Warmth surrounds me from the tip of my toes to the top of my chest. The welcome weight of pure naked woman is sprawled over my body. I run my hands up the inches of bare flesh. My fingers encounter a few pebbled areas where I hug her across her back, my hands landing on her ribs. As I open my eyes, I’m greeted by deep amber pools of hot lava. In the morning light, her normally caramel-brown gaze has turned to a fiery crimson color.

God, I’ve missed this. Missed her.

“Morning, Sweetcheeks,” I grumble, my voice not quite awake.

She nuzzles her face right over my heart and kisses me there several times. My Kat was never a morning talker. More a doer. I can remember countless mornings when I’d wake with my girl’s lips firmly wrapped around my cock in greeting. Best way to wake up. Though having a Kathleen blanket wrapped around me is a close second.

“Hmm.” She sighs, her lashes fluttering closed as though she’s soaking in the moment. I know I am. With every damned breath I take.

“Nothing like seeing the woman I love, naked and sated after a night of sensational fucking.” I embrace her warmth, wrapping my arms and legs around all the lusciousness that is my woman.

Kat chuckles and lifts her head, resting her chin on my chest. “I’ll concede to the great fucking,” she murmurs, a pretty flush pinking her cheeks. The woman let me fuck her six ways from Sunday last night, and she can still flush like an innocent schoolgirl. So many layers to my Kat.

“I believe I said sensational.” I grip her ass with both hands and rub my hardening length against her.

She groans. “No, stop it. You fiend!” She sits up, resting her bare flesh against my lower stomach instead of where I want her. “You broke my vagina last night. Poor thing needs a rest.” Her bare chest rises and falls, her coral-pink tips puckered tight in the morning chill.

In this light, I can see all of her. Everything she’s tried to hide since her injury. “Honey…” I whisper as I run my fingers over her right shoulder, down the side of her scarred ribcage and breast.

Instantly, she moves to cover it, but I grip her hands and bring them down. “Let me see. Let me love all of you.” I choke down the grit coating my words. She’s the only woman besides my mother I’ve ever loved. And now, more than ever, as she bites her lip, firms her chin, and drops her arms to her sides, I love her more than anything I can comprehend. Her strength, determination, and insecurities are glaring, but she’s breathing through it. Allowing me to see this side of her. The side she doesn’t want anyone to see.

Slowly, I lift my hands again, wanting—no, needing—to make her understand she is no different to me. Is her skin marred? Yes. Does it disgust me? Not even close.

“Kathleen…these scars”—I run just my fingertips over her shoulder and down her side, where I curl my hand around her small ribcage—“they prove you’re alive.” I lean up and push us both back so she’s sitting in my lap and I’m leaning against the headboard. Moving with intent, I bring my face closer to her shoulder, the same one I used to lick, bite, and nibble during sex. Pulling her closer to me, I press my lips to the tortured flesh. She gasps and I close my eyes, allowing her the time she needs to get used to this touch.

With more purpose, I curl my left arm around her back and cup her nape, forcing her to look at me. Tears are dripping down her cheeks. I kiss them away as I take my right hand, place it on her shoulder, and with a firm grip run my hand down every inch of her scarred arm before I intertwine our fingers and bring her hand up between us. She opens her eyes. They are full of unshed tears and so filled with grief and sorrow I want to look away. But I can’t. She needs me to be strong during her moment of weakness.

I bring her hand to my lips. Her eyes narrow on me as I kiss each fingertip, the top of her puckered flesh, and the center of her palm. “I love every fucking one of these scars, Kat, because they mean you’re alive. You’re here with me. Right here, and you’re never fucking going anywhere.”

Her voice cracks as she opens her mouth and the tears fall. My God, how they fall. “I love you,” she says between sobs before kissing me. Both of her hands are in my hair, tugging me close. Her legs tighten against my sides as if she wants to burrow into me. “I’m sorry, Carson. I’m so sorry I pushed you away,” she chokes out between deep presses of her mouth to mine.

I take every kiss and lick every tear away. They’re mine now, just as she is.

“Kathleen”—I cup her face and lift her chin with my thumbs—“it’s over. From here on out, it’s me and you. Everything else we’ll brave together.”

She swallows and licks her kiss-swollen lips. “Together.”

---

“Damn, woman, you can cook.” I’m stuffing my mouth full of another huge bite of waffles smothered in peaches. I’m already on my second waffle and feel like I could hammer back two more.

Kat snickers, leaning against the counter on the other side of the kitchen, wearing nothing but a camisole and a pair of the tiniest sleep shorts known to man. I can’t say that I’m bothered by them, because every time she turns around and bends over just a hair, I can see a sweet slice of cheek. And I’ve always been an ass man when it comes to my woman.

“Would you like more?” she asks over the rim of her coffee.

I suck in a big breath, lift my arms to the sky, and stretch. Her eyes watch every movement with such intensity I can almost imagine her tracing every inch of my bare chest with her tongue.

“Keep looking at me like that and you’re gonna get yourself fucked on top of your kitchen counter.”

She pouts, but one sexy eyebrow lifts as if she’s thinking about it.

I rub my hand down my bare chest and slap my belly. “I think I could eat one more.” I grin. “Even though I was supposed to be making you breakfast in bed. Guess I’ll have to do that next weekend.”

She laughs and shakes her head before putting down her coffee mug and sashaying over to the waffle iron. With the skill only years of practice can manage, she sprays the iron, pours more batter, flicks the lid down, and gets another carb-loaded batch of heaven ready for her man.

“So, what’s your plan for the day?” she asks.

It’s Sunday, and normally I’d plan to hole her up in her apartment and keep her naked all day, but I’ve already been away from home all night. Which reminds me, I turned my phone off when I got here. I wanted nothing between Kat and me last night. I’m so glad I did. We made a huge breakthrough when it came to her scars and our relationship. Now I just need to get over the hump of telling her about Cora.

Guilt whistles through my body like an ice-cold breeze on a hot day. I step off the stool and find my jacket, plucking out my phone.

“Uh, don’t know my schedule just yet.” I go the cryptic route, not wanting to cause any suspicion.

Fuck, I hate lying to her. A lie of omission is still a lie, and this one is a whopper.

I power up my phone. “Need to check some things. What’s your plan?” My phone comes to life. And when I say it comes to life, I mean angry dings sound off as text message after text message assault my phone. Then come the dings of voicemails. Five to be exact. Five fucking voicemails and fifteen text messages. All from one number. Misty.

“Fuck!” I growl and scan the first set of messages.

Where are you? I have dinner warm in the oven waiting.

We’re going to eat without you.

I guess you’re not coming home for dinner. Cora misses her daddy. Me too.

It’s two in the morning. I’m worried. Cora isn’t feeling well.

Cora’s been throwing up all night. Where are you?

“Jesus Christ!” I run my hand through my hair and start pacing as I see the next set.

Cora’s really sick. We need you.

Come home. Please. I don’t know what to do. She wants her daddy.

Carson. I’m scared.

Carson. Cora needs to go to the emergency room.

Carson! Where are you? Please, please, come home!

The once scrumptious waffles now lie like lead in my stomach. A set of hands falls against my bare back.

“Hey, hey, hey. Babe, what’s wrong? What is it?”

I swallow. “She’s sick. I gotta go. I gotta go right now,” I say with more force, shaking off her touch and searching for my shirt. Once I find it, I tug it on, slip on my shoes sans socks. I don’t have time to find my fucking socks.

“Who’s sick? What’s going on?” Kathleen’s voice cracks as I clutch my keys with such force, the metal cuts into my palm.

“I’m sorry. I can’t talk about this right now. I need to go!” My voice is practically a roar as I grip the handle for the door.

Kathleen grabs the door, pushes it shut, and slams her palm against my chest. “Carson, don’t do this to me again. Fucking talk to me!” Her voice is as sharp as her gaze. She’s pissed and hurt at the same time, but there’s nothing I can do to fix it right now.

I tug her to me and kiss her hard. Once is all I can handle or I’ll lose myself in her again. Instead, I grip the door and pull it open. “Baby, trust me. I’ll call you later.”

And I’m out the door.

“Carson! Carson!” she yells as the elevator doors close out the sound of her voice.

---

The tires of my car screech against the pavement as I jump out of my truck and take the stairs to my house two at a time. I open the door and instantly hear them. Cora’s cries rip through the walls of my home. I follow the sound.

“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay. Daddy will be here soon. He will. He loves you,” Misty says against Cora’s temple.

I enter the room with heavy feet. “What’s wrong with my daughter?” I reach for her. She’s clad only in a diaper, but her little arms cling to me as I pull her against my chest. Her crying starts to settle down into a low whine of whimpers once she’s against my chest.

“Where have you been?” Misty’s voice is tinged with an anger I haven’t heard from her before. “I’ve been up all night, taking care of our sick daughter. And where were you? Huh? Nowhere to be found!”

I ignore her rant and kiss my baby, focusing all my attention on her. Her little body is hot as Hades. “You don’t feel good, baby girl?” I place kiss after kiss on her face. She stuffs her thumb into her mouth and nuzzles against my chest. “Why is she so hot?”

“Because she has a fever. I haven’t been able to get it to break all night. Not that you care.”

I grit my teeth and try to be calm. She’s upset and unraveling because Cora’s sick. “Have you given her any medicine? Gillian told me last week when she brought both medicines that we should alternate Tylenol and ibuprofen. It will take a fever down quicker. I’ll call her.”

“I gave her Tylenol every four hours. Alone. While you were out gallivanting around with God knows who and your daughter was at home sick!” Misty is positively seething. Her face is pinched and red, her lips a tight white line. Even her chest is heaving up and down as though she’s a bull ready to charge.

“Why don’t you go and take a shower. I’ve got this. We’ll talk later.”

She crosses her arms over one another, pushing her breasts up, baring more than I want to see of her tits. “Were you with another woman?”

Another woman? What the ever-loving fuck?

“Yeah, Misty. I was with a woman. My woman. Everything happened rather quickly and I didn’t get a chance to mention Kathleen. I don’t even know if you have a man in your life. If you haven’t noticed, we’ve spent the last two weeks learning to live together and take care of our daughter.”

Her eyes fill with unshed tears. Again… What the fuck?

“You…you…you have a girlfriend?” Her voice shakes and her bottom lip trembles.

I sigh. Kathleen is so much more than my girlfriend. She’s my fucking soul mate. My everything. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“I could. I just did.” She purses her lips and firms her chin.

“Look, go take a shower. I’m going to call Gillian about Cora. She seems fine other than the fact that she’s hot and you said she was vomiting. When was the last time she vomited?”

“A couple hours ago.”

“And the Tylenol. When did you last give it to her?”

Her eyes narrow. “Just after that. After I cleaned her up for the hundredth time. Alone.” On that note, she spins around and stomps off toward the shower.

I take a few slow, deep breaths, reining in my frustration. She’s just angry because she had to go it alone. But she’s done that for almost two years without me. I shake my head, not letting myself think those thoughts. It will just send me into a bigger tailspin of guilt than I’m already in.

Cora mumbles something and I look down. My sweet girl is asleep on my chest, but her skin is startlingly hot. I pick up the house phone and dial my cousin’s line.

“Good morning. Davis residence.”

“Hi, Summer. It’s Carson. I need to speak with Gigi. Is she available?”

“Yes, Mrs. Davis is in the family room with the kids. One moment.”

With my precious bundle sleeping soundly, I take a seat in the living room on the sofa. Cora snuggles more deeply, her thumb falling out of her mouth, a little drop of saliva clinging to her lip. I run my knuckle against the spot and rub it on my pant leg, and then I resume caressing her back in soothing strokes, doing what feels most natural. Man, I wish Kathleen were here. She’d know what to do. She’s very active in her nieces’ and nephew’s lives. Plus, she’s a natural nurturer.

“Hello?” Gigi comes on the line, sounding more chipper than I could muster.

“Hey, Gigi, I need advice. Cora’s sick.”

“Oh no. What’s the matter with my sweet niece?”

“She’s hot. Really hot. Misty gave her Tylenol two hours ago, but she said she’s been throwing up all night.”

“How many times?” she asks.

I lick my suddenly dry lips and breathe out. “I don’t know. I, uh, wasn’t here. I was with Kat last night.”

A dead silence greets me.

“Gillian, don’t. Please. I need your help with Cora.”

She makes a sound like she’s letting all the air out of a tire. “You haven’t told her, have you?”

“No. But I’m going to. I swear it. Just, please, help me with Cora.”

“Well, first you need to take her temperature. Did Misty do that?”

“I don’t know. She’s in the shower, but I saw the thermometer on the counter. Just walk me through it.”

Gillian tells me how to set the thermometer and run it across my daughter’s forehead in one swoop. I feel like a hero when I’m able to do it without waking her up.

“It’s says one oh three point one. That’s bad, right?” Isn’t the normal human temperature ninety-eight point six? That means my daughter is over four degrees hotter than that. “Gigi, tell me my baby is going to be okay?” Now I sound desperate.

Fuck. I should have been here.

“No, no, no. It’s okay. Is she teething?”

I remember Misty telling me yesterday she could feel some new teeth coming in. “Yeah. Yeah, she is.”

“Okay, it’s probably that. What you need to do is give her some ibuprofen, and then you need to cool her body down.”

“How do I do that?”

“She needs to be submerged in lukewarm water for a while.”

“What if she starts screaming again?” I sound like such a useless asshole.

Thank God Gillian takes pity on me. “Then get in with her. Chase normally gets in the shower with the twins if one of them is feverish. They want to be in their daddy’s arms. Makes them feel safe and loved.”

Shower. Okay. Got it.

“Thank you, Gillian. I owe you.”

“Just take care of my niece. I’ll call later to check on you guys.”

I hang up the phone without even saying goodbye. With one hand, I fill the dropper with ibuprofen and then rouse Cora just enough to get her to swallow the medicine. She takes it like a champ. The poor thing is exhausted, lolling her little head against my chest. Misty still hasn’t gotten out of the guest shower, so I’m on my own.

Once I get to my room, I ease Cora onto my bed and strip off my clothes, leaving my boxers on. Then I rush to the bathroom and set the shower. I remove her diaper and pull her against my bare chest. Once I’ve got her situated, I bring her into the shower. She wakes instantly and starts crying.

“Shh, shh, shh. It’s okay, baby. I’ve got you. Daddy’s here. We need to get you cool, honey.”

Her tears subside and she flattens her cheek against my chest. There is no feeling like this. Being someone’s entire universe. Having them trust you to care for them completely. It’s humbling and makes me fall even more in love with my daughter.

“What are you doing?” Misty opens the shower door, and Cora startles momentarily but nestles her head back down, allowing the barely warm water to cool her hot skin.

“I’m cooling her off. Gigi says we need to get her temp down. I gave her some ibuprofen too.”

Misty’s eyes widen. “You did? By yourself?”

“Yeah, by myself. She’s my daughter. I can handle this. Now can you please shut the door? It’s making her shiver. Good news is, I can feel it working. She’s cooling down.”

Misty blinks a few times, tilts her head, and looks at me from head to toe…slowly. For a moment, her eyes darken. I know that look. I made sure to see it as many times as I could last night when I had Kathleen under me. Lust. Pure, unbridled desire.

“Misty. The door. She’s cold.”

She shakes her head and closes the door without a word.

I cup my daughter’s head, making sure water runs over her crown but not her face. After about ten minutes, I can feel the heat seeping out of her limbs. She doesn’t seem as warm. Thank God.

Trying not to jostle her too much, I turn off the water and open the shower door. Misty is standing there with a towel, ready to grab Cora.

“I’ll take her and put a onesie on her.”

“Thanks. I want to lie down with her,” I say, needing to be near her right now. The instinct to hold and protect is fierce. Nearly uncontrollable.

Misty nods and leaves the bathroom. I put on a pair of pajama pants without a shirt. Cora likes to rest on my bare chest. I pull back my covers and get in. Misty brings Cora in with a sippy cup of pink-colored liquid.

“What’s in the cup?”

“Pedialyte. She needs fluids.” She sets Cora on my chest, and I wrap my arms around her and take the cup from Misty.

I nod. “Okay, I’ll make sure she gets it. Can you give us some time alone?”

Her lips tighten and her shoulders seem to rise before falling with what I can only assume is defeat. “Yeah. I’ll be in the other room resting. I didn’t get any sleep last night.” She turns around briskly, and I feel like such a shit.

“Hey, Misty,” I call out.

She stops at the threshold to my door. “What?”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here. We’re going to have to talk about Kathleen and how she fits into all of this.” I gesture to the bed and my girl grabbing for her cup, now awake and thirsty as the dickens.

She huffs. “Her name is Kathleen, huh? Honestly, Carson, the simple answer… She doesn’t fit in.”

That’s the last thing she says before shutting my door and leaving me alone with Cora.

I sigh and get Cora situated so she can lean against me and drink her juice. Her fever seems to have gone down, but she’s not perfectly cool just yet. Once her juice is half gone, her blue eyes start to droop and she only sucks from her cup every few seconds until she doesn’t at all.

Making sure not to disturb her, I gently pull the cup out of her mouth and set it on the nightstand. Then I prop my little girl over my chest the same way I had Kathleen just this morning. Two totally different scenarios, both equally precious.

I rub a hand down her hair and back. “How am I going to tell Kathleen about you? Huh, Cora? I know she’ll just love you to pieces, but getting over the shock of you is going to be a battle. One I’m not ready to handle. You see, I want her to be so far gone for me that she can’t push me away again. Us. So she can’t push us away.”

Cora’s eyelids move back and forth as she enters a deep sleep. Her hand is splayed out over my chest, her head on my heart. Just where I want her.

With my little one wrapped in my arms, I close my eyes and dream of beach dates with Cora and Kathleen, dinners on the patio, waffles and peaches, and the most beautiful life. Together.

Until I’m rudely awakened two hours later by the doorbell ringing.

It dawns on me in my sleep-deprived brain that there are only a handful of people who have the PIN code to the gate out front. Mostly all members of the family. It could be Chloe, Cooper, or worse, my father. None of them have met Misty or Cora, but I did tell my dad what happened, especially since he’s going to hire Misty to be his personal assistant. He promised to give me time to connect with Cora and settle in before he intruded. That leaves my siblings. Or… No. Fucking no. She wouldn’t come here. Would she?

A sliver of fear trickles up my spine and wraps around my chest. It’s exactly what she’d do to try to get to the bottom of why I left so abruptly. Not once but twice. Fuck!

Please God, don’t let it be Kathleen.