Chapter 70
CHAPTER SEVENTY
A s they lay side by side on the bed, Moon was reading a story to his son when he heard Larissa slowly open the bathroom door. He watched from the corner of his eyes as she hesitated walking to the bed, and there was no doubt in his mind what lured her toward the bed was Jace, her mother’s love overriding having to come anywhere near him. She was a smart cookie who realized the argument they had engaged in was far from over.
Oh no, it wasn’t.
It was everything he could do not to give a satisfied grin when she hesitantly climbed into the opposite side of the bed.
Before tonight, he had no idea Larissa could be such a termagant when she became angry enough. He liked it a lot. She was damn lucky Jace had woken up when he had. If he hadn’t, she would have found herself on the bed with her legs over his shoulders.
Damn, she was a spitfire when she was roused and allowed herself to escape from whatever intellectual headspace she was more comfortable staying in.
Kendra had actually done him a big favor when she revealed how smart Larissa was. He had delved deeper into Larissa’s background and looked further past the degrees she had accomplished. In the file he had hastily compiled on Larissa, he had discovered she was extremely intelligent. After what Kendra had said, he dug deeper and found a mind-blowing eye-opener.
There was average intelligence, which, from his first reports, he had known she had taken several gifted classes through her school years. Hell, he had taken several gifted classes himself.
Rolling to his side, he watched as Larissa parted her robe and unsnapped the front of her gown, exposing the engorged nipple to the seeking mouth. Larrissa had raised Jace to a sitting position on a pillow while she lay on her side with pillows behind her back. Lovingly cupping the back of Jace’s head, she ran her fingers over his scalp as he fed.
Curious, Moon wondered if Larissa was aware just how smart she was, or had Kendra held back the information? It couldn’t have been easy for the widowed mother of three to find out all three of her daughters had more than their fair share of intelligence.
Lana being classified as moderately gifted must have been her first clue that Larissa was following in that direction. How had she reacted when she found out Larissa was more than moderately gifted and had tested profoundly gifted? When people said a person was one in a million, Larissa literally was.
Schools and academic think tanks had scrambled to vie for Larissa’s capabilities. Something must have happened when Larissa had turned ten, though, because Kendra stopped letting her participate in any gifted programs other than those offered by their school district.
He wasn’t sure, but if he had to guess, it was because Kendra hadn’t wanted Larissa’s childhood stolen from her. Either that or, with her spending so much time on academics, had Larissa shown delays in other areas of her life? Was that why there weren’t as many pictures of Larissa as there were of Lana and Priss? Kendra could have recognized Larissa was spending most of her time on academics and couldn’t experience the same normal situations her sisters were going through. If she did, Moon had to give her credit for making that hard choice. It couldn’t have been an easy decision to make.
If she had let Larissa continue on the path she had been on, would Larissa be here in Treepoint, or would she be working at some prestigious university, or more than likely a branch of the government determined to use her capabilities for their own purposes?
When he looked at the natural way Larissa switched Jace to her other breast, his gut clenched. Not only had Kendra changed the course of Larissa’s life, she had changed his.
“You have to be tired.” Larissa’s soft voice dragged him out of his thoughts. “You can turn the light off and leave the lamp on. I won’t disturb you when I put Jace back to bed.”
“I’m not tired.”
“If you’re not tired—”
Moon almost burst into laughter when Larissa covered her mouth as she yawned.
“—you can take care of Jace while I go to sleep.”
“I would be happy to. Of course, that means I’ll have to wake you up after I put him to bed.”
Her eyes widened. “I’m tired.”
“You tire yourself out trying to kick my ass?” he asked ironically.
“I have to work in the morning.”
“As do I.”
“That’s why I suggested you should go to sleep.”
Moon quirked an eyebrow at her. “Not because you’re afraid after you swatted me with a nightgown and hit me with your purse?”
“I apologize. I shouldn’t have, but you provoked me.”
“ I provoked you? I think it was the other way around.”
“You had no right to be upset I rode home with Jesus.”
“I had every right.” Raising his hand, he brushed his knuckles over Jace’s cheek. His son was suckling, as if he hadn’t just emptied the spare.
“Killyama said you don’t. You broke the rule first.”
“Technically, I didn’t. You’re not a Last Rider.”
“Nor do I want to be.”
Moon saw the hurt look in her eyes before she lowered her lashes. “I don’t get how it’s okay for me to have sex with six of The Last Riders, but heaven forbid I ride home with one of them. That makes no sense to me.”
“It doesn’t matter if it makes sense to you; it makes perfect sense to me, and that’s what counts.”
“Fine.” Her eyes turned into a tempest of emotions. Damn, she made his dick hard as granite when she lost her temper. “Pick the six I should have sex with, and I will. Or better yet, how about I just follow the example you set with the women and do all of the men?”
Moon could tell from her strained voice that if Jace weren’t in the room, her voice would have had his ears ringing.
Giving a low laugh, Moon spurred her on even more. “You’d give up after two.”
Larissa rose to lift Jace off the bed and into her arms, glaring at him as she burped him. Moon kept his face impassive, knowing it was pissing her the hell off.
“I may surprise you.” The look she gave him over Jace’s head was definitely threatening.
“I love surprises.”
Turning Jace around, she picked up the book he had laid down on the bed and started reading it to the baby.
“If you’re really interested in getting votes, the club has parties every Friday night. Anyone can go to the parties to scope out if they want to join.”
Larissa broke off reading. “Do they do more than scoping it out ?”
“Occasionally.” He could practically see the wheels turning in her head. “Before you start accusing me, remember where my ass has been every Friday night since you came back to Treepoint.”
She started reading again.
“So,” he drawled out, “you want to go, or are you all talk?”
“Wild horses wouldn’t keep me away,” she snapped. “Now, will you let me finishing reading to Jace?”
“Of course,” he replied magnanimously. “In a sec. I have to work late on Friday—we have a truck we have to load—but you can meet me there. You’re going to have a fun time this weekend. We’re having a masquerade party.”
“Where do we get the clothes?”
Shrugging, he started massaging Jace’s little foot. “No clue. I wasn’t planning on going. I’ll probably figure something out.”
“What should I wear—”
He shook his head at her. “How about we surprise each other? You know how much I love surprises. Besides, I don’t imagine anyone puts a big effort into what their wearing. It’s more how great you look wearing as little as possible.” He threw in a salacious wink to really piss her off.
Seeing her hand tighten on the book she was holding, Moon prepared himself to be bopped with the picture book.
He held back his grin when she started reading again, then took out his cell phone and started scrolling through the news. Occasionally, he would glance over and see Jace was still wide awake. It was almost midnight before he noticed Jace’s eyelids begin to droop.
“You should put him to bed. He’s almost out,” Moon suggested in a firm voice.
“There’s only one page left of the story.”
“Put him to bed, Larissa. We both have to work in the morning.”
Throwing him a dirty look, she got out of the bed.
He waited until she was in front of the bed before he set her off again by saying, “Put Jace to bed in the nursey, Larissa.”
She stopped in her tracks. “Since when?” she argued. “You’re the one who wants him to sleep in here at night.”
“Tonight, I think we have a little business to settle. Take him to the nursey.”
“Okay, I will.”
The firecracker had agreed too quickly to fool him. She might be smarter, but he was wiser.
“Oh, and Larissa,” he softly called out before she could get through the door. “Don’t be too long. You don’t want me to come looking for you.”