“Try to get some sleep.”
“I don’t think I can, Chance. I want my baby home.” A few moments later, sleepily she said, “Did I ever tell you about the first time I let Tiffany sleep somewhere other than her own bed?”
“No, I don’t think that you did.”
“She was two and my parents had finally acknowledged that they had a grandchild and wanted some bonding time. At first I wasn’t going to let her go but then Lena convinced me that I should. I barely slept that entire night knowing she wasn’t in the house. I finally was able to sleep only after going into her room and stretching out on the floor beside her little bed. Now isn’t that pathetic?”
“No, it sounds to me like you were a mother who had missed her child and needed the connection.” After a few moments he added, “It works like that for adults, too, you know.”
She lifted her head and met his gaze. “Does it?”
“Yes.” He reached out and stroked her cheek with one finger. “You slept in my bed that one night but that’s all it took for me to get used to your presence. All this week I found myself reaching out, as if you were still there, wanting that connection.”
Kylie’s stomach knotted when her gaze slipped to his mouth and she remembered how that mouth had driven her crazy in so many different ways. She remembered the taste of it, the feel of it. She also remembered something else. The amount of love she had in her heart for this one particular man.
“Oh, Chance.” She reached up and tightened her arms around his neck at the same time she leaned up for his kiss.
With agonizing slowness he took her mouth, claimed it, branded it. His tongue made love to her mouth. The more it did, the more she became fully aware of the steady, strong arms holding her. They were protective arms. They were arms that would shield her from any storm, whether raging or mild. They were arms that would always be there to hold her when she needed to be held. It had been late in coming but she realized that now.
Moments later when he lifted his mouth she let out a satisfied sigh. “Thanks. I needed that.”
He looked at her and smiled. “So did I.”
Determined to maintain control of the situation he then said, “Now let’s try to get some rest so we can be well-rested to give our kids hell when they come back home.”
“Yes, our kids.” Kylie said the words as if they suddenly had new meaning to her.
As he pulled her closer she settled against his comforting muscular form and believed that from this time forward somehow everything was going to be all right.
“MOM?”
“Dad?”
Chance slowly opened his eyes. Had he been dreaming or had he actually heard Tiffany’s and Marcus’s voices? The first thing he noticed was that he was stretched out on the sofa with Kylie lying beside him, her head resting on his chest. That would not have been so bad if his hand wasn’t possessively cupping her bottom or one of her legs wasn’t entwined with his. Even her hand was resting pretty darn close to the fly on his jeans.
He sucked in a deep breath, letting the scent of her fill his nostrils. She was still asleep, but he could remember a time that weekend when he had patiently waited for her to wake up so that he could—
“Dad?”
“Mom?”
Chance swallowed as he slowly glanced across the room and his gaze lit on two pairs of curious eyes. He blinked. No, make that three.
He quickly sat up and the movement startled Kylie out of a sound sleep. “Chance, what’s wrong?” she asked sluggishly, slowly coming awake.
He shifted his gaze from the three sets of eyes to her still-drowsy ones. “Wake up, sweetheart, the kids are back,” he whispered.
She blinked. “What?”
“The kids are home.”