Hill grimaced, the moment weighing heavily on him as well. “Listen,” he tugged the girls closer, “by the time you guys decide what you want to take and Mommy finishes up with her work, she’ll bring you to me.”
“Yaaay!”
“Hold on,” Hill quickly interrupted the celebration. “You’ve gotta be patient and give Mommy time to do what she has to do, okay?”
“‘Kaaaay…”
Hill pressed new kisses to their cheeks. “Go decide what you want for lunch. I’ll be in there soon. Hold up,” he called when the twins started their climb down from his lap. He tapped the tip of his finger to his mouth to request a kiss the girls put there in unison.
“Alright, scram,” he tickled them as they climbed down.
“They’re gonna hold you to all your promises, Guy.”
“I expect them to,” Hill watched the girls until they’d raced from the den. His gaze on Persephone was a challenging one. “Especially since I plan to keep them.”
As though preoccupied, Persephone picked at minute fuzz from the arm of the seat. “Bill and Caiphus promised to call when it was time.”
“So they did,” Hill left the chair.
Persephone kept her place. “Is this about that?”
“Not exactly.”
“Hill-”
“I meant what I said, Goddess. I’ll be calling for you guys soon.” He cuffed Persephone’s neck in one hand. The other pushed the bandana from her hair and then he pulled her to her feet.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” he spared the room an approving glance. “Letting me see all this, be with the girls...you guys are never shaking me.”
“The girls are gonna hold you to that too,” her voice was soft, teasing.
Hill’s gaze had deepened to betray hints of the lurking violet. “I expect them to,” his mouth was on hers then, the kiss throaty and determined.
Persephone stood on her toes, clinging to his wrist as she moaned her acceptance of his mouth crushing hers.
From the den’s doorway, Leeya and Layah
exchanged happy smiles.
***
Seattle, Washington~
“I really don’t think it’s warm enough to be doing that just yet.”
Johari Frazier whirled at the sound of her husband’s voice. “Ram.”
Moses Ramsey sat across the bedroom away from the splash of late afternoon sunlight that poured in from the terrace doors.
Johari had just walked in from the pool where she’d been indulging in her favorite, albeit unorthodox, habit of sunbathing. Garbed only in a pair of olive green string bikini bottoms, she reached up to tighten her sandy red ponytail while Moses enjoyed the view.
“I find it rejuvenating. Does the trick for staying awake too,” she sighed.
Moses left the lounge chair he’d relaxed in to watch his wife sunning herself. “Why would you want to be staying awake?”
Jo finished with her ponytail just as Moses came close enough to touch. She smoothed her hands up the gray T-shirt he wore beneath a black denim shirt and locked her arms around his neck. “Staying awake past my bedtime is the only way I seem to be able to see my husband lately. It’s barely five right now. Most Saturday’s you don’t get home ‘til midnight- a girl could get a complex.”
Moses bent to begin a slow nibble of Johari’s earlobe. “If the girl is you, she doesn’t have a thing to worry about.”
“But you still won’t tell me what’s going on, will you?”
“A guy’s gotta work, Twig.”
Johari was quickly losing her train of thought. Moses had abandoned her earlobe, his mouth was traveling the length of her neck as his fingers skirted the portion of her ass visible beneath the bikini. She shifted insistently, hoping to encourage his fingers to grow bolder in their exploration.
“There’s more...going on for you than work,” she managed.
“Twig-”
“I heard you on the phone with Caiphus last week.” She spoke in a rush, glad her brain hadn’t gone completely dead.
Moses grimaced, the gesture merely defining the staggering pull of his dark, alluring face. The slight agitation however, didn’t stop him from tending his wife. His fingers shirted the scant crotch of the bikini bottoms.
“Suspicious wife,” he punctuated the acknowledgement with a filling thrust into her heat.
Johari moaned, resting her forehead against his collarbone.
“A man could get a complex,” he rotated his fingers high and deep.
“Should I take this...to mean you won’t tell me what you guys talked about?” Her query ended on a moan as his thumb targeted her clit.
