Family Ties — читать онлайн бесплатно полностью

“—but I’d settle for a kiss.”

She did her best not to laugh, but her lips pursed in a grin. She compressed them and looked away.

“Uh-oh,” I teased, “now I’ve done it. Made you smile.”

“You know, one of these days I’m going to stay mad at you.”

“You’re probably right. But we’ll deal with that when it happens.”

“How can you be so calm about all this?” she asked. “You’re slowly tearing down everything I believe.”

“I’m not tearing down. Let’s say… I’m ‘remodeling.’”

“What if I don’t like it when you’re done?”

“Then we’ll remodel some more, until we find something we both can live with.

”

“You’re changing me as much as I’m changing you,” I said.

“Maybe you’re right. But I genuinely want you to be happy.”

“It isn’t nonsense and you know it. Now, I need to get dinner in the oven.

Can I have that kiss before I do?”

“I’ll pout.” I suited actions to words.

She tried not to smile but eventually gave in. I fixed my expression and looked into her eyes. She gazed back, and I felt something click between us, deep and very satisfying.

She must have felt it too, because she caressed my cheek.

“Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve you,” she said, before her eyes flashed with mischief. “Then I realize I must’ve been a bad girl and you’re my punishment.”

She held my face in her hands and lingered over the touch of our lips.

After a moment I lifted her off the counter and she locked her legs around me. The little head thought sex on the kitchen table was imminent.

“Um, I hate to interrupt,” Wren said from behind me, “but are we gonna

Christy squawked and hid her face in the hollow of my neck.

“Trip and I need to get some food in us,” Wren continued, “or we’re gonna be seriously drunk.”

“Sorry,” I laughed, “serious discussion.”

“I can see that,” she said dryly. She nodded at the broiler pan with the tuna steaks. “You want me to put those in the oven for you?”

“Would you mind? And set the timer for three minutes?”

“I have to do everything around here,” she muttered, although she wasn’t really upset.

After she finished with the oven, she went to the pantry and pulled out two more bottles of wine. She put them in the refrigerator, next to the two already chilled.

“Um… that’s a lot of wine,” I said.

“And we’re a lot of wine drinkers.” She waved goodbye and returned to Trip and the music.

“Oh my gosh,” Christy said, “I can’t believe she caught us.