Rooted (Pagano Family #3)(93)
It was a statement room, too be sure. Theo loved it all. It befit the lovely, miraculous gift that was Teresa Joy Wilde.
When Carmen seemed stuck, scanning the room with her mouth open, Theo asked, “Well?”
“It’s…I don’t know. It’s so…” She sighed and regrouped, and Theo realized that she was fighting emotion. “It feels like France. Like a little bit of Hunter’s apartment, and Izzie’s, and…and even Avignon. It’s all here.”
He brushed her hair back over her shoulder and let his hand rest there. “That’s what I thought, too. It’s where she started. Where we started.”
She nodded. “I love it.”
Teresa fussed then and woke, fighting the constraints of her carrier immediately. Carmen sat the carrier on the ground and gathered their daughter into her arms. She went to the dresser. “Diapers? Or do I need the bag?”
“Top drawer.”
She nodded and went about changing Teresa’s diaper. Theo watched, simmering with love for both of his beautiful girls.
When Carmen opened the soiled diaper and lifted Teresa by her legs to replace it, though, Theo felt a sharp pang. He wondered if he would ever get used to the scar on his daughter’s bottom, a long, pink channel through her otherwise petal-perfect skin. While Carmen’s scars fascinated him, made him feel awed by her strength and resilience, Teresa’s made him feel inadequate. She was so precious, and he’d already failed to keep her safe. He should never have allowed Carmen to simply run from him. He should have gone after her right away. He should have fought. If she had stayed in Maine, she would have been safe.
He thought of something Jordan had said after the first time Carmen had broken them apart: Love is not disposable. It’s something you fight for. It’s something you cling to even when literally every other possible choice would be easier.
His wise, young son.
He hadn’t fought hard enough before. But he would fight for his family with everything he had, now and forevermore.
oOo
Late that night, after a quiet, happy afternoon and evening spent beginning to settle into their new life, Theo went back into Teresa’s room, where Carmen was nursing. Mother and daughter sat together in the glider, the light from a small glass lamp with a violet shade casting a calm glow over them both. Teresa nursed with one tiny hand on her mother’s breast, and Carmen gazed down at her, gently petting her dark, dark hair.
Theo leaned on the jamb and watched, his heart aching happily. He said nothing, but Carmen sensed his presence and looked up with a smile.
“Hi,” she whispered. “She’s conking out, I think.”
He came in and squatted in front of her. “Good. I have plans for her mother.”
As predicted, Teresa fell asleep, still latched on. Theo reached up and pressed gently on Carmen’s breast, breaking the suction, and Carmen put the baby on her shoulder. After a few moments, without waking, Teresa burped, a dainty sigh of air.
Theo stood and held out his hands. Carmen sat forward and let him take their daughter. He cuddled her to his chest and closed his eyes, not yet ready to lay her down. He sensed Carmen stand. She kissed his shoulder and left the room. Theo stayed where he was and let peace fill him in every corner.
He finally bestirred himself and laid his daughter in her new crib. He watched her settle back into real sleep and then turned the monitor on and went to look for her mother.
He found her in their bed. Naked. When he came in, she rose onto her knees and turned around, facing the headboard and then lowering onto her hands. She looked over her shoulder at him.
“Christ. You are so beautiful.” He pulled his sweater off and walked to the bed, undoing his belt and jeans as he went. “I thought you were going to make me pay for calling you prim.”
Her smile steamed. “I decided I’d rather show you how wrong you were.”
“Excellent idea.” Already barefoot, he dropped his jeans and climbed onto the bed to kneel behind her.
First, he put his hands on her and simply felt her, caressing her back, and her fabulous ass, her firm, long thighs, the sultry sweep from her hip to her waist and over across her belly—softer than it had been before Teresa, and all the more beautiful for its changes.
Then, with his hands hooked on her shoulders, he bent over her and licked a line from her waist to her neck, groaning with pleasure at the way her body bowed beneath the brush of his tongue. She pushed backwards, pressing her ass against him and shimmying until his erect, pulsing cock was between her legs. “Theo, come on.”
With his head at her shoulder, he murmured, “What do you want, beautiful girl?”
“I want your cock. I want it deep.” Without a word, he guided himself into her with one hand, and she gasped, “Oh, f*ck, yeah. Deep. Go deep.”
When he was as deep as he could possibly get, he pulled out, until only his tip connected them. He clutched her hips in his hands and drove into her again and again, each time as deep as he could, feeling his balls slap against her every time he hit home. She cried out with every inward thrust, finally falling to her elbows and grabbing the slats of his—no, their—headboard in her hands. The bed began to rock and bounce, and he went harder and harder until her cries stopped and she seemed not even to be breathing.
“Carm?” He gasped between thrusts. Their mingled perspiration made her body slick in his hands.