2brown-eyes rocks!

No song so…

This I Promise You—NSYNC

Boston, Massachusetts

August 2001

2nd year of residency

The glass door rolls in its track, and I snap my eyes around, afraid that Bailey is awake and about to catch his mommy smoking weed, but it's not him.

It's Edward.

He's leaning against the frame, his eyes soft as they rove over me. "That bad, huh?"

"What are you doing here?" The words are full of spite, but I'm too stoned to add the necessary bite.

He pushes off the metal and moves to the chair beside me. "I'm not ready to lose my family."

Guilt clenches in my gut. "That was a mean thing for me to say," I tell him, not quite meeting his gaze. "We're not ready to lose you either."

He leans over, cupping my face. "I'm sorry it's been so tough since Morgan was born."

"Bailey was so good," I say, remembering how he was sleeping through the night by the time he was three months old. "I just didn't think another baby would be so hard."

"I get it," he says, brushing my jaw with his thumb. "I wish I could write a prescription and make it all better, but with colic, you just have to wait for them to outgrow it."

"I know." Tears well in my eyes. "Some days are rougher than others."

"Can we try something else?" he asks, his expression tender. "I know you don't want a nanny, but maybe we could find someone to take them for a few hours a day several days a week."

"I don't know," I reply, tears spilling down my cheeks. He wipes them away with his thumbs as he fully cups my face. "What if no one wants to keep a crying baby?"

"There are professionals who pride themselves on being able to handle crying babies," he says softly. "I promise to shop around and get great recommendations. You can do the interviews and have the final say."

I sniffle. "Is this really what it's come down to? Me being unable to handle my own kids?"

"You aren't getting enough support from your husband," he says matter-of-factly. "And with no sign of that changing for the next year, this could be a great temporary solution."

"I won't let you take the blame," I tell him, sucking it up like the strong woman I know myself to be. I get up from my chair and crawl into his lap, straddling his thighs. "We knew what we were getting into when you went after this residency, and it was a low blow for me to say that messed up shit earlier. I fucking love you, and our kids love you, and we support your career one-thousand percent."

His grin is small, but it says everything. "I love you too, B. All of you. So damn much. None of this means anything without you guys."

I don't respond.

With words anyway.

I attack his lips.

The hard smash of skin on skin evolves into a teasing tongue that presses against his closed seam and pressures to be invited inside. He hardens beneath me, and I moan at the feel of him through the thin scrubs.

Between his schedule and our perpetually crying baby girl, we haven't been able to reconnect since her birth over seven weeks ago. Maybe this is what's been needed for a while now and we forgot that.

"Inside," he rasps between nips to my jaw.

"Can't," I mutter, thrusting against him. "The babies are asleep in the stroller."

"Shit," he hisses, his nails digging into the tender flesh of my thighs as he pulls me against him. "Not here, though. Right?"

I'm thrusting faster, and he's fully contributing. "Of course not," I say, uttering a laugh like it's the stupidest idea ever to dry hump on the balcony for all of Boston to see. "That would be crazy."

"Fuck, B," he grunts, his thighs tensing beneath me. "I'm going to come if you don't stop."

"I don't think I can," I mumble as I brace my hands on his shoulders. "So fucking good."

Horns honk down below, and lights from the building across the street flash in my peripheral, but none of it gives me the presence of mind to stop thrusting. Stars explode behind my lids, and small pants of ecstasy escape on the breeze as I ride out the first orgasm I've had in months.

When I'm nothing but a blob in my husband's lap, his chuckle is what brings me crashing back to earth as he pushes my wild hair off my face. "A dry hump has never felt so fucking good."

I raise my head and look around, wondering how many people, if any, took in the show. "Maybe we should make this a thing?"

"I think fucking not," he says, pulling me close and laying a hard and fast kiss on me. "The sight of you coming undone is mine alone."

"Ditto," I respond, kissing his jaw.

And just then, our daughter reminds us why he's here in the first place.

"I've got her," Edward says, sliding me off his lap. "You get Bailey settled in his room."

"Thanks for coming home," I say, pausing before we enter the glass slider. "I needed you tonight."

"Always, B."

Damn them!

The final 4 chapters will post next week :)