Page 41 of Nothing to This (Nothing to… #8)

If she hadn’t been crazy for JD before arriving home to find her living room transformed into an underwater grotto, she was after.

There were rocks on the floor, sand, some kind of plants bedded in like seaweed strewn through the waterfall wall features.

Interspersed were built in fish tanks containing all kinds of wondrous aquatic creatures.

Special lighting and a sound system brought the illusion to life.

Sky hadn’t wanted to leave, so all of them ended up sleeping there in the ocean together. The wonderland was still there when the kids were packing up for their vacation with their aunts.

“Please, please, please,” Sky begged. “Mommy, please—”

“Daddy promises the ocean will be here when you get back,” JD said.

It would? That didn’t seem smart. Okay, so the installation wasn’t doing anyone any harm exactly. To nothing except her furniture, which was stuck in storage until they dismantled the scene. But was it realistic for it to be there indefinitely? The kids needed boundaries.

JD had prepped and packed the kids ready for Brenna. She herself had run home just in time to see them off.

“Say goodbye,” Brenna said. “Lotta’s waiting downstairs.”

“Oh, babies, I love you,” she said, kissing them both at the door.

“We have to leave,” Brenna said. “We’ll call you from the road.”

Both kids waved and hugged her again. Brenna took their hands and led them out, leaving her staring at a closed door. She had never been so far apart from her babies before. Even when they went to stay with their grandmother, they were right across town. This was a different thing.

No, no, she’d made a terrible mistake. They wouldn’t have gone far, she could get them back—

JD’s splayed fingertips touched her head. “While you’re down there…”

Spinning around, she turned before surging to her feet. “Don’t you miss them already? What if something happens or they’re hurt?” she asked, glaring. “How can you make jokes?”

“They’re both wearing their trackers, and have enough security to raise their own army,” he said, winding his arms around her. “Now you’re all mine. I’ll distract you. What do you want?”

“What do I want?” she asked, suspicion narrowing one of her eyes. “That’s your seduction? Excuse me while I swoon.”

“I had a plan,” he said, one side of his mouth rising. “But you’re not shy about giving me direction and I don’t want to get it wrong. A misstep would be catastrophic.”

Coiling her arms around him, she lured him close. “Not getting laid is catastrophic?”

“You’ve made it clear the kids can’t know what’s going on between us. We’re on a clock, every minute counts.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Every single minute.”

Which may be why he’d promised their daughter her grotto would remain. Who had time to tidy up when sex was the alternative?

Rising high on her tiptoes, she kissed him, barely letting their mouths linger before pulling away. Taking his hand, she led him down the hallway to her bedroom. Inside, she closed the door and kicked off her shoes.

“Are we changing?” he asked, probably meaning clothes.

Her answer came in stripping while backing toward the bed. “Do I have to spell it out…? I’m asking again… Make love to me, JD. Take advantage of every minute.”

Yanking his tee-shirt over his head, his jeans were on the floor too before he even reached her. Laughter left her when he picked her up to lay her on the bed, falling down over her.

“I want this to last, Rylee.”

Sliding her hands up his bare back into his hair, she pulled him down for a kiss. “Then think about baseball,” she said. “‘Cause if this isn’t as good as the first night, this relationship could be the shortest in history.”

“A relationship? Is that what we’re doing?”

“Let’s find out.”

Seeking his mouth, she kept control of the kiss while his hands went wandering on her body. He freed her from her underwear and tossed her bra aside, dipping lower to taste her breasts while she whimpered his name.

His insistence fought hers. Was it in him to surrender? No more than it was in her.

“JD,” she murmured, scooping his head into both hands, marrying their eyes.

“You putting on the brakes?” Kissing her quick and hard, he inhaled through his teeth. “Who’s in charge here?”

Her mouth leaped up to steal her own kiss. “Might take a while to figure that out.”

Hence why they had an entire weekend ahead. Their next kiss slowed, like their tongues needed to get reacquainted. Years had passed, paths diverged, but the truth, the need of their magnetism, hadn’t waned.

This was what they needed. Everything else faded away. Hands slid from faces, into hair, over sensitive flesh. Satisfying a need in their exploration, nothing but possibility lay ahead.

Moving beneath him, rising, breathing, writhing, contentment within burned to a searing passion.

“Siren,” he whispered on her lips.

Something passed to her, knowledge of his need and how it matched hers. Words, action, potential, a unity built to a drowning aura that consumed them.

Was it possible? All he wanted and the future he proposed? Men were second to her kids. Life with the twins was all she craved.

Or all she had craved until right then. Grabbing for his waist, she tried to push, tried to switch their places. She wanted control, progress, satiated. If he couldn’t—

“I got this, Siren,” he grumbled into the top of her head and surged up, plunging himself into her.

Relief and joy collided in a yelp of delight. Yes, yes, this was it.

Her body remembered how to move with his. It remembered how best to please herself and impart pleasure. A rush of deep longing raced him to work harder, faster.

“JD!”

Had she told him to think about baseball? God, she couldn’t wait, couldn’t hold back. Nothing could restrain the rush of endorphins and cascading hormones that tightened and loosened all her muscles at once.

Yes. A man. The man. Sex wasn’t just sex with Jamison Dawes.

“Baby,” she begged, but he kept going.

Why should he stop? Why would he? Panting, heaving, needing, wanting. Neither were shy about filling a silence, not then, not ever. Rather than words, she communicated in sound, whines of appreciation, whimpers for more. Either he read her mind or tortured women all over with that quick angling of—

Shit. How was he doing that? The thrust and ripple of his pelvis tormented her inside and out. Orgasm ripped through her so hard, her belly clenched until it hurt.

“Shit. Fuck. Siren,” he barked and flipped them over, driving into her from underneath like she was a sex toy that existed only to take his seed.

What just happened? Was she still breathing?

“It wasn’t… It wasn’t like that our first night, was it?”

That intense. That overwhelming. That all-consuming—

“Been downplaying me?” He rolled onto his back next to her. “That’s a survival mechanism. The way you’ve protected yourself from chasing me down to mount me.”

“Romantic,” she said, straddling him, spreading her hands on his chest.

“You just can’t help yourself.”

With full entitlement, he wasn’t shy about sweeping her hair away from her breasts.

“You know those guys, the ones women say can impregnate them with a look?” Her fingertips roamed his physique. “You’re one of those men, Jamison Dawes.”

“A man can dream,” he said, stroking her stomach. “You feel pregnant?”

“I’m scared to answer that question. Notice you forgot to ask me about birth control. You didn’t ask the night we met either. Never learn your lesson, do you, Dawes? I’m having the safe sex talk with Kye when the time comes.”

“I’m all about safety,” he said. “Depending on the woman.”

“Oh, yeah? What does that mean?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I say it does.”

“It doesn’t,” he said.

She plucked a hair on his forearm, growling. Rather than be mad or annoyed, he laughed.

“What woman am I?”

“The only woman.”

Suspicion narrowed her eyes, though she didn’t object to him taking her hips to force them closer.

“What does that mean?”

“It means it doesn’t matter about other women. You’re the last woman.” That didn’t enlighten her. “Whatever your sex rules, baby, I’ll comply.”

“Oh, so I get to make all the rules?”

“If they get me laid, I’m happy.” As she rolled her eyes, amusement left his lips. “You want to talk birth control? Okay. I didn’t bring it up because you know my stance.”

“You want babies.”

“If it happens, I’ll be happy, yeah. I won’t lie to you. I’m not actively aiming for it though.”

Were they too different? His ease bordered on aloof. He might be okay making it up as they went along, in her view, the time for that had passed. They weren’t kids anymore.

“Please take this seriously.”

“Okay,” he said on an inhale and scrubbed his hands through his hair then across his stubble. “Seriously.” Squeezing her hips, he guided her off him and back to her side of the bed. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“Don’t go—” She grabbed his wrist when he tried to get up. “Where are you going? Leaving me in bed after one round is not making this last.”

“I don’t pack rubbers these days, Siren.” He leaned in to kiss her. “I’m a family man now. I’ll have to go out for them.”

Hooking a hand around the back of his neck, she yanked him down on the bed again.

“I’m on the pill, smart guy.” She kissed him.

He dropped onto his back, his hands in her hair, taking her with him, putting her on top.

Planting her hands on his chest, she put a little space between them.

“I was on the pill when we conceived the twins too.”

He pushed her falling hair back, over and over. “You want me to wear a rubber? I will.”

“It’s a different pill and it’s worked for the last five years.”

“My swimmers haven’t taken a swing at it yet.”

“Is that what this is? What I am? Your baby machine?”

This time she tried to get up, but he pulled her down to lie above her again. “You are my future, Rylee. You need me to get the snip to prove it? ‘Cause I will… You’re smart, beautiful, passionate, confident. No woman has ever turned me on like you do. This is real to me, if you’re unsure—”

“We’ll live here. I don’t want too much disruption to the kids.”

“My beautiful, pragmatic Siren.”

“My children will always be the most important thing in my life. Over happiness, relationships, everything. I will always choose them first.”

“As will I.”

Her stomach lurched again. It was getting impossible to ignore. No matter what she said, this man, JD, had gotten around her defenses.

“Is this real?” she whispered, a little old now for a schoolgirl crush or rushed hormones.

“I love you, Rylee Hampton,” he said, caressing her cheek, looking deep into her.

“I haven’t said it because I promised to take this slow and I don’t want to spook you, but I love you.

I want to spend the rest of my life with you.

Whatever celebrations and challenges that come along in the future, I want you with me and I want to be with you through yours. ”

And searching his imploring gaze, she couldn’t see a hint of doubt. “Sky will be sorry she missed that speech.” He laughed, still running his fingers down and across her cheek. “What if they weren’t yours? If I was just some woman with kids.”

“I love you. You, Rylee.”

Maybe that was what kept snagging her. “How can you be so sure of this? Haven’t you ever made a life-changing decision you came to regret later?”

“Only one.”

“This could be another.”

“No.” He kissed her. “Because that one regret is you, Siren. I should never have let you walk out of that hotel room without fighting for us.”

“We’ve changed. Both of us.”

“Time does that.”

There was no going back now.

She laughed; sheer joy rippled through her. “The kids will go berserk.”

“We’ll get Sky a princess dress for the wedding. And I can buy her diamonds.”

“Whoa, a wedding?”

One shoulder shrugged. “Whenever you’re ready.”

“I thought you didn’t want to—”

“I didn’t want to marry another woman, any other woman. You, I want to marry.”

No cooling his jets or denting his optimism. “If you let Sky pick her outfit, you’ll have to let Kye choose his.”

“What do you think? Buzz Lightyear or a Turtle?”

Oh, their son would be thrilled.

“Jane’s planning Roxie’s wedding.”

“Yeah, and we’re invited.”

“We are? Since when?”

“We’re part of the family now, apparently. Thank Sky for that one.”

“I like Roxie, and her girls.”

“They like you too. If Jane does a good job, we can ask her to do ours too.”

“No. No way, nothing big and flashy.”

“No? What will it look like then?”

And he thought he’d caught her out. Instead of shrinking or backtracking, she grinned, running a fingertip across his shoulder.

“I don’t know what it will look like, but I know where it will be.”

“Where?”

“The Grand.”

He asked, “Which one?” But his expression betrayed he caught on fast. “Santa Clara?” Her touch trailed back. “Bastian will get a kick out of that.”

“Bastian?” A whiff of a memory drifted through her mind’s eye. “Did I meet him?”

“After the kids’ party when—it doesn’t matter, you’ll meet him again.”

“I thought Greg was the closest thing you had to a grown-up friend?”

“Of the variety I see every day. Bastian’s more of a… confidante.”

“So he knew about the twins too? Was I the only one abiding by the contract?”

“You’ll never have to worry about it again. Like I said to Andrews, we’ll be signing our names to a completely different contract.”

“As soon as I’m ready?”

“As soon as you’re ready.”

Patient, proud, persevering, JD came with reassuring grace and certainty.

In most ways, they were completely different, but they complemented each other.

Compromise and communication were the only way a relationship would ever work between them.

They were better, stronger, than they had been the night they met, the night the seed of perpetuity was planted.

Her children were her future. And JD? He’d be on that ride with them through every turn. They’d butt heads, sure, but the four of them together, that future didn’t look half bad. Now they only had to get on with living it.