Page 20 of Now & Forever
“All she had to do was ask, and I probably would have made that baby with her. Just not the old-fashioned way.”
“I see.”
“Yeah.” James glanced over his shoulder and caught sight of his father on the balcony, having a cigar and laughing it up with men his age. “Gwen changed everything, I guess.”
“Hey, if you guys break up, it’s not only your hearts that will be broken. You’ve got a bunch of fans, my friend.”
James tossed the chip into the air and caught it with his fist. “Don’t think your heart compares in any way to mine.”
“I remember when you were one of the most noncommittal men I had ever met.”
The same could be said about you.Kathryn had changed that for Ian, who had been crowned the city’s biggest playboy before he fell in love. “Like I said.” James let the chip in his hand fall to the floor. “Gwen changed everything.”
***
He approached her from behind, careful to make sure she acknowledged his presence before he wrapped his arms around her.
“Let’s go somewhere tomorrow,” he said. “I don’t have anything going on Monday until the early evening, so we could spend the night somewhere. How about it? We could drive up to New York or fly down to Miami. What’s your poison, lovely?”
Gwen scoffed, her fingers dexterously buttoning up the rest of her sleep shirt. It was like she firmly said,“We are not having sex tonight.”Last Monday had been a fluke, apparently. And the fooling around they did a couple days later… didn’t that mean something? Apparently not.
“Can’t say either New York or Miami appeal to me right now.”
“Then where do you want to go?” James gently rocked her back and forth, careful to keep his awakening manhood from making a fool of them both. “We could rent that cabin in the mountains. You remember the one. From our ho…”
“It’s too cold for that,” Gwen snapped. “What if it’s snowing up there?”
“Fine. Let’s at least go out to dinner tomorrow. I know it’s Sunday, but The Dark Hour might have something fun going on.”
Gwen gently freed herself from his grasp and sat at her vanity, where she brushed a few tangles out of her long hair. James pried his eyes from how her sleep shirt clung to her torso. The highlight of her breasts wasnothelping him seduce her. Not when all he could think about was getting her in bed, preferably on her hands and knees. The sex-starved parts of his brain wanted it hard and fast. And to pull her hair…
They hadn’t been that wild in months. James recalled a time when they were considered the kinkiest couple in town, because there was barely a thing they wouldn’t try. Bondage and power plays were only the tips of the iceberg. Everyone at the BDSM club had seen them naked more than once, and it didn’t bother James any more than everyone seeing him limp after twisting his ankle at the gym.
Those were the real glory days of his youth. Every time he and Gwen did something outrageous or brought a smile to some stranger’s face were the memories he wanted to treasure until his dying day.
How could he make her see that?
“You don’t want to go anywhere?” he asked her.
Gwen hesitated on her twentieth brush stroke. “Not really. Maybe when it gets warmer.”
“Yeah.” James sighed. “Warmer.”
The definition of warm was making love in front of the fire. Or laying half-naked in the sunlight on some white, pristine beach somewhere in the world. Either way, they better be sweaty and naked.Are those jungle treehouses still renting down in Costa Rica, or were they wiped out in the last storm?Now there was an idea. James had enough money to pay everyone to look the other way while he and Gwen ran around in their birthday suits.
He turned toward the bed. Gwen put her hairbrush down and said, “I really did like that cabin in the woods. It was cozy, but still had all the comforts you’ve spoiled me with these past few years.”
James met her halfway across the bedroom, Gwen’s hair down and her body bedecked in cotton shorts and that blasted button-up shirt she wore during the winter.How many times have I unbuttoned it for you, Gwenny?“Me too. To think, we found it on a total whim after we hopped in my car and asked Siri where the hell we should go for the weekend.”
“Siri always comes through. She’s like the third-wheel around here.”
“I thought that was Rebecca.”
Gwen chuckled. “I’m not asking her where to buy lube when I’m on the other side of town.”
“Who are you lubing it up with these days?”
“Your ass.”
