Perfect Morning Read online

  How could anything be so perfect? she wondered. She had never felt anything like that before in her life. Good Lord, was that normal? Was it supposed to be like that all the time? If that happened every time with Jason, she’d be dead by thirty-five. Considering she was thirty, that left her five good years. What a way to go! With a satisfied smile, her only comment before she fell asleep was, “And you only used one hand.”

  It was still dark when Riki woke to the feel of a warm hand sliding up her thigh. Jason. Snuggling her tush against his obvious arousal, she smiled with anticipation. How could he possibly want her again? Was this normal? The hell with being normal. This was way more fun.

  Feeling Riki wiggle against him, Jason growled. He nibbled on the back of her neck as he slowly slid his hand over her hip, across her stomach, and up to cup her breast. Another growl escaped him when he felt the nipple harden in his palm. What this woman did to him ought to be against the law.

  Nothing in his life had prepared him for Riki. The need to protect her and cherish her ... The compulsive desire to make her smile, along with the absolute necessity to become one with her. This went beyond sex. This was the woman he wanted to wake up with for the rest of his life. Hers was the face he wanted to see across the bowl of Cheerios for the rest of his days.

  Hearing her soft purr broke his control. He turned her so she was lying completely beneath him and fully aware of his need. With most of his weight on his injured arm, he released her breast and let his hand slip down over her stomach, past the auburn curls, and sink deep within her.

  At her gasp of pleasure he whispered, “Good morning.” Then, feeling the warm reception she gave him, he groaned and murmured. “Perfect morning,” before his mouth came down on hers.

  When the alarm went off Riki pulled the pillow over her head. As the buzzer kept on buzzing she cautiously peeked out from her hiding place to realize she was alone. She shut off the alarm and glanced toward the bathroom. Empty. He had left. Maybe he hadn’t even been there. Maybe she’d dreamed it all.

  Seeing the slight indentation on the other pillow. she knew she hadn’t dreamed it. So where was he? A frown was just settling on her brow when she noticed a note propped against her dresser mirror. She smiled as she pulled the discarded jersey over her head, then padded barefoot to the dresser.

  A silly grin broke out as she read the note. “Perfect morning to you, my love. Thought I’d leave before the Munchkins appeared. It would be kind of difficult to explain our pajama party – since we didn’t have any pajamas on.” At the bottom was a large “J.”

  Standing barefoot in the kitchen and staring at the gooey mess in the frying pan, Riki wondered what she was supposed to be cooking. She was pretty sure it was going to be scrambled eggs, but it didn’t look like any scrambled eggs she had ever seen. What in the world did she put in it? She decided it was safer to dump it all and start over.

  Jason stood in the kitchen doorway and studied the woman scraping the frying pan and singing a Willie Nelson tune. Starting at pink toenails and traveling up faded skin-tight blue jeans to an old Betty Boop T-shirt, and topped with a bouncing auburn pony tail, she was gorgeous. And she was his.

  Pulling his gaze away from that luscious body before he embarrassed himself, he noticed for the first time the chaos of the kitchen. Lunch boxes were spread across the counters in total disorder. Laundry was thrown in piles on the floor. The coffee maker was still dripping, only someone had forgotten to add the coffee grounds. A box of cornflakes had spilled under the table and Tiny was cleaning up the mess.

  All the kids were shouting and arguing with one another. Poor Billy-Jo was sitting at the table wearing a shirt, no pants, and one sock. She was blissfully unaware that her mother had only put half her hair in a pigtail, and it looked like she was eating chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. Jake had just finished pouring orange juice in his bowl of Fruit Loops. When he proceeded to eat them without the slightest hesitation, a shudder slid down Jason’s back.

  Travis and Trevor were arguing over a baseball card. Meanwhile Andrew lifted his cereal bowl and slurped the remaining milk. Pete was trying to unscrew the back of his hearing device with a butter knife. The only person halfway normal was Charlie. She sat there eating Cheerios as if nothing were out of the ordinary. She was dressed for school, except Riki hadn’t braided her hair yet. When Charlie caught sight of Jason standing there, she gave him a tentative smile. He smiled back.

  Travis noticed Jason and shouted, “Hi, Jason.” That was immediately followed by a chorus of hi’s. After greeting all the Munchkins he purposely walked to Riki.

  When she heard all the children greeting Jason, Riki had turned from the stove. She watched him saunter across the room to her. He was wearing paint-splattered sneakers, worn and faded jeans, and a blue T-shirt that proclaimed a Fiddlers’ Convention in Austin, Texas, and he was gorgeous. She felt her heart rate increase. How did he do that just by walking across the room? When her glance lifted to his face, the noise in the room shifted into the background. Aware only of silver eyes that could speak a thousand words, she read warmth, desire, possession, and the shiny light of love in them. When he stopped a few inches from her, she smiled shyly and whispered what she thought appropriate for the situation. “Good morning.”

  “No, darlin’, it’s a perfect morning.” Stroking her lower lip with a rough finger tip he said, “I love you, Erika.” She watched in wonderment while he lowered his head until their lips met in a sweet, soul-shaking kiss.

  Her arms were encircling his neck when the sound of children penetrated her desire-fogged mind. “Yuck, that’s gross,” Travis said.

  “What’s gross?” Jake asked, his head tilted, trying to hear some sound.

  “Jason’s kissing Mom.” Trevor shuddered. “Ugh! Who would kiss a girl?”

  “Maybe she has a boo-boo,” Andrew said.

  Quickly backing up to put some distance between herself and Jason, Riki knew her face was beet red. Why hadn’t she thought of the kids before she kissed him? Because she never could think straight when Jason was in the same room. He pulled her back to him, and she buried her face in his chest. With her cheek pressed against him, she could hear the rhythmic beating of his heart and his jerky breathing. That could mean one of two things. Either Jason was very aroused or he was trying desperately not to laugh. Considering he was holding her tightly against him and she could feel every one of his muscles, that left out physical arousal. So he thought it was funny, did he? Well, if it weren’t so embarrassing being caught in a clinch over the cornflakes by seven rug rats, she might be inclined to laugh herself.

  Hearing the kids discussing the grotesqueness of kissing was just too much. Humor won out. Burying her face deeper into Jason’s collarbone to try to suppress the laughter, she smelled the clean, fresh aroma of him – a combination of soap, shaving cream, and the musk scent that was uniquely his. She tried to pull her thoughts away from Jason before she did something really embarrassing - like ripping off his shirt so she could trace that marvelous collarbone with her tongue. It finally occurred to her that the Munchkins were still debating the merits of kissing.

  “Did you see how he kissed her before breakfast?” Travis said knowingly. “That’s so he doesn’t upchuck his breakfast.”

  “Do they really throw up after kissing?” Jake asked.

  “They don’t throw up on TV,” Trevor said.

  “Who threw out the TV?” Pete shouted.

  “Put your hearing aid back in, Pete.”

  “They don’t throw up,” Trevor stated.

  “Do so.”

  “Do not.”

  “Yeah, well, if I had to kiss a girl, I would,” Travis insisted. “Yuck!”

  Jason tilted up Riki’s face with the tip of one finger under her chin. Smiling, he said, “It seems you are neglecting the boys’ education.”

  “Don’t you think they’re too young?”

  “Maybe for some things, but to think you can get sick by kissing a gir
l is a little drastic, isn’t it?” Maybe it wasn’t, he thought. How was he to know? He was new at this parenthood number. It was a lot tougher than he’d originally figured.

  “They’re just not used to seeing their mother kissed in the kitchen by a strange man.”

  “Am I?”

  “Are you what?”

  “Strange.” He watched the various expressions chase one another across Riki’s face. When the mischievous gleam appeared in her eyes, he knew he was in trouble.

  “No, you’re not strange.” She raised herself upon her toes to whisper in his ear. “But if last night you had wanted to ...” As Jason’s jaw dropped open and his arms fell limply to his sides, his eyes registered shock, bewilderment, and a touch of sexual awareness. She gently raised his chin until his mouth was closed and with a twinkle in her eye announced, “Now that’s strange.”

  Forcing her attention on the children, she noticed for the first time the chaotic mess. Mentally lecturing herself on daydreaming in the middle of the morning, she casually lifted an empty bowl off Billy-Jo’s head. Issuing orders to the children that would have done a drill sergeant proud, she hurriedly finished packing lunches. When Bllty-Jo started to chant “potty, potty,” she told Jason to brush Charlie’s hair while she handled Billy-Jo.

  Returning to the kitchen with a dressed Billy-Jo in, tow, she couldn’t help but smile at the picture of all the older children lined up, complete with backpacks and lunch palls. At the end of the line was Charlie with a lopsided ponytail and a huge grin.

  Kissing everyone’s cheeks as they filed out the back door, she couldn’t help but think how Jason fit into the family perfectly. She couldn’t squelch the image of him actually living with them. The tantalizing thoughts of being married to Jason and keeping Charlie, whom she had come to love like a daughter, were firmly placed in her brain.

  Ideas on how to persuade Jason to give up a whole company and settle in the hills of Virginia to raise seven children chased one another around in circles as she cleaned the kitchen. He was attracted to her, and he had proclaimed his love, but was that enough? Charlie accepted him as part of the family, so there really was no reason to keep Charlie in Virginia. Besides that, it wasn’t fair to use his own daughter against him, was it? Something still didn’t seem right there. With everything Riki knew about her, Charlie should not have reacted so positively toward Jason.

  While loading the dishwasher, she decided she really couldn’t hold him here against his will, but she’d try to entice that will. She was going to shower him with so much love, he wouldn’t want to go back to Dallas. And if the day came when he and Charlie walked out that door, she’d throw the biggest thing she could find at his fat head.

  After putting the first load of wash into the machine, she started to scrape the frying pan again. She was singing along with the radio when she was grabbed from behind and lifted into the air.

  She let out a squeal as Jason’s warm lips started nibbling on the back of her neck. The squeal died into a moan as he set her on her feet. His strong hands left her waist to cup her breasts. A shiver slid down her back as he lovingly bit her earlobe. Her voice held a silent plea for more as she asked, “What are you doing?”

  Feeling Riki’s nipples harden sent a shaft of heat through Jason’s loins. Trying to strive for some lightness before he made a total fool of himself, he mumbled, “Having breakfast. I seem to have missed out this morning, and a man can’t survive by love alone.” He added silently that he was willing to try.

  He chuckled when she glared at the frying pan hanging limply in her hand and muttered something about men’s stomachs. It was quite obvious she had her mind on something other than cooking. For that matter, so did he. But short of locking two small children in a closet, there wasn’t a whole lot they could do about it. He gently turned her in his arms and held her tight, resting his chin on top of her head. Running his hands down her spine to her hips, he tucked her closer to him.

  When he felt her stiffen as she made contact with his unmistakable arousal, he took a deep breath. “Disgusting what one little old T-ball coach can do to a man’s libido, isn’t it?” Feeling her wiggle her hips to get closer called for more self control than he thought he was capable of. Holding her hips still and trying to put a few desperately needed inches between them proved to be a task worthy of Hercules. “Erika, Billy-Jo and Andrew are in the house. And if you don’t stop that wiggling they are going to be mighty shocked to see their mother flat on her back on the kitchen table.”

  Using her free hand she cupped the back of his head to bring his lips closer. “What are they doing?”

  Seeing the smoldering desire in her eyes, Jason knew he was going down for the count. “I left them in front of the television watching some big yellow bird.”

  A slow sensual smile curved her mouth. “That should keep them busy for the best part of an hour.” Seeing Jason hesitate, trying to decide if it was worth the risk, she added a little incentive.

  A shudder slid down his back as he watched her small pink tongue slide over her lower lip. His mind was screaming, slow and easy, don’t overwhelm her with too much too soon. His body, though, was howling, take her, she’s asking for it. What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?

  Realizing that he wasn’t going to kiss her, Riki ran her fingers through his thick black hair. Indecision still flickered in his eyes, and she slowly traced the outside of his ear. Lowering her voice an octave, trying for that husky sound that was supposed to drive men crazy, she asked, “What do you want, Jason?”

  His mind shouted, you, now, hard and fast. Gazing at this woman who promised paradise, he wondered why common sense always showed up at the most inappropriate times. He was a grown man. If he couldn’t control his sexual urges for the next twelve hours or so, he was in big trouble. Looking straight into her eyes he replied. “Eggs.”

  “Eggs?”

  “Yeah, eggs, scrambled and with ketchup.” Turning on his heels he marched out the kitchen door.

  Riki blinked at the empty doorway, wondering what had happened. He was responding to her one minute and the next he ordered eggs. You’re in bad shape, old girl. if he prefers scrambled eggs over you. And with ketchup dumped on top no less. Yuck!

  Scrambling eggs once more, Riki decided that affirmative action was called for. How could she possibly shower Jason with love if he treated her as a waitress? There was an old saying about training a mule. The first thing you did was beat him with a two-by-four across the head – to get his attention. Well, she really didn’t want to whack Jason across the head, but she did need to get his attention.

  Eight

  After being practically ignored during breakfast, Riki started concocting a sketchy plan. While she cleaned up the kitchen for the second time a distinctive mischievous laugh followed her around. Heading upstairs to change from her jeans, she decided the day was going to be a scorcher, in more ways than one.

  Digging deep in the back of a dresser drawer she finally found what she had been looking for – a pair of white shorts. She grabbed a lavender tank top and stepped into the bathroom.

  It took a deep breath to snap the shorts finally. After slipping into the snug top. she hesitantly glanced in the mirror. Good Lord, talk about second skin. Critically examining her body, she concluded it would pass. It wasn’t any great shakes, but Jason hadn’t screamed in horror last night.

  With the thought of last night lingering in her mind, she remembered a part of her anatomy that seemed to fascinate Jason. Turning around to get a rear view in the full length mirror, she studied that particular article. She decided that it could have been a tiny bit smaller and a lot firmer, but all in all it wasn’t bad for a mother of four. She twisted her hair up into a casual knot, took one last look in the mirror, then headed out to conquer the enemy – or at least to seduce him.

  Jason nearly had heart failure when he rounded the side of the house and spotted Riki bent over stirring paint. Her back was to him and her provocativ
e derriere swayed as she stirred. He swallowed the growl that was about to emerge from his throat. He lowered his gaze to her feet and leisurely traveled up lightly tanned calves. His pulse quickened. As he stared at the back of satiny knees, he remembered the scent of her perfume that she’d applied there, and he ran his tongue over suddenly dry lips.

  Blood was pounding in his temples as his gaze continued up her creamy thighs. How could a relatively small woman have such long legs? Trying to swallow a lump, he fastened his hungry gaze on her gently rounded tush. Didn’t she realize that her stirring caused that fabulous part of her body to jiggle, and that it was driving him nuts? How was he going to make it until bedtime if he couldn’t even make it to lunch, for cripesake? Visions of those soft creamy thighs wrapped around him were having an adverse effect on his libido. A harsh sound of self-disgust emerged from his throat before he could stop it.

  That sound was the confirmation Riki had been watting for. Despite feeling tingling sensations for the past several minutes, she had continued to stir perfectly mixed paint. Now she swiveled her head but did not straighten. What she saw caused her breath to jam in her chest.

  Jason stood there with a clenched jaw and white knuckles, gripping the handles of three paint cans. She let the wooden stirrer slip from her fingers and turned to face the man she loved.

  He tore his gaze from hers to glance at Billy-Jo and Andrew, riding their Big Wheels on the porch. She watched helplessly as he then pivoted and marched away, his muttered curse barely reaching her ears.

  Taking the first breath of air since she had looked up at him, Riki tried to regain her equilibrium. As she gazed at the two children playing on the porch, her heart swelled with pride and love. For the first time she realized that it wasn’t going to be easy to conduct a fiery love affair with seven children around.

  Walking slowly toward the porch, she thought about what had just transpired with Jason. She sank down on the steps, her elbows on her knees and her chin cupped in her palms. She came to the conclusion that she wasn’t very proud of herself. How could she blatantly tease him like that - especially when there was nothing he could do about it with the children up and around? It looked like she owed that poor man an apology. Now, Miss Smarty, figure out what you’re going to say.