Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Yeah, perfect.
Reluctantly, Theo pulled away.
“Let’s get us married,” he said.
Evelina grinned. “Let’s do that, Theo.”
Lost and Found
“Joseph and Cory are down for the count,” Evelina said.
Theo looked up from the magazine in his hand, smirking wickedly. “Knocked out enough not to hear—”
“Theo, those kids have ears like I can’t even explain. No, we’re not having sex while they’re sleeping down the hall. Then I’ll have to listen to Lily bark at me about how she had to have another sex talk because her husband conveniently left the house while her back was turned.”
Her husband scowled. “This is why we didn’t have kids. They ruin everything.”
Evelina gasped. “That is not why we chose not to have kids, Theo!”
“Well, it could have been a reason.”
“It wasn’t.”
Theo shrugged. “All right, it wasn’t. Come to bed, donna.”
Evelina stripped her clothes off, grabbed one of Theo’s T-shirts, and slipped it on. By the time she was under the covers on their bed, Theo had tossed the magazine aside and flicked off the bedside lamp. She felt his hands find her in the dark, stroking, holding, and bringing her closer until she was wrapped up in him, their legs were tangled together, and his lips were pressing to hers.
“I do love those kids,” he said, his words whispering against her cheek.
Evelina smiled. “Yeah, I know, Theo.”
“But I swear to God, they break everything.”
She laughed. “Stop it.”
“They do, Eve. Everything. I turned my back for five seconds earlier and Cory flooded the bathroom!”
“You sneaked outside to have a cigarette and left the five-year-old alone in the tub, Theo.”
“So?”
“So, you can’t do that and expect nothing to happen,” Evelina said, muffling her laughter into his chest. “It’s like telling him to go to it.”
Theo rolled onto his back, taking Evelina with him. She stretched over her husband’s form, using her hands as a pillow on his chest.
“I wouldn’t be a very good father, anyway,” he said quietly.
Evelina frowned. “Don’t say that. You’d be a wonderful father, Theo.”
“You think?”
He’d posed his question quietly, and Evelina could hear the slight vulnerability that was hiding in his words. Children wasn’t a topic that Theo or Eve brought up all too often. They had decided years ago before they married that children wouldn’t be a part of their future—at least not their own biological children.
Eve didn’t want her past to repeat.
Theo was the same.
“I know you would make a good father, Theo.”
She knew a lot of people looked at them and searched for some sign of their unhappiness or loneliness. Like because they didn’t have a child of their own, they must be missing something. As if having one another wasn’t enough.
Eve had news for those people.
They were perfectly happy.
Sleeping in when they wanted.
No worries.
Spoiling everyone else’s kids.
It was perfect for them.
“Theo,” Eve said, reaching over to turn the lamp on.
He was staring at the wall, quiet and thinking.
She knew that look.
“Yeah, Eve?”
“What’s up?”
“Nothing,” he said.
“You’re lying.”
Theo scowled, and ran a hand over his face. “I just wonder about you, that’s all. Sure, years ago you were the one who said that kids wasn’t in your long-term goals, but I have to wonder if it’s changed since then. I see you with Adriano’s girls, and Lily’s boys. And even Tommaso when his father lets him out of his sight long enough for us to steal him. You love everybody’s kids. You’re great with them.”
Eve’s brow furrowed. “So?”
“So it makes me think maybe you should have some of your own, and I just can’t give that to you, babe. I don’t want—”
She leaned over him and kissed him quiet, fast and hard. “Stop, Theo.”
Theo’s lips curved into a sinful grin. “Okay.”
“You make me so happy.”
“Do I?”
“You know you do.”
Theo nodded. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
“And for another thing, you love those kids just as much as I do. You’re the one who comes home on any given night with yet another niece or nephew in the backseat with an armful of junk food. Don’t act like it’s just me.”
He chuckled. “You’re right.”
“I am always right.”
Again, Theo went quiet and still. “I worried, though.”
“My God, about what?”
“That maybe you would wake up one day, look around, and be lonely.”
Eve hated that her husband thought that way at all.
“Never, Theo. How can I be lonely when I have you?”
The very next moment after the words left her lips, Evelina found herself turned in the bed and under her husband’s weight. Theo hovered above her with his wild, dark gaze and smirking lips. She couldn’t help but let her hands wander over his fit, toned form. Theo’s cut muscles jumped under her touch.
“I said no sex, remember?” she said weakly. “The boys—”
“I am sure you can keep quiet.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.” Theo grinned. “I’ll gag you, bend you over, and prove you wrong.”
Jesus.
That sounded heavenly.
“Say yes,” he demanded.