Page 110 of Reckless
My eyes grow heavy as soon as I go horizontal, but the click of Theo flicking the bathroom light off draws me back to waking.
He just stands there—untucked dress shirt, chiseled jaw, furrowed brow—staring at the bed like he’s confused about what to do next.
“Theo. Come to bed.”
“Really? With both of you?” Insecurity flashes on his face.
“Yeah.” I pat the pillow. “She’s probably going to kick you all night. It’s not as adorable as you think.”
With a nod, he removes what’s left of his suit, and I try not to eye-fuck him in his boxers during what should be a wholesome family moment.
I fail.
“You’re looking at me the same way you did that night at the gas station.”
“No, right now is worse. That night I was guessing how you’d look under your clothes. Tonight, I know.”
His lips twist as he approaches the bed, the light from the bedside lamp playing over every line in his chiseled body. He’s more cut than I remember. His abs, the line of his quad muscle down the front of his thigh as he places a knee on the bed. The long hours spent at Hamilton Athletics have somehow made him even more mouth-watering. His fists push into the mattress as he hovers over Vivi, muscles rippling on his forearms.
With a soft expression on his face, his dark eyes, deep like the darkest chocolate, flit to mine. “Thank you, Winter.”
Part of me wants to ask if he means for letting him sleep here, but I’d be playing dumb. I know he’s thanking me for so much more. I feel it in the way my heart pounds under the weight of his gaze.
Saying you’re welcome doesn’t seem right either, so I say what I’ve been thinking since the moment he showed up and made it his mission to make my life better. “Thank you, Theo.”
My tongue traces my lips as I stare back at him. “Get in and stare at your girl all night if you want to.”
I turn and click the light off before he responds. Only a silver-blue light filters in through the window, and slowly my eyes adjust to the darkened room. Theo’s on his side, hands folded under his cheek.
But I get the sense he isn’t only staring at Vivi. He’s staring at me too. His girls.
“Hey, Theo?” I whisper, reaching across to dust my fingers over his forehead and into his hair.
“Yeah?”
“You’re not an interloper. You’re her dad.”
* * *
When I wake up, sunlight streams through the windows. Theo is out cold on his back, that square jawline dusted in just the right amount of stubble. He sleeps peacefully with his lips parted gently, his dark lashes fanned down over golden skin.
My gaze traces the apex of his Adam’s apple, down over his toned chest, to where our little girl has full-on starfished over her dad’s chest. His broad palms encase her tiny ribcage, and her head rests right where I know she must be able to hear his heart beating.
I laid my head there once, almost two years ago. I remember trying to catch my breath, trying to wrap my head around how someone I barely knew could make me feel so good. So relaxed.
But this is different.
This is better.
I just lie here in a happy sunny bubble, letting my head and my heart work around it.
It feels good.
It feels like home.
29
Theo
