Page 125 of But For You

We didn’t even get out of bed to eat.

He left me to shower and cook while he picked up the kids from school. I didn’t even realize it was raining outside until they got home and came through the door, looking like a band of drowned rats.

Sam just glowered at me as he ordered everyone to strip down to their skivvies and run to opposite bathrooms. Once the kids were showered and changed, he did the same since he had rolled out of bed, sticky and sweaty and smelling like sex, to go get them. He came shuffling back out to the living room and collapsed on the couch in old jeans, a T-shirt, and sweat socks. His eyes were heavy-lidded, his hair was sticking up, and he was flushed from the heat of the hot water. He was completely irresistible, and standing there, leaning over the back of the couch, I could barely keep my hands off him.

I loved looking at him—the auburn lashes resting on his cheeks, the rise and fall of the massive chest that held his great heart, and the power and strength in the man, even at rest. When I traced down his nose with my finger, he scrunched up his face, and I couldn’t help leaning over and kissing his forehead. The rumbling purr made me smile.

He was exhausted, and since he had been awake for a full twenty-four hours, I was not surprised. But still, when Hannah shook him a couple of hours later, he woke up. The trumpeting sound she made caused a little bit of wincing from the volume, but since I knew it was just to announce her entrance, I didn’t ask her to stop. I was not a fan of being told to quiet down or calm down, so I tried not to do it to my kids. I was loud, and I was raising loud people. And they were confident in being loud because they both could be. They were both weird because they could be. They felt safe to be exactly who they were, and that made me deliriously happy.

“What are we doing?” Sam asked, his voice full of gravel, as he sat up on the couch, rubbing his right eye with the heel of his hand.

He had not been in a deep sleep because, honestly, for that, he had to be in his bed with me either wrapped around him or him spooned to my back. Only with me was he completely relaxed, so napping on the couch had not put him all the way out. But it was enough to make him rumpled and bleary as he fought his way back to full consciousness.

Hannah’s flourish of horns, or what she approximated that sound to be, had jarred both him and Chilly, who had been curled up on his chest. They had made an adorable picture together—the big, strong man and his little, fluffy cat. It was one I would have been murdered over taking, so I’d refrained.

“J?” he grunted again, yawning, eyes watering for a minute as he clasped his forearms behind his head and did the all-over body stretch.

“Halloween costumes,” I explained from behind him as Hannah skipped around in front of her father and struck a pose.

It was cute how Chilly meowed indignantly and did his own stretch before jumping off the couch. Clearly, he was irritated that he had been woken up for a fashion show.

Sam cleared his throat. “Um, not sure.”

Hannah was still holding her head-tilted-in-place, arms-thrust-forward, curved-back, worship-me position for him. It was, I guessed, her version of a runway-model stance. The fact that she more resembled Frankenstein, ready to rip someone’s head off, was hardly her fault.

I leaned over close to his ear and whispered, “Ninja fairy.”

He grunted and nodded. “Well, that explains the fuchsia wings, the glitter ninja outfit, the wand, and the sai.”

“The what?”

“The knives there.” He tipped his head. “Like the ones Elektra carries.”

“Elektra fan, are you?” I learned something new about the man every day.

“Are you kidding?” he said like I was stupid.

“Should I be worried that you have a fetish for hot women in red leather?”

“I think, actually, Daredevil wore red leather too.” He grinned lazily, tipping his head back so he could see me. “But if you want to wear any kind of leather for me, I’d be more than happy.”

“Stop flirting with me. Your daughter’s gonna cramp up.”

He was chuckling as he turned his attention back to Hannah, studying her. “Okay, so you’re gonna throw razor-sharp knives at people and, if they get hurt, wave your magic wand and make them all better?”

She unfroze and turned big eyes and a bigger smile on her father. “Yes!”

Obviously, he was brilliant, and the way she launched herself at him, crossing blades and a sparkly wand behind his neck as she squeezed him, told him so. I could not stifle the sigh as he hugged and kissed her.

He put her on his lap as Kola ran out and froze in the same place Hannah had, on the rug in front of the fireplace.

“I like your cutlass,” Sam told his son.

“I’m a pirate.”

“I can see that,” he told him, turning to look at me with furrowed brows.

“What?”