Page 166 of Things We Burn

I put my hand on my hip. “Seriously, we’re trusting our daughter with someone because they drive a nice car?”

Kane gripped my hips. “We’re trusting our daughter with someone because we know she’s good people. We’re trusting our daughter with someone because in order to get through this, we need to start trusting people, letting them in, letting them help. I promise you, Chef, it’s just as fuckin’ painful for me to leave Mae, and I miss her like goddamn crazy already. But we need this.”

I chewed on my bottom lip. He wasn’t wrong. I knew he wasn’t. Even though my mother and Maisie were only a three-hour drive away and promised to make the trip as often as possible, they had their own lives. We did need to find some semblance of a support system here in Jupiter if we intended on it being home. As much as I loved Mabel with all of my being, I also understood that being a better mother meant sometimes taking time for myself.

I stared at him, then the bike.

“We don’t have a will,” I realized, horror buzzing beneath my skin. I’d had a list of things to get organized once the baby was born—life insurance, a will, a college fund. None of that had been done. “Or life insurance.”

“Unless you’re planning on taking me to a secondary location and murdering me, I think we’re okay,” Kane replied.

“We’re parents.” I smacked his shoulder. “We get into a crash on this thing and leave Mabel an orphan, there needs to be a plan in place for her care. I’m going to go back in and write a will.”

I climbed off the bike to do just that, but Kane caught my wrist, pulling me back to him.

“Chef, you’re not going to write a will tonight, and we’re not going to crash.”

“You can’t know that,” I argued, panic well and truly seizing my lungs at that point.

He arched a brow. “I’ve got more than a few medals to communicate how I can know that.”

“I’ll remind you, I’ve seen you crash,” I told him. It was a low blow, but I was frantic.

Kane didn’t seem bothered, merely grinning. “An anomaly. One never to be repeated.” He put his hands on either side of the helmet. “Get that you want to take care of our girl, and I also get that your brain is your worst enemy right now. So how about we give it a break with a ride, me fuckin’ you either in the bathrooms of a dive bar or over this very bike on a beach somewhere. We get a drink, come back then write wills.”

My mouth filled with saliva at the thought of sex, public sex with Kane. Since the first time, we’d caught moments to ourselves when we could—in the kitchen while Mabel napped, in the living room, pretty much in various rooms of our house while the baby slept. Each time we were quiet, rushed, mindful that she could wake at any moment.

Though the new, fragile part of me that was now a mother urged me to go inside, I held onto Kane’s gaze and let him put me on the back of his bike.

Once we got going, Mabel was a constant worry at the back of my mind. Though that worry quieted under the purr of the bike, the exhilarating speed of us hurtling down coastal roads. My arms tightened around Kane, dipping my fingertips under his tee then down to the waistband of his jeans.

Then … lower.

His cock was hard underneath my palm.

There was a thrill in resting my hand there. I wasn’t going to move it; I didn’t think that was responsible. But the potential of my doing so was enough.

We didn’t ride very long. Kane pulled the bike off to a side road then into an empty beach parking lot. The sun set earlier that time of year, so the dusk made it so we were barely seen when he shut the lights of the bike off.

As soon as he did that, Kane hoisted me off the bike, helmet flying off.

He didn’t speak as his hands dove into my hair, tugging the tie from my hair then pulling at the strands.

I kissed him back with the same ferocity. There it was… What we’d been muting, tempering in the house with a sleeping baby. Now there was nothing but open air, waves crashing against rocks and sand, the low hum of a car driving past, the hazy illumination of our shapes from headlights.

We were almost entirely obscured from the road. A passing driver couldn’t see us, but if you pulled into the parking lot you could.

My heart pounded.

Kane’s teeth were at my neck as his hands plunged into my jeans.

I gasped as he bypassed my panties and went right in.

He let out a low hiss as his fingers found me wet.

He didn’t say a word as he unbuttoned my jeans, forced them down and turned me around, hand going to the small of my back and pushing me down.

My palms steadied themselves on the seat of the bike, nails scratching at the leather.

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