“Already have a boy, Ladybug.”

I sighed. “Yeah.”

“You’re more beautiful today than the day I met you,” he told me seriously. “And I’m lucky as fuck that you put up with my shit.”

“You really are,” I answered with a nod, making him smile.

“We’re almost forty years old, baby. This is the last one, all right? I’m happy as hell that you’re giving me another. I love our kids—best thing we’ve ever done—but I don’t want you putting that strain on your body anymore.”

“Okay, handsome.”

“I love you.”

“Love you too.” I leaned forward and kissed him, running my tongue over his lips before pulling back. “But if you don’t fuck me in the next few minutes, we’re not gonna have time before people start showing up.”

“Fuck ’em,” he growled, wrapping his hands into my hair.

He stood up, pushing me with him, and kissed me hard. His beard was rough against my skin and I reveled in the feeling, knowing that within a few days it would be long enough to feel soft again and the sensation would change.

Over the years, I’d felt his face against my skin a million different ways. Long beard, short beard, five o’clock shadow, or clean shaven, I’d never had a favorite. His aunt Lily had told me something before she died, and I’d never forgotten it. She’d said, “Handsome comes and goes, but if a man’s face is dear to you no matter how wrinkled he gets? Well, that’s worth keeping.” And Cody’s face was dear to me.

“Elbows on the bed, Ladybug,” Cody murmured into my mouth before spinning me away from him. I loved the way his hand pressed at the center of my back as I bent over the bed, and though we’d done this dance thousands of times before, it still surprised me when he dropped to his knees behind me.

“Love the way you taste when you’re pregnant.” He groaned into my skin, running his tongue from front to back. “You’re always fucking ready for me.”

I was moaning quietly into the bed when I heard a knock on the door and my head snapped up in panic.

“Shhh.” Cody climbed to his feet behind me with one hand to my back so I couldn’t move. My heart started racing as the door handle jiggled, and less than a second later Cody was slamming into me.

“Dad’s takin’ a shower, Lilybug, leave ’em alone,” Cameron called down the hallway.

“Where’s Mom? People are starting to show up!”

“She’s probably helping him—”

“Gross!”

Their voices faded away as they left the hallway, and I dropped my head in a huff. “I almost had a heart attack.”

“I locked the door, Ladybug,” Cody said in exasperation. “I always lock the fucking door, ’cause you always forget to lock the fucking door.”

He began to slide in and out slowly, and I turned my head to look at him. “One time!”

“Cameron’s probably scarred for life.”

“Shut up.” My breath caught as he pulled out and slammed back in, the sound of our bodies moving together filling the room.

Casper

My house was filled with people, and I knew Farrah loved it, but fuck if I didn’t want them all to leave.

She was tired as hell and trying to hide it, but the mask she’d worn all those years ago was pretty much nonexistent anymore. The confidence she’d faked for so long had somehow become real years ago, and I think our kids had a lot to do with it. When you were going to parent-teacher conferences at twenty-one years old and trying to keep your adopted son out of juvie, you tended to grow a thick skin.

I glanced over to where Cameron was following Dragon’s daughter Trix into the house, and grinned. That was what the fucker got for trying to stop me from talking to his boy earlier about my daughter. Asshole.

“Trix, you don’t stop walking away from me. I’m gonna paddle your ass!”

“Fuck off, Cam!”

Ah, to be young and fucking clueless again. I had a feeling those two were going to fuck things up pretty bad before they got their shit together. I probably needed to talk to Cam before Dragon killed him.

Brenna and Dragon had done a good job with that one. Trix had just graduated with a degree in business or some shit like that, and had already found some cushy job in Portland, which was probably why she and Cam were fighting. I didn’t understand how we kept making these girls who were fucking princesses, all with a good head on their shoulders and a backbone of steel, yet all our boys seemed to be little assholes who couldn’t keep it in their pants. It was probably a good thing Brenna and Dragon had stopped having kids after Leo; I couldn’t deal with another one of their boys going after Lily in a few years.

“You need another beer, handsome?” Farrah asked with a tilt of her head.

Goddamn, the woman got more beautiful every time I looked at her. I shook my head as she sauntered toward me, and couldn’t help the smile that pulled at my lips. She wasn’t trying to walk that way, but I was pretty sure she was sore as hell after the way I’d pounded her earlier. I’d probably have to be a little more careful in the near future.

I pulled her onto my lap as she reached me, and laid my hand on her head as she pressed her face into my neck. Poor baby.

“You just sit here with me, Ladybug,” I ordered her, kissing her face. “Dinner’s over, people are relaxing, nothing more for you to do.”