“That isn’t exactly what I meant,” I told him. His arms went around me and he rolled to his back, taking me with him.

Then his hand sifted into my hair, fisted gently, and my head came up.

“I would hope not, darlin’, seein’ as every time you take me in your mouth, the last thing I do is melt.”

Hmm.

This was very true.

“This is true.”

And, again, he grinned.

And, it must be said, I liked it when my man grinned.

Then he brought my mouth down to his. He kissed me hard and I kissed him harder.

Then I took my time kissing other parts of him.

And when I did, those parts did not melt.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Quiet Like

“THANK YOU,” I mouthed to the clerk at Dillard’s in Park Meadows Mall who was handing me my bag, which held six pairs of boys swim trunks. This purchase was made because, in two days, Brock, Joey, Rex, and I were boarding a plane headed for Aruba and I’d found upon asking them to check that the boys were growing so fast none of their old swim trunks fit.

The clerk smiled at me as I turned away and I smiled back. I had my phone to my ear and a man named Raul was talking to me through it.

“It’s going to take another week,” he said.

“Um…” I started, moving through the store and already feeling Brock getting pissed even though he wasn’t there. In fact, he was nowhere near and he didn’t know that the contractor we hired to renovate my basement in order to build another bedroom downstairs was delaying even further.

However, since we contacted Raul the last week in February, this was the third delay, taking us to the last week in March. Brock was not happy with the first delay. He was unhappier with the second and I had a feeling his unhappiness would significantly escalate with this one.

We needed this room because Olivia had caved, or, at least her attorneys had talked her into doing so mostly because, with Dade out of the picture, if she racked up a huge bill fighting a case she had no hope of winning, there was no one around to pay it.

The stuff Dade gave Brock was useful but even without it, Hector had dug up so much dirt on her, Brock was sure to win. Hector had found they were often late to school and they were often hanging around after school because she was late picking them up.