Page 51 of From the Embers
I too might have gone a teensy, tiny bit overboard when I’d told Jillian there was no budget for this particular project. Lesson learned. Acknowledging that to Eason could wait until he wasn’t boring holes in the side of my face with a questioning glare.
“You heard her. Come on,” I said, power walking around to the back of the house.
I hadn’t gotten one step through the fence surrounding the pool before Asher was out of the water, sprinting my way.
“Mom!” he yelled, colliding with my legs. He was getting so big, in both age and size, that it wouldn’t be long until I couldn’t hold him at all.
Water be damned, I’d take the chances while I still had them. Lifting him up, I planted him on my hip. “Hey, buddy.”
Madison was in the pool in a pair of floaties, giggling and kicking her heart out as Evelyn guided her to the side. “Yook! Mommy, yook! I do it. I sweemin’!”
“I see you,” I laughed. “Good job, pretty girl. Did you guys have fun with Evelyn while I was gone?”
“Totally!” Asher declared, but his smile grew exponentially as his gaze flicked over my shoulder. “Eason, Eason, guess what? We got you a new bed! And Luna too! And a new couch and table things. You too, Mom! We even got to paint the walls.” His shoulders fell. “Evelyn said there were fumes, so we had to leave and let the professionals do it. I didn’t even know football players knew how to paint, but I guess maybe if they don’t have a game or something.”
“Uhhhhh,” Eason drawled. “You did what?”
Asher continued, “We got new stuff! I didn’t get a new bed, but Jillian got me a cool tent for my room. And Madison and Luna got princess castles. It’s so cool! You gotta see it.”
When I’d devised that plan and called Jillian to implement it, I seriously thought it was the best idea I’d ever had. The anxious energy rolling off Eason had me second-guessing a few things. Like, say, all of them.
“Bree, can I get a word? In private?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure. Just let me say hey to Madison first.”
I took my time hugging my sopping-wet daughter. She had a ton to say—about two-thirds of which I understood. In that time, I noticed Jillian in heaven, sidled up next to Eason, talking his ear off too. He probably understood less than two-thirds of what she said because his stoic gaze was locked on me.
When Luna had bored of her father, she sprinted over for a reunion with my kids, stealing their attention and my ability to stall any longer.
“We’ll be right back,” Eason told Evelyn as she corralled the kids around the firepit for a snack. Using my elbow to pull me out of the pool area, he strategically closed the gate in time to shut Jillian inside.
“Oh. Okay, then. I’ll be right here when you’re ready for a tour!” she called after us.
Silently, he guided me all the way back around to the front of the house, and had it not been for a wet paint sign hanging on the front door, he probably would have dragged me inside too.
“Would you stop,” I finally said, batting his hand away.
He did not stop. Like not at all. Actually, after a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching us, he grabbed my hips and dragged me against his chest. His palm glided up between my shoulders and higher, to my nape. And then, with a gentle tug, he forced my head back. Not a heartbeat later, his hot, predatory mouth came down on mine.
The surprise rocked me back a step, but I fisted the sides of his shirt for balance. His tongue swept mine as he explored my mouth in a scorching kiss. In a way, I was just another instrument Eason instinctively knew how to play and would never be tired of it.
When air became necessary and not a second sooner, he moved his attention to my neck. “A new bed?”
“Um,” I breathed, tilting my head to allow him more room to roam. “About that.”
“And for Luna too?”
I moaned as his teeth raked my sensitive flesh, just on the right side of pain. “I mentioned upgrading the girls from their cribs. Though the princess castles are news to me.”
“Jesus, Bree. Why did you do all this?”
“I didn’t want you to come home to those memories.”
He stopped and lifted his head to catch my eye. “I came home with you. I could have changed the sheets and been fine. You didn’t need to do this.”
Swaying into him, I wrapped my arms around his waist. “I don’t want to grow this thing between us in their shadows. We can’t move, at least not right now, but we deserve a space that isn’t tainted by them.”
