“Be nice, Bambina. You know she’s hungry.” I whisper in her ear. “She might want you topless half as much as I do.”

Sophia rubs her bottom against me until I tighten my hold on her and take a slow breath. I kiss her shoulder. Emma squirms in Holden’s arms again. “Milk.”

“Told you,” I tease.

Sophia gently takes Emma from Holden and walks into the other room. Holden stands, stretches, then joins me in the kitchen. We finish dinner together. Proper homemade Italian spaghetti and Nonna’s meatballs and spicy sausage with garlic bread.

Holden smirks as he helps me get things together. “How long until you start getting Link working in the kitchen?”

“Whenever he shows an interest. He likes to be busy,” I say.

“Gunner feels it right now.” Holden looks over to Gunner.

We see that Gunner’s stretched out on the floor, half asleep as Nick asks Link questions about his artwork and listens intently. I have been working on teaching him Italian. Link holds up a picture he drew of a dog.

“È un cane.” He says with a toothy smile pointed at me.

“Molto buona,” I praise. “Very good.”

Link grins to himself as Nick pats his head. I know Nick’s happy he’s turning into an artist. After Sophia gets back, we get to dinner. Link and Emma work together to wake Gunner up and he snatches them both, making them laugh.

He’s been the biggest shock. He got so nervous around them as infants, always saying they were going to cry, holding them awkwardly, clearly terrified of hurting them, but as soon as Link started crawling around and throwing toys, he saw fun and ran with it.

Sophia squeezes my hand during dinner. I know she’s been giving me a little extra attention lately and I’m not quite sure why. Maybe because we’re home all day with the kids, maybe because we haven’t had a date night in months. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s suspicious all the same.

After dinner, we get the kids to bed. Nick and I read to Link, making sure to point to the words as we go. Emma is a bad sleeper, takes a lot of attention and it’s close to a battle to go down. Link’s out halfway through the book, even though we finish it for him.

Nick runs his fingers through Link’s hair as I flick on his space-themed night light and adjust his blanket. “I can’t believe he starts preschool next year.” He sighs.

“Time flies,” I agree.

“I’m worried about the questions.” He admits. “When he talks about his ‘daddies’ instead of ‘dad’.”

It’s crossed my mind once or twice. The judgment of our relationship with Sophie hasn’t ended. I’m hoping that kids assume it means he has two daddies, which of course, will be ruined when he mentions Sophie, and helovesto talk about her. What kid doesn’t go on about their mother.

But we have a year until we have to worry. Nick stretches. “I think I need an early night. Are we still having Miles and Diana babysit this weekend?”

I nod and he relaxes. It should mean we get to have plenty of sex and fun, but mostly it means we get to sleep. Nick heads to bed and I see Holden and Gunner doing the same as Sophia finishes picking up Legos and shoving things into a semi-ordered pile.

She takes my hand and guides me to the balcony when she sees me. We sit together for a while until she kisses up my throat. “I miss you, Roman.”

“We’re together every day.” I chuckle, rubbing her bare thigh.

“I miss you whispering sexy fantasies in my ear, teasing me with your hands under the table, fucking me until I was half crazy.” She continues before biting my ear. God, she knows all my weaknesses. “You still love me, right?”

“Of course, Bambina.” I adjust her in my arms and kiss her passionately.

She moans and spreads her fingers across my chest, rolling her hips on me. “Do you still want to fuck me after two kids?”

“Every single day.” I chuckle and I grab her ass and jerk her tighter against me. “I want to bend you over whenever you join me in the kitchen and fuck you. When the kids are napping I want to drag you away and bury my face in your pussy to see how many times I can make you come before one of them wakes up.”

She takes a ragged breath and starts working on my buttons. “You should.”

“Si?”

“Fucking si.” She growls, kissing me again, deep and hungry.

I stand up with her and point her to the railing. “You better be naked by the time I pull this curtain.”