Dampness between my thighs.
My body melting beneath his.
And I decide I really,reallydon’t give a fuck about this braid, about all the reasons this is a bad idea, all the ways it can go wrong.
I just want to kiss him, to touch him, tohavehim.
“Finn,” he murmurs.
“Now…we just braid the pieces,” I murmur back.
We do it together, our fingers tangling, the braid slowly coming together, strand by strand by strand.
“What do you think?” I ask quietly when we’ve finished.
“I think…” He turns me in the circle of his arms, his eyes coming to mine. “I think that we make a good team. And”—he presses his lips to my forehead—“I think you are so fucking beautiful it takes my breath away.”
My cheeks go hot. “I?—”
“Beautiful.” Another kiss to my forehead, to my cheek, my jaw.
“Rhodes,” I whisper.
Or maybe it’s a plea.
He shifts and then our lips are the barest hairsbreadth apart.
I lean in?—
“Daddy!” Chloe shouts from upstairs. “I’m ready for my books!”
We jerk apart.
He touches my cheek. “Hold that thought.”
“I can go read?—”
His lips press to the tip of my nose. “Holdthat thought.”
“O-okay.”
His eyes come to mine and his mouth kicks up. “Beautiful.”
A sigh before he cups my cheek.
Then he’s pulling away, going upstairs, and I listen to Chloe’s excited voice start negotiating how many books he’s going to read her.
“Hold that thought,” I whisper, touching the spot where he kissed me.
Beautiful.
Twenty-Two
Rhodes
I pausein the doorway of Chloe’s room and smile.
She’s sprawled diagonally across the mattress with one arm over her face, her stuffed rabbit that’s seen far better days tucked beneath the other.
