you have your hands full,” she said, addressing Cady.
Her back to the photographer, Cady rolled her eyes. “You have no idea.” She glanced at her watch and frowned. “We’ve all had a long day, and Jose is on a tight schedule. I presume Linc is upstairs, dressing?”
Tate pulled a face. “Uh...that would be a no. He’s not home yet.”
Tate’s statement was met with a series of groans, the loudest of which was from Cady. “Seriously?” Beck asked, placing his hands on his trim waist.
“Seriously,” Tate replied.
Cady released a strangled moan and scowled at Beck, who threw up his hands. “What? I am not my brother’s keeper.”
Cady drilled a finger into his flat stomach. “Find him. I have Jose here for the next two hours, and I need to nail this down.”
Piper, carrying two grocery bags, lifted them into the air. “And Jay and I will get supper going.”
Tate winced. “Uh, sorry. The kitchen is in a bit of a mess. I’ve been making cupcakes for Shaw to take to school tomorrow. I’ll just change Ellie, and then I’ll clean up. Can you give me five minutes?”
Sage stepped up to her and took a very willing Ellie from her arms. “I’ll change Miss Gorgeous here, if that’s okay with you?”
“She’s a bit of a mess,” Tate warned her.
“I lived with Linc and Shaw and Jo for years. I’ve changed many diapers. We’ll be fine,” Sage assured her and headed up the magnificent staircase, crooning to Ellie as she did so.
Right, okay, the kitchen. Tate was about to follow Piper and Jaeger downstairs when the front door banged open, and Linc stepped through the entrance. His eyes immediately clashed with hers, and Tate felt her skin tingle as his stormy eyes roamed over her face, down her long-sleeved T-shirt. His gaze heated, and Tate was quite sure that her panties were about to catch fire.
“Hi.”
“Hi back.” Tate forced the words up her throat and wished she had the right to step into his arms, to lift her face to be kissed, to feel his big hands in her hair, changing the angle so that he could kiss her with hot abandon.
“You look—”
Stunning? Gorgeous? Sexy? Doable? She’d take any of the adjectives.
“—like you were dunked in a vat of flour.”
Tate glanced down at her shirt and saw the streaks of flour and the blobs of batter in her hair.
Oh, shoot! Okay, not her best foot forward. “Cupcakes.”
Linc briefly closed his eyes. “Dammit, I forgot. How much is there still to do?”
“A lot.”
Cady, looking impatient, stepped between them and glanced at her watch. “Linc, we’ve got serious time constraints, and you’re already fifteen minutes late. I need you changed and in the downstairs library in five minutes.”
Linc dropped his laptop bag onto the hall table. “Dressed in jeans and a white button-down shirt?”
“Yes...casual, hip, no shoes,” Cady quickly replied and, hearing the photographer shouting for her, she rushed down the hallway. Tate was about to turn away to head back downstairs to clean up the kitchen when Linc grabbed her wrist and tugged her to the stairs.
“Linc, Piper is cooking, and the kitchen looks like the world ended in there,” Tate protested, yet her feet followed his hurried pace up the stairs.
“They can handle it,” Linc replied. “Where’s Shaw?”
“Downstairs, watching TV.”
“Ellie?”
“Sage is changing her.”
“So, you can spare me ten minutes?” he asked, as they hit the landing to the second floor.
“I suppose.”
Linc led her down the hallway and reached past her to open the door to his bedroom, his hand on her back urging her inside. Tate’s quick glance of the room registered brown and creams, a masculine space, but then Linc’s arms were around her and his mouth was on hers, hot, deep, dark and breath-stealing sexy.
Oh, Lord, he could kiss, Tate thought dreamily. His mouth was assured and clever, his tongue silky, his breath sweet. Strong, muscular arms held her flush against his tall, hard frame, and Tate was grateful for his support because she was quite certain that every joint in her body was on the point of liquefying. Linc left one hand on her bottom, and the fingers of his other hand speared into her hair, gripping her head and, just like she’d imagined earlier, tilted it to allow his tongue deeper access into her mouth.
She could kiss Linc for years, eons, the rest of her life, Tate mused. When his big hand found her breast and his thumb drifted across her puckered nipple, she whimpered, groaned and whimpered again. Tate’s hand caressed his back, his rib cage before both her hands came to rest on his lean hips, her stretched-out thumbs very close to his hard erection.
She wanted to unbuckle his belt, pull down the zipper, slide her hands into his underwear—
Linc pulled back to rest his forehead against hers. “I’ve thought about doing that, and more, all day. I’ve been less than useless.”
“I burned the first batch of cupcakes because I was fantasizing about you,” Tate admitted, her voice husky.
Linc’s eyes gleamed with pleasure. “What was I doing?”
“This, pretty much,” Tate whispered.
“This is pretty tame compared to what I’ve been imagining.” Linc’s big hand covered most of her cheek, and he placed his thumb in the center of her bottom lip. “I want you, Tate. Badly.”
“I know. I want you, too,” Tate confessed. “It’s inconvenient and crazy, and there are a thousand reasons why it’s a bad idea—”
“But you’re going to let me take you to bed?”
She didn’t have the strength or the willpower to walk away. This one time, she couldn’t resist temptation. But, because she had to protect herself, she laid out the rules of engagement. That way, there couldn’t be any misunderstandings.
“This is a very short-term arrangement, Linc. We’re just two adults who are wickedly attracted to each other and who want nothing more than some no-strings-attached fun.” She could do sex, she could do a fling. This couldn’t be anything more, and he needed to know that. “This is temporary and an emotion-free zone. So, no expectations, okay?”
“Understood,” Linc said. “Relax, Tate, I’m not asking for anything more. I’m not expecting anything from you but to share your body with me. No offense, but if I was looking for someone to settle down with, and I’m not, you’re not what I’m looking for.”
Dammit, why did she feel like he’d jabbed an ice pick into her heart? Stupid girl! “Because I am the least stable, traditional, least likely to stay at home, woman you know?”
Linc shrugged. “But you’re, by far, the sexiest woman I’ve ever met, and I want you more than my next breath.”
The fist clenching her heart relaxed, and Tate sent him a hesitant smile. She could do this; she’d separate sex from emotion and she would be fine. She had to be; anything else wasn’t an option.
“And, last request, outside this room, we act normal,” Tate insisted.
Linc smiled teasingly. “What’s normal?”
She was trying to be serious, but Tate’s mouth curved upward. “Fair point. But, to spell it out, I look after the kids and you...well, you do what you do.”
“Doing you is high on my list,” Linc growled.
Tate