Jill opened her eyes, and her gasp ricocheted through the bathroom. Water sloshed as her hands shot to her mouth. Revealing the beautiful breasts he’d been fantasizing about for weeks. Dark nipples and plenty more than a handful.
“Oh my god!” she squealed. “You scared the shit out of me!”
Maxwell held up his hands. “I’m sorry! I was just following the music. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
She leaned against the edge of the huge bathtub, the water sloshing against her back. “My heart is racing a mile a minute!”
“I’ll leave you alone. Enjoy the music. And finish your bath.” Maxwell backed out of the bathroom, his own heart racing a mile a minute as he tried to process what had just happened.
As he saw it, the most gorgeous woman in the world was naked in his bathroom…and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
He sat on the edge of his bed, rubbing his hands up and down his face. This was torture, pure and simple. His cock was half hard, his veins pumping with impure thoughts, and now he had to sit here and act like everything was hunky-dory.
Fucking impossible.
The unbroken rhythm of the R&B music helped take the edge off his pounding heart, at least. He knew he should go somewhere else, do anything else, but he couldn’t make himself walk away just yet. The tenting in his shorts would give him away immediately if she were to walk out.
“I’m so sorry, Maxwell.” Jill’s voice broke through his thoughts, and he twisted to find her in the bathroom doorway, one eye pinched shut…like she was embarrassed. She’d gotten dressed again, but not completely. Her bare feet showed of perfectly painted teal green toenails.
“What are you sorry for?”
“Using your stuff.” She shrugged as she came over to the bed, sitting next to him. He cleared his throat, shifting on the bed.
“Don’t worry about it. This is your house now, too.” His fingers curled as his mind involuntarily went back to the moment of discovery. The sheer lust that had thrummed through him. Still did. He tried to act casual as he looked over at her. “Besides, I have the best tub.”
“That you do,” she said with a laugh.
Some of the fog was clearing now. He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Where are the kids?”
“They’re with the nanny,” she said, clutching his arm. “Didn’t I text you about that? There was a playgroup that I wanted them to check out, so I sent her while I finished up some work this morning and then, well…” She laughed, gesturing at the bathroom. “Enjoyed myself.”
You and I could enjoy ourselves together a lot more. No, he couldn’t say that. Not now. Not ever. He had to keep these lines drawn. Didn’t he?
Truth was, at this point, he couldn’t remember why the lines needed to stay there.
“You deserve it,” Maxwell said. “And I didn’t mean to interrupt. Get back in there. Stay in there for another hour if you want. I honestly don’t care.”
“An hour is too much,” she said, batting away the suggestion. “I don’t want to get all ugly and pruney.”
“You would never be ugly,” he blurted without thinking. Her brows shot up as he realized what he’d said. Yeah—it was time to clear his mind. And fast. “I’m gonna go chill downstairs. Come join if you want. No pressure.”
He hopped up, hurrying out of the bedroom before more honesty could pop out of his mouth or he could glimpse another one of Jill’s tantalizing body parts. He ran a hand through his hair, regretting not grabbing lunch with the guys. What had he hoped to accomplish by heading home early? This solo adult time he’d envisioned wasn’t exactly the sexy time he’d hoped for. No, it was just frustrating, and he saw no way around it other than throwing himself at her.
And that was no way to behave when things had so much potential to get incredibly awkward. Especially while raising the triplets.
Maxwell stormed out onto his back patio, intent on finding solace in his trellised and landscaped backyard paradise. A light breeze lifted the hem of his shirt, and between the infrequent bird chirps and the hum of a distant mower, he found the silence he’d been missing without even realizing it.
But it wasn’t long before that internal tic in him started thinking about what came next. Where were the kids? Did they need anything? What about Jill? Would she join him?
He couldn’t help but think endlessly about Jill and the kids. Sometimes it felt like he might be this way forever. And part of him refused—no, outright rejected—the notion that his life would seriously change long term. The sane part of him, however dwindling it was, needed to hang on to the idea that this was a temporary blip that would be followed by a new normal closely resembling the old normal.
And if he planned on it, then it would happen.
The glass sliding door opened a while later, and he heard soft footsteps across the back patio. Jill joined him in the chair at his side, sighing softly.
“Is that what you do on unexpected days off?”
He looked over at her, finding her more beautiful than the last time he’d seen her. How was it possible that she grew more gorgeous in just a twenty-minute span of time? Her cheeks glowed, and her big brown eyes were fastened on him, so intent that they stole his breath. Like she always did.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she finally said, cluing him in that he’d been gazing at her for too long. Which meant he was much further gone than he wanted to admit even to himself.
“Sorry.” He jerked his attention back to the freshly trimmed grass of his backyard, which sloped away from them down a small hill. “I’ve just been thinking. It’s nice to hear…nothing, for once, you know? I actually forgot what it was like.”
She laughed. “Yep. I feel that. The sound of silence is beautiful.”
“What time are the kids coming back?”
Jill checked her phone. “In about a half hour, for lunch.”
“Damn. I was hoping we’d have time to escape.”
She lifted a brow, tucking her phone in the back pocket of her jeans. “What did you have in mind?”
“I don’t know. Anything to make us feel normal. Maybe someplace with gourmet food.”
“Sounds like you’re trying to take me out on a date.”
He looked over at her, fully aware of the shit-eating grin on his face. “Would you have a problem with that?”
“I don’t know any lady who’d have a problem with that. Though I think you’re just being nice.”
There it was again. The wall. “Of course I want to be nice to you. You’re an amazing woman who is saving my life these days.”
She smiled out into the backyard, but he detected a twinge of sadness there. “Yeah, yeah.”
“You fit in perfectly here, too,” he went on. “Obviously the kids love you.”
“Are they still sticking to their bedtime routine?” she asked.
“So-so,” he admitted. “There were some tears last night.” When she tutted, looking genuinely disappointed, he saw his window of opportunity. “Maybe you should start spending the night again. Just to help them get really settled.”
She didn’t need to know they hadn’t fussed that much, or that the tears were related to the divvying up of bedtime books. But Maxwell knew one thing was certain.