Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Lincoln
I thought I’d known what it was like to make love to a woman.
I’d thought wrong.
Nothing I’d ever done had made me feel the way I did holding a sleeping Livvy in my arms. She’d made me feel as weak as a newborn colt one moment and as strong as our largest bull the next.
It wasn’t just the sounds she made as I returned the favor and tasted every single inch of her until she was begging for me to let her come.
It wasn’t only the sight of her hands clenching into fists as I pushed her to the edge again and again or that mass of glorious red curls spread out across my sheets, or the picture perfect view I had of breasts that filled my hand as if molded to fit, or tightly peaked nipples that had become swollen from the kisses and nips I couldn’t seem to stop giving them.
It wasn’t even the pure, raw need I saw reflected in the changing green hue of her eyes.
It was the trust she extended me.
It didn’t take a degree in rocket science to know that she’d been hurt.
From the little she’d said, I knew that hurt had come at the hands of the two men she should have been able to trust. First her father and then the man who supposedly loved her had caused her to question the word of all others.
Still, as hurt as she’d been, she’d looked up at me and repeated my words.
“I am Lincoln’s and Lincoln is mine.”
As I lay there in the darkness, I made a vow that I’d be having her repeating those words every day until there wasn’t a single hint of any doubt that she spoke the truth.
“Mine,” I whispered and brushed a kiss across a curl that had found its way onto my cheek. I was rewarded with the sight of her lips curling in her sleep.
This right here was what it meant to make love to a woman. Not the act itself, but the desire to touch, to hold, to simply look at her. With my newfound knowledge, I finally closed my eyes and went to find her in her dreams.
“Are you poking me for a good reason, pixie?” I asked what felt like five minutes after I’d closed my eyes but couldn’t be as I could actually see the hint of day with my eyes still closed.
“If the fact that I really, really, really love bacon and unless you get up, I’m gonna eat your share is a good reason, then, yes, I am.”
“How many reallys was that?” I asked.
“Three, though it probably should be four.”
The giggle attached to that quip was enough to have me opening one eye to find her kneeling up on the bed with her hands on her hips.
“Is that my shirt?” I asked, opening the other eye to get a better look.
“You did promise me a bath and a change of clothing.”
She wasn’t wrong, but I had a better idea. “How about taking it off and getting back into bed with me?”
“Daddy, everyone knows bartering is best done with full bellies.”
When I didn’t so much as move, she shrugged. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Before I could blink, she’d sashayed her way right out the bedroom door, but at the sound of her singing, I bolted upright.
“Bacon, bacon, so crispy and hot,
It sizzles and pops and sure hits the spot,
Bacon, bacon, oh, it’s so very fine,
And my Daddy said what was his is now ALLLL MIIINE!”
“Little girl, I said no such thing!” I shouted and was halfway out the door before remembering I was naked.
Snagging the jeans I’d discarded from the floor, I put them on one leg at a time as I hopped my way down the hall.
When I entered the center hallway that split the house into wings, it was to see Kate, and Livvy standing with silly grins on their faces.
Luther was there as well, but the look he shot me was more of one of disdain as he shook his head.
“What? It’s bacon!”
The women broke out into giggles and it wasn’t until Kate said, “Walk you!” that I realized Livvy was on crutches.
I was about to lunge forward but when she spun on her good heel and took off as if she’d been born using them, I didn’t have the heart.
That didn’t keep me from calling, “You fall and both of you will be over my lap!”
Luther smiled. “Welcome to the club. It’s about damn time you caught up.”
I didn’t even need to ask what club. He’d been a very contented member of that special Daddy cadre for the past year. “Thanks.”
“And that means, you can finally open that toy box and play.” While I stood there and tried to decide whether to high-five or punch him, he added, “But first, put a shirt on. Mom would hit the roof if she knew you were sitting at her table half naked.”
“Hey, those weren’t exactly church dresses our girls were wearing.”
He rolled his eyes as if I’d said the stupidest thing possible, and when I remembered the sway of Livvy’s hips beneath that t-shirt, I couldn’t exactly argue.
“I’ll be back,” I said and then turned to direct my next words to the kitchen, “nd there better be plenty of bacon left or there will be counts added, you hear me, pixie?”
“Worth it!” Livvy called back.
Luther laughed, slapped my shoulder and went to join the girls. Or if he knew what was good for him, to gobble his own share of bacon before Livvy got hold of it.