-proofing throughout the house that we both seemed willing to risk it.
Annie's hand grabbed mine, dragging me with her through the mud room and into the laundry, closing the door, her hands already yanking at my button and zip, pulling my hard cock out of my pants, wrapping her hand around it, stroking it a few times as I fought for a little bit of control.
My hands were just as greedy, pressing between her thighs with her pants and panties still as a barrier, feeling her heat and wetness even through the layers.
Parenthood meant sometimes sex wasn't as high a priority as it once had been. But time had not dulled our hunger for each other either.
In a matter of a minute or two, bottoms were off, Annie was bent forward over the running dryer, and my cock was buried deep inside her pussy.
My hand went around her, sealing over her mouth, holding in her cries as I started fucking her. Hard. Fast.
Her hand slid between our bodies, working her clit.
Bodies so desperate for release, within five minutes of closing ourselves into the room, she was screaming out her orgasm into my palm as my cock planted deep, coming with her.
I was still gasping for air after when a quiet little giggle worked through her body.
"W-what?" I asked, shaking my head as she turned her neck so she could look at me over her shoulder.
"My mom was so wrong. Sex is still important."
"Y-Yeah, it is," I agreed, tucking back into my pants as she straightened, pulling her panties and pants back into place.
We walked back out together, finding all four of the kids in the doorway to the kitchen, Rhea trying to suffocate poor Ike with her love.
"What were you doing?" Cameron asked, getting older, getting wiser, suspicious of everything.
Annie seemed to recover faster than me, shrugging.