Page 33 of Midnight Masquerade

Except maybe the fact that our daughter is drawing Halloween decorations fucking. That's definitely not on my top ten all-time favorites list.

"The ice cream parlor put up their Halloween display," he mutters, brushing his hand over the baby's head before cupping my cheek. "It had spiders, unicorn." He stares at me somberly. "You know how she feels about spiders."

I do know. She inherited my fear. Or, more likely, she's heard me ranting about them often enough and picked up on it, but we're going with Option A because it makes me feel less guilty. The point is, she's scared to death of spiders.

One thing Drake won't allow is anything to scare or hurt his girls. He never has, and he never will. My parents are forbiddenfrom stepping foot in this house. Drake refuses to budge on that rule. Honestly, I kind of love it. The only time we see them is at holidays, and Drake and I make sure they don't do to our kids what they did to me. When one of them tries, my husband puts his giant foot down.

My parents don't like it, but they're slowly learning not to cross our boundaries if they want to keep us in their lives.

"You stole the spiders?" I ask Drake, my voice softening as my heart flutters.

"Steele and Jack may have helped."

Why am I not surprised that they were involved? Of course they were. Anytime Jack comes over from Silver Spoon Falls, he's up to no good. And Steele, well, I don't know how the man survived being a Ranger because he was born up to no good.

"I want to be mad at you right now," I mutter to my husband. But I can't be mad at him. Of course they stole the spiders for Winnie. And, of course, they took her out to the display field to let her put them with the hundreds of others he's stolen for them.

They have their own damn section now—right under the upraised foot of a giant skeleton dressed in a dinosaur costume.

"I thought she'd be less afraid if she got to see them in a new light, unicorn." He grimaces. "I didn't think about the other shit until we were already there. I did not expect her to fucking draw anything she saw out there."

"She draws everything she sees, Drake. She's five!"

"How pissed is Livvie?" he asks, referring to her teacher. She's barely out of college and as innocent as they come.

"Livvie has questions." I smirk at him. "You get to explain at the next parent-teacher conference."

He practically squirms on his feet.

Livvie will be scandalized. He'll be mortified. Serves him right for stressing me out today. But I'm not mad at him. How can I be when he was just trying to help?

I swear, the man can do no wrong in my eyes.

Cole whimpers, and Drake eases him out of my arms, carrying him over to his bassinet before carefully easing him down. Our boy immediately settles, stretching out across the bed like a little starfish.

Drake watches him for a minute, chuckling, before he prowls back toward me, pulling me into his arms. "You ready to forgive me yet?"

"Depends," I mumble, nuzzling my face against his throat.

"On what?"

I brush my hand down his chest, pressing my body against his. "How badly you want to act out that movie I saw…"

"Crazy sex people?"

"Mmhmm." I wrap my hand around his cock, tipping my head back to smirk up at him. "Crazy sex people in Halloween costumes, Drake."

"How crazy are we talking, unicorn?" he asks, his eyes dark with desire. "Because I've got about ninety ideas already."

I lean up on my tiptoes, pulling his head down to whisper a summary of the movie in his ear. I don't even make it through the second sentence of the plot before he's swinging me up into his arms with a growl.

I squeal, clinging to him as he grabs the baby monitor and storms out of the office, breathing hard.

"Fuck the costumes," he growls, pressing me up against the wall in the hallway a few feet from the door. His mouth comes down on mine, his kiss hard. "I don't need them to make you come all over me."

He's right. He doesn't need them. By the time he's done with me, I'm a quivering, wrung-out mess.

"I love you, unicorn," he breathes in my ear, holding me close as we come down together.

"I love you too." Tears sting my eyes as I cling to him, so damn grateful that he's mine and this is my life—naughty Halloween drawings, scandalized kindergarten teachers, and all.