“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, shifting to sit up in bed and reaching for the coffee cup on her bedside table.
“Because I like looking at you,” he responded at once, and then added, “And because I cannot believe I am lucky enough to have you for a life mate and wife.”
Allie stilled, her heart going all mushy in her chest, but she ignored it and said, “How do you know you’re lucky? Maybe I’ll be a terrible wife.”
He shook his head. “If you show me half the care and concern you have given Liam, you will be the most amazing wife,” he assured her solemnly.
That made her shift guiltily. She hadn’t left this room or seen her son since before the turn. She hadn’t even thought of him until Magnus brought him up. How many days had it been? she worried. And what must he be thinking? She was a terrible mother, Allie thought unhappily.
“He is sleeping,” Magnus said gently. “The children slept up in Stephanie’s room.”
Allie bit her lip uncertainly. “How long has it been since we came upstairs for the turn?”
He checked the bedside clock and she followed his gaze to see that it read 6:45 a.m. “Just short of fourteen hours.”
“What?” she asked with disbelief.
“We left the restaurant just after four thirty,” he reminded her.
Allie nodded. They’d got to the courthouse at three in the afternoon, were married and leaving by a quarter to four, and had gone to Bella Black’s for an early, celebratory dinner. That had been at Allie and Magnus’s suggestion. They’d known Elvi and Mabel were insisting on closing the restaurant to other customers during the celebration, and had hoped it would be over and done in time for the restaurant to open to regular customers by five thirty or six to handle the dinner crowd. She wondered now if they’d opened it up to others after they’d left, or had kept it closed to avoid the possibility of Abaddon and his crew going in and causing trouble.
“And we started the turn just after five p.m.,” Magnus continued. “Now it is nearly seven in the morning.”
“I thought days had passed,” she admitted. “I didn’t realize the turn had gone so quickly.”
“It was nearly two a.m. when I woke up and you were in the shower,” he said quietly. “That is relatively quick for a turn, but as I said, it is still going on.”
Allie nodded solemnly. “I guess we must not have slept as long as I’d thought between . . .” Flushing, she said, “When we passed out, I mean.”
A slow smile curved his lips and he straightened and crossed to the bed. Taking her coffee cup, he set it, along with his own, on the bedside table and then bent toward her. “We did not sleep long between . . .” he murmured, and then pressed a kiss to her lips. “The kids probably will not wake up for another half an hour or better.” He kissed her again. “More like an hour.” His hand found her breast and began to caress her through the sheet she’d pulled with her as she sat up. “I think we could manage another short nap before they wake up.”
“A nap sounds nice,” she said breathlessly, letting the sheet drop as her body responded to his touch.
His other hand immediately slid beneath it to glide down between her legs and he stilled briefly. When she opened her eyes, he was smiling and said, “You are already wet for me.”
“It happened the minute you got that naughty smile and started toward the bed,” she admitted huskily.
“I like that,” Magnus whispered against her lips, and then kissed her properly, his tongue sweeping out to invade her mouth, and his lips demanding. The minute she moaned, he urged her to lie back on the bed and started to come down on her, only to freeze and jerk the sheet back up to cover her when the door burst open.
“Mom, I’m hungry. Can we have pancakes for breakfast?” Liam asked, rushing into the room in a pair of the new pajamas Magnus had bought for him. These ones had dinosaurs on them.
Allie stared at the boy blankly, her brain slow to switch gears, and it was Magnus who answered.
“If Elvi has the fixings and it is okay with her I could probably manage pancakes.”
Allie swung her gaze back to him with surprise. “You cook?”