Inked Babies (Inked Brotherhood 6)

Woo. Is it pregnancy hormones, or is my husband just the hottest guy in the world?

“As for the house…” Ash gathers the plastic spoon from the floor and gets up to wash it at the sink while Scott makes bubbles with the mashed food left in his mouth and saliva. Oh God. “We’re not sure about the house.”

“You’re not? What did Zane say?”

“Not much.” He returns with the clean spoon and takes again his seat in front of Scott’s high chair. “I mean, he was the one who pointed out the fu— uh, the frigging house.” He gives me a desperate look. “Auds, our kid will learn some very bad words. I can’t filter my damn mouth.”

“You’re doing fine.” I smile at him and reach over to touch his cheek. “I promise.” But he still looks uncertain, so I lean over and kiss him. “Now, tell me what happened at this house.”

A slow flush is spreading on his sharp cheekbones, and he shifts uneasily in his chair. I snicker when I glance down and see the bulge at his crotch, though my own breath catches. God, I can’t wait for tonight, to drag him to our bed and do wicked things to him… or have him do them to me.

“Mamama,” Scott babbles, and I cut that line of thought, to be revisited later.

Ash winks at me as if reading my thoughts, and feeds Scott another spoonful. “The house was locked up, and seemed to be empty. We found a neighbor who told us the last tenants left six months ago. The house belongs to an Adam Corby, and his last tenant was a family member. He didn’t recognize the name Zane told us.”

I bend over to wipe the food dribbling from Scott’s mouth and nuzzle his silky hair. “And did Zane remember anything else?”

“He says he didn’t. But he looked… really fu—frigging awful, like he’d seen a ghost, and Tyler dragged him back to the car and had him sit inside while we tried to find more neighbors to ask.”

“But it wasn’t the right house?”

“Thing is… he recognized a tree. And then he seemed to recognize the house, but when I asked him, he said he wasn’t sure.”

“What if they renovated it since he left?”

“Yeah. Rafe said the same. Who knows? Ah shit.” Scott has managed to grab the spoon again and fling more food all over the place.

I want to laugh, but Ash seems to be at the end of his tether, and I can imagine he had a hard morning, seeing Zane like that.

“Hey, give me that.” I grab the bowl from his hand, and the spoon from Scott and attempt to feed him the rest. “You look beat. Why don’t you eat something, too?”

He leans back in his chair instead, gazing at me from under lowered lashes, mouth tipped to the side in a sexy smirk. “You know you’re a hot mamma, right?”

I’m tempted to fling baby food at him. I settle on sticking my tongue out. All very mature. “Thanks.”

“And you know I’m gonna jump your bones the moment this little man drops off to sleep?”

“Not if I jump yours first.”

His dark brows go up, and a wolf whistle leaves his lips. “Go for it.”

I will. Hopefully I won’t fall asleep before Scott does. It’s been happening more and more often lately, and now I know why.

“What about that parking lot where Zane saw the guy? When are we going to check it?”

“We’re already doing it, in shifts. Rafe is there now, and Dylan will drive by tomorrow, and so on. We got it covered.” I open my mouth to say I’d go, too, but he reaches out and puts a finger over my lips. “Don’t say you’ll go. I’ll be worried sick. If anything happened to you and the baby, I don’t know what I’d do.”

An even worse fear is that I’d fall asleep and see nothing, and I don’t like being handled like china, but he’s tired and panic lurks in his gray eyes, so I let it go.

If he says they’ve got it covered, then he knows what he’s talking about.

“Be careful,” I whisper. “Always. For me. For us.”

“I swear,” he says and holds my gaze. “I’ll be careful. Now…” His eyes twinkle. “Finish this so he can go to sleep, and I can drag you to our bed and have my way with you.”

Heat rises up in my chest, spreading to my neck and up to my face, tiny flames of desire. “Such as?”

“I’m gonna spread your legs and eat you up, make you come on my tongue, taste you…” He leans closer and whispers, his pale blue eyes flashing, “before I slide inside you and fuck you so hard you won’t remember your own name.”