Darling Wildfire (Red Rabbit #2)

26

THERON

I walked into the kitchen and came up behind Whitney. I wrapped my arms around her and breathed her in. She smelled like wood smoke mixed with her vanilla perfume. I looked over her shoulder at the pot she was stirring.

“What are you making?” I asked.

“Spaghetti.”

Whit turned her head and looked at me before pressing her lips to mine. My hand slipped up into her hair and the kiss deepened as I touched my tongue to hers, tasting the wine she was drinking as she made dinner. My other hand slowly slid down her stomach to the top of her jeans, my fingers teasing the edge before slipping beneath. Just as I was about to touch her clit, I heard a rustling and two voices spoke in unison behind us.

“Ewwww!”

I yanked my hand back, and we turned around to see the twins staring at us from the other side of the kitchen counter. Luckily our bodies had blocked my explorations from looking like anything but innocent hugging, but I still narrowed my eyes at them.

“Nothing wrong with your mother and I loving on each other,” I said.

“Yeah, but kissing is gross,”

Emy said, pushing her riot of blond hair out of her face in order to stick out her tongue. I kissed Whit once more on the side of her head as she smiled and went back to stirring the sauce, then I turned towards the kids and smirked.

“Oh really?”

I stalked towards them. “Gross huh?”

“Yup!”

Cole said. “Full of cooties!”

I lunged for them and they both screamed and scattered, running for the living room. I chased after them, deciding to go after Emy first. She ran around the couch, laughing hysterically. Cole threw a pillow at me before I launched myself over the couch and grabbed Emy as she ran past me.

“Got ya!”

I pulled her in and kissed her excessively all over her face while she shrieked and laughed.

“No! Cooties! Ewww!”

Cole came up behind me, and a pillow hit my back.

“Let her go!”

He said around his laughter.

I turned and grabbed him with my other arm, pulling them both in and planting kisses anywhere I could as they squirmed and laughed so hard they became breathless. I laughed as I let them go and we all collapsed onto the couch.

“Dad, show Emy my fish!”

Cole said. Emy crawled up on my lap and nestled against my chest while I pulled up the picture on my phone.

“It’s huge!”

She giggled.

“I told you!”

Cole said, looking proud.

“Can I catch one?”

Emy asked, lifting her head to look at me.

I nodded. “Sure, tomorrow morning you can give it a go.”

“I bet mine will be bigger,”

Emy teased.

“Nah uh,”

Cole said.

I fixed Emy with a look, warning her against retaliating and she smirked at me but closed her mouth. She put her arms around my neck.

“Daddy, can you read Little Red Riding Hood tonight?”

“Again?”

Cole whined. “Can’t we read something else?”

Emy frowned and stuck out her bottom lip in a pout that could have melted even the strongest of authoritarians and I chuckled.

“Pleeeeease,”

Emy pleaded. “Can you tell the version where the girl scares away the wolf?”

“That’s not even how it goes,”

Cole complained.

“I know,”

Emy said, scowling at Cole before turning back to me and fixing a brilliant smile on her face. The smile she always gave me when she wanted something. I couldn’t ever say no. “I like when you make up different versions.”

“Well, I like it when the wolf eats the grandma and the mountain man comes and rescues the girl,”

Cole said.

Emy rolled her eyes. “It’s so boring though—everyone knows that story.”

“That’s the point,”

Cole argued. “It’s a fairy tale.”

“I can tell it both ways,”

I interrupted, ending the feud.

“Cole!”

Whit called. “Come help me set the table.”

Cole ran off and Emy settled back against my chest. My arms went around her as she snuggled into me. We sat in silence for a long time just looking out the window at the lake and listening to Cole tell Whit all about the fish he caught.

“I think I’d be too afraid to fight the wolf,” she said.

“Really? Even if it was threatening Cole?”

She seemed to think about that seriously for a long moment.

“Maybe, but I’d still be scared.”

“That’s understandable. Sometimes we have to do things even when we’re scared.”

“Have you ever been scared?”

“Yes, many times,” I said.

“Yeah right,”

Emy said. “Name one!”

I laughed. “When I proposed to your mother.”

“What? No way!”

She lifted her head to look at me.

“Yup,”

I said, grinning. “I was terrified she’d say no.”

She giggled, and I tapped her nose. “Being brave opens up a lot of doors and takes you out of your comfort zone which is where all the magic happens.”

“I guess,”

Emy said. “But that doesn’t sound very scary.”

“Well, regardless, whatever it is—only by moving through fear can we lead a courageous life. Fear shouldn’t ever stop us from living, loving or protecting those around us.”

“Dinner is ready!”

Whit called from the kitchen.

“Dinner!”

Cole echoed after her.

I chuckled and extracted myself from Emy as I got to my feet. “Let’s go eat.”

A few hours later, I passed Whit in the hall as she came out of the kids’ bedroom.

“Meet me on the porch?”

She asked.

I pulled her to me and kissed her. “Can’t wait, gorgeous.”

I walked into the room she’d just left and walked over to the bed Cole was in. I kissed him on the forehead as I pulled the covers up under his chin.

“Night, bud,” I said.

“Night, Dad,”

he answered, his eyes already heavy with sleep.

I walked over to the other bed and kissed Emy’s nose. She wrinkled her face in protest but couldn’t help the giggle that escaped.

“Night, Em,” I said.

I headed for the door and turned off the light.

“Love you,” Emy said.

“I love you too.”

“I love you more,”

Cole chimed in.

“Impossible,”

I said with a smile, before softly shutting the door.

I walked out onto the back porch and found Whit sitting on the steps looking out over the moonlit lake. I sat down behind her so she was sitting between my legs and wrapped my arms around her.

“Cole asked me about God today,”

I said dryly.

Whit chuckled. “Yeah, he’s been hanging out with Tommy at school lately.”

She leaned back against my chest. “Tommy has been being bullied, apparently.”

I smiled against her hair. “I don’t know where he gets his kindness from.”

She laughed. “I have no idea. But I think it’s sweet.”

“He’s a good kid.”

Pride swelled in me at the thought of how kind and thoughtful Cole was. “So is Emy.”

“Emersyn is chaos reincarnate,”

Whit said dryly. “But we know where she gets that from.”

It was my turn to laugh, and I nuzzled into her neck, nipping her ear.

“I don’t know—I seem to recall there being countless summer nights you ran wild around town.”

She turned her head and met my gaze, her eyes reflecting the moonlight.

“It was all to catch your attention,”

she said mischievously.

“You have it, baby,”

I whispered. “You’ve always had it.”

I brought my lips to hers and kissed her before pulling back and patting her thigh.

“Come on—”

We got to our feet, and I took her hand, pulling her towards the dock. At the edge I yanked her back into me and she laughed breathlessly, running a hand down my face and looking at me with a reverence that made my heart ache. I didn’t know if there was a God, but when she looked at me like that, I had to believe there was something divine.

We undressed each other in the moonlight, and for a moment I stood soaking in her raw beauty. She looked like a goddess of the night. All shadows and curves with hints of silver when the moon hit her dark hair.

“Stunning,”

I murmured.

I grabbed her hand, and without hesitating pulled her off the dock with me into the water. We surfaced, and she immediately was in my arms, legs wrapped around my waist as I kept us afloat. Her lips found mine, and we breathed each other in as though our shared breath was the only thing keeping us alive.

Maybe it was.

As we clung to each other, I wondered how in the world a man like me could ever be blessed with a life like this.