I couldn’t wait.
“I’l cal the agent tomorrow, get him to fast-track it,” he told me.
“What are we gonna do with three bedrooms and two and a half baths?” I asked.
“Fil them with babies,” he answered and the bel y swoop dipped deeper.
Stil , just to be annoying, I said, “This is the only child I’m having. Morning sickness sucks.”
I heard him give a low, soft laugh before he informed me,
“We’re havin’ four kids.”
“Four!” I cried, my head tilting back to look at him in the moonlight.
I loved looking at Vance any time but the best time was in the moonlight, when the planes and angles of his face were shadowed, both hard and soft but al beautiful, like he was to me.
His chin tipped down and he looked at me. “Yeah, four.”
“No way am I gonna have four kids.”
“Four’s a good number.”
“You carry four children in your body, puking every five minutes from morning until noon.”
He grinned then his mouth touched mine. “Okay, then three.”
I thought about it, pressing my lips together then I said,
“Al right. Three.”
I saw, even in the moonlight, the looks of satisfaction and amusement that passed on his face and I realized he’d only ever wanted three kids.
He’d just played me.
“You’re annoying,” I told him.
“You’ve mentioned that before,” he said back.
His hand went up my back and into my hair, tipping my head down and then pressing my face into his throat. It moved away from my head but stayed tangled in my hair and I felt his fingers start to play with a tendril.
We kept our silence and lay stil and comfortable in each other’s arms.
Final y, I asked, “You tired?”
“Wiped,” he answered.
I pressed deeper and kissed his throat.
“Any chance of nighttime sex?” I asked there.
He waited a beat then dropped to his back, taking me with him. In a flash, his hands were on my nightie, going up and then the nightie was gone.
“You want it, you gotta do al the work,” he answered.
I smiled.
I wanted it so I was wil ing to do al the work.
In fact, I didn’t often get a chance to do al the work, so I was looking forward to it.
*
It was some time later, I was on top, Vance inside me. I was moving at my pace and enjoying every stroke. One of his hands was at my hip, the other one between my legs, creating magic. “Closer, Princess,” he muttered and I leaned toward him.
The fingers on his Magic Hand moved and I had to stop my descent to throw back my head and moan.
“Closer,” he repeated when I’d stopped moaning (but I had started panting) and I got closer.
My face was in his face, his hand not between my legs went from my hip into my hair.
It fisted right before he said, his voice husky, his breath short, “I love to watch you ride me. Do you know how fuckin’
beautiful you are?”
“Do you know how beautiful you are?” I returned on a pant because he was seriously causing some sensations between my legs and I was about ready to explode.
He didn’t answer my question, instead, against my mouth, he noted, “You’re close.”
I nodded.
“I wanna hear it,” he told me, his voice had moved from husky to hoarse and I knew what he meant.
“Vance,” I whispered, like I always whispered, always, right before he made me come.
*
“Jules,” Vance said sharply in my ear, his arm, tight around my midriff, was shaking me.
I jolted awake, sweating and breathing heavily. When I opened my eyes, the shocking, bloody images from my subconscious were stil vivid.
“I’m awake,” I whispered but I was trembling and I felt Vance’s lips against my neck and his arm stayed tight. “I’m okay,” I told him.
“I want you to see someone about these fuckin’
nightmares,” he growled against my skin.
I had nightmares about what happened, mainly, that I shot someone in the head and kil ed them. Sometimes, I’d dream about me getting shot but mostly it was about me taking another person’s life.
“After this current drama is over,” I told him.
“Promise me, Jules,” he demanded.
I scooted backwards and nestled my bottom into his groin. “I promise.”
We fel silent and I waited for him to fal asleep like he normal y did after he woke me from a nightmare.
He didn’t fal asleep.
Instead, he said, “You did what you did because you are who you are. I wouldn’t change one piece of you. You did it for Roam. You did it for survival.”
“I know,” I said softly.
Vance pressed closer. If you’d asked me if he could get closer, I would have said no but he did.
“He was scum, Princess,” he murmured to the back of my head. “If we’d had two minutes to get to him, if Luke and I made it to him before shots were fired, either one of us would have taken him down. And doin’ it wouldn’t give either of us nightmares.”
“I know,” I repeated.