Page 73 of Had to Be You

He’d shown up thinking that they were going to have sexy time and instead found a house full of kids. She’d given him so many outs to leave, but he’d stayed. He’d rolled up his sleeves and jumped in. Case in point: he had formed a line for hand washing. Four kids had already finished, and he’d assigned them their next tasks.

Matty and Mikey were filling the red Solo cups with ice. Matteo was handing out paper plates, and Sergio was setting paper towels to use as napkins on top of each one.

Before she knew it, everyone was seated and happily eating their pizza while watching the movie that Knox had put on without anyone crying that it hadn’t been the one they wanted to watch.

What would have taken Laura at least twenty minutes to wrangle and organize, Knox had accomplished in less than five with no tears.

She knew it was strange, but she’d never been more attracted to him.

He caught her staring at him and asked, "What?"

"That was just... impressive."

"Was it?"

She shook her head and turned around to get her own pizza. When she did, she felt him step behind her. His hand gripped her hip as he lowered and whispered against her ear, "It drives me crazy when you look at me like that."

"Like what?" she breathed.

A shiver raced down her spine as his lips brushed the cuff of her ear and rasped, "Like I just made your panties wet."

With that declaration, he left the kitchen and took a seat on the couch, where Matteo, Sergio, and Sammy were all seated eating in the front room.

Every time she didn’t think she could love Knox Savage more, he proved her wrong. For the past few weeks, she’d been doing her damndest to keep her distance emotionally. Any progress she’d made during that time had just been completely obliterated in the span of half an hour.

She’d been right the first time she’d met him. He was dangerous. Not because he was a bad boy, but because he was a real fucking good man.

21

Laura stoodon her porch waving as her nieces and nephews all drove away. Her brother-in-law who had dropped off all eight kids in his twelve-seater van had just come and picked them up. She’d had them a total of forty-eight hours and she wasn’t sure she would have survived without Knox.

She walked back into the house and found Knox at the kitchen sink doing the dishes. She choked back the emotion that welled up inside of her at the sight.

If she’d made a list like Kennedy had, Knox would literally check every single box. He was smart, successful, kind, loyal, honest, funny, amazing with kids, and that didn’t even scratch the surface of the things she loved about him.

But there was one glaring box he didn’t tick. He never wanted to get married or have children.

The marriage she could get past. She’d give that one up. But kids, that was non-negotiable for her. And if she still felt that way after the past two days then she knew nothing, not even Knox Savage, would change her mind.

Why did he have to be so fucking perfect in every other way?

At the thought of him leaving in just a few short weeks, panic rose in her and she had an overwhelming urge to beg him to stay. She couldn’t imagine her life without him. All she wanted to do was throw her arms around him and tell him he could never leave her.

No! her inner voice of self-respect and pride screamed. She was being ridiculous.

The only reason she was feeling that way was because they’d just survived a battle where they were outmanned and they were bonded through the trauma of caring for eight children under the age of eight. Plus, she was exhausted. In the past two days she may have gotten six hours of sleep, and that was being generous.

That was it. Nothing more.

She knew what they were and more importantly, what they weren’t.

She cleared her throat and he turned to look over his shoulder. Fuck. Why did he have to have the deepest brown eyes in the history of brown eyes. She wanted to drown in the chocolate pools.

He turned the water off. Picked up a towel and dried off his hands. Then he took his phone out of his pocket and music started playing through the Bluetooth speaker on her counter.

“What are you doing?”

“Dancing with you.” He spun her around and then pulled her close to his body.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com