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My stomach drops in relief so fast I go lightheaded. Then a different feeling settles even lower in my belly as I take the phone.

I scroll.

Negative.

Negative.

Negative.

I look up.

We move at the same time.

His mouth crashes into mine, messy, starving. The phone hits the floor. I fist the front of his shirt and he yanks it off over his head without breaking the kiss for more than a second, muttering against my lips, filthy and wrecked.

“Fuck, Blaire. I need you so bad I can’t think. I fucking missed this. Missed being inside you.”

I’m already at his belt. Hands shaking. Leather sliding. His stomach jumps under my knuckles, hot, tight, and he groans like I’ve already got him in my hand.

I need these jeans off him. Need to see what I know is still there. My name inked into his skin.

“Simon,” I hear myself say. “I need-”

“I know. I know, baby. I’ve got you.” His hands are under my shirt, up my back, unhooking my bra with an impatience that would be funny if I could breathe. “Fuck. I gonna put you on that bed and remind you who you belong to. Four years, Blaire. Four fucking years of not getting to have this. I’m going to make uo for every night you spent without me.”

His belt comes free. I get the button. His zipper. He’s so hard already it makes my mouth go dry, thick behind the fabric, and he hisses when my knuckles brush him.

“Shit—easy. You’re going to make me come in my pants again and I actually want to be inside you this time.”

I laugh, and then his mouth is on my throat. My back hits the wall and I don’t care about boxes or midterms or anything except the sound he makes when I finally get my hand around him.

“Mama! Daddy!”

Theo’s voice punches up the stairwell from the basement, bright and demanding and getting closer. We freeze.

Simon’s forehead drops to my shoulder. A sound comes out of him that is not appropriate for a man who is about to be a father in the next eight seconds.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

I yank my hand back like I’ve been burned. My bra is halfway off. His jeans are open. My mouth is swollen. I can feel my pulse everywhere.

“Daddy, the castle fell and the penguin married the wrong dinosaur and I need help!”

Simon zips with a pained groan and tugs his belt on in a hurry before yanking his shirt back on inside out and grabbing his phone off the floor.

I hook my bra, tug my shirt down, and try to look like the only thing I’ve been doing is unpacking.

Theo appears in the doorway, holding an empty shoe box. “I’m hungry.”

Simon won’t look at me. If he looks at me we are going to start laughing or start crying or put Theo in front of a tablet and lock a door, and we cannot do any of those things.

He picks Theo up. His voice comes out almost normal. “Alright, bud. How about we order something for lunch? Tacos?”

“TACOS!” Theo screams in agreement.

They disappear down the hall. I stand in our bedroom with my heart trying to beat out of my throat and my body still lit up like a live wire.

I press my thighs together and exhale through my teeth.