She wasn’t smirking. She didn’t have that evil glint in her eyes, which she got when she was punishing me or enjoying torturing me.
Instead she had the sweetest smile on her face. Causing me to go speechless.
Jack pulled on my hand. “Dad, can we have pizza?”
My attention snapped to him. “Um, it’s up to your mom.” I had a feeling I was going to be saying that line a lot. Especially if Amber was giving me those smiles. All I wanted was to make sure that smile didn’t drop from her face.
“I think Jack deserves vegetables.” Her smile got bigger when Jack groaned. “Green ones.” Jack groaned again, this time louder. “And then I think we should watch a family movie.” Her smile went from sweet to evil within a second. “And I think it should beToy Story.”
Jack immediately started stomping his feet. “No! I am not watching it! I’ll go to bed!” He was pouting and Amber just shrugged, not caring at all that he was making a stand. “Vegetables andToy Story.” Jack’s face soured, like Amber had just described his worst night.
Amber knew exactly what she was doing, working Jack up. “Well.” She sighed dramatically. “It’s not up to me.” She looked at me, that smile back on her face. “It’s all up to your dad.”
Okay, just don’t let her see how much I loved hearing that.
Why was she putting me in charge? I wanted to know what she was thinking. Maybe she was just testing me, to see if I could make a simple decision about dinner and a movie?
Right. Make a decision. Jack was looking up at me, hopeful.
Fuck it. I knew what I wanted.
“Pizza and no movies with talking toys.” And that was as complicated as my parenting skills were going to get. Jack grinned and I knew he was happy with my decision. I glanced at Amber and she didn’t seem to be arguing me on it.
“You need a shower, Mom. You’re dirty.” Jack ran to the back door. “I’m going to look at the menus.”
I heard the back door open and shut.
“You do need a shower.” My eyes ran over Amber. Her clothes were covered in dirt. She had pushed up her sleeves, which meant her arms and hands were covered in dirt instead of the sleeves of her top.
“Yeah, I guess I do.” Amber glanced down and then looked back at me, slowly approaching me. “You know what I think?” She came to a stop in front of me.
I shook my head.
Her hand reached out to me, and then she dragged her thumb across my hand, oh so slowly, leaving a small trail of dirty on the back of my hand.
She looked at me, with just a small smile on her face. “You’re rather dirty yourself, do you want to join me?”
Immediately, she sent a burst of excitement through my blood. When I watched her in the shower yesterday all I wanted to do was join her. I was basically throbbing with need, watching her soap herself and wash her hair. It was physically painful, literally torture.
I took her hand, and as much as I wanted to drag her through the house, I also knew our son was inside, possibly watching us.
Also, her brothers could see us. Why would she throw down so much temptation when I couldn’t act on it?
“What about Jack?” I said, my eyes running down her. Fuck, I wanted to strip her out of those clothes.
“I think my brothers are capable of going to get pizza.” She stepped in closer to me, going up on her toes, her mouth at my ear. “Gives us an hour. And last time I checked, I owe you.” The seduction in her voice had me.
And my control snapped. I grabbed her hand. And all the things I could do to her in an hour rushed through my mind. I opened the door, basically dragging her in behind me. I heard her giggle.
Well, what did she expect my reaction to be?
I barely gave her enough time to close the door behind us.
“Where are you two heading?” Cole spotted us, just as I was dragging Amber through the living room.
I groaned but I knew we had to get them to get food. “Jack wants pizza, can you four manage that?”
I didn’t know what I should have expected their reaction to be. Troy’s eyes narrowed on me, Cole jaw tightened and I think he wanted to throw his beer bottle at me, Tyler was looking at our hands, which were linked. The only reaction I did like was Adam’s, who just smiled and went back to drinking his beer.