Touchdown - Leslie North Page 0,29

until her breasts spilled free, “until I could see you naked again.”

He scooped a dark areola into his mouth, and she moaned, head tilting backward. He teased and laved at each nipple until they were stiff points beneath the tip of his tongue.

“So did you start a paper chain for that countdown?” she asked.

“I had a calendar in my phone,” he joked. “And today I get to zero it out.”

The movie played quietly behind them, completely ignored, while their kisses resumed hot and fervent. Jill clutched at the sides of his face. Rooting him here, beneath her, where he’d happily continue for as long as she’d allow.

“This is a great movie,” Maxwell cracked as they took a breather between kisses.

She laughed, burying her face in his neck. The heat of her skin against his felt too good, too natural. He smiled as he dragged his fingertips back and forth across her arm.

A warbling interrupted their sweet moment—sounding like the audio from the movie was messed up. Jill sat up, her brows creased.

“Is that…?” she started.

Suddenly it hit him. It wasn’t the movie. It was the baby monitor.

“The kids,” he said. The two of them listened for another moment as the warbling turned into a full-blown cry. Jill grimaced, nodding.

“Time for baby duty,” she said.

“Let me go,” Maxwell said.

“We’ll both go,” Jill said, tiredness visible in her eyes.

“And then we’ll go to bed,” Maxwell said, scooping her hands into his and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “We can finish this movie another time.”

Jill leaned forward to brush her lips against his, something sweet and soft blossoming inside Maxwell. A bloom that only Jill could provoke in him.

“Spend the night with me tonight,” he whispered. “No funny business. Just cuddling and good sleep.”

Jill’s smile was the stuff of Maxwell’s fantasies: charming and sexy at the same time. “And just when I thought you couldn’t get any more perfect.”

But the truth was, Jill was the perfect one. And for how nervous he’d been to mix the worlds of triplet-rearing and sexual pleasure…he knew that he and Jill could find a way. Because now? There was no other option.

11

The next morning, Maxwell awoke slowly, coming to consciousness in stages. First, he was aware of pleasant heat filling his arms. Silkiness against the tops of his thighs. And then he opened his eyes to find Jill securely in his arms, wearing just her silk nightie, her hair wrapped in a scarf like it was every night.

He pressed a soft kiss to her cheek before he shifted to silence his alarm. They’d both collapsed into bed after settling the triplets last night, and she fell asleep far quicker than he did. Maxwell could have easily whiled away the entire night, exploring her body with his lips and tongue and fingers and more, but he knew that would come in time.

They had so much left to explore, and all the time in the world now.

Maxwell yawned, gently extracting himself from the cocoon they’d built overnight. It was his turn to start the work week, even though every part of him wanted to stay here in bed with Jill for the rest of the morning. At least until the triplets started wailing.

But no. His early morning workout was waiting for him. He readied himself quietly in the still gray dawn, trying not to make too much noise to interrupt the deep sleep that Jill so sorely needed. He pressed one last kiss to her forehead before letting himself out of the bedroom, dressed for the gym, his duffel bag slung over one shoulder.

And despite the insanely early hour and how it normally took him the entire car ride to fully wake up, Maxwell was humming the entire trip to work. He blamed it on the awesome make-out session the night before. Maybe that was the pick-me-up he’d been needing instead of coffee each day.

The training facility was humming with activity at six thirty in the morning, per usual. Maxwell dumped his things in the locker room and hurried to the weight room to join his teammates in the usual warm-ups. He spotted Mark first, hanging out on the rowing machine.

“Hey, buddy.” Maxwell headed that way, stretching his arms in turn.

“What’s up, Dad?” Mark sent him a conspiratorial grin. The two of them had been bonding even more recently, due to the fact that they’d both become unexpected fathers this season. “Get any sleep last night?”

“Surprisingly, yes. The triplets woke up once, but we got them to settle