Page 75 of Make Me Whole

“This island has a mall. We could go there to eat and do a little shopping before it goes Black Friday crazy.”

Though the kids protested going somewhere as boring as the mall, I told them they might have an arcade where they could hang out with Max while I did some shopping, and they were game. Hopefully, the mall would have a nice lingerie store and all the parts of my plan would be in motion.

Well . . . except for the sex part, but I knew I had that covered.

31

MAX

Iclosed the door to the kids’ bedroom behind me, pressed my back against it, and released an unnaturally long sigh.

The day had been long, dinner had been longer, but bedtime had been the longest. I loved these kids with all my heart, but all I could think about was havingdessertwith Sky, and that kind of ruined my enjoyment of the bedtime stories—allthreethat Ella, A.K.A. the insatiable little bedtime monster, begged me to read before finally allowing me to leave.

As I pushed away from the door to leave, Aiden’s voice echoed from inside. “Ella, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, Aid.” The sleepy tone of Ella’s voice made me smile.

“Since you grew up with a real family—with a mom and dad, that is—can you tell me if today was what a normal family feels like all the time?”

The question pushed all thoughts ofdessertfrom my mind, but unlike other times, it wasn’t because of guilt or sympathy for my son’s sadness. What stopped me in my tracks this time was the giddy hope in his tone.

“I don’t know,” Ella replied with the sadness that Aiden’s question had lacked. “My family was never like this with my father, Eli. When we lived with him, Mom was always sad, and he never even told me a bedtime story. Not even one. Dad told us three tonight. With voices. It was glorious.”

Took me a second to realize that theDadElla was referring to was me. Not Unclad, just plain old Dad. It made me smile almost as wide as the thought of caramel sauce dripping off Sky’s bare tits—for very different reasons, of course.

“Did you see them talking close when we came out of the bathroom after washing our hands?” Ella asked with even more sleepy excitement. “Looked like Dad was going to kiss Mom. I wanted him to.”

I held my breath.

“Do you think they do that? Kiss, I mean.”

“Dunno,” Ella replied and yawned. “But I saw him swatting Mom’s butt by the turtle tank today. Grandpa swats Miss Molly’s butt all the time, and they kiss, so maybe Mom and Dad do too.”

“Maybe. I sure hope so,” Aiden said, too sleepy. “Good night, Ella.”

“Night, Aid.”

The room grew quiet, and I pushed away from the door, heart swollen and excited to tell Sky about this conversation—afterdessert, of course. With a smile that split my face in two, I ran to the kitchen, grabbed the sauces from the fridge, and ran back to Sky’s bedroom door.

I gave it a quick knock and opened it. “Ready for dessert, Babe?”

“You have no idea how ready I am,” Sky said as she turned around and... holy fucking shit!

My jaw dropped, and I squeezed the poor bottles of sweet sauce so hard it was a miracle they didn’t explode. The sight of her in those black lacy nothings made my aching cock so hard I was sure it could pierce through metal.

“Holy mother of sexy shit. You’re gonna give me a heart attack, woman.”

She laughed as I kicked the door closed and turned the lock.

“You’re old, but not that old,” she teased as she walked toward me.

Fucking sass. Hot fucking sass.

I wanted to chuckle, but I wanted to taste her even more. Once she was within reach, I curled my fingers around the back of her neck and pulled her face toward mine.

My mouth clasped around hers in the powerful, lusty, delicious kiss I’d been waiting all day for. Her lips were soft and warm, moist in a perfect way and pliant against mine. She opened for me, as I knew she would, and my tongue dove inside, massaging and tasting hers. She was sweeter than chocolate or caramel, the true dessert I wanted to indulge in.

She pulled away from my mouth way too fast for my liking, and thanks to the shit I had in my hands, I wasn’t able to stop her.

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