Wild Heart (Viper's Heart Duet Book 2) (2 page)

I looked down at the bulge in my sweats. “Oooh, good call. We don’t want The Viking to scare the poor kid.” I shot her a wink and tucked my boner in the best I could as she rolled her eyes. “I mean it—don’t move. And for the love of God don’t fall asleep.”

“Got it, boss,” she joked, nodding obediently as I turned and left the room.

Boss, huh? I could get used to that.

“Moooooooommmmmmmyyyyyyy!” Matthew called one more time, just as I got to his door. The glow from the hallway moved across the room as I pushed the door open, eventually lighting up his face. He squinted and covered his eyes with the back of his hand.

“What’s up, buddy?” I greeted with a loud whisper.

His mouth fell open and he dropped his hand. “Viper!” he shouted excitedly. He climbed to his feet and jumped from the bed into my arms, wrapping himself around me like a monkey.

I squeezed him back, hard. “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too! Did you have a good trip?”

“I did—”

“I watched your games,” he interrupted. “There were four of them. You played really good for three and kinda sucked for one.”

I let out a quick laugh. Gotta love the honesty of a five-year-old. “I did suck for one of them, didn’t I?”

“Yeah.” He nodded as he pulled back but didn’t take his arms off me. “I told Mom that and she said not to say ‘suck.’”

I rolled my eyes and chuckled under my breath. “Of course she did.”

He stared at me for a second, his big blue eyes traveling all over my face, before he cracked a tight-lipped smile and squeezed me again.

“What’s this one for?”

“I just missed you,” he muffled into my shoulder.

I closed my eyes and tightened my arms around him. “I missed you, too, bud. That’s why I came over tonight. I wanted to be here when you got up in the morning.”

“Do you have hockey tomorrow?” he asked as he wiggled out of my arms and sat on the edge of his bed.

“Nope, we have an off day.”

“Yay!” he cheered, pumping his little arms in the air. “Can we do stuff?”

I sat down on the bed next to him. “Sure. What did you have in mind?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Go out for breakfast, go to the park, go to the zoo, maybe the circus? Then lunch, the library, play catch in the backyard—”

“Wait a sec.” I looked at him in amazement. “You want to do all of that
tomorrow?
”

He nodded proudly. “Then if we have extra time, can we get ice cream?”

I shook my head incredulously. “Buddy, if we’re gonna get even
half
of that done, we both need to get some sleep.” I stood up and reached around him, lifting the blankets for him to crawl under.

I pulled the quilt up to his chin and then tucked the sides in nice and tight. “I’ll tell you what . . . you close your eyes and get a good night’s sleep and I’ll see what I can do about that list of yours. Deal?”

“Deal,” he agreed with a grin.

I leaned down and kissed his forehead before heading back down the hall to Michelle’s room.

As I pushed her bedroom door open and saw her curled up with her back to me, my poor dick wept with disappointment.

“No, no, no,” I whined as I crawled across the bed and tried to wake her. “How did you fall asleep that fast?”

“Hmmm?” she answered in a sleepy moan without opening her eyes.

I rocked her back and forth. “Come on, it’s been five days.”

“That’s fine, just put it on the counter,” she slurred, sounding like the weird little sleepy mouse from
Alice in Wonderland.

I sighed, grabbed the remote, and leaned back against the headboard.

Apparently the only balls that’ll be bouncing tonight will be on
SportsCenter
.

Light kisses traveled down the back of my neck, setting every nerve in my body on fire and making my dick even harder than it already was. I fought through a sleepy haze to open my eyes just as Michelle lay back on the pillow next to me, flashing me a sexy smile.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Morning,” I growled into the pillow before closing my eyes again.

“Wait,” she exclaimed sadly. “You’re going back to sleep? Your eyes were just open.”

“That’s because you were kissing my neck so I thought I was getting laid. You stopped so I’m going back to sleep.” I opened one eye halfway, peeking at her, just as she pouted and rolled her eyes. “Plus, I’m mad at you,” I added.

“Mad at me?” Her voice rose in surprise.

“Yep.”

“Why?”

I lifted my face off of the pillow just slightly. “I believe your response was ‘Got it, boss’ when I told you not to fall asleep last night. Less than ten minutes later, I came back in here ready to bury my face in between your legs and you were sawing logs.”

Her bottom lip popped out in a pucker. “I’m sorry. I was so tired, I couldn’t keep my eyes open.”

“Mmhmm.”

“Well, the kids are still sleeping . . . I can make it up to you right now,” she said seductively, sliding her hand in between my stomach and the mattress. She gripped my morning wood over my sweats and her eyes grew wide. “Wow! Someone sure woke up ready to go.”

“I’m always ready to go when you’re around. I walk around with a constant hard-on, ready to strike at any moment, just in case you decide you’re in the mood.”

She planted a soft kiss on my cheek as she kept massaging my dick. “As cute as that is, we both know it’s not true. If you walked around all day with
that,
people would definitely stare . . . and talk.”

“Oh, yeah?“ I rolled over, giving her easier access. “And what would those people say?”

“Hmmm . . . probably that Viper’s girlfriend is the luckiest woman in the whole world.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that.” I sat up and kissed her neck. “I’ll be right back.
Don’t. Move.
”

She giggled as I walked over to the master bathroom. “What are you laughing at?” I called out.

“You. That. I don’t know how you pee when it’s like that.”

I leaned back and shook my head. “It fucking sucks. You think Matthew has bad aim? Come look at the bathroom wall in here in about a minute and you’ll see what I mean.”

She let out another small giggle as I closed the bathroom door. I wasn’t
really
mad at Michelle, but I wasn’t kidding about wanting her so bad. Over the last year since we started dating, it had been a learning process, mostly on my part. I’d been used to going to the bar on Friday nights and leaving with whomever I wanted to. When we’d gone out on the road for away games, I didn’t think twice about taking a hot little puck bunny back to my hotel room for a few hours. Women were constantly shoving their phone numbers in my face, and a year ago I would have taken them all home and put them in my kitchen drawer. Now . . . I threw them away. I went back to my hotel room after the games and called Michelle, and I almost never went to the bar, unless I was meeting up with Brody or something. Michelle had changed my life drastically . . . for the better.

I pulled my sweats up, washed my hands, and hustled back to the bedroom, ready to finally finish what I’d started the night before. Just as I crossed through to the bedroom, I froze. Michelle pressed her lips together and gave me a sympathetic smile as my eyes traveled down next to her . . . to Matthew curled up in my spot.

My mouth dropped open. “Nooooo!” I whispered loudly.

“Sorry,” she said quietly. “He came running in and said he wanted to snuggle, then fell right to sleep. What was I supposed to say?”

“I don’t know, how about: ‘I know you want to lie here, sweetie, but Viper’s penis has been a very lonely guy for the last six days, so I’m going to keep it company and rub it for a few minutes until it spits back at me. Now hurry back to bed, little cock block.’ That probably would’ve covered it just fine.”

“Shhhh! He’ll hear you,” she scolded through a giggle as she looked down at Matthew, who hadn’t moved a muscle.

“So? You’re never too young to learn about the importance of getting your rocks off as often as possible.” I walked over to the bed and plopped down with a sigh.

“I’m sorry,” she said as she reached out and rubbed my cheek with the back of her fingers. “I promise, promise,
promise
I’ll make it up to you tonight.”

“Sure you will,” I groaned.

“I mean it. Free reign. Anything goes.”

My face flashed over to hers and I raised one eyebrow. “Free reign? Anything goes?”

“Anything goes,” she repeated with a nod as she licked her lips.

“You’re gonna regret saying that.” I shook my head as I stood. “You’re also not gonna be able to walk tomorrow.”

“No walking? Sounds good to me. I’ll just lie in bed and read all day while you do all the chores and parenting,” she said with a wink.

“Deal.”

“Wait, where are you going?” she asked as I turned and headed out of the room.

“I’m starving. I’m gonna make the kids pancakes. Want some?”

“No.” She leaned over and grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand to look at the time. “I actually have to get them up and moving. We have a breakfast date with Gam.”

“We do?”

She nodded. “I talked to her yesterday and she asked us to come over. I had no idea you’d be home already, so you should come.”

I sighed. “I’ve been trying to come for like twelve hours now.”

Her mouth fell open as she grabbed a pillow and threw it at the door, just as I closed it.

“Lawrence!” Gam called out, crossing her yard with open arms as we climbed out of the car an hour later.

“How’s my favorite girl?” Gam’s larger-than-life personality made me forget how small and frail she really was, but when I put my arms around her and squeezed gently, it was a sharp reminder that she wouldn’t be here forever.

“I lived to see another day, so I’m great.” She pulled back and looked up at me but didn’t let go, her tiny hands holding mine. “This is a nice surprise. Michelle didn’t tell me you’d be home already.”

“She didn’t know.” I shook my head. “I got in late last night and surprised her and the kids.”

“Well, I was already excited to see her and my favorite kids, but now I get to see my favorite grandson, too. What a great day!”

“Gam,” I said dryly, “I’m your
only
grandson.”

“Whatever.” She waved her hand at me. “Shut up and take a compliment, would ya?”

She said hello to Michelle and Matthew and gave each of them a big hug before she bent down to Maura, who was sitting happily in her stroller, trying to pull the little pink bow out of her hair. “And you . . . I’ve missed you so much, my sweet Little Mo.”

Michelle’s lips spread into a wide grin as she looked from Gam to me and back again with a twinkle in her eyes. We had no idea where it came from, but a while ago Gam had started calling Maura “Little Mo,” and it was Michelle’s favorite thing. Matthew and Maura still saw Mike’s parents whenever they came into town, but with them living on the other side of the country, Gam was their only consistent grandparent. But I knew the twinkle in Michelle’s eye wasn’t just for Little Mo. Michelle loved Gam, and Gam loved Michelle. They had an instant, intense connection that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but sometimes I was pretty sure if Gam was forced to choose one of us, I’d be on the outside looking in.