Page 155 of Deacon

Slow this time. Deep enough to make me lean into him, but patient, his mouth moving over mine without the urgency that usually turned every thought in my head to static. His hands slid over my sides and waist, settled at my back, and the tenderness of it undid me faster than heat ever could.

Just when I started to sink fully into him, he stepped back.

The sound that escaped me was embarrassingly needy.

Jackson chuckled, forehead nearly touching mine. “That’s not what I wanted for tonight, Princess. Take your bath. We got time for me to rock your world later.”

My jaw dropped. “So sure of yourself, are you?”

The wicked grin finally appeared. “Oh, you bet I remember the noises I could get you to make under me. Those memories got me through plenty of showers and lonely nights.”

“Jackson.” I shoved at his chest, fighting a smile. “Out. Our daughter is in the next room.”

He left laughing, and I stood there in the candlelight with my heart too full and my nerves humming.

The water was perfect.

I sank into the heat until my shoulders finally stopped trying to live somewhere near my ears. The bath salts smelled expensive and clean, and when I reached for my tablet, the quiet felt almost indulgent.

From down the hall came Jackson and Jade’s voices. I couldn’t make out every word, only the rhythm of them together. Jade shot something back sharp enough to make him laugh, and that big, easy sound traveled through the apartment and settled somewhere tender in me.

That was what felt like home.

Not the apartment. Them.

For years, Jade and I had filled every room just fine on our own. I had never looked at our life and thought it lacked something because Jackson wasn’t in it. We had built something good because we loved each other and because we had to. Hearing him laugh with her now didn’t make those years smaller. It added something I had stopped letting myself imagine.

That distinction mattered.

I opened my reading apps, remembered the upcoming cabin trip, and immediately decided Dad’s no-electronics rule did not apply to a tablet loaded with books. The woods could have me, but they were getting me with a full battery.

A few pay-per-chapter ads had tempted me lately until I started recognizing how many of those stories had been lifted from actual authors. Now, if something caught my attention, I searched the character names and premise until I found where the story really belonged.

The latest stolen version I’d seen had been called Reclaiming Lila. Before that came Losing Blue, which Evan had found hysterical for obvious reasons. I’d tracked both originals down, subscribed where the authors actually posted them, and downloaded them for the cabin.

If the next one featured a ridiculous biker named Deacon, I was throwing the tablet straight into the bath.

A few chapters later, someone knocked softly.

“Mom?”

“Yeah?”

Jade cracked the door open enough to lean against the frame. “Dad left. I’m gonna study a little more and then head to bed.”

I frowned. “He left?”

She shrugged. “Said you were supposed to relax and he wasn’t gonna push his luck.”

Warmth slipped through me before I could stop it. “Okay. Make sure you start on your history paper too.”

Her face fell immediately. “Already did. And let me tell you, if I ever need material to put me to sleep, capitalism versus communism would absolutely do it.”

I laughed. “History is not that bad.”

She looked at me like I had personally assigned the paper. “You say that like I didn’t just write three pages on economic ideology and want to walk into the sea.”

That got another laugh out of me before she disappeared down the hall.