I duel with my desire to crawl into the bed with her, but I would never take advantage of her like that. In the end, I press a kiss to her forehead before exiting the room and heading back to the couch. Mira set a bed up for me in their spare room, but I’m feeling the couch tonight. I want to stay here with my memories of having Jessica close. I want to replay everything that happened between us today over in my head until sleep claims me. I also want to think about my plan of attack from here on out.
One of the reasons why Jessica and I worked so well together was that I’m the kind of man who’s good with sitting back and giving my woman the space to take control when she wants or needs it. I only tend to step in when the situation calls for it.
This situation we’re in now? It’s calling for me to step the fuck in.
19
Jessica
There’s something different about Jack today. Something that’s got me a little bewildered.
It started when I woke late, just after 9:00 a.m. I never wake that late, so that in itself was disconcerting. The fact I struggled to remember going to bed also puzzled me.
I followed the sound of giggling and found Jack making waffles in the kitchen with the girls. He had another unholy mess going on in here, but my ovaries exploded again at the sight of the girls having fun with him.
Now, I’m sitting at the kitchen table where he set me up with a coffee and strict instructions not to move my ass or there would be hell to pay.
The fact I’m following those instructions is the most baffling thing to me today, but there was just something about the way he ordered me around.
Jack doesn’t generally order anyone to do anything.
Except me.
He sometimes used to boss me into things, and whenever he did, I knew he meant business.
Oh, shit.
I sit up straight.
That’s what this is.
This is Jack meaning business.
“Okay, girls,” he says as he brings the waffles to the table. “Who wants ice cream with their waffles?”
Olivia looks like she might wet herself with excitement. Her little arms go up as she squeals, “Me!”
Hazel eyes her older sister and wiggles around in her chair, babbling her wish for ice cream. She’s just as excited as Olivia.
As for me, I don’t want ice cream. I don’t want waffles. And I sure as hell don’t want the butterflies in my stomach. They’re not the good kind of butterflies.
They would be the good kind if it was any man other than Jack standing in this kitchen ruining my ovaries. Since it’s not, I need to have a stern word with these butterflies and let them know their appearance today is unacceptable.
He looks at me. His eyes are sparkling way too much. Why have I not ripped those eyes from his head yet? “Ice cream, sweetheart?”
I reach for my coffee. “I’m going for a run.”
“You need to eat first.”
“I do not need to eat first.”
“Jessica,” he says, his voice dropping deep and serious. “You barely ate yesterday. You’re not running until you get some sustenance in you. If you don’t want waffles, I’ll make you something else. We’ve got bacon, eggs, cereal, yoghurt, fruit, avocadoes, and a whole range of other food to choose from.”
Fuck, last night is coming back to me.
I let him put his hands on my feet and then asked him to put them on my shoulders.
Not my best move.
I stand. “I’ll get myself something.”
I’m two steps away from the table when he swoops on in. I feel like that’s an accurate representation of how he approaches. Pounce could also work. Either way, he’s next to me faster than I think even Superman could manage, and he’s got those strong hands of his on my waist. And holy hell if his mouth isn’t against my ear before I see that coming too. “I fully support your need to slay your own dragons, baby, but there are some days where I want to help. Today is one of those days. Let me make you breakfast while you spend some time with the girls. They’ve been hanging out to see you this morning.” He then looks at Olivia and says, “Show Auntie Jessica what we did this morning, pumpkin.”
Olivia slides off her chair and runs into the lounge room. I go against my own common sense and sit my ass back down. When Olivia returns, she’s holding a piece of paper that she thrusts at me. “We painted!” She climbs onto my lap. “It’s a flower.”
I put my arm around her as I study the painting. “It’s a beautiful flower.”
She points at the blue sky in the painting and then looks up at me. “There’s a giraffe in there.”
“In the sky?”
She nods, her rosy cheeks puffing out as she smiles. “Yes! Like yesterday.”
Jack starts heaping ice cream onto the waffles, eyeing me as he does this. “You didn’t see the giraffe in the sky yesterday?”
I meet his gaze. “I’m so sad I missed it.” I smile at Olivia. “But I’m glad you got to see it.”
“I wanna look again today,” she says. “With you.”
God, I adore these girls. The way they just love, without condition, never fails to touch the jaded parts of me. And there are a lot of those parts in me. Too many, I think some days. Yet, I find myself unable to let them go. The time I spend with Olivia and Hazel is the only time I seem free of them.
I squeeze her and press a kiss to her forehead. “We’ll go look after breakfast, baby girl.”
“Come and eat your waffle before the ice cream melts,” Jack says to her.
A couple of minutes later, after he’s got both the girls settled with their breakfast, he says to me, “What have you decided to eat, sweetheart?”
I sip some coffee. “I’d like bacon, eggs, avocado, toast, yoghurt, and blueberries. Oh, and Will has hash browns in the freezer. I’ll have one of those too, please.”
His lips twitch and those damn eyes sparkle again. “I see someone found her appetite.”
“Yes, and now I’d like to see someone produce some food for me.”
“Would you like me to dress appropriately for this production? I brought one of my grey T-shirts with me if that’s your preference.”
“My preference is for you to stop talking and start getting to work,” I say with a little too much testiness. I’d prefer to keep that testiness to myself and not show him that he’s affecting me.
His lips stop twitching and spread out into one of those sexy grins of his I could happily stare at all day. Except, not today. Today, I might finally lose my restraint and take to his body. And not in the way he wants me to. Jack has spent a week tormenting me with those grins, and those muscles, and that goddamn hair. It’s too much, and I need it all gone.
Luckily for him, he stops with the grinning and gets to work on my breakfast.
I sit with the girls and talk with them about our plans for today.
Ashton took over handling all our work fires overnight. He told me he doesn’t want to hear from me today, that he wants me to spend the day with my family. I’m excited to do that. However, I’m also a little tired after yesterday. It was a long, challenging day that I’m glad is over.
I couldn’t have managed yesterday without Jack. He’s always been easy-going, but yesterday he reminded me how that looks when I’m stressed, and that I like how it looks.