“Put that pen down and come to bed, woman.” Jake came downstairs shirtless and wearing only his long johns. “It’s late, and the boys are sleeping like babies.”
“I only have a little left to write,” Randy told him, preparing to fill her fountain pen.
“Never mind that.” Jake walked over and literally lifted her right out of the chair. Randy stifled a scream and laughter as he grasped her under the hips and slung her over his shoulder. “You’re coming to bed.”
“Jake, the boys might wake up!”
“They’re fine.”
“Jake Harkner, put me down!” Randy told him in a gruff whisper. “You’ll mess your back up.”
He shifted her to hold in his arms. “What the hell does that mean? Are you saying I’m too old for this?”
“Well…no, but—”
“You weigh less than Ben, and by now probably even less than Stephen, and I’ve carried them to bed more than once. And I’m damn well not too old for what I’m about to do to you, and you aren’t too old to want it.”
“Is that so?”
“You know it is.” He set her on her feet and closed the bedroom door, walking up to Randy and untying her robe. “You’re as beautiful as ever, although sometimes I worry how small you’re getting. One of these days I’ll look for you under the covers and won’t be able to find you.” He pulled off her robe.
“Oh, you’ll find me all right. You’d search for me through the jungles of Africa for sex.”
He grinned. “That’s what you still do to me.” He untied a drawstring at the neck of her nightgown. “I was sitting in that warm water and remembering what we did that time we bathed together, and that got me to thinking about your beautiful breasts and your perfect bottom.”
“I thought your hip was bothering you again.”
He finished untying her nightgown and pulled it down over her shoulders. “The hot bath helped.”
“Well, maybe I’m hurting from working so hard scrubbing the kitchen floor this morning.”
“That was your mistake. You let me see you on your hands and knees with that beautiful bottom begging me to touch it. Now step out of that nightgown.”
Randy obeyed, laughing softly. She reached up, and he folded her into his arms, kissing her hungrily and lifting her so her feet were off the floor. He carried her to the bed, and they fell onto it together. Jake rolled on top of her, kissing her deeply again. He had a way of waking up her deepest needs without her even knowing they were there. Just a moment ago she’d been writing to Jeff, and this was the last thing on her mind. “Mmm, you smell good from that bath,” she told him when he left her mouth to caress her neck with butterfly kisses.
“Well, after shoveling horse manure part of the day, I figured I’d better scrub up good.” He kissed his way down to her belly, then got to his knees and pulled off her drawers. “Don’t you move,” he told her then.
Randy drank in the sight of him when he got up from the bed and pulled off his long johns. No. There was still nothing old or soft about Jake Harkner.
“Have I told you lately how beautiful you are?” Jake asked, leaning down to move between her legs.
“You’re a wonderful lover who tells me every day how beautiful I am, even the times when I know you don’t really mean it.”
“I really mean it every time. When have you ever thought I didn’t?”
“When I’m a mess from cooking and cleaning, and all you want is to relieve your needs.”
“And even when you’re a mess, you’re still beautiful, which is why I have needs. You create them.” He kissed her again, softly groaning with the want of her, then moved to kiss her eyes. “Randy, if you’re really too tired for this, let me know.”
“Oh, now you ask.”
He sobered. “Are you?”
“Too tired to have Jake Harkner in my bed? Or to have Jake Harkner inside of me? Surely you jest.”
He nuzzled her neck with a growling laugh. “You bathed while I was outside working earlier, didn’t you? You smell like roses again.”
“I know my husband well, and we haven’t done this for a few days, so I had a feeling you might be needing this.”
He studied her lovingly, smoothing back her hair. “How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Smell like roses. Sometimes even the bed smells like roses.”
“Why do you think I insist on having a lot of rosebushes?”
“I just figured you liked raising them and looking at them.”
“Well, when I trim them, I keep the petals, sometimes the whole flower, and I crush them up and use the oil to rub over myself and sometimes over our sheets. I save enough to use all winter.”