He loved that Harper was reacting to him and obviously feeling some of the heat and want that he was, but he had to grit his teeth and look up at the ceiling as she finally reached past him, her breast grazing his side— her hard-tipped, nearly-naked-in-that-pajama-top breast.
She leaned back with the bar of soap in hand and looked up at him. She was right there, her sweet, wet body nearly against his. If not for the baby in his arms, he’d have her up against the tile wall and be driving deep in minutes.
But if not for the baby in his arms, she might not be here in the first place.
Except…
“Just so it’s perfectly clear, in case there is any doubt for either of us, the other night when I was on my way over here from the bar,” he said, “I fully intended to come to your front door and knock like I always did. But when you answered, I wasn’t going to say anything except, ‘put your glasses on,’ if you had them off. Then I was going to kiss the hell out of you, strip you naked, and take you on your kitchen table.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes widened, and her lips parted.
“And if that fire hadn’t broken out and I’d had the pleasure of giving you five orgasms in one night, this baby still would have showed up, and we would still have to be figuring this out. I would just already know how sweet you taste and how fucking good you feel and how you sound when you come and if you prefer all fours or riding me.” He couldn’t move his hands to touch her, so he simply leaned in, putting his forehead on hers. “So what I’m saying is that the only thing different now is that we’re going to need to buy a crib today and get this kid to sleep early, and you’re going to have to be a little quieter than I’d like when you come so that we don’t wake him up.”
She was breathing fast, the puffs of air coming quickly against his lips. But she didn’t step back or push him away. And she didn’t deny anything he’d just said. So James tipped his head and met her lips.
He couldn’t kiss her the way he really wanted to, but he felt that it was vital in that moment to show her that not kissing her simply wasn’t an option anymore. Baby or not.
She made a sweet little whimpering sound against his lips and pressed close for just a moment.
And that was enough.
For now.
She wanted it. She knew he wanted it. And they were, by God, going to make this happen.
After baby soap and cribs and stuff.
James straightened, leaned back, and then turned the baby to face her.
Looking slightly dazed, Harper focused on the baby. A tiny smile curled her lips as she looked at him, and that kicked James in the gut. The baby was freaking her out a little—well, the idea of the baby and the complications that were going to come with him—but the way she smiled at the little guy made James melt a little.
Yes, melt.
That wasn’t manly.
He didn’t care.
It was the same way he’d felt when he’d seen her feed Henry bugs the first time. She hadn’t liked doing it. She hadn’t chosen to have to do it. But she’d done it. For him. For Henry, mostly. But because James had brought a lizard and bugs into her life, and instead of telling him to go to hell, she’d just done what needed to be done.
It was the same way he’d felt when he’d first seen her with Fred. She sure didn’t seem like the type to encourage puppy kisses, but the first time she’d picked him up from James after the dog had spent the day with him, she’d squatted in a pale yellow dress and heels and let the dog climb up into her lap, licking and wiggling, clearly over the moon to see her. She’d not only allowed the kisses, she’d leaned in for them.
A woman had never made him melt before.
Not because that wasn’t a manly thing to feel or acknowledge or whatever, but because there just hadn’t been a woman who had been like Harper before.
Women in the past made him laugh. They turned him on. They sometimes even did things like make him breakfast or show up at the station with brownies.
Harper had never once shown up at the station. She’d also never made him brownies. But he still liked everything about her more than he’d ever liked another woman. This was a softer feeling, something that he’d actually seen on the faces of the men he knew who had become husbands and fathers.
Harper Broussard was the one for him.
But he knew she didn’t know that yet.
Harper smiled and talked to the baby as she soaped his feet and legs. James held him firmly as she ran her hands over the baby’s belly and arms and then used just the pads of her fingers on his face, even soaping his hair. James turned when she was done, letting the water rinse the soap bubbles away, then pivoted back and was about to turn the baby so she could get his back.
Just then, however, he peed.
On Harper.
Since they were in the shower it was much less messy than it would have been otherwise. But because she was still wearing clothes, they did end up with more than shower water on them.
“You should definitely take those off the next time we do this,” James said, trying not to laugh.
She sighed. “We need to buy a baby bathtub today, too.”
They probably did. “They make those?” Of course they did. But he thought this shower thing had turned out okay in a few ways.
“They do.”
“Damn. The guy who invented those clearly hadn’t had the pleasure of female help showering with a baby.”
“It was probably a woman.”
He grinned and turned the baby’s back to her.
Finally, the kid was clean, and Harper stepped out first, grabbing a towel and holding it open. He handed the baby over, and she wrapped him up. James ducked his head back under the spray and quickly shampooed and soaped, even with his underwear on. He was tempted to strip them off now. What would she do? She’d freaking ogle him again, and he’d walk around all day with a hard-on, but that was pretty much already where they were with things.
He shut the water off and pulled the curtain back completely.
Harper was just standing there holding the towel-wrapped infant.
He lifted a brow.
She watched the water running off his body.
He lifted a hand and ran it through his wet hair.
She swallowed hard.
“I’m going to need that towel,” he said. He hadn’t thought to bring another in from the closet in the hall.
“He might pee… or worse… on me.”
“He might.”
“Also…”
“Also what?”
“Five orgasms in one night?”
He grinned and stepped out of the tub. He moved toward her, and she backed up until she was against the door with nowhere to go.
He was dripping all over the floor, and the bundle of baby and terrycloth was between them, but James braced a hand on the door over her head, stretching his wet, mostly naked body over her, and leaned in. “Oh, yeah,” he said. Then he took her chin with his finger and thumb and kissed her again.
He was able to go a little deeper and a little longer this time, sliding his tongue over her bottom lip and then in along her tongue, when she opened with a needy moan.
He pulled back after just a few seconds, though. He took the baby from her, enjoying the dazed look on her face again and then taking the towel from around the baby and laying him down on the pile of towels he’d been using as a changing area. He quickly put a new diaper on the baby to prevent any more accidents then dried off before picking the baby up and standing. He turned to Harper.