Chapter 17

Dinner was fine. I'd been over for meals a million times, between making sure no one threw cutlery, wrangling the kids to stay in their seats and taking out the trash because everyone else was afraid the ghost—totally normal. Well, our version of normal. So the night had been good. Moving in. Not an issue.

Until now.

Now I was lying in her definitely not king-sized bed six inches from her warm body and I felt anything but fine.

"You okay?" She turned her head on the pillow to look at me. "You need another blanket?"

"No." Another blanket would not fix my issue.

"You seem cranky."

A huff escaped my mouth. "Tell me this isn't weird?"

She rolled over on her side, facing me. "Define weird?"

"I don't know." I did know. Weird means lying in bed with someone I wanted to fuck but couldn't, so I was just expected to sleep. Sleep was not happening. "I should just move to the couch."

"I already said that was dumb. It's not big enough for you. I said if this was a thing, I'd sleep on the couch." She tossed the blanket off, but I caught her wrist.

"Don't." I pulled her back down and then flipped the covers back over her. "I'm not kicking you out of your own bed."

She sighed.

"Just go to sleep."

"Okay," she said, rolling over onto her back.

Oh, it was that easy for her? How was that possible? Did she not feel the tension in the air because it felt pretty damn thick to me?

Minutes ticked by, but all I could think about was her lying a few feet away.

Once her breathing evened out and a cute little snore came from her, making it obvious she was asleep, I forced myself to count ghosts in my head. It turned out we didn't have one, because I got well into the thousands before my brain finally shut off.

My eyes flickered back open and pumpkin spice enveloped me as I realized my surroundings. Warm, soft, smooth. And damn, something smelled good. I took a deep breath.

And then froze.

Slowly, I opened my eyes, and hues of red greeted me. I was wrapped up in Ivy. Apparently, even in sleep, I couldn't resist her. I shifted, but she buried further into me. Her ass nestled against my very hard cock, and it was heaven and torture. Although I needed to, I almost didn't want to move.

After a moment, she let out a contented sigh and I raised slowly on my elbow to look down at her. Freckles dusted the bridge of her nose and across her cheeks as her eyelids fluttered open.

She slowly rolled onto her back, and my gaze zeroed in on her lips. Pink and plump. So kissable. I leaned down, pausing just an inch away, and when her hand ran up my arm to my shoulder, I closed the gap, fusing our mouths together.

This wasn't like our other kisses. It was laced with need and passion as I explored her mouth with my tongue. She moaned and rotated her hips, and I shifted, placing my thigh between her legs, letting her rub against me. I trailed my hand down her body, brushing over one breast.

I wanted to feel her bare skin under my fingertips. To see how responsive she would be if I used my thumb to brush over her nipple.

My hand disappeared under the hem of her T-shirt and slowly inched up her stomach. A shiver rocked through her, followed by a moan, and I cupped her breast with the palm of my hand. Her back arched off the bed and her nails dug into my shoulder when my thumb ran over her nipple.

A loud crash came from the living room, and I pulled back, looking down at Ivy. Damn, she looked gorgeous. And I wanted to ignore whatever was going on outside the door and just dive back in.

"What was that?" I asked, hoping she'd say don't worry.

She smiled. "Life with kids."

I rolled over onto my back. I tried to force out a light chuckle but it was turned into more of a groan. "Guess we have to go find out."

"Yeah, probably." She sat up and threw the blankets off before swinging her feet over the side.

She moved toward the door, and I closed my eyes, giving myself a moment before getting up to follow her out. Why did I suddenly feel like I was back in high school, obsessed with the girl, a hard on and nothing I could do about it.

"What happened?" she asked Kai as she picked the floor lamp up.

"It was the ghost. I saw it, and he did too." Kai waved at Diesel, who was panting and turning his head, scanning the living room.

I rolled my eyes. Here we went with the ghost crap again.

"It was white, and it floated through the living room and disappeared into the wall."

I looked toward the wall he was pointing to. It separated the living room from the master suite and held a large brick fireplace that took up most of the wall.

"Kai, there's no ghost," Ivy said.

"There was. Diesel saw it too."

Perfect. Too bad the dog couldn't talk.

"Did you guys see it? It disappeared through the wall and went into your room. Maybe it's still there." He bolted past me and I turned, watching him get on his knees to look under the bed.

I chuckled and shook my head. "What's the plan for today?" I asked Ivy, turning to look at her.

"Remember parent-teacher conferences for the little ones?" she said, looking over at me.

Oh great. "Sounds fun."

First, I started the day making out like a teenager and later I would head back to school.