Page 38 of Lost in Love

The sex is good. No, it’s unprecedented to anything else we’ve done.

We lie there, both of us flat on our backs, sweating and more than likely afraid to move. It’s crazy. It’s like that feeling you get after a really good workout. Completely spent.

I lift my head. “We need to delete that,” I tell him, my voice hoarse like I’ve been screaming. Ha. I have been.

“Not a fucking chance.” He laughs, shaking his head. “I’m keeping that forever.”

I sit up, then realize we haven’t stopped the video and cover my chest with my hands. “You have to delete it.”

“I don’t have to do anything.” He bursts out laughing when his eyes drift to my chest. “Why the fuck are you covering your tits?”

“I don’t know.” Now I’m laughing and attempt to get out of bed to turn the video off and delete it.

I don’t get far when Noah tackles me to the floor, his hard body pressing me into the carpet. “Don’t you dare.”

I stare at his dark eyes full of wild love. “Why not?”

He brushes my hair away from my temple, searching my eyes. His soften when he whispers, “Because you’re fucking beautiful and I want to keep it.”

He’s distracted with my looks, and I know now might be my only chance to retrieve the video. Have I mentioned how ticklish Noah is? One touch near his side and he’s squirming around while I attempt to reach for the phone.

Laughter and thuds fill our room as we wrestle on the floor. “Careful, your asshole’s showing,” I tell him when he has me pinned to the ground.

He’s quick to flip over, but in the process, his hand that’s in a cast nails me right in the eye. It stuns me. I think I see stars and then comes the apology. He sits me up, still panting a little, and his eyes are frantic, looking at me pleadingly. “Holy shit.” He touches the tender spot below my left eye. “Are you okay?”

I inhale a calming breath. “I’m fine.”

He kisses me, his lips gentle. “I’m so sorry.” His voice is cautious, his words sincere. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

I grab onto his shoulders, smiling. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t.” I point to the phone in his hand. “Now delete that.”

“I will.”

Famous last words in Noah’s book.

As we lie in bed that night, the moonlight filtering into the room and Noah’s steady breathing against my neck, I can’t remember the last time I felt this content next to him. I can’t remember the last time we laughed like this. And I fall asleep wrapped in his arms, an ice pack on my face, and smiling.

Fourteen

I Should Have stretched

(No, really. I should have stretched.)

You knowthat feeling where your muscles are jelly after a good workout? It’s never been that way for sex, but there’s something new every day. Every move I make the next day is done with soreness and something similar to being beaten with a bag of rocks. How I’m this sore is alarming. Had I not had any physical activity in the last year?

I probably don’t want to know the answer to that one. So here I sit, Saturday morning, enjoying my coffee quietly and thinking if I had finished the bathroom remodel, I could be soaking in an Epson salt bath right about now.

Ha. We have four kids. Until 3:00 a.m., and that’s pushing it some days, our house is never quiet. Someone is always screaming, crying, or laughing. Sometimes all at the same time.

“Mom!” Hazel yells from the kitchen, wearing a ballerina outfit and twirling around. She’s standing next to our French doors, staring into the backyard. “That weird kid is in the backyard again.”

See. Told you. No quiet time. Ever.

I peek around my second cup of coffee to see who she’s talking about. She’s right. It’s the weird kid. The one who peeks in our windows and asked last week if he could come in. I’m beginning to wonder if he even has a home.

“He’s not weird,” Kelly says, coming into the kitchen with Fin on her hip in only a diaper. “He’s just… I don’t know. Curious.”

Oliver attempts to stuff an entire half of an Eggo waffle in his mouth and talk around it. What he says sounds something like, “Msh lerd.”

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