He nipped at my fingers. “I’malreadyvery hard.”
I laughed. “I’m serious, Jagger. Olivia and Amelia are barely settled, and I don’t want them to hear us, or worse, run to your room if they get scared and find the door locked. I want you, too, but you’re going to have to take a raincheck.”
He groaned, and it made me smile.
I raised an eyebrow. “Mr. Always-in-Control needs to demonstrate some self-control. But I’ll help you out with that. I’m going to go home. We could both use a good night’s sleep.”
Jagger pouted.
I pressed my lips to his. “The sitter is coming early tomorrow, right?”
“Yes. Louise. The girls know her pretty well. She’s coming at six. I have a seven o’clock meeting I can’t miss.”
“Skip the gym and come by my apartment on the way to the office. I’ll answer naked and ready to make it up to you in fifteen minutes or less.”
CHAPTER 30
Sutton
“I love when your sleeves are rolled up like that.”
I laid on the bed on my belly, naked, swinging my feet in the air as I watched Jagger get dressed for work. It was six thirty in the morning, and we’d just had a quickie—same as we’d done every morning this week so far.
Jagger finished rolling one sleeve and started the next one. “I don’t have much of a choice today since you tore the button hole taking off my shirt.”
“I was impatient. I wait for you naked every morning, but you come in a full suit.”
“I go straight to the office. What would you like me to come in?”
“-side me?”
His forehead wrinkled, but he quickly got the joke and smiled. Jagger picked up his tie and wrapped it around his neck. “I have a call with my sister’s doctor and Octavia this morning. Catherine is now telling them she plans to go home tomorrow.”
“I thought she’d agreed to stay for a while?”
“She did on Monday, when she was still sedated, but now that they’ve ruled her not a danger to herself or others, they can’t force her to take any meds or stay there, and she wants to leave.”
“What will happen with the girls?”
“It depends on how our conversation goes today, but normally the court makes Catherine do some work on herself—like meet with a psychiatrist and counselor a few times and prove she’s taking her meds regularly—before they’ll even consider reunification. I can’t imagine that would happen sooner than a month or two, but I’ll know more later. I may need to fly down to Ohio tomorrow morning. I need to see her in person if she’s getting out, to assess whether it’s okay for her to be near the kids this quickly, even for a visit. If she’s stable, I’ll bring her back to New York, and she can stay in the guest apartment in my building and visit the kids as much as she wants, as long as someone else is present. But I’m not letting them go back with her too quickly this time.”
“Will you take the girls to Ohio with you?”
Jagger shook his head. “I won’t even let them know I’m going to see her until I figure out if she’s stable. She’s scared them enough, and I don’t want to get their hopes up. Plus, either way, she and I are going to have a long talk that the kids don’t need to hear.”
I slipped from the bed and took over tying his tie as I spoke. “I can hang out with them while you’re gone.”
“Louise can probably watch them. I mentioned that I might need her on weekends when I asked her to come back.”
“I want to do it. I picked up a bunch of hair accessories for us to play around with—butterfly clips, headbands, snap-on extensions…” I tucked Jagger’s tie through the loop and pulled the knot up to his neck. “I like this tie on you. It brings out the blue in your eyes.”
He pressed his lips to my forehead. “Thank you. And that was very sweet of you to pick up all that stuff for my nieces.”
“I had as much fun as they did playing dress-up. It was always one of my favorite things to do as a kid.”
“Oh yeah?” Jagger’s hand snaked around my waist and slid down to grab a handful of my ass. He squeezed hard. “Maybe we should play together. I bet you dressing up would be one of my favorite things, too.”
I laid my hands flat on his chest and bit my lower lip. “I might be able to arrange for a little playtime one morning, if you play your cards right.”
