“Stefan!” Livia yelled, slamming the front door with a furious flick of her wrist. “Where are you, you horrible man!”
Stefan walked out of his study and Livia had to work hard to continue her glare and remember why she was so furious. “You did it!”
A giggle sounded from the right and Stefan jiggled the little boy in that arm. “What did I do, love?” he asked carefully. He’d done a lot of things and he wasn’t sure which one he’d been caught at.
There was a giggle on the other side of him so he jiggled that arm. “Daddy is in trouble,” Mia, his four year old daughter whispered. She was talking to Oliver, the two year old boy who was also holding his stuffed monkey in the same manner as his father was holding him. And both were giggling enough to need another jiggle. Unfortunately, his children had no respect for the position in which they found themselves.
“Would you put the kids down?” she demanded impatiently, trying not to laugh at her son and daughter acting like wild animals. It was a game they played over and over again, with Stefan as the “lion” who was tracking them throughout the house. Who would have known that the powerful, frightening business tycoon was a pushover when it came to his kids? If only those other businessmen could see her terrifying husband now, they would relax.
Then again, they probably wouldn’t. Stefan only had a soft spot in his heart for his family. The rest of the world really should watch out.
“I think I’ll hold onto them,” he told her and both Mia and Oliver clapped their hands and giggled some more. “They’re probably going to have to protect me.”
Livia shook her head, her eyes narrowing as she glared at him. “You submitted my name!” she exclaimed. “Nothing is going to protect you now.”
Stefan glanced down at the paper in her hand and cringed. “You weren’t supposed to see that quite yet.”
She put her hands on her hips, distracted when Stefan shifted both kids around so that they were on his hips, their chubby arms around his neck. So now all three of them were staring back at her. It was hard to maintain one’s anger when Mia’s green eyes crinkled with laughter and Oliver was making monkey sounds. Not to mention the secret heat in Stefan’s gaze as his eyes traveled down her body. She’d forgotten about the dress she’d worn today, the material clinging to her figure. She’d meant to meet him for lunch today as a surprise so the outfit was enticement. She’d just found the article before the lunch hour arrived.
“Don’t!” she snapped at him.
His smile widened and he winked at her. “I am.”
“Don’t!” she said but the heat was already building in her stomach and radiating outwards.
“Already am, my love.”
“The kids…”
Oliver wrinkled his nose as he leaned over to Mia. “They’re going to kiss, aren’t they?”
Mia sighed. “They’re always kissing, Oliver.”
Stefan chuckled as he leaned down, kissing Livia gently but she could feel the desire in that kiss. And her body, as always, reacted to it.
“You deserve the recognition,” he told her. “You and your mother have done great things with the women’s shelter. Besides, the award will highlight all of the good work you two have been doing.”
“We don’t need advertising,” she argued back. “The women’s shelter is thriving. My mother is thriving now that she’s not under my father’s abusive hands.”
He moved in for another kiss. “I want the world to know what a great thing you’ve created. So I submitted your name.”
She glanced to the right and left, laughing finally at her two, adorable children. “You’re not protected,” she warned him.
Mia and Oliver both snuggled closer to their father. “You can’t get to him,” Mia said. “He’s ours for the morning. He promised.”
Livia chuckled. “So Daddy is playing hooky from work and you guys are playing Jungle. Again.”
Oliver nodded his head.
“I guess he’s safe for right now, then.”
Mia and Oliver threw their arms up into the air, cheering. A split second later, Mia reached out and threw herself into Livia’s arms, giving her mother a big, sloppy kiss. “That means you have to be the tiger, Momma.”
Livia looked at her husband, loving everything about him. “The tiger? I thought daddy preferred it when I was the gazelle.”
Mia and Oliver giggled and shook their heads. “Nope. When you pretend to be the gazelle, the lion forgets to chase the monkey and the peacock.”
Livia laughed but what they said was true. She blushed, thinking of the last time they’d played. She hadn’t realized what was going to happen when Stefan told her that she was going to be the gazelle. She’d thought he would still chase the kids. But Mia and Oliver had stood over their parents that day, disgusted because the lion had chased the gazelle behind the sofa and was kissing her. Again. The lion had “forgotten” to chase the monkey and peacock. From that moment on, the kids refused to let their mother be anything other than a predator too.
“Well, I guess being a tiger is better than a gazelle.”
Stefan shook his head while Oliver and Mia nodded.
“Gazelles have more fun with the lion,” he told her.
Livia blushed an even deeper shade of red, but she also leaned closer and kissed her husband. “Yes. They do!”