Worth the Fight (Accidentally on Purpose) (32 page)

“Deep enough,” she sighed with pleasure and tilted her head to give me better access.

My hands were on her thighs, hiking up her skirt. “How can I trust you not to dip into your money like that again, Emmy?”

“As long as there are no more Irises, I won’t have a re
ason to,” she said flatly.

“Touché, Mrs. Kessler.”

“Iris and her old, dry vagina,” Emmy muttered. “Hitting that dry piece of ass would have been hazardous to your dick. Lord Jesus it’s a fire,” she said it like the infamous woman on YouTube.

I laughed as I rested my forehead on hers. “Do you mind not talking about Iris and her dry vagina? I’m trying to punish you for your actions. You’re killing my hardon.”

She began to release the button and zipper on my pants as she looked up at me with a more somber expression.

“Are you really mad?” she asked quietly.

“I am livid,” I said and I wasn’t lying. I
was
very pissed that Emmy had spent probably a huge chunk of change on anything without discussing it with me. I am the first to admit that I can be very prideful. I am the man, the husband, the father, and the head of my household and it is primarily my responsibility to care for my family on all levels, especially financially.

“I am angry,” I said after I felt her body slump and she looked up at me with apologetic eyes. “But you did it to protect our family.” I pushed a hand into her brown waves. “We are so lucky to have you, Emmy.”

She smiled and drew me in for a soft, delicious kiss. I reached under her skirt and began to pull her panties down. She lifted her ass long enough for me to pull the fabric over her perfectly round cheeks. I pulled away from her mouth to remove the lacey scrap completely and then stepped between her open legs. I kissed her again.

“And,” I said, smiling and speaking against her lips. “I
magining you walking into that shop, pissed off, protective and possessive and giving Iris her walking papers along with a piece of your mind is a major fucking turn on.”

I kissed her without mercy, pouring all of my love and desire for her into the kiss. Her sassy tongue challenged mine. Her saucy lips battled to dominate the kiss. Her smart-alecky mouth attempted to devour mine, but soon she submitted and blissfully drowned in my kiss.

*~~~*

We walked into the house, singing a rock version of The Wheels on the Bus. Lucas could really belt it out, but my air guitar solo was untouchable, and Kaitlyn’s clapping blew other babies’ clapping out of the water, because my kids are more awesome than other kids.

“Hello, wife,” I said cheerfully and planted a wet and loud kiss on her cheek.

“Hello, husband and children,” Emmy said, wiping away the moisture on her cheek.

“You don’t wipe away the moisture when I -”

Emmy cut me off, placing her hand over my mouth. “Hey! There are children in the room.”

“They don’t know what I’m talking about,” I said and wiggled my eyebrows suggestively at her.

Emmy rolled her eyes, but did nothing to hide the smile on her face before turning back to the dinner she was preparing.

“So, I’m Super Dad, and it’s okay if you admit it out loud,” I told her as I put a shopping bag on the table. “Not only did I take both kids out alone to the mall and the grocery store, but I didn’t lose any of them or maim them.
And
I got all of the groceries you put on the list and didn’t give in to Lucas’s breakdown in the checkout lane because he couldn’t get candy.”

Em turned back around and looked at me for a moment before looking at Lucas who was busy running one of his cars over a kitchen chair.

“Lucas, baby, come here,” Em said sweetly.

Lucas gave his car wings and made a ‘vawooom’ sound as he flew over to his mother. She smiled down at him, gently touched his face, swiping a finger under his bottom lip. She held the finger up for me to see. There was a dark smear on it. Em popped the finger in her mouth as she watched me through narrowed eyes.

“Chocolate,” she said, putting her hand on her hip.

“I love you,” I said, hoping that would sidetrack her. It didn’t.

“You’re such a sucker,” she accused. “You give him everything he wants. Kaitlyn is going to have you wrapped around her finger.”

I looked into my daughter’s face and grinned.

“I’m already wrapped around her finger,” I said and kissed her smiling face.

Em shook her head and started going through the grocery bag as she no doubt mentally checked off the items that had been on her list. She balled the bag up looking satisfied.

“Good job, husband unit,” she said smiling. “I’ll let the chocolate incident slide this time. You may reclaim your Super Dad title.”

“Oh, but there is more,” I said dramatically as I took Kaitlyn out of her coat.

“Oh?” Em looked intrigued.

“Oh, yes, my dear, perfect wife.” I reached into the di
aper bag and produced an envelope. “I also stopped by the office to get secret mail.”

“Secret mail?”

“Secret mail,” I repeated. “I had it sent there so that there would be less of a chance of you getting to it before me.”

“Getting to what exactly?” Emmy asked and crossed her arms.

“Why the secret mail, of course, my darling blossom.”

She tried not to smile, but I could see it pulling on the edges of her pretty mouth.

“What is the secret mail, my handsome beau?” she played along.

“Why it is mail that is a great secret, my slightly dense beauty.”

“You’re killing me here,” she sighed.

I handed her the large envelope. She cocked an eyebrow at me. She seemed reluctant to open it.

“You may proceed, my luscious pumpkin,” I grinned.

“Your mood is downright giddy today,” she murmured with a smile as she began to pull open the envelope.

“You make me giddy,” I replied and kissed the top of her head.

“Okay, let’s see what this secret mail is,” she breathed and reached into the envelope. She pulled out a folder. Her eyebrow raised again as she threw a glance at me. “A travel age
ncy? This must be some kind of trick, because no one uses those anymore.”

“Well, baby, you know I’m old fashioned. Open the fol
der.”

Emmy laid the folder on the kitchen table and slowly opened it. I heard a light gasp. She glanced quickly at me before looking back to the contents of the folder.

“These are airline tickets,” she whispered. “And villa reservations…for the Caribbean?” She looked up at me with wide eyes.

“Yes,” I said quietly. “I thought it was about time we had our honeymoon – even though it’s still a couple of months away. I know it’s not even the most exotic place you have ever been, and you have been to more exciting places, but since we’ll be leaving the kids in Louisiana with your parents I thought we should be a little closer to home.”

Emmy looked down at the tickets and the other traveling information. When she looked back up at me, she had tears in her eyes.

“Um,” I said, feeling uneasy. I shifted Kaitlyn into my other arm. “I promise I’ll take you anywhere else you’d like to go when the kids are older.”

“This is…this is perfect, Luke,” she smiled. “Anywhere you take me will be perfect as long as you’re there.”

She stood on her toes and kissed me slowly and sensua
lly. If I didn’t have one child in my arms and the other a couple of feet away, I would have done wicked things to her.

“There are children in the room, Mrs. Kessler,” I admo
nished when she pulled away.

“The children will be napping soon, Mr. Kessler,” she said in a sultry tone that made me almost drop the baby.

“Lucas, nap time!”

*~~~*

“I want to see you in this,” I insisted to Emmy. I gave the hanger a shake for emphasis.

“I’m not wearing a bikini until my body is bikini ready,” she said and shook her hanger for emphasis.

“Your body is more than ready for a bikini. In fact, I’d prefer no clothes at all on your body.” I winked.

Emmy rolled her eyes. “You’re the only person who would consider stuffing my muffin top into a bikini.”

I possessively put my hand on her waist and firmly smoothed it over her hip and upper thigh before ending on her ass.

I leaned in close to her, my lips only centimeters from her lips, and said “Every part of you is perfect and I want you on display for
my
pleasure.”

She shivered, touched her lips to mine for the briefest of seconds and then she said in a soft, velvety voice “I’m not wearing the bikini.”

A grin slowly spread on my face. “So, you won’t be wearing anything?”

She laughed softly. It sent fire up my spine and made my erection twitch in my jeans.

“I’ll be wearing this tankini,” she said flatly and then there was a hanger in my face.

I sighed and hung the bikini back up on the rack. “You’re really mean,” I pouted.

Emmy laughed again and to my surprise, reached past me and plucked the bikini off of the rack.

“You’re so cute when you pout. I’ll buy both, okay?”

I grinned and kissed her. “Thank you.”

“Cwacka!” Lucas shouted from the double stroller. I fished into the diaper bag and produced a couple of graham crackers for him. “Danku.”

“You’re welcome,” I said, ruffling his hair.

“Don’t forget, we’re getting Diana a gift card so she can shop for her spring break clothes,” Emmy said to me.

I nodded, acknowledging that I heard her. We gifted Diana a trip to Miami Beach for spring break so that she could join her friends and escape the brisk Chicago weather. As expected, she tried to reject the gift, but my wife had been very convincing.

We were at the mall, shopping for our honeymoon trip. When Emmy first opened the envelope, it felt like the trip was too far away, but before we knew it, weeks had flown by and we would be leaving in a few days.

I took off most of January. Emmy and I were married for almost a year already. Considering all we had gone through before getting married and then the struggles afterward, I wanted to give her and the kids my undivided attention for a little while. We were dropping the kids off with Emmy’s parents and then flying to our honeymoon destination. After five days alone, the plan was to go back to Louisiana and spend a week with Emmy’s family. If we weren’t snowed out of Chicago by then, we would return home. I had some small projects to do around the house during my time off, and I was going to spend a lot of time with my kids and drool after my wife until she got tired of me. It was going to be a great month. As long as Vivian didn’t show up.

Vivian did something so utterly terrifying, that it still brings fear into my heart when I think about it. She convinced Iris to drop her case against Emmy and called it a no strings a
ttached favor. I commanded Emmy not to take it, reminding her that the beast bites when one least expects it, but my wife simply rolled her eyes and then had the nerve to make lunch plans with Vivian. If she got bit, I was not licking her wounds for her. Well. Maybe I’d lick her.

Emmy and Vivian formed an unlikely friendship. I often made remarks regarding Viv’s evilness, but secretly I really didn’t mind the alliance. Vivian was a hardcore family woman after her divorce, taking on the smaller cases often so that she wouldn’t have to spend too much time away from her children. I appreciated that about her. She was more than capable of ha
ndling enormous, noteworthy cases, but she humbly took on only what would keep her schedule open for her family. She and Em had a lot in common. Emmy really appreciated Vivian’s blunt honesty. She said she would never have to worry about Vivian turning into an Iris because Vivian was so very straight forward, and it helped that we openly hated each other.

Two months after Emmy sneakily bought the building that housed Iris’s muffin shop, renovations began in the buil
ding to accommodate Kessler and Keane. There were a few other smaller businesses inside the building, but they were mostly unaffected by our move. An accountant was asked to move his office to where Iris’s shop had been, and he readily agreed. He got a bigger space for the same money and in a prime position for foot traffic. By the time I went back to work, the renovations would be nearly complete and we would be able to start moving everything over. I felt bad leaving Steve and the staff to pack up, but Steve reminded me that he would soon be going away for several weeks himself and he wasn’t going to feel bad about it.

“Luke?” a soft, feminine voice that wasn’t Emmy’s called my name, shaking me from my thoughts.

As I said, were in the mall just after Christmas. We could have run into any number of people that we knew – my own family, neighbors, clients, and friends. But she wasn’t any of those people, though she used to be a friend.

I looked to my left and met Claire’s eyes.

“Claire,” I said coolly and took a moment to look at the child in her arms. Though the DNA results had ruled me out as the baby girl’s father, I still had to look her over to make sure there were no identifying resemblances. There weren’t. Red hair and green eyes.