Holly thanked Thomas with a smile.

“Good save, Thomas,” I said, grabbing a beer from the fridge for Jude. Angling it against the counter, I drove my palm down on it. The cap popped off, tinkling when it hit the floor.

“Damn,” Jude said, when I handed him the beer. “You know how turned on I get when you do that.”

“Oh, God, you two. Really?” Holly groaned, sounding more jealous than irritated. Grabbing something off the floor, she marched toward Jude and me. Holding up LJ’s Spider-Man bouncy ball, she stared us both down. “You know how back in the day they used to put balloons between boys and girls at school dances to make sure they kept their distance?”

I gave her a really? look. “You’re not ramming that thing against my boobs.”

“You’re right, I’m not.” She gave me a sweet smile before jamming the ball in between Jude and me. South of our belly buttons. “There, now the rest of us can actually eat tonight, since you won’t be able to grind up on each other every two seconds.”

Jude looked down at the ball between us and burst into laughter. “Man, Luce. You been telling on me again?” he said, flexing his h*ps against the ball, successfully shoving me against the fridge. “You know I like it kinky, but even for me, this might be a stretch.”

I sighed. “I’m sure it wouldn’t stop you.”

“No,” he said, tilting his beer at me. “No, it wouldn’t.”

“Mom?!” LJ shouted from the toy box. “What’s kinky?”

Jude’s face froze in surprise. Holly gave him a shove before clearing her throat.

“It’s when a chain gets tangled up,” Thomas said, all matter-of-fact.

“Oh,” LJ replied, before going back to unloading the entire contents of the toy box.

“Nice save, my man,” Jude said, lifting his chin at Thomas.

Thomas shook his head as he continued to stack cheeseburgers onto a serving tray. “So today I’m ‘your man,’ but not too long ago I was Peter Pan. What earned me the upgrade?”

“First off, I called you Peter Pan because I’m a jealous dick who’d just found you undressing my girl,” Jude explained. “And you’re ‘my man’ because you’ve been looking after the three most important people in my life.”

Thomas fought his smile. “What do you know? The dumb jock is deep.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jude said, taking a drink of his beer. “I’ve heard enough dumb-jock jokes to last an eternity.”

“And I’ve heard enough Peter Pan jokes to last two,” Thomas tossed back, before heading to the table with a tray holding more cheeseburgers than we could eat in a week.

Jude took another drink before examining the bottle. “PBR?” he said, looking impressed. “Luce, you know how to treat me right.”

I wrapped an arm around him because, after three weeks of being apart, I didn’t want to be apart anymore. “Nothing but the best for my man.”

“Come on. Let’s eat,” he said, ringing an arm around my neck. “I’m starving.”

“Me, too,” I said, lowering my voice, since young ears and sexual innuendos shouldn’t go together. “But not for food.”

Jude stopped in place. His mouth lowered just outside my ear. “You keep up that kind of talk and I will throw you down and do you on this table, too.”

Goose bumps were already rising, but when his teeth grazed my earlobe, those goose bumps exploded to the surface even quicker.

Fine. Two could play at this foreplay game. I had to rise up on my tiptoes to settle my mouth at his ear. “I’m so ready for you my panties would be wet . . .” I said, going one step further and sucking the tip of his earlobe between my teeth, “if I was wearing any.”

His breath hitched between his teeth.

Flashing him an innocent smile, I continued to the table. Just as I was sitting down, he came up behind me. “Thanks to you and that filthy mouth, I’ve got to take a little time-out in the bathroom.”

“What?” I said, spinning in my seat. “We’re just about to eat dinner. A cold shower can wait.”

I chalked up a point for Lucy Larson. She’d won this round of verbal foreplay.

“My dick’s so hard a cold shower wouldn’t even touch it. And I’m not going to sit through dinner with a hard-on tenting my jeans,” he said into my ear. “I’m going to go rub one out. I’ll be right back.”

Speaking of wet panties . . .

“I’ll help,” I said, jumping out of my chair.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me along. “Good. Your hands are softer than mine.”

We’d just about made it to the bathroom, so close I was already reaching for the top button of Jude’s jeans, when a solo knock sounded outside the front door.

A solo knock followed by three fast ones.

I wanted to cry from the letdown. If we’d been two seconds faster, we already would have been behind that closed door and my hand would have been sliding up and down—

“Lookie here. We’ve got a welcoming committee,” India said after swinging the door open.

With Anton at her side.

“Shit.”

Did that just slip out of my mouth?

“‘Hello. Nice to see you. Good of you to make it,’” India said, stepping inside. “These are a few commonly accepted greetings when welcoming someone to your place.” Smirking at me, she gave Jude a quick hug. “It sure is nice to have my arms around your sexy-ass body again. Any idea why we had to shove through a mini army of paparazzi camped out on the sidewalk?”