He laughed. "Normally I do everything. Cook, clean, wash."
"Right. Okay, I guess you won't have to do as much here. I pay Mrs. Alverez for all that although she doesn't do every little thing. We take care of ourselves when we can. I have a whiteboard I'll put up in the kitchen that I write my schedule on. Feel free to add yours so we all know who's where and when. Penny puts her extracurricular activities on there too. Not that she does much."
Jack studied Lys's face as they made their way to the utility room. "You're worried about that?"
"Yes and no. She does outside school stuff but it's usually another educational course or something like that. She'd not into sports or hanging out with friends. There's a couple of girlfriends and Michael, the boy who's in the programming course with her. He's older though, and I don't like them spending time together when they aren't studying."
"She's mentioned Michael." Penny talked about the boy a lot and if Lys was worried about what a seventeen-year-old boy would be thinking around a fourteen-year-old girl, she needn't bother about this one. He'd met Michael and he wasn't interested in girls. "Have you met him?"
"Yes. I've met all her friends. Paige and Essy are in her year at school. They're studious, quiet girls, introverted like Penny. Both seem nice. Michael is a complete geek." She grinned. "He's like the poster child of geekdom."
"He is. He's also not interested in girls, if you’re concerned about that."
"Oh." Lys looked at him with narrowed eyes. "And you know this how?"
"One, when you meet him, it's kind of obvious. And two, I ran into him and his boyfriend at the store a few weeks back."
"He introduced you to his boyfriend? You sure it wasn't just a friend who's a boy?"
"Not doubt. Can't be when he says, 'hey this is my boyfriend, Darren', plus they were standing way too close to be just a couple of male friends hanging out."
"Ah, right." She frowned. "Hmm…that's a relief even though I didn't think I was worried about that. I've seen him and Penny together and the last thing either of them appear interested in is each other. All they talk about is computers and programs and code and words I've never heard, never mind know the meaning off."
When they reached the utility room off the kitchen, Jack waited while she emptied the washer. He tried to ignore the shape of her ass when she bent down to toss the wet clothes in the dryer, but he'd never been able to ignore Lys's body or stop his own body from reacting to the sight of it.
His jeans got uncomfortably tight but with his arms full he couldn't adjust himself, not that there was much room to begin with; he happened to be wearing his tightest pair. Besides, there was only one way to find relief and that wasn't on the cards even if it wouldn't take much effort to drop his clothes and press against her back. Push close and crowd her into the washer, bend her—
He startled, almost dropped the pile of dirty clothes when she spun around and reached out. He'd been so busy wondering if he could convince her to shut the door and take a spin on the washer with him, he didn't notice she'd finished loading the dryer and switched it on.
Fuck.Living together was going to test his resolve.
"You okay?" she asked, her gaze searching.
"Yeah. Sorry." He shook his head clear of X-rated thoughts and hoped she didn't question his elevated breathing or spot the bulge in his pants. "Was thinking about the things we can do to put Penny's mind at ease," he lied.
"Oh. Right." She turned each piece of clothing the right way and checked pockets before dropping them in the machine. "So, what are they?"
"We should have meals together as much as we can. And if we're all busy, then we make sure to have at least one night a week where we sit down to eat together. While we're eating, we can talk about our week, what we've done, what's coming up, that kind of thing. Also, we should be totally honest with her. We don't have to give her details, but if we decide to sleep together then we don't hide that. No sneaking out before dawn."
"Or hide that we aren't?"
"I'm pretty sure she's expecting us to sleep separately at this point." It was probably why Penny had such a volatile reaction to what she thought was Lys moving his clothes out of her room.
Putting the last shirt in the washer, she grabbed the detergent and said, "Taking the scene upstairs as evidence, I'd have to agree." Tossing a pod into the machine, she closed the lid and pressed a couple of buttons before turning and leaning her ass against it. "What do you think we should do about that?"
"About what?"
"Our sleeping arrangements."
"Are you asking what I want or what I think is best?"
"Shouldn't they be the same?"
Jack shook his head. "Not necessarily." He'd had time over the last week to think about their situation and while he knew he'd gotten Lys to say ‘I do’ by pushing the best for Penny angle he wanted to start pushing for the other reason he'd wanted to tie them together legally.
"Spit it out, Jack. You've never held back before; don't start now."
"Okay. Fine. I want to make this marriage a real one. I want to sleep beside you, make decisions together, whether about us or Penny. I want to go back to the physical intimacy we had before you pushed me away."
