Going Down Easy (Boys of the Big Easy #1)(53)
Yeah, he needed to not lay all of that on Addison right now.
So he simply lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it as the car pulled up at the curb. He paid the driver, then helped Addison out of the back seat. They made their way into the house quietly. There was a lamp glowing on the table next to his mother’s reading chair, but she had long gone up to bed. Logan was at the bar and would be for at least another hour or so. Cooper and Stella were nestled on the two couches in the living room that sat in an L shape. They each had pillows and blankets and stuffed animals. There were two glasses of water on the table that sat between the couches, and the television over the fireplace was tuned to a kids’ music station.
Gabe looked over at Addison and grinned. She squeezed his hand.
“This is nice,” she whispered.
“It really is.” Though nice seemed like an understatement. This was, bottom line, what he wanted to come home to after every night out. With this woman by his side. And yeah, he needed to reel all of that in, dammit.
“So . . .” Addison looked around. “I guess I didn’t think about how this would work. Where should I sleep?”
In my bed. There was never going to be another answer he wanted to give to that question. But that wouldn’t be appropriate tonight. Not when they’d be waking up with the kids in the morning. Sure, they could try to get up before Cooper and Stella, but it was risky, and he didn’t want to confuse them. “Here.” He tossed his tux jacket onto the banister at the bottom of the stairs, then unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off.
Addison’s eyes widened, and she certainly didn’t look away. Her eyes on him heated his blood nearly instantly. But that wasn’t what this was about. He handed her the shirt. “Take off your dress and put this on,” he said, handing it over.
She took the shirt with a little smile. “Okay,” she said. “But I don’t have panties, if you remember.”
Gabe had to swallow hard at that reminder. Oh yeah. “Stay here.” He bounded up the stairs as quietly as he could and returned with a pair of his boxers. “These will work for tonight, right?” He did not want her going home because he’d literally torn off her thong during sex.
She smirked. “Yeah, these will work. I assume we’ll be having breakfast with your mother?”
He nodded. “I’m sure.”
“Well, this will be interesting.”
That was one word for it. Wonderful was another. But instead of saying that, Gabe wrapped an arm around her waist and dipped her back, planting a hot but quick kiss on her lips. “I’m glad you’re staying,” he told her huskily.
She nodded. “Me, too.”
He pulled her upright and pointed her toward the powder room. “You can change in there.”
Addison glanced at the sleeping kids. “I think I’m okay here.” She kicked off her heels and reached behind her for the zipper on her dress.
“Logan might walk in,” Gabe said, but he didn’t actually make any move to stop her from unzipping and letting the dress pool at her feet. She was bare naked now, thanks to the ripped thong, and yeah, he wasn’t sorry about that at all at the moment.
She watched him as she slipped on his shirt, buttoned it, and then pulled the boxers up underneath. “There. All good.”
Except for the fact that Gabe had never seen anything as beautiful and sexy as Addison wearing his shirt and standing in his mother’s foyer with their kids sleeping ten feet away.
Until she crossed the room and picked up Stella in her arms and then lay down on the couch, settling Stella alongside her on the cushions. Addison smiled up at him as she reached to her hair for the clips holding the elegant twist up. She pulled them loose, letting her hair fall, and tossed the clips onto the table. Then she laid her head on the pillow and pulled the blanket up over her daughter and her.
And that was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Addison cuddling Stella on the couch in his mother’s living room while wearing his shirt.
The desire that slammed into him took his breath. And it was new desire. It wasn’t the red-hot physical and sexual desire but rather a soul-deep want that encompassed everything from the sweet smile Addison gave him to the soft snore from Stella.
He took off his belt and toed off his shoes, then followed suit, scooping up Cooper and settling down with him on the other couch. Thankfully, Cooper had chosen the longer of the two couches, and Gabe was able to stretch out his legs as he wrapped an arm around his son.
“Night, Gabe,” Addison said softly.
“Night, Ad,” he said. Then added, “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
He was, somehow, able to bite back the other words he wanted to say. The ones that went something like, Marry me, Addison, and do this with me forever.
The morning after the masquerade ball was more of the same feel-good, sunshine-and-rainbows, I-want-this-forever stuff.
They had breakfast together in his mom’s kitchen. They all helped make the French toast and bacon and eggs and hash browns. The kids helped stir the batter, Caroline was in charge of the griddle, Gabe manned the frying pan, and Addison handled the scrambled eggs. While still wearing his shirt and boxers.
But the only comment anyone made about it was Stella asking why Addison was wearing a shirt that was too big. And when Logan walked in and saw Addison’s long, bare legs.