Married...With Twins!

by Jennifer Mikels

  As her soft breasts pushed into his chest, fantasy blended with reality for him. He felt the heat of her hands on his waist, tugging at his pants, pushing them down, before she swayed the length of her into him. He wanted to say something.. He couldn’t. Burying his face in her neck, he crushed her to him.

  Like the storm outside, one brewed within him. On a groan of pure pleasure, he glided his hands over all that had once been so familiar to him. His mouth raced over her face, tasting. He knew that if she stopped him now, he’d crumble. With his lips on hers, he braced an arm against her back and lowered them to the bed.

  All that she’d nearly forgotten was with her again. Val listened to the rain, wondering if he remembered other nights when they’d held each other like this with the sound of raindrops pattering against the windows.

  Deepening the kiss, his lips slanted and twisted over hers. Longing slithered through her, and she trembled beneath the hand on her, cupping her breast and caressing her hip. With Luke’s gentleness, she recalled wonderful days and nights during the best years of her life. She turned her face, letting her lips play over his jaw, his cheekbone. Need and wants came together as one for her.

  As he took his fill of her, lingering, persuading, moving over her as if memorizing, she ached for more. Sensations so alive, so vivid, so familiar, bombarded her. In answer, she skimmed fingers along the hard muscle of his thigh. The magic of every other night they’d had together echoed in the quickening of their breath. A wanting she’d ignored for too long returned, fueled by kisses and caresses.

  Her mouth fastening onto his, she felt her heart pounding while his hands taunted and pleasured. Shadows fell across him when he knelt at the foot of the bed. His dark head bent, he curled his fingers around her ankles, and with a slowness meant to drive her mad, his lips and tongue coursed a slow trail up her legs.

  She was all hunger and heat suddenly. Gripping his shoulders, she closed her eyes. She didn’t need to see. His mouth seared her thigh, her belly, the warmth already waiting for him. The moist path of his tongue whirled her into another world. Wild and dark.. And a newness engulfed. What was familiar was rediscovered. He left her breathless, aching, stirring with a demand of her own.

  First one shudder, then another passed. A fire burning for him, she shifted, rolling with him on the bed, her legs tangling with his. She heard the soft intimate tone of his voice while she pressed her mouth against his chest, and in lazy circles, she tasted damp flesh.

  As she snatched the breath from him, he gave her no time to catch her own. Rain pounded against the window, distant thunder echoed. None of that mattered. They raced against their own storm, one that was urgent and relentless. As if desperate, he dragged her up, and his mouth captured hers. She drew in his tongue, feeling drugged by his taste. The time they’d been apart no longer existed. When he entered her, she knew her memories would include now-this moment, when they came together again.

  Lightning flashed, and she saw in his face, in the eyes staring down at her, the same love she’d seen the first time.

  Not the soft drizzle outside but the heat of her body curled into his awakened Luke. Beneath the cloak of a gray darkness, he lay still a moment longer. Did he dare believe that all they’d had, all he’d ever wanted, was within his grasp? Was it possible they could start over? He didn’t know, but something he’d thought impossible had happened-new hope for them.

  Beside him, he felt Val stir. “Stay,” he murmured, pulling the blanket up around them. Holding her to him, he shifted and rolled onto his back. He needed her. He needed her smile, her laughter, the gentle understanding in her touch. Tenderly he ran his fingers up and then down her arm to meet her hand. He had missed her, he realized. His loss had gone beyond intimacy. During the past months he’d lost more than his wife. He’d lost his best friend.

  With her head on his shoulder, Val opened her eyes. She knew this was the real risk in intimacy. It was more than bodies touching. Hearts mingled even after the warmth of flesh no longer existed. And she was willingly taking this chance, waiting, hoping, that at some moment he’d truly let her back in.

  Bending his head, he grazed her temple with his lips. “You’re quiet.” He searched for some tell-tale sign that she had regrets. The eyes turned up to him smiled.

  “I was thinking about last night.” With a touch so light she barely felt it, he brushed his mouth across hers. Then once more, as if testing. “That seemed inevitable,” she whispered, tracing her finger down the line of hair at his belly.

  “Inevitable,” he murmured. There was no certainty, he reminded himself, but for the moment, she was his again.

  Lazily stretching, Val tasted the flesh at his throat. “They’ll be waking up soon.”

  With her warmth and her scent so near, he didn’t want to move, didn’t want the moment to end. The burning for her had eased, but the longing for all they’d once had haunted him. He wanted to bury himself in her, never let her go. “Not too soon,” he whispered.

  “No, not too soon,” she answered distractedly, fluttering her fingers along his ribs and over his stomach.

  All he could do was groan as her hand moved down.

  Chapter Eight

  Not bothering with her sneakers, Val strolled downstairs to the kitchen and started the coffee brewer. Because the twins weren’t bellowing their favorite song from their cribs, she took the time to sip some coffee before setting the table for breakfast. A hint of sunshine peeked out from behind clouds, casting a sheen on the damp grass. When she left Luke, he’d been burying his face in the pillow, trying to grab a few more minutes of sleep.

  She knew it was foolish to wish for too much just because of one night, but they’d been so close again. What if they could find their way back to each other?

  Climbing the stairs, Val reached the top one and heard the soft huskiness of Luke’s voice. Since he wasn’t prone to talking to himself, she guessed one or both of the twins had accomplished a new feat this morning-climbing out of the crib.

  Val paused at the bedroom doorway.

  Traci was snuggling close to him on top of the blanket. “Dog,” she announced, pointing to a drawing in the picture book for her audience of two, Luke and her doll Polly.

  “What’s that?” he asked while smoothing down strands of her hair.

  “Car.”

  Grinning, Luke bent his head closer to her. “And that?”

  Her brows pinched with concentration. “Ball.”

  “No, that’s a balloon.” He smiled as she tipped her head back to look up at him. “Like you had at your birthday party. Remember them?”

  Her gaze returning to the book, she nodded. “Bemember.”

  As Luke kissed the top of her head, Val said the obvious, “I see we have company.” She looked down, feeling a nudge at her hip.

  Dragging her teddy bear, Brooke dashed to the bed. At the foot of it, she abandoned the stuffed animal and climbed up. “Lu-cas, up.” She gave a hard yank at the sheet and comforter.

  Only quick reflexes saved him. Naked, he maintained a firm grip on the covers.

  “Get up. Get up,” Traci echoed now, bouncing on the bed.

  Definitely he had a problem. His mouth twisting in a grin, he shot a look at Val. “Come here.” He waited until she’d moseyed closer, then snagged the back of her neck and pulled her face to his.

  “Is something wrong?” By the tease dancing in her eyes, she knew exactly what his problem was.

  “I can’t get up,” he whispered in her ear. “If you remember last night, I’m not dressed for company.”

  A giggle bubbled in her throat. “If I remember right, you’re not dressed at all.” Pulling back from him, Val couldn’t help enjoying his dilemma, but she lifted first Brooke and then Traci down. “Time to get dressed,” she announced. Before their protests started, she placed a hand at their backs and steered them toward the door.

  Brooke balked and planted her feet. “Lu-cas, up, too,” she said impatiently.

  Fo
r good measure, Luke tightened his grip on the sheet. “I will,” he assured her.

  On a deep breath of exasperation, Brooke obeyed Val’s gentle prodding out the door.

  Certain his private time was limited, Luke threw back the covers and rose. Some sixth sense made him snatch up a pillow and ram it against his groin.

  Standing in the doorway, Val gave him a lengthy look, her lips twitching as she battled a grin. “I’ve seen it all. Hurry.” Her laughter broke through the moment she stepped away.

  With a good twenty minutes to spare while Val dressed the girls and got breakfast ready, Luke headed out for his morning run. Funny but everything looked different this morning. The grass a little greener, the sun a little brighter. Romantic thinking, maybe. But he felt too good to question such thoughts beyond that.

  He waved to Travis Donovan as he and his son drove by. The five-year-old jabbered nonstop whenever he came into Luke’s office. Would the twins be like that at the same age?

  On Lexington, Luke slowed his pace to cool down. Would the girls be eager on their first day of school? He thought Traci would. She seemed to thrive on new adventures. Brooke, though, tended to analyze everything first, but she did like books and her toy computer.

  He gave his head a shake. Slow down. One night with Val didn’t mean she was willing to try forever again.

  Winded from his morning run, he drew several long breaths before he entered the house.

  Together, the twins were chanting Val’s name and banging on what Luke assumed was the bathroom door.

  Val answered them, but whatever she’d said didn’t prevent the clash of wills.

  “No-no,” Traci yelled.

  “Don’t,” Brooke returned an octave louder than her sister. As Luke hit the top stair and came into view, Brooke wailed. “Lu-cas.” Scrambling to a stand, she screamed his name again and wobbled toward him on one of Val’s high heels.

  When Traci clumped toward him on the other shoe, he guessed what the quarrel was about. “You’d better put those back, or you’re both going to be in trouble.” Looking put-upon, they stomped ahead of him into his bedroom. Val’s shoes were strewn everywhere. “We’ve got work to do.” Somehow he ignored the two guileless grins raised to him. “Fast,” he said, and bent to get the girls started.

  Val found the three of them kneeling outside her wall-to-wall closet and stacking shoe boxes. Smiling, she went to the kitchen to start breakfast.

  An hour later, Val took the girls into the backyard with a warning to stay away from Luke and the lawn mower. She tipped back the brim of the baseball cap she wore for gardening and squinted up when Luke stopped beside her and leaned on the handle of the lawn mower. “I can’t believe she ate three pancakes,” Val said in amazement about Brooke.

  It took a moment for him to answer. Her face glowed with a fine sheen of perspiration, her eyes looked bright with humor, her hair tousled from the baseball cap she’d just removed. He’d seen her look the same way during a far more intimate and private moment. “She was hungry.” He came up behind her and whispered in her ear, “So am I.” As she leaned back against him, he had to make himself remember they weren’t alone.

  Over her shoulder, she turned a sympathetic look up at him. “Poor Lucas.”

  Though she didn’t know why she was saying the words, from nearby, sitting in her sandbox, Brooke echoed, “Poor Lu-cas.”

  “How did I ever live without all this female compassion?” he asked.

  Val turned in his arms and kissed him quickly. “Face it,” she said with a smile. “You’re the only male in this house. You’ll be treated like a king.”

  “Or ganged up on,” he returned, caressing her hip before he stepped away to finish mowing the front lawn.

  Contentment sweeping over her, Val dug more weeds from the garden.

  “Dis a weed?” Traci asked from her kneeling position beside Val.

  Val gave the zinnia in her hand a wistful look. “No, sweetheart, that’s a flower.”

  Traci shrugged and eyed her sister merrily dumping sand from one plastic bucket to another. Minutes later, as Val expected, Traci took off to join her.

  Adjusting her cap against the glare of the sun, Val saw Luke strolling back. His face beaded with perspiration, he slid down against the trunk of the tree that shaded her garden. “Did you talk to my mom about sitting with the girls tomorrow night?” he asked while brushing knuckles across a sweaty brow.

  Val actually was looking forward to Neil and Cindy’s party now. “She said she’d be over by six o’clock, so I’d be free to get ready.” Taking a breather herself, she plopped down beside him. “The ledgers at the office are a mess, Luke.” She decided someone needed to know what she’d discovered during the past few days.

  “Blame Neil. He may be a dentist, but he keeps thinking he’s Mr. Accountant.”

  Looking down, Val yanked off her gardening gloves. “I noticed Everett didn’t pay you again,” she said about an elderly patient of his, a local farmer.

  Luke eyed the pile of weeds already pulled. “He promised us a bushel of lemons.”

  Val slanted an amused look at him. “We’ll have to drink lemonade for the rest of our lives to use up all the lemons he gave us last time.”

  His gaze flicked away from hers to settle on her lips. “I like lemonade.”

  Unable to resist, Val swayed on her knees toward him and stroked his jaw. “You have a kind heart.”

  “And you have a beautiful mouth.” With a fingertip, he traced the line of it. This time would be forever, he decided. It had to be, or he’d die without her.

  “Company?” Val asked, turning her head in response to the sound of a car pulling onto the driveway.

  Because they’d anticipated no one, Luke shrugged and listened. When the engine stopped, he pushed to a stand. “I’ll see who’s here.”

  Val tossed the weeds into the yard garbage can. She’d expected Luke to return. When he hadn’t after a few minutes, she scooted the girls inside to play with their dollhouse, then wandered into the living room with a can of root beer.

  Harry Cannon, their lawyer, sat on the chair across from Luke. Gloom and doom were written on Harry’s face as he greeted her. “Valerie.”

  She forced a smile, hoping one of them returned it. Neither of them did. “What? Has something happened?”

  “I’m afraid so.” Harry hunched forward. “I came over as soon as I learned.”

  Nerves danced within her. “Learned about what?”

  Disturbed since Harry briefly explained the reason for his visit, Luke reached up for her wrist and urged her to sit beside him on the sofa. “Charlene wants guardianship of the girls.” Because she visibly paled, he slid an arm around her shoulders. “It might not be as bad as it sounds.” “No, of course not,” Harry agreed. “But as Joe’s natural cousin, Charlene believes she has that right.”

  “Wait a minute.” Clutching the can tighter in her hand, Val shook her head. “I don’t understand. Why? Why does she want them? From what I’ve heard about Charlene, she never kept it a secret that motherhood wasn’t in her plans. And I remember Carrie saying that Charlene hadn’t talked to Joe in six years. She doesn’t even know the girls. She and George don’t have any by choice. At least, that’s what everyone believes. Why would she suddenly want Joe’s children?”

  Over Val’s head, Luke saw the twins standing in the kitchen doorway curiously watching them. “Why don’t we stop in at your office later, Harry, to discuss this?”

  Harry’s round face broadened with a deeper frown. “We’ll challenge this.” He offered Val a strained smile as Luke walked him to the door. “Valerie, don’t worry.”

  Oh, but she was. Obeying the gentle grip of Luke’s fingers beneath her elbow, she moved mechanically with him back into the kitchen, halting at the refrigerator. “Luke, this doesn’t make sense.” Facing him, she gripped his shirt sleeve while she fought to keep a hold on the panic threatening to rise within her.

  Luke knew of no way to
make this easier for her. All he could do was give her facts. “Joe and Charlene hadn’t talked since Joe’s dad died.” The problems within the Dawson family had been public knowledge back then, but only a native of New Hope, like him, would remember what had provoked the feud. “When she was a kid, Charlene’s parents died and she went to live with Joe and his father. She was wild,” Luke admitted. “When she was in her last year of high school, she started seeing George Evans.”

  Charlene’s love life didn’t interest Val. What she wanted was for him to assure her that Charlene couldn’t get the twins. Determined to stay calm, Val asked in a firm voice, “The man she’s married to?”

  Luke maintained a fixed expression. He wished for earlier moments when happiness had brightened her eyes. “Only he was married before, then-when she started seeing him.”

  “You mean she was having an affair with a married man?”

  “For someone like Joe’s dad, a pillar of the church, her behavior had been unforgivable. Joe’s dad was furious. He demanded she stay away from George. She was always headstrong. When she refused, Joe’s dad stopped talking to her.”

  Val wondered why he felt compelled to tell her so much about the past when all she cared about was what was going to happen next. “But Charlene did eventually marry George.”

  “After a messy divorce, he married Charlene. Though everything rightfully would have been passed down to Joe, Joe’s father had taken care of Charlene since she was ten and had always treated her as if she were his own daughter. When he died six years ago, she learned he’d left everything, including the family business, to Joe. Enraged, Charlene insisted that some of the property and a portion of the business belonged to her. Joe refused. She even went to court and fought Joe for it, and she lost. By then, she already wasn’t speaking to Joe.”

  Val felt a dull throbbing at her temples. “Then why would she want Joe’s children?” Her voice trailed off. She knew the answer. This wasn’t about the twins. “The girls’ wealth. As Joe’s children, the twins are the heirs to everything?”