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A small bundle of fury leaped on his back.
"Get off my mommy! Get off her!"
Something hard hit him on the head.
Little fists pounded at him, and fingernails scratched his neck. The room echoed with frantic cries. "Stop it! Stop it!"
Rachel had gone rigid beneath him. "Edward!"
Something much sturdier than five-year-old fists began to bang against the back of his head in hard, rhythmic whacks. Tears and panic clogged the child's voice. "You're hurting her! Stop hurting her!"
Gabe tried to deflect the blows, but his range of motion was limited. The boy was straddling his hips, and, if he rolled over, he'd reveal Rachel's nudity. How had he gotten in the room? He was certain Rachel had locked the door.
"Edward, don't!" Rachel grabbed for the sheet.
Gabe caught a small, flailing elbow. "I'm not hurting her, Edward."
A monumental blow, much harder than the rest, landed on the side of his head. "My name's not—"
"Chip!" Gabe gasped.
"I'll kill you!" the boy sobbed, then clobbered him again.
"Stop that right this minute, Edward Stone! Do you hear me!" Rachel had steel in her voice.
The boy slowly grew still.
She softened her tone. "Gabe isn't hurting me, Edward."
"Then what's he doing?"
For the first time since they'd met, Rachel seemed to be at a loss for words.
He turned his head and saw rumpled hair, along with red, tearstained cheeks. "I was kissing her, Ed… Chip."
A horrified expression came over the child's face. "Don't you ever do that again."
Gabe knew his weight was making it difficult for Rachel to breathe, but she spoke as soothingly as she could manage. "It's all right, Edward. I like it when Gabe kisses me."
"No, you don't!"
They clearly weren't getting anywhere, so Gabe spoke firmly. "Chip, I want you to go to the kitchen and get your mother a big glass of water. She's very thirsty."
The child gave him a mulish look.
"Please do what he says, Edward. I really need a drink of water."
The child reluctantly climbed off the bed, at the same time shooting Gabe a wordless tight-lipped warning that promised annihilation if he threatened his mother.
The moment he disappeared through the doorway, Gabe and Rachel leaped from the bed and began frantically grabbing for their clothes. Gabe yanked on his jeans. Rachel snatched up his T-shirt and jerked it over her head, then searched the floor for her panties. When she couldn't find them, she pulled on his briefs instead. It should have been funny, but all he cared about was being dressed before the boy returned.
He yanked up his zipper. "I thought you locked the door."
"No. I thought you did it."
The boy appeared in record time, running so quickly that water slopped over the sides of the blue plastic Bugs Bunny tumbler.
As Rachel moved forward to take it from him, she stumbled on something. Gabe looked down and recognized a copy of Stellaluna lying on the floor. It took him a moment to figure out why it was there, and then he realized this was what Edward had used to beat him over the head.
