Page 69 of Reckless Woman
“He told me to say Rick Sanders is flying out tomorrow evening.”
“Oh, jeez, more immoral men to introduce to my newborn.” She lifts her eyes to heaven in mock annoyance. There’s a weird moment afterward when I think she’s going to ask Joseph if he wants to hold Thalia, but then changes her mind. “Tell me about your wedding,” she blurts instead. “Did you bribe a local priest?”
“It was, ah, pretty small,” I say, thinking fast.
“Intimate,” Joseph drawls, flashing me the ghost of a smirk.
“No witnesses—”
“That we know of.”
“That’s it?” Now it’s Eve’s turn to ping pong between us. “God, that’s almost as unromantic as mine.”
Joseph holds his hand out to me. “Come.”
There’s no explanation of where he’s taking me, but I rise to my feet anyway. He leads; I follow. Shadows track the movement of the sun, and right now he’s all I can see in front of me.
Once we reach our bedroom, he bends down and sweeps me into his arms.
“What the heck are you doing?” I yelp, as I’m swallowed up by hard muscle, Texas sunshine and whiskey.
“Honoring tradition.”
“In someone else’s house?”
It’s a leading question. We rarely talk about the future. It’s one of our forbidden topics, along with most other stuff.
“S-sorry,” I stutter. “I didn’t mean to—”
“Where would we move to?” he says slowly, as if he’s considering it.
“A house in the jungle with tigers in our backyard.”
“And elephants,” he says, playing along.
“A treehouse,” I tip my head back and laugh. “With rope ladders and everything. You could be Tarzan with blue jeans and a loaded .41.”
“My .41 is always loaded around you.” He’s laughing too now—that rich rare sound that tugs an even wider smile from my lips.
Walking me into the bedroom, he lays me down on the bed. I wrap my legs around his waist before he has a chance to stand up.
“Uh-uh. You’re not going anywhere.”
He doesn’t take much persuading, crashing down on top of me with a groan.
“We need to sleep,Luna.”
“Then sleep,” I say, pulling him even closer.
“Like this?”
“Like this, until I can’t breathe anymore. You’re kind of heavy.”
“Death by siesta. Can I take all your clothes off first?”
“You can, but I doubt they’d be much sleeping going on if you did.”
“Hmmm.”