Page 49 of Tempted Away

“Do you want children?” Justine murmurs, her head on my shoulder, her nails raking down my chest. The day is creeping into twilight, starting to cast shadows in the room.

“I suppose. One day,” I say, running my fingers lightly across her hip, my voice as sleepy as I feel. It’s been a long day with the drive and then the way we christened this bed.

“How many do you want?”

“Don’t know. Haven’t thought about it.”

I don’t like her questions. It’s casting shadows on top of dark places in my heart I don’t want to think about. I’ve always pictured a girl with Bailey’s chocolate hair and green eyes. Or a boy, again with Bailey’s hair and eyes. I’ve never pictured any of them looking like me.

“I want two. A boy and a girl. The first one has to be a boy, and after that, a girl.”

“Why a boy first?” I don’t really care why, but her silence invites me to ask the question.

“I have an older sister. I always wanted an older brother who could take care of me. You know, threaten all the creeps away.” She chuckles, and the way her tits rub against me has my damn cock twitching again.

Her words though—they hit too close to home, so I make some kind of noncommittal sound. Bailey has an older sister. Fuck, why is she on my mind so much?

“What’s your dream holiday destination?”

Bailey and I stayed local for our honeymoon. Money was tight, so we did the mature thing and used the money an exotic trip would have cost on a car and our apartment. We said that once we were more settled, we’d splurge on a holiday. Fuck. I want to hit my head. Tell my mind to shut. The. Fuck. Up.

“I have a Pinterest board of all the places I’d like to see someday,” Justine says when I take too long to answer. “Are you messy or neat at home? I bet you’re messy. Your desk always looks like a hurricane’s hit it.”

Annoyed, I disentangle myself from her and sit up. I blow out a long breath, trying to reign in my impatience. It’s not her fault I’m being an ass.

“What’s with the twenty questions?”

She lifts herself onto her elbow, looking at me in bewilderment. “I’m just trying to get to know you. These are normal things to ask when you’re dating someone.”

“Yeah, but we have time. It should happen organically. It feels like you’re forcing it.”

Okay, maybe I should have counted to ten instead. I’ve let too much impatience shine through, but honestly, I don’t care. I don’t want to discuss a future with her. I want to live in the here and now.

“I’m sorry,” she says, dropping her gaze. “It’s just…we’ve been dating for a while now, and I don’t know all that much about you or your life. I thought this weekend would be a perfect opportunity to get to know each other better.”

I glance over at her, and I’m immediately entranced by the sight of her tits. They’re bigger than Bailey’s, and I was right. Her nipples are a lighter, rosy pink.

“No, I’m sorry,” I say, pushing her back on the bed and settling over her. “I can be a moody bastard sometimes, and you don’t deserve that.”

I press a kiss to her neck, running my hand down her side, her hip, and her skin pebbles. “Let me make it up to you?”

“How?” She says, her breath speeding up.

Moving down her body, I grip her thighs, parting them. “You’re fucking flawless, I groan, pressing my face between her things and inhaling.

For now, Justine’s mine, and I’m not ready to give her up.

*****

KALLAN

“THIS ISheaven,” Andrew whispers out of the corner of his mouth, his eyes darting all over the place. “There are women everywhere.”

You know that uncomfortable feeling you get when it feels like someone is looking at you? Yeah, times that by ten, and you’ll get close to how I’m feeling right now. My eyes meet those of a woman sitting towards the front. She’s turned around in her chair, her eyes focused on me, staring at me without blinking. She doesn’t look away while rummaging in her bag and popping a mint in her mouth. Another woman, who I’m assuming is her granddaughter, puts a cup of coffee down in front of her, and finally, she turns back to the front. But not before patting her hair and giving me a saucy wink. Damn, that’s a lot of purple.

I sink lower in my chair when a glance shows a few sets of eyes focused on us. He’s right. There are women everywhere. Women of all ages, shapes, and sizes. In fact, we’re the only two men in the whole damn place.

“What the hell kind of event is this anyway?” I’m thinking I should have asked him this question before I blindly agreed to come. It’s not too late, though. I could still duck out and wait Andrew out at the shop. Better, I could go for a few beers and something to eat. But then Bailey steps out from the back, and all thoughts of leaving fly right out of my head. She’s laughing at something the woman she’s with is saying, and fuck, it’s good to see her laugh. It’s been killing me to see the lines of sadness etched into her face. I can’t stand the feeling of helplessness that brings, and I would give my life savings to be able to carry the burden for her. But I’m well acquainted with grief and the process one must go through to get to the other side.

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