Annette Blair (31 page)

Kira’s gaze softened. “You’re the first to figure that out.” She let the last quilt float to the rug with a smile, stuck her head out her front door, and called the boys inside for tooth-brushing and such. Once they were all snug in quilts, she turned off the light and lit the vanilla candle.

Jason sat on the sofa, opposite Kira for propriety’s sake,
his stocking feet crossed on her coffee table, enjoying the peace, watching her enjoy the peace.

The boys giggled a bit, jockeyed for position, a few snored, or faked it, someone mentioned snorting pigs, then silence. Jason began sidling Kira’s way, and Zane sat up.

“What’s the matter, baby?” she said, going down and stroking his hair.

“I can’t hear Jason snoring,” Zane said.

“I’m here,” Jason said, back on his side of the sofa. “I’m not asleep yet.”

“Oh. Today was nice, and tonight, too, but . . .” Zane’s voice cracked, and he swallowed convulsively. “Everything will be . . . the other way again . . . tomorrow.”

Kira lifted Zane on her lap, quilt and all, and tucked his head beneath her chin like at hockey practice. She stroked his brow and let her gaze settle on each child in turn.

“Children in plight,

Peace in the night.

Let your sorrow

Take fast flight.

Forget your gloom,

Your melancholy mood,

And drift in dreams

Of joyful interludes.”

Zane curled his small hand against Kira’s breast. “That was nice,” he said, his nose against her neck. “You smell good.” He sighed and closed his eyes.

Travis sat up to watch Kira and his brother with a longing Jason couldn’t ignore. He cleared his throat, caught Travis’s eye, and gestured Travis over.

Travis perked up, grabbed his quilt, and climbed into Jason’s lap. He scratched a small finger against Jason’s chin stubble, into the dimple Jason hated, but it didn’t take a
minute before Travis closed his eyes and joined his twin in sleep.

While Jason appreciated the quiet, even enjoyed the small head against his chest, he found the experience of meeting Kira’s gaze across the sofa, with kids in their laps, both breathtaking and frightening.

After a while they put the twins in Kira’s bed.

When she tucked the blankets up to Zane’s chin and kissed his brow, Zane gasped. “I . . . never been kissed good night before.” He wound his arms around Kira’s neck and hugged her so tight, Jason was afraid he’d strangle her.

“Me, neither,” Travis said, clutching Jason’s shirt, because Jason had just kissed him. “Nobody ever called me Trav, either.”

“It’s a good-night nickname,” Jason said. “Don’t tell, but Gram used to call me Jay when she kissed me good night.”

The twins got tickled, tucked in, and kissed again, before Jason and Kira tore themselves away and went to the kitchen.

“Drink?” Kira offered, going for the fridge.

“Make it a double,” Jason said, “straight up.”

She poured him a ginger ale.

“This isn’t gonna cut it.” He was afraid that showering the twins with affection would only hurt them in the end.

Kira took out the chocolate sauce and a spoon.

“You still hungry?” Jason asked.

She dipped, and licked. “I’m drowning my sorrows.”

“Tell me about it. I either need to get drunk or get laid.”

“Not tonight, Ice Boy, I have fourteen headaches.”

“Guess it’s separate sofas for us.”

Kira smiled. “Yeah, I saw your soaked sheets, but it was kinda fun, on the whole . . . until just now, in my room.”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “Domesticity always scares the crap out of me, but in there, that was the worst. Let’s think about something else.”

“Like?”

“Like what I had planned for tonight.” He pulled her
onto his lap, took the chocolate sauce from her hand, and set it on the table.

“Hey,” she said, but she quieted when he began to lick a spot of chocolate off her fingers.

“Do you have any idea what I wanted to do to you tonight?” Jason asked.

“Tell me,” Kira whispered.

JASON’S
vivid description of how he’d planned to pleasure her made Kira shiver and cover his mouth. “Stop,” she said. “I’m almost there.” She abandoned him, left him wanting, and went to the other side of the table. “We should get some sleep.”

“Right,” Jason said, and the big guy wilted.

“Tomorrow, after the boys leave,” Kira said, “let’s do it, for the rest of the weekend.”

“Do it?” Jason rose and went around the table. “You mean, the ultimate rabbit hole? The real thing? All weekend? I need verbal confirmation here, Fitz. This is too big a deal to get wrong. Harvey would never survive the disappointment.”

“No strings,” Kira said, “just two people, in the moment, giving and receiving the ultimate pleasure.”

“Because you need to get over your jilt?” Jason asked, taking her into his arms.

She kissed his ear. “Because I need to get laid,” she whispered, warming him.

“Yeah,” Jason said. “I hear you. A-plus for your verbal skills. I need the same, desperately.”

“That’s true. You’re in worse shape than I am,” Kira said. “It’ll be like . . . therapy.”

Jason chuckled at her justification. “Right, mutual therapy, good for both of us. The ultimate therapy.”

“Okay, then,” she said. “After the bus leaves tomorrow, we’re gonna spend the rest of the weekend having wild, hot, no-strings sex. Hot damn!”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Jason fisted his hands to keep from dragging her right down to the floor.

AT
five the next morning Travis manually raised Jason’s eyelids. By six most of the boys were awake. At half-past Jason sent them into the hall, where they couldn’t break another lamp. He left the door open to hear them, and sipped cola on Kira’s sofa to wake up.

Zane came from Kira’s bedroom with a pearly pink pulsating tube. Jason might have taken it for a battery-operated toothbrush, in its case, if not for the vinyl rabbit vibrating at its base.

“Look,” Zane said. “I found a bunny.”

“Let me see,” Brad said.

“There it is!” Jason said, turning it off and slipping it into his pocket, bunny first. “It belongs to the last people who stayed here. I’ll go put it away for them. Why don’t you two go and play with the others. Brad, you’re in charge. Keep ’em out of trouble, will you?”

Jason followed Zane and Brad as far as the hall. After he counted heads, he went looking for Kira.

In the kitchen Jason shut both doors, closing them in.

“What?” Kira said, looking up from setting the breakfast table.

“I found Zane playing with a rabbit.” Jason quirked his brow and held up the impressively long vinyl
glow-bright tube. He hit the switch, and the rabbit began to . . . hop.

Kira squeaked and stared horrified.

Jason removed the cover, found another switch, hit it, and choked on a laugh. The sucker pulsed, it rotated, its embedded pearls swirled, and the rabbit freaking danced.

Kira snapped it from his hand, silenced it, and covered it, then she held it to her heart, looking around, as if to make sure they were alone. “That was
not
funny!”

Jason chuckled anyway; he couldn’t help himself.

“Tell me the boys didn’t—” Her face got redder.

“Zane thought it was a toy rabbit and Brad asked to see it, but I didn’t give him a chance. The cover never came off.”

“You rat!” She shoved him. “You scared the hell out of me for nothing! Tell you what,” she said. “If they ask again, you can say it’s what’s gonna replace the ultimate rabbit hole this weekend, if a certain jock gives me anymore grief about it.”

“Okay, calm down. I’m sorry. Just promise me they won’t find any pink penis-shaped erasers hanging around.”

Kira’s jaw went rigid.

“This is not grief,” Jason said. “It’s damage control. Penis erasers?”

“Of course not.” Kira slipped the vibrator into her pocket and turned back to the table. “I cut them up.”

“Ouch?”

“They reminded me of Charlie.”

Jason retrieved the bunny from her pocket.

“Hey, give it back,” Kira said. “It’s mine.”

“You said it didn’t work anymore.”

“Well, that’s not the one I was talking about that night, but at least those things don’t have big mouths that give me grief.”

“Do not discount the value of a big mouth; it can do amazing things,” Jason said, “as you well know.” He hit the
switch and grinned at the rabbit. “How about we try this together later?”

“You’re joking,” Kira said, but her eyes smoldered, as if he’d touched her physically.

Harvey got a rush. “It’s waterproof, right?” Jason asked.

Kira nodded, and Jason got to thinking about her using it, then he got hotter thinking about him using it on her. “I’ll go put it by the spa tub, shall I, before we jump . . . the gun?”

“Who’s watching the boys?”

“Brad. I checked on them before I came in. They’re okay.”

Kira followed Jason into his living room, where he shut his door and pinned her against it. He stared at her lips, parted as if waiting for his, at their rosy hue and perfect shape.

To distract himself, he took her breasts into his hands and teased the nubbins into hard pebbles, making her squirm and arch beneath his fingers.

After a gasp that said she wanted more, she scooted from his embrace and opened his door so fast, she caught his bare toe, and though Jason swore and hopped in pain, Harvey hardly cared. The big guy was too busy prepping for the ultimate rabbit hole.

Jason limped toward his replica of Bessie’s octagon room, except that his held a huge center spa tub. The surrounding deck, however, revealed the same unrestricted view of the ocean.

He placed Kira’s sex toy on the edge of the whirlpool and tried to adjust Harvey so as to make him more comfortable in the tight confines of his jeans. Then Travis called Jason’s name, shouting that Grady got his head stuck between the spindles of a chair, and Harvey got small and comfortable again.

Cabin fever set in by seven, for the children and adults, but the snow continued coming down.

Jason thought he might cry.

Cartoons entertained the younger children, who sat on Kira’s living room floor, while Brad and the older boys asked to watch the sports channel on Jason’s television.

Some time later Jason found them watching the “adult” channel and sent them back to Kira’s. A while after that, Brad said he had a theory about Zane’s rabbit that Jason did
not
let him share.

Breakfast arrived with Gracie at eight, French toast with maple syrup and chocolate-chip pancakes. Eating quieted everyone for at least twenty minutes. Then Gracie brought up the boys’ clean and folded clothes.

Jason went to collect every deck of cards he could find at Cloud Kiss, and entertained the boys by teaching them to play war, fish, and crazy eights, while Kira cleaned up after breakfast and sorted clothes by child.

The longest day of Jason’s life lasted until two o’clock, when the roads were finally clear, and he watched the bus pull away from the arena carrying fourteen waving boys.

Jason took the elevator upstairs, half expecting to find that Kira had fled down the back drive and was halfway to Boston by now. She’d seemed that spooked when he said he’d be right back.

KIRA
had showered quickly, and shaved her legs. She piled her curls on her head, and changed into the turquoise sleep set she’d once intended for her honeymoon, the one she’d been wearing the night she and Jason stepped into their first rabbit hole.

She generously blessed her wrists, neck, and the cleft between her breasts with her favorite perfume, Very Irresistible, rich with roses, star anise, verbena, and red berries.

She gathered scented massage oils and candles, and went looking for Jason’s whirlpool. He told her the room mirrored Bessie’s greenhouse, so Kira had an idea where
to look. She had no idea, however, that she’d be stepping into a fantasy.

Centered by a huge cream translucent marble step-up whirlpool, its six windowed walls overlooked the sea, while its two inside walls were floor-to-ceiling mirrors.

Watery blue-and-green tiles, floor and ceiling, married the room to its view, the mirrored setting expanded to create an illusion of grandeur.

Beside a miniature Japanese garden, with a waterfall, sat a blue double-wide fainting couch, and a cabinet dressed as a side table, topped by a lamp with a clear ginger-jar base of seashells.

In the cabinet Kira found thick sea-green towels.

Kira placed the candles in clusters on the floor in front of the mirrors, instantly doubling each cluster, on the side table, by the windows, and on the edge of the spa.

She chose to ignore her bunny vibrator.

She lit the candles calling upon their power: indigo first to protect her defenses and emotions; ruby for passion; red for romance; gold for attraction; and pink to bind the magic.

When she felt their energy encircling her, she sat on the floor Indian style, to wait, gazing out at the sea, while letting the waterfall trickle over her fingertips and wash away her anxiety.