He didn’t want Mia to hear him, and she wasn’t paying attention to him. She had Clara close to her face, pointing out another window. The baby pulled at her hair, and Mia encouraged her in whispers, talking to Clara, tapping on the window to show her a bird. Or tree. Or something.

“Jared, I have to call you back.”

He holstered the phone without waiting for a response and moved to Mia, threaded his fingers into her hair, and pressed his lips to her now agape mouth. She closed her lips onto his, and the intensity shot straight to his groin.

Hell, he couldn’t help himself. His woman and his baby. It looked right. It felt right. Like it might have been if he had a normal life, and he wasn’t a man who went to work strapped to the hilt like a warrior, and she wasn’t a job gone rogue that he’d brought home.

He could kiss her all day long. Her plump lips fulfilled him. The kiss washed away the pining that ate at him when he didn’t touch her. Thank God she kissed him back. He’d be completely messed up in the head if she didn’t.

With his eyes still open, he stared at her, so close, so beautiful. Hers were closed, and he absorbed her warmth as she teased over his lips. His heart beat faster when she relaxed, molding into him while still holding his baby. Clara played with her hair with uncoordinated jerks, and Mia didn’t stop her. It was picture perfect. Straight out of a Disneyland fairy tale. He couldn’t have closed his eyes if he wanted to.

He pressed his forehead against hers. “I don’t want you to stay in the guest room.”

“And I don’t want to.” She locked eyes with him, and his gut tightened.

“I’m not asking you to play family. I get it. You don’t do family. And I… can’t. But I also can’t see you across the room and not want to hold you. You’re a crazy woman for even suggesting the couch.” He grazed a finger down her cheek. “I can’t sleep in the same house as you and not hold your sweet-ass body to mine.”

Actually, he wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing she was anywhere else in the world. He needed her under his roof, under his watch. While this job was a go, he would make sure she was by his side.

Weighty seconds ticked by. Each heavy lungful of air burned in his chest, and his heart felt thick. After she ignored him all day and played down every attempt at his strained subtleties, he should have been apprehensive about bearing it all. But he wasn’t. It was a simple and basic need. Her with him.

“Lunch is ready. I’ll heat up a bottle,” Judith called up from the kitchen.

Rich smells drifted down the hallway. The spice and grease of fried chicken. The doughy aroma of biscuits fresh from the oven.