Chaser (Dive Bar #3)(56)
Hopefully it wouldn’t be too long. The idea that we might make an official date for sex and then have to patiently wait until the duly appointed hour was liable to drive me out of my sweet mind. Though given Jean’s love of organization and Ada’s need for routine that might be exactly how it happened. Guess I could do with a lesson in patience.
I’d barely knocked when the door flew open, Jean standing there with a frown on her pretty face and a baby on her shoulder. “Hey.”
“Hi,” I said quietly, just in case Ada was on her way to sleep. “Everything okay?”
“Sure.”
“You seem down.”
“No, no. Come in.” She headed back inside, the baby’s little head moving as she sucked on her fingers. Jean lay her down carefully on her blanket under the jungle gym. Ada immediately smiled and started laying into her old friend the dangling turtle. Man, she really had it in for that guy.
“See? Violence does make her happy,” I said, grinning down at her. “Don’t know why she didn’t get into the movie the other day.”
“Her moods are mercurial.” Jean picked up her cell and pressed play on some baby-friendly classical music mix. It wasn’t Janis Joplin, but it wasn’t bad. At any rate, Ada seemed content.
“Anyway,” I said, exhaling hard. “I thought we should talk.”
“It’s okay, Eric. You don’t have to.”
“Huh?”
“Everything’s been so good between us,” she said. “It was stupid of me to rock the boat. Can we just pretend that me propositioning you never happened?”
“No.” I shook my head, adamant. “Absolutely not. That would be like canceling Christmas or breaking a bottle of my favorite single malt.”
She cocked her head. “It would be?”
“Yes. It would be terrible.”
“Oh.”
“You can’t just ask me to…” I looked down at Ada. “You know. Do that thing. And then change your mind.”
Her brows rose in surprise.
“Unless you’ve actually changed your mind, which would be totally fine,” I quickly inserted. “Have you changed your mind?”
She froze.
“Please don’t have changed your mind. I’m willing to beg if that would help at all.”
“No, that’s okay.” Her smile was magnificent. Thrilling. Amazing. All of these things and more. The kind of grin to weaken a man’s knees and harden his cock. Then she too peeked down at her happily playing daughter and said, “Let’s discuss this in the hallway.”
“Sure.”
The woman grabbed my hand and towed me around the corner and out of the infant’s sight, into the little hallway that led to my bathroom. And the bedroom.
“Because we probably need rules and stuff, right?” I asked. My hand was still hooked into hers, making it hard to concentrate.
“Sure.”
“Like are we having sex with other people or being exclusive or what?”
“Well, it will be monogamous at my end,” she said, shrugging. “Just because no one else is ringing my bells right now.”
“Ditto for me,” I said. The idea that I alone was ringing her bells got my heart pounding double-time. “How about how we act around other people? We keeping this on the down low? Because otherwise I need to prepare for Nell to try and kill me while making it look like an accident. I’m thinking there’ll be an incident with hot oil in the kitchen.”
Jean snorted, but she did not try to deny it. “Let’s keep it just between you and me.”
“Sounds good,” I said, trying not to let my relief show through too much. “Though I may have already kind of talked about it to Joe and my mom and Joe will definitely talk to Alex about it if he hasn’t already. He’s pretty much pussy-whipped when it comes to stuff like that. Sorry.”
“So basically word is going to get around?”
“Probably.”
Her lips wrinkled, then she shrugged. “Whatever.”
“Whatever?”
“Yeah.” Out of nowhere, her hands were on me, pushing me up against the wall, and leaning in until her T-shirt-covered breasts were brushing against me. Made it damn hard to think. Christ, the absolute focus in her eyes. “I don’t mind if you don’t.”
I cleared my throat. “I, um, I vote we just tell them all to mind their own business.”
“Will they?”
“Probably not.”
“Duly noted.”
Then her hands grabbed hold of my shoulders and she lifted up, pressing her lips to mine. Her breath mingling with mine, her face so close. Fucking hell, it was perfect and the woman did not mess around. Sweet turned to sin in no time. Mouths open and tongues playing. Our teeth clashed and my palms smoothed down her back, holding her tight. From our knees upward, we were pressed together and I could happily have died.
“You don’t mind if we practice a bit before the big event?” she asked, breathing heavily. “It’s kind of been a while.”
“Whatever you want. Practice makes perfect.”
“Thanks.”
And then she kissed me again, hard and hungry. Her fingers dug into my hair, the kiss deepening. Ever so slightly out of control, I grabbed at her gorgeous round ass. Something I’d always wanted to do. A tiny voice in the back of my head wondered if ass-grabbing counted for Jean as “practice,” and whether I was moving things along a bit too fast. But at my touch she pushed her hips hard forward into me, and my doubts disintegrated. She was as into this as I was. Maybe more, if that was even possible.