“Have you ever seen her wear herself out this way?” I snickered and tweaked her nose.
He brushed her curls back from her forehead, a fondness, so pure it almost made me stop breathing, clear in his eyes. “No. I suppose one night of going to bed without a shower won’t hurt her.”
“Nah, she’s fine.” I dragged the sheet up to cover her.
Was this really my life now? I was still flying high from what he’d said earlier, and my heart melted as he kissed her goodnight on her tiny temple. Who knew one littleI love youwould sound so great?
“What?” he asked, touching my cheek. I hadn’t noticed him straightening and moving to stand directly in front of me.
Hell, I’d been grinning as if I’d won a million bucks. I had something even better. “Nothing.”
Shit, he really was sunburned. I ran a finger along the mounds of his bright pink cheeks. Now that he didn’t have Ginny in his arms, I could tell he was moving gingerly. The sunset spilled in the windows, dashing brilliant oranges and purples around the room, and he matched. We’d stayed until the park closed because everyone was having so much fun. I couldn’t bring myself to regret our day, but I wished I’d been more diligent with him.
Nodding toward the door, I headed out into the hallway. Bernadette followed us and stared with her tail wagging, which had me chuckling.
“Go stay with your girl,” Keaton told her.
Bernadette sat down on her fluffy butt.
As much as Keaton was drawing me in simply by existing, we had left our poor pup home most of the day. That wouldn’t do. “I’ll take her for a walk. Why don’t you shower? Cold water only, okay? Daddy’s orders.”
He flushed, although, the only reason I could tell was because he gazed shyly at the floor, and I kissed his cheek as he nodded in agreement.
“Love you.”
His eyebrows flew upward and his mouth fell open. “Huh?”
I put my hand over my lips to stifle a laugh, even though an entire parade probably could’ve marched through here without waking Ginny.
“Are we saying that all the time now?” His nostrils flared, and I couldn’t quite tell if he loved or hated that idea, but he was definitely having a reaction to it.
“Yep.” I smiled the whole way along the mile loop I took Bernadette on. Plastic-bag duty couldn’t kill the wind in my sails. When I got home, Keaton was in the kitchen, probably snacking, since we’d eaten dinner hours ago at the park. I left him to his own devices and rushed through showering and slipping on my pajama pants.
He’d saidI love you.
I couldn’t stop being ecstatic about it, even though they were three little words anyone could say. Keaton didn’t say them, though. And he’d said them tome. I did a weird dance that vaguely resembled the Electric Slide in the hallway and almost fell down the stairs because I was in such a rush to get to him.
I found my boyfriend, the one wholovedme, tossing pieces of chicken breast to Bernadette in the kitchen and didn’t have an iota of guilt about quietly spying on him. The muscles in his arms rippled in a mouthwatering way as he tossed another piece of meat.
“Who’s a good girl? You are!” he said, grinning when she jumped to catch a wild pitch in midair. Shewhuffedhappily. I’d never seen his smile so big. But I held in a wince. His entire face was brilliant pink. The shower had brought the full burn out.
Damn.
While there had been no weaseling out of redoing the sunscreen for Ginny—neither one of us would stand for her fun day to be ruined by unnecessary pain—a few times Keaton had found somewhere else to be when I’d dragged the bottle out. It was both adorable and exasperating that a grown man had been having so much fun he didn’t want to stop.
I leaned against the counter near him and crossed my arms. “Boy, you’re in trouble, you know that, right?”
He shivered and gaped at me. He was also in a pair of pajama pants. The black cotton clung to his solid thighs and made me want to stare forever at his crotch. While his naked chest was fantastic, it was as pink as his face, and I suspected his shoulders and back would be in the same condition.
“Uh.” He ran a hand down his face and flinched. “Why, Daddy?”
I went past him to the fridge and grabbed a clean mug off the rack on the counter. The ice was loud as itclinkedinto the mug from the dispenser.
He drew his bottom lip between his teeth as I stalked closer, and my dick went on red alert. I wanted to fuck that mouth tonight, along with his perfect ass. I wanted inside him in every way possible. He whimpered when I ran an ice cube along his right shoulder, several expressions dancing across his face before he closed his eyes in bliss and hummed. The tent that pushed out the front of his pants in real time had me feeling on top of the world. Was there anything more satisfying than watching him get hard for me?
Perhaps a few things, but this was definitely in the top three.
“Because you disobeyed me today. And then—” I dragged the ice down his chest to his burned nipple, and he jolted away, but I followed him until he stopped. “—you got hurt.” He whimpered and twisted his torso, but he didn’t move his feet or really try to escape as I danced the ice around his tight bud.
