Page 112 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

By the time we returned to the penthouse, Lincoln was in the private lobby with his shoes on and his keys in his hand.

“It’s my turn to have her time,” he said.

I looked between them. “Am I being passed around like a library book?”

Hudson made a low amused sound behind me.

Lincoln took me to a small cafe tucked off a side street and ordered chips with salt and vinegar, all because I’d mentioned earlier that I wanted them.

He sat opposite me in a booth and watched me dip chips into a milkshake.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I said.

“Like what?”

“Like I’m inventing cuisine.”

“You put salt and vinegar on your chips and now you’re dipping them in a milkshake. That is not normal.”

“Pregnant women have been making questionable choices since time began. It’s allowed.”

“Did you do this before you were pregnant?”

I paused with a chip halfway to my mouth. “That’s a dangerous question.”

“Only if you have questionable culinary tastes we need to work on after the babies arrive.”

I laughed. He joined me, and it was the way he looked at me that made my chest hurt.

He leaned forward and brushed his thumb over my lip. Then he moved his hand to his mouth and sucked off the milkshake he’d taken from me.

My heart fluttered. I could nearly imagine leaning forward and begging him and Hudson to want me forever. Telling them how frightened I was. How often I woke convinced this was a mistake they would recover from before I did. How much I wanted them to stay in my life, and not only for the sake of the babies.

Instead, I said, “Did it taste nice?” Why on earth am I so awkward?

He looked down. “Everything about you tastes nice.”

I took a slurp of my milkshake, because, again, awkward. My tongue ran over my lips.

“You’re sloppy.” He lifted his hand and swiped at the cold on my lips. Before he could raise it to his mouth, I caught his wrist and licked it off without thinking better of it.

His pupils widened.

The cafe noise faded under the sudden bloom of whiskey.

I released him and sat back, cheeks burning. “I did that on purpose.”

Lincoln’s voice dropped. “Keep doing it.”

“I plan to.”

He leaned back, jaw tight, eyes bright with amusement and very little restraint. “Good. I want to lick every drop from everywhere.”

Heat slid through me so fast I had to reach for my water. “You’re a menace.”

“Aye.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”