Marjorie was, at least, a good distraction.
She could give thanks for the occasional exhaustion she felt after staying up with the baby all night, because it stopped her from obsessing about Clark.When she wasn’t thinking about Marjorie, she fantasized like a teenage girl.All over again.
Except now she was old enough to do something about her fantasies.
She made herself a sandwich and hid up in her room instead of joining Clark for dinner, which felt cowardly.Particularly since she kept Marjorie with her, giving her a bottle in bed while she ate the sandwich with her other hand.He could’ve come looking for her.He didn’t.
Maybe he needed a reprieve as badly as she did.
When she finished she crept silently out of the room and into the nursery.She read Marjorie a book, gave her a bath in her bathroom, and rocked her for a long while before putting her in the crib.
It was very unusual for Clark to stay away, and she felt guilty that he was doing it now.
But as she exited the space she realized that the baby monitor was still in Clark’s room.
She would have to sneak in and grab it.She hadn’t heard him come up the stairs, so she was reasonably sure he was not there yet.His bedroom door was cracked open, and she walked in just as the bathroom door opened and Clark stepped out, his lower half barely covered by a towel.
“Oh,” she said, standing there staring at him like a deer caught in the headlights.
He had just gotten out of the shower.His hair was wet, his skin glistening.His muscles were the epitome of masculine glory, his chest the sort of sculpted wonder that poets could compose sonnets about.Or at least, she could, and she didn’t particularly like poetry.A shameful thing for an English teacher to admit, but it just didn’t move her.
However, the stanzas created inside her body by the ripple of his ab muscles were really making her rethink.
“What are you doing in here?”
“The baby monitor,” she said, gesturing to it on the nightstand.
“Oh, Ellie, we are really in trouble now.”
The thunder rolled outside.Like a commandment.
Without thinking about it, she closed the door, slowly and softly until it clicked.
“Are you sure you want this?”he asked.
“Yes,” she whispered.
He walked toward her, dropping the towel and exposing the rest of his body to her hungry gaze.
She was about to say something.Something she shouldn’t say, something very inappropriate—and she wasn’t the kind of person who made comments like that to a lover—when he claimed her mouth.Didn’t wait.Didn’t pause.Didn’t hesitate.
It was a bad idea for all the reasons they’d already discussed.
It was bad.But it was oh so good.It was something she couldn’t turn away from.It was something she didn’t even want to deny.
She wanted him.With everything she had in her.
She wanted him, because he was wonderful.Because he wasperfect.The most beautiful man, the most glorious man, the best caregiver for Marjorie, the most loving brother to Ty, even when Ty was difficult.And by extension, he’d also been there for Melanie.
Most of all, he’d been there for her.
She hadn’t thought of it that way at the time, but Clark was someone she could count on.Clark was always there.Always there when they were bailing out their siblings.Always there when things were as hard as they ever got.
And right now, he was hard against her.Right now, he was everything.
She threw her entire self into the kiss, arching her back against him, letting her breasts rub against that hard chest.She wanted to be naked.
“I haven’t had sex for like, three years,” she said.
