Chapter 1 #2
Birds chirped outside the bedroom window—a familiar Saturday soundtrack in Brooklyn Heights. Most people were easing into the weekend. Rylee, on the other hand, was stuck in a silent panic, sitting on the edge of her bed.
Rylee loved the weekends for the opportunity to spend time with her kids… who she was worried about this a.m.
Nothing serious.
Only concerning.
That they would find Xander in her bedroom.
She sat at the edge of the bed, feet planted firm against her floor, battling worry and being turned on.
Her eyes were fixed on Xander as he towered over one of the sinks in her en suite, brushing his teeth.
He lifted his head, pushing back the neat crown of dark brown locs that always seemed to fall into his eyes these days.
His fade was still sharp, eyes even sharper when they met hers in the mirror.
He smiled over his toothbrush and winked, sending a surge of energy between Rylee’s thighs that she wished he could do something about.
Because she wanted him to go… but she wanted him to stay too.
“You’re taking forever in there,” she teased, her eyes moving to her bedroom door. “You said to give you a minute and it’s been almost five.”
Xander chuckled to himself as he leaned forward to sip water to swish.
“How long does it really take to brush your teeth?” she continued. “It only takes two minutes for my teeth and maybe another minute for my tongue. You got an extra row in your mouth I don’t know about?”
“Relax, Snoop,” he advised, not bothering to look her way.
She rolled her eyes while balling her lips to keep from smiling.
His little nickname had grown on her. After almost three years of him not giving it a rest, it stuck, and as much as she tried to seem annoyed by it, she absolutely loved when he called her that.
Xander grabbed one of the face towels folded on the sink and turned to face Rylee.
There in just joggers, his torso sculpted obnoxiously perfectly, always beckoning Rylee’s admiration without saying a single word.
“Happy, now?” he asked, turning his attention to the hamper in the en suite to toss the face towel into. “I’m done.”
What she wouldn’t give to just pull him back in bed with her to cuddle up and get cozy for a long morning in. Make a pillow of his biceps, drape her leg over his waist, close her eyes and get lost in his forehead kisses and back rubs.
But she couldn’t. At least she’s told herself she couldn’t.
Her attention moved to the door before she was gesturing at him to keep moving.
“Cool, now get dressed.”
She was up on her feet, lifting his firehouse-branded tee off a nearby chair and handing it to him.
“Damn.” He chuckled, pulling his shirt over his head then poking his arms through the short sleeves. “You really got me feeling like you used me for my body and now you’re kicking me out on my ass like you paid to play.”
Rylee hollered a laugh then slapped her hand to her mouth.
She pointed at him. “Don’t make me get loud.”
He smirked, closing the distance between them. “Oh, you already did that last night.”
She tried to escape his hug, but she was too late. Or maybe she kind of wanted to get caught.
As he wrapped his arms around her then bent his legs at the knees to press a kiss to her lips, her defenses slipped, one by one, and she had no qualms about it.
It’s like Rylee told Dr. Liz, things had been great with Xander… too great.
He was an amazing man, with an even more amazing heart. He loved her, showed it, and extended that love to her children without hesitation.
It was that love for her children that made her nervous, though.
They absolutely loved Xander.
Loved him a little too much, according to Rylee.
Xander moved his lips off hers to press sensual kisses against her neck, making her eyes roll closed. His big hand slinked down past her waist and over her ass to take a palm full in one grip, igniting a slow burn across her body.
She couldn’t help the moan that left her lips, or the need to press her body even closer to his.
“Xander, please,” she moaned, already losing resistance.
The bed was right there. Just one lean back and she’d be his again.
Return to making that good loving, the kind that extended from the night and into the morning to the point Rylee was tired but still hungry for more.
“I don’t want the kids to see you here.”
He moaned against her, dragging his teeth up her jawline, making her shiver against him. “Would that be the worst thing?”
She sighed in defeat, wanting to speak but not wanting to leave that moment.
That indulgent moment of Xander wrapping her up in all the things her body was craving more of.
She opened her eyes to a photo of Lennox on her night table. A candid shot she’d taken of him, years ago, after they had Nova. He sat in the rocking chair that used to be in her nursery, cradling her. His long arms and big hands making Nova appear smaller than a basketball in his embrace.
And just as the guilt she’d tried her damndest to fight off started to set in, her bedroom door burst open.
BOOM!
“Mommy, Mommy!” Nova’s sharp little voice pierced through the air. “Can we have—”
Both of her children gasped then squealed at the sight of Xander.
“Uncle Xander!” LJ shouted, running up to his mother and Xander, immediately jumping into Xander’s arms.
Rylee couldn’t help but both smile and ache at how Lennox Jr., who they all called LJ, wrapped his little arms around Xander’s neck.
“What’s going on, big boy?” Xander asked, hugging LJ then setting him down on his feet. He crouched down to be at level with LJ when Nova ran up to Xander, only stopping when her arms wrapped around his brawny shoulders, barely.
“I made a car at the home improvement store last weekend with my grandpa,” LJ reported, his face beaming, smile fixed on his face. “Wanna see it?”
“Oh, I have to see it,” Xander replied.
“Uncle Xander, can we make pancakes?” Nova asked next, her arm now resting on his shoulder in his crouched position in front of them.
“We gotta,” Xander said with no hesitation. “What shape we making them into this time?”
“A star!” LJ shouted.
“A heart,” Nova supplied.
“A heart and a star,” Xander repeated, standing to his feet, the children’s heads tipping back to keep their eyes locked on him. Xander extended both hands for them each. “Let’s get to it. Who’s cracking the eggs today?”
“Me, me,” LJ and Nova replied in unison, their voices amplified and bouncing off the floors and walls.
Rylee stood behind them, completely left out of their huddle, but in complete awe at the sight of the three of them. She watched Xander and her children sink into their own worlds, laughing, talking in her bedroom.
He was so good with children, and it wasn’t just because his mother owned a daycare and he was used to being around them.
He was just so good, period. At everything.
She watched as they held his hand and guided him out of the bedroom, not even glancing back once at their mother.
Her breath caught as she dropped herself back onto the foot of the bed and sighed.
“So much for you leaving before the kids get up,” she mumbled to herself, shaking her head.
That was the only reason she let Xander in last night.
In that moment, she thought back to the night before, the moment this whole “morning problem” began.
“Xander, what are you doing here?” Rylee whispered, peeking behind herself into the dark brownstone.
She’d just put the kids to sleep when she got the call from Xander letting her know he was out on her stoop.
He looked at her through his low-lidded gaze, bottom lip in the bite between his teeth. He extended his hand in front of him, caressed a finger down her tee. “Can I come in?”
Rylee rolled her eyes and fought back her smile. “You gotta stop just popping up like this.”
He closed the space between them and pulled her closer to him by the hem of her shirt.
“I just put them to sleep.”
“Perfect.”
“No, not perfect.” She settled into his arms as he wrapped them tight around her in her doorway. “You know I only like for you to stop by when they’re at their grandparents.”
“I needed to see you tonight, though.” He leaned forward to press a kiss to her neck. “I needed to feel you too, Snoop. Badly, baby. Please.”
She moaned into him, her arms wrapping around him before she could think better of it.
“I’ll leave before they get up,” he promised, kissing his way to her lips. On them he whispered, “I swear.”
So much for that.
He didn’t even get up from sleep on his own that morning. To Rylee’s surprise, he was still asleep when she awoke before him.
With eyes barely opened, Rylee nudged him gently. “Xander… baby, get up.”
He groaned.
“Uh-uh.” She shook her head, bringing her fingers to her eyes to rub. “You gotta get up.”
“Aight,” he rasped. “I’m up, I’m up.”
“Good, I’ll be in the bathroom.”
After slipping out of bed and taking a quick trip to her en suite to brush her teeth and freshen up, she returned to see he hadn’t gotten up like he said he would. Instead, he’d turned off his stomach and onto his back, still asleep.
So, Rylee tried what she knew would get him up.
She pulled back the covers and stared down at Xander in the nude. One arm up over his eyes, masterfully sculpted physique making him look like a tatted Calvin Klein model in one of those 90s ads plastered on billboards.
“Xander,” she called, her eyes locked in on perfectly dark coiled hairs around her favorite seat. “Xander.”
No answer.
Rylee smirked, slipping in next to him again, but instead of relaxing on the pillow beside him, she grabbed his flaccidness, wasting no time guiding him into her mouth with one slow suction of her cheeks.
“Mmm,” Xander moaned in his sleep. “Damn.”
Rylee kept her eyes on him as she slid him in and out between her lips.
Eyes still closed, he found the top of her head, his hand landing on her braids that were gathered at her crown in a bun. He set the rhythm of her bobbing, pressing the back of his head into the pillow beneath him, his mouth falling open a second later.
“Mmm, baby, baby, Yesss.”
Rylee smiled on his growing erection, abruptly sliding him free from her mouth. “Now, get your ass up.”
“Yooo!” Xander laughed, grabbing the pillow she slept on to cover his face and groan into. “You’re so foul for that.”
Rylee kissed her teeth and dropped herself flat onto the mattress.
Her head fell to the side, eyes landing that way and glimpsing the photo of Lennox on her night table.
She’d intentionally kept his photos in just about every room of the house. It was important to her that her kids knew who Daddy was. To her, it was the least she could do.
From upstairs she could hear their laughter and conversation down in the kitchen, and her heart ached.
This was good, this was supposed to be good.
Then why wouldn’t her heart agree?
She rolled over on her stomach and took Lennox’s photo off the night table, placing it on the bed within view.
“Things are changing, Lenny,” she spoke to the photo. “I’m sorry.”
She sucked her teeth and dropped flat onto the mattress, pressing the framed photo to her chest, hugging it.
Xander felt so right in her home, even righter with her children.
If only her heart would catch up to that fact.