Darker was better when it came to stretch marks. Maybe they could just keep the lights off, and she could keep her shirt on. That was the best idea.
Sex post-children was such a complicated maze.
She toed off her shoes, her toes sinking into the warm carpet, and closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, Travis was right there. His blue eyes soft, his perfectly symmetrical face held a totally gentle smile. Yes, this man was captivating, and sex in pressed slacks.
He moved his hands to her shoulders. “You’re tense.”
Well, wasn’t that just the understatement of the century?
“I don’t think we can do this the way you want,” she said, her words as soft as the look in his eyes.
She meant the feelings and the bedroom activities and the kisses…those amazing kisses.
“We’re already doing this the way I want,” he replied, stilling only a moment before he started working a knot where her shoulders met her arm. That knot that always seemed to be there, but that she forgot about most days.
“How do you want to do this?”
He moved away, just a little. Just enough for her to feel the emptiness he’d filled before by being so close.
“We don’t have to do this, Rach.” His eyes were pure heat. His words sincere.
“I know.” She swallowed. She wanted to do it. But there were reasons, a lot of reasons she’d carefully laid out in her mind, as to why they needed to press the brakes on whatever this was between them.
“Can we talk?” she asked.
“We can always talk.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead, his hands still working their wonderful, delicious magic.
“Let’s start with my kids.” She crossed her arms under her breasts.
“Rach.” With an abundance of care, he unwound her arms, wrapping his own around her waist, holding her up so she didn’t have to do it all alone.
“I love your boys,” he whispered. “But I don’t want to talk about them right now.”
She gripped the soft cotton of his button-up shirt.
Apparently, he owned two. This one was blue. “If we do this, we’ll wreck everything for them.”
“What we’re doing right now has absolutely nothing to do with them.” He tilted her chin up, running his hands over the curve of her hips. “Just us. It’s just us here.”
He was so wrong. Oh, so very wrong.
“Everything I do has to do with them. I have to take them into consideration. Always. What happened in the hallway?” She swallowed the thick cotton in her throat. “I can’t lose control like that. They could have seen.”
What if Brady or Kellan had come home early? How would she have explained what she was doing?
“You’re serious?” Travis asked, looking like she’d struck him with a smack of her palm.
For the first time that afternoon, his expression went distant. He dropped his hands from her.
Maybe they could just go back to bickering. That was so much easier than this.
“I’ve never been more serious.” She crossed her arms around herself again because…she had to.
“Rach…” He shoved his thumbs into the waistband of his slacks. “I…”
“Trav…” She needed him to understand.
