Capturing Peace (Sharing You 0.5)(27)

I unwrapped my arms from Reagan, and crouched down so I was his height. “Girls your age do have cooties,” I whispered loudly, and tried so hard not to smile when he nodded quickly. “But you know how I’m old so my stars don’t wash off?” Parker looked at his star, then my tattoos before nodding again. “Well, when you’re this old, girls don’t have cooties anymore. So they’re safe to kiss.”

Parker looked at me like he was trying to memorize every word I was saying. “How will I know when they’re safe?”

I glanced up at Reagan, and her face fell into a look of horror. “He’s six,” she mouthed.

“Just trust me on this, bud,” I said when I looked back at Parker. “You’ll know.”

“ ’Kay,” he replied, and looked up at Reagan. “It’s okay, Mom. You’re safe, you won’t give Coen cooties.”

My head dropped so he wouldn’t see how hard I was trying not to laugh, but I knew my shoulders were shaking from trying to hold it back.

“Thanks for that, buddy. Why don’t you go wash your hands so we can eat, all right?”

“Okay!”

I straightened, my body still shaking from the laughs I’d been trying so hard to quiet, and Reagan punched my shoulder as soon as I was upright.

“Seriously?”

“Hey! At least I told him the girls his age had cooties.”

A laugh bubbled past her lips before she could contain it, and then her stern expression was back. “But now what if he avoids women until he’s like thirty?”

“He won’t. Trust me, once puberty hits you’ll be wishing he would avoid them until he was thirty. At least I bought you a few years. I could’ve told him cooties didn’t exist and you’d have the principal calling you because he was kissing all the girls in his class next week. I know from experience.”

A sly grin crossed her face. “Coen Steele, did you terrorize all the girls by kissing them?”

I shrugged as I grabbed the food and started walking toward the table. “Someone had to do it. I took one for the team.”

“Ah, must have been such a hardship.”

“You have no idea.”

Reagan just smiled and shook her head as she leaned up to press her lips to my jaw. “And are you still terrorizing them all?”

“Just one,” I whispered.

“Good answer.”

REAGAN SHUT THE door leading to Parker’s bedroom, and smiled up at me as she easily fell into my arms where I stood leaning against the wall.

“He is out,” she whispered, and pressed her lips to my throat as she wrapped her arms around my neck. “Tonight was fun for him.”

“It was fun for me too,” I said honestly.

After dinner, we’d watched a movie before playing a game for hours that I still didn’t understand . . . and I already wanted another night like the one we’d just had.

My fingers flexed against her hips when her mouth pressed firmly against mine, and a soft whimper sounded in her throat when our tongues brushed against each other. Moving my legs apart, I pulled her closer against me, and she arched her back so her chest pushed into mine for a few moments before moving back. Her hands slowly moved from my neck, across my chest and down my stomach before resting on the top of my jeans. The muscles in my abdomen twitched when her fingers moved under the shirt to brush against my skin.

I knew I needed to stop this. I’d told her I wanted to surprise her, and somehow we always found ourselves here . . . with me trying to find the will to be the voice of reason for us . . . for her. For her, I needed to stop this. I needed to show her I wanted so much more from her. But when she flattened one hand against my lower stomach, and the other curled around the top of my already low-slung jeans, I forgot all the reasons why I’d stopped us before.

Pushing off the wall, I took the few steps until her back hit the opposite wall, and released her lips to make a trail down her throat. Pushing aside the collar of her shirt, I placed slow kisses across her collarbone as I pressed a hand to the small of her back, bringing her body closer to mine.

One of her hands went up to run over my short hair when I bit down gently on her neck, and she gasped softly before whispering, “I want to fall asleep to your voice tonight.”

I stilled and pressed a kiss to where I’d bitten her before moving back so I could look into her eyes. Cocking my head to the side, I pushed some of her hair behind her ear. “You do every night, why wouldn’t you tonight?”

“No, uh . . .” She put one hand to my chest, as if to push me away, and grabbed the ends of her hair with the other.

“What, Reagan, tell me.” Shit, I’d pushed her too far. “I’m sorry, I should’ve left as soon as you went to put—”

“Coen, no.” She stopped me by pressing three fingers to my lips. Moving them away, she brushed her lips softly across mine, and when her eyelids slowly opened, they revealed a heat in her hazel eyes. “I want to fall asleep to your voice . . . while you’re in my bed.”

“Duchess,” I said darkly.

Pushing back on my chest so she could move away from the wall, she grabbed one of my hands and began walking backward down the hall. “Please don’t leave.”

“Staying could be dangerous.” I warned her. “I don’t think I’d be able to stop us this time.”