beard itched, and he wanted a hot bath. Most of all, he wanted Evie in a warm bed. He didn't know how to correct any of that.
He couldn't wander around naked in front of children, but he sure as hell wasn't going to put those wet clothes back on, either. Remembering Evie's trunk of linens, Tyler pulled on his wet pants and crept back out to look for it. She'd left it open for him, and he helped himself to a flannel sheet. There was something to be said about a woman who came prepared.
Deciding if he couldn't have a warm bed he was going to make do with the willing woman, Tyler left his pants on the floor, tucked the sheet around his hips, and came to stand beside Evie's sleeping figure. She couldn't be that sound asleep in that position. Lifting her gently, he slid into the chair and settled her on his lap.
Evie woke instantly. Tyler smothered her gasp with his fingers. She wriggled around to stare at him. He chuckled as she tried to wriggle away. The chair wasn't big enough for either of them to go anywhere but where they were.
Tyler pulled her blanket up around her shoulders. "I'm cold and hungry, wife. What do you mean to do about it?"
Evie knew she was occasionally naive, but she wasn't dumb. The hunger he talked about had nothing to do with food. She had managed to prop her buttocks against his thigh, but even so, she could feel him stirring beneath her. There were layers of material between them, but Tyler's hands were already roaming beneath the blanket, pulling at her rumpled nightgown.
"Find you a hot chocolate?" she asked sweetly.
"Best idea I've heard all day. I'm ready for chocolate now."
Tyler's mouth closed over hers, and Evie drowned in the taste and heat of him. She could smell whiskey on his breath, but he was far from drunk. His fingers were sure and accomplished as they moved along her thigh, now bare of any encumbrance. Instead of sliding into the warmth of her as she had expected, they stroked her backside, applying pressures that had her squirming as surely as if he had stroked her elsewhere. Evie wanted to cry out, but Tyler's mouth had prior claims, and her tongue entangled with.
"The children!" she whispered as she felt his sheet go the way of her nightgown and skin brushed tingling skin.
"Practice being quiet," he replied as he turned her so her breasts brushed against his chest.
Her knees were on either side of his thighs, and Evie could feel the male part of him rubbing against her. She couldn't believe she was doing this, but as Tyler unfastened her gown and bent his head to tug at her breast, she didn't stop to think what she was doing. In Tyler's arms, everything was sensation. There wasn't time for thought.
His hands lifted her breasts and pulled her upward so he could suckle. Then they drifted downward, circling her waist, sliding over her hips until he cupped her firmly, bringing her closer.
Evie gave a muffled cry as his hands opened her over him. The word "Tyler!" escaped in a breathless rush before his lips closed on hers, and then he was in her, and around her, and pushing her wildly to that brilliant horizon he had shown her the night before.
She was more than ready for him. She bit his neck in an effort to be quiet. Tyler groaned and buried himself deeper, pulling her down hard and long until she bucked against him in frustration. He let her go, letting her make the moves, but responding with a wildness that his controlled performances of the night before had kept in line.
Evie remembered the wildness from the first time, only this time it wasn't pain that it brought but rapture. She wanted to scream with the pleasure of it. She wanted to scream with the sheer frustration of having to be quiet She wanted to bury herself inside of him, take him deeper, find that place where they could each enter the other's skins and become one. She knew it was there, she could sense it, feel it coming closer, and she rocked and rode him in desperate search for what she was being denied.
In the end, it was too much for both of them. The children stirring in the bed put an edge on the pleasure. Tyler caught Evie's lips and branded them with his kiss while his fingers