Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 71843 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71843 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
“Really?” I had teased him, stepping forward, taking his thickening cock in one hand and sliding the other around the side of his neck, my thumb on the pulse point in his throat that was pounding wildly.
“What do you expect?” he’d snapped. “I’m naked, you’re close by, my brain trips right to what usually happens.”
I couldn’t help laughing at him.
“I keep telling you, I’m a simple creature.”
He wasn’t, though. “You know, I’m not sure your whole method of doing things here is preventing anything at all.”
“Maybe not, but until we know better, we’ll err on the side of caution.”
It had been my turn to grunt.
We now had boxes for mail in the garage. It came in, went into the first box labeled “72 hours.” Then it was transferred to the “48 hours” box, then the “24 hours” one, and finally the one that said “Good” on the front.
“Why do we have a box that says ‘Good’?” I had asked him.
“I don’t understand the question.”
“When you take it out of the ‘24 hours’ box, wouldn’t you just bring it inside?”
“No,” he’d replied, scowling at me, crossing his arms. “Because you have things going into the ‘24 hours’ box.”
“So technically, this is more of a 96-hour process. I have mail coming in on Monday I don’t get to read until Thursday.”
“Just do what I say,” he ordered before he kissed me. I loved that he couldn’t resist.
Now, coming into the living room with Sam behind me, he pointed at the six kids in our living room, all doing handstands against a wall, and asked me what the hell was going on.
“They’re seeing who can stay up there the longest before their brains explode.”
“Okay,” he said flatly, like that made perfect sense, before taking the stairs to the second floor in threes.
I flopped down on the couch to look at them just as Kola and Jake rolled off the wall and stood up.
“Oww,” Jake complained, holding his head. “That actually hurts.”
“It’s a form of torture for a reason,” Kola informed him, glancing at me. “Hey, guess what, I ran backwards on the Assault AirRunner today.”
“That’s not a good thing,” I told him, sounding pained. Just thinking about him wiping out on Sam’s treadmill gave me chills. I hid the worry, because I knew my son would shrug that off. “I don’t want to go anywhere near a hospital right now just because you’re bored.”
“Being stuck in the ER is a valid concern,” he placated me. “But I’m not bored.”
“How are you not bored, cooped up here at home?”
“For starters,” he said drolly, “I have all the Star Wars movies now.”
“Oh God,” I groaned.
“I can run on the treadmill––” He lifted his hand before I could speak. “––facing front, play video games, use the mini trampoline, watch movies, stream everything I’ve been putting off, and I have a mess of schoolwork, by the way.”
“We all do,” Harper chimed in, his voice garbled since he was still on his head on the wall.
“I’m out,” Lucy said, rolling off the wall, standing up and then reeling for a second before Kola took gentle hold of her arm.
“You did good,” he told her.
Her smile for him was luminous.
“Ohmygod,” Tawny Craig, Hannah's pal, whose parents had become friends with me and Sam, whined as she rolled down off the wall. “That hurts so bad.”
Kola steadied her and massaged her temples for a moment. Tawny’s face stopped scrunching up, and her shoulders relaxed.
“So much better,” she said, sighing, leaning against him.
“Harper, give up,” Jake barked at his friend. “You can’t beat her.”
“What?” His whine was loud. “Of course I can.”
“You can’t,” Kola told him, walking over and squatting down beside one of his two best friends in the world. “She’s just screwing with you.”
“What?”
But he was right, and Hannah’s cackle was evil as she lifted from her head to her hands and then proceeded to put all her weight on one hand and balance that way.
“Oh man,” Harper groaned, rolling off the wall and standing, at which point he whimpered before Kola rubbed his temples as well.
“I can do that,” Sam said, striding back into the room, moving fluidly over to the wall and joining his daughter, both of them on one hand.
“Listen,” I told them, “I know the circus is in town, but could you two come to the kitchen so we can eat?”
“I can do a one-handed push-up now too,” Hannah told her father, still upside down.
“Oh, I wanna see,” he prodded her, rolling off the wall after her.
Of course, neither one of them had any brain pain.
Ridiculous.
As I served the lasagna I made, one with meat, one without, Sam squatted down beside Hannah, watching her do her push-ups and then showing her how they could be done with a closed fist as well. It was nice. Hannah exercised with her father and worked out on the punching bag, and Kola lifted weights with him and ran. I walked with the TV on. Sometimes. It was on my list to get better at it.