“A bug will fly in that pretty mouth,” I teased. “Or is that an invitation for me to fill it?”
She snapped it closed, cheeks infusing with heat. “So, you want decoration,” she coughed after a moment.
“Yeah, pictures or tick-tacks, whatever you want.” I waved at the wall. “We can get furniture for you to put crap on too. Like pumpkins for fall.”
“It’s knick-knacks, tatko!” Brady called from behind the closed door.
At the same time, Poppy and I responded with, “Go to bed!”
I smiled again. She bit her lip to keep from joining.
“Pumpkins.” She shook her head. “What’s gotten into you?”
The door squeaked.
“Brady! It’s past your bedtime,” Poppy huffed.
I snapped my fingers. “Son. Bed. Now.”
There was no anger in my voice. The command was a firm directive.
Brady scampered back, shut his door, and there was no more noise.
I braced myself for Poppy’s wrath. It never came. She gave me a tired smile.
“He listens to you,” she sighed.
My head lolled to the side. “Is that a bad thing?”
Poppy waved her hand. “No…it’s nice. Being a single parent can be…exhausting.”
A groan caught in my throat. When was she going to admit to herself that she wasn’t anymore? I was here for her.
“Go take your shower. We can talk about the house later.” I rose and went to the couch. There wasn’t anything on TV, but I mindlessly flipped through the channels to give Poppy the semblance of space. She hadn’t complained about using the portable toilet, but she’d said more than once how badly she wanted a shower.
I shifted in my seat, thinking of the water streaming on her naked flesh.
My dick pulsed against my jeans. He liked that idea too.
The buzz of my phone interrupted those thoughts.
“What?” I snapped, answering.
“That bathroom done?” Rayko demanded.
I shot a look toward the closed door. “Yeah.”
“Okay, so why aren’t you here?” my second growled. “I’m barely keeping the shit together.”
Fucking hell, if my empire couldn’t run without me for three damn days, what was the point? It wasn’t like I hadn’t been around, either. I ground my molars and stared at the bright pixels on the flat screen.
“We need to do something about the commissioner,” Rayko added, voice lowered. “You said he needed a nudge.”
He did.
The stall tactics, while they made sense to broker the better bargain, weren’t how we played. In the end, the answer was to allow the shopping complex on our turf. Mancini would have already finalized the details.
Damn him.
