Page 159 of Everything After

He chuckled. “Nah, same ravenous sexual appetite as usual. I mean, look what he’s playing with?” he said, gesturing to himself, and then nodding toward Coral.

I laughed. “You had me going there,” I admitted.

“Going? As in you’ve got your sexual appetite back?” Rick waggled his brows.

“Do you really expect me to answer that. Charlie’s not even two weeks old yet.”

“Two weeks and no sex?” Rick swung his head dramatically toward the patio door. “Maybe we should stage an intervention out there after all. You know how cranky Alfie can get when he isn’t getting any.”

“I think all of you are sexual deviants,” I said, laughing.

“Which was what attracted you to us, right?”

I chuckled. “When are you going to have a serious conversation with me?” I asked.

“How’s about now? What’s sex like when you’re pregnant?”

“I’m not answering that,” I replied. Heat rose to my cheeks. It had been years since Rick had achieved that kind of reaction from me.

“I’m serious. Coral wants a kid… she has for a while, even if she hasn’t voiced it.”

“I think so too,” I agreed.

“I mean, I know I have Lennie, but I still love my pussy. I’d hate if we didn’t...” he trailed off without a hint of embarrassment.

“I think Alfie would be better at answering your question,” I stated.

“Why? Because he’s a man?” Rick challenged.

“No, because of how it changed his feelings about sex.”

“He didn’t poke you while you were pregnant?” he asked. Rick’s eyebrows shot up in his hairline in disbelief.

I smacked Rick’s chest. “Rick! Don’t be a dick and stop calling intercourse poking.”

“Well, unless you spell out what you mean, I can only guess.”

“Sex was…” I shrugged. “I don’t know… more emotional?” It was a question to me more than a statement to him. It was love-making and not as playful or carnal as it had been before.

“Oh, God. Slow and painful, or painfully slow?

I laughed. “Just…slower… less…”

“He didn’t fuck you hard… is that what you’re trying to say?”

I chuckled both from embarrassment and how intensely he stared at me. “Yes… no, I mean, sex was different.”

“Different how? I want to know what I’d be getting into if I get Coral pregnant.”

“You’re seriously thinking of having a baby?” If true, it was a one-eighty change in his attitude toward children of his own.

“It’s your fault… or Alfie’s. I mean I was serious—I could do that guy seven ways from Sunday after seeing him with that kid. He looked so fucking hot sitting there with his son on his lap.”

I laughed. “Rick, do I need to put you on notice, like Alfie’s done with Cody?”

“What did Alfie do to Cody?” Elle asked. She glanced toward the glass door as she interrupted our conversation. “I’ve been watching them. They appear to be civil enough. Drew expected their conversation to get intense. He’s been sitting on that chairnear the door waiting to pounce the moment they showed their fists.”

Alfie stepped away from Cody and opened the patio door. The way he gestured for Cody to enter first, told me there had been an amicable agreement of sorts.