All right, his woman wasn’t going to shut it; he was going to shut it for her.

So he set about doing that.

And when she was reduced to making nothing but those sexy-as-hell noises in the back of her throat each time his slowly slid his c**k in and filled her then whimpered when he slowly slid it out, he was again ready to talk.

But he was going to be doing the talking.

“Look at me,” he ordered after filling his wife with him, his voice thick and her closed eyes instantly opened, the small arch she had in her neck righting and he had her attention. “I don’t give a f**k we’re both still raw. I don’t give a f**k, even without that, we’re still new. I don’t give a f**k we got shit out there pressing in; I wanna plant my baby in you.”

One of her feet was in the couch, the other leg wrapped around the back of his thigh, both arms were around him, hands roaming but at his words, both legs curved around his h*ps and both arms went tight.

And he had his answer.

“Ty,” she breathed.

“We both know we got no time to waste.”

One of her hands slid up to wrap around the back of his head.

Then, pure Lexie, no bullshit, no hesitation, she gave even though he already knew he had what he wanted, but even if she said no, he was lying on top of the only thing in the world he every truly wanted and she was filled with his cock.

“Okay,” she whispered.

“You go off the pill tomorrow,” he ordered and she instantly nodded.

Pure Lexie, no bullshit, no hesitation, she gave.

Instantly.

He grinned at her. His woman grinned back.

Then he slowly pulled out and slid back in again as he watched her eyes drift closed.

Then he dropped his head and kept going slow, but, lips to her ear, he asked, “How many you want?”

“Four,” she answered immediately and he quit moving, luckily on an inward glide and his head came up.

“Four?” he asked.

“Four,” Lexie answered.

“Four kids?” he added detail in order to confirm.

She grinned again. “Four kids.”

“Shit, mama, good thing we’re gettin’ started tomorrow.”

She giggled.

Walker didn’t watch. He dropped his head so he could feel her laughter on his tongue.

Then he felt her laughter on his tongue.

Then her laughter stopped because he again got busy.

Chapter Sixteen

Official Steel Magnolia’s Rulebook

Ty

Ty was still brushing his teeth when Lexie finished, spit, rinsed, reached and shoved her toothbrush back in the holder affixed to the wall between their two basins. Then she took a side step closer to him and he watched in the mirror as her head bent and she dug into some flowered bag that was sitting on the counter between their sinks. She pulled out a pale pink, round case, turned and walked into the little room with the toilet. He heard something small splash into the toilet and again and again and again and this went on awhile. Then she turned, walked out of that little room, dropped the case in the small trash bin and her eyes slid to his in the mirror.

Then she grinned.

Then she reached into the shower stall and turned on the water, tugged off his tee she wore to bed and shimmied out of her panties. Then she stepped in.

He bent his neck, spit, rinsed, reached and shoved his toothbrush opposite Lexie’s in the holder.

Then he moved to the shower.

* * * * *

Ty was standing with a hip against the counter, bowl of sliced bananas, cut strawberries and yogurt held up in front of him, spoon in his other hand shoveling the food into his mouth.

His eyes were on his woman who was back in his tee and a clean pair of panties, hair wet, combed back but drying fast and wavy in the Colorado air. She was filling a travel mug of coffee for him at the same time eyeing the dirty dishes, the stains and crumbs on the countertops and the piles of mail all the while looking like she wished she could stop eyeing them.

Before she left, there was a time or two when he came home when their bed wasn’t made but this was rare; a time or two when she’d done a half-assed job of it, yanking up the covers, fluffing pillows and tossing them wherever they’d land but this last was more than he’d ever do. A couple of days would go by where their clothes would remain on the floor where they’d discarded them or tossed them in the preliminaries to f**king. A week might go by where she’d let mail stack up on the side kitchen counter. A few times, she’d leave the dishes in the sink and do them the next morning.

But under all that was always clean and eventually she’d get to tidying.

Clearly, six weeks of build up was about five and a half weeks too much.

He chewed, he swallowed then he spoke. “Fill the dishwasher, mama, and I’ll empty it. I’ll take out the trash. I will not vacuum. I will not clean a f**kin’ toilet. And, on the inside, I had enough of sweepin’ and moppin’ for a lifetime. So, I will kick in in the ways I just said. Other than that, it’s up to you to decide if you can hack it or if we gotta find a cleaning lady.”

The first words he spoke, her eyes came to him.

When he was done she asked, “You’ll fill the dishwasher and empty it, did you actually do that while I was away?”

Even though he sensed she was teasing him, his gut tightened at her tone.

He’d just got finished f**king her in the shower. Before that, she made a show that she was taking them forward, with him all the way to their next step of building a family. And after she did that, she’d grinned at him.

But, since their shower, he got that tone and that tone matched the set of her frame. Quiet, pensive, borderline uncertain.

He’d bought that, being a dumb f**k, treating her like a dick, saying shit to her he shouldn’t have said, comparing her to Misty, a woman he hated and she hated and, it was arguable, but he got the sense his wife hated Misty at least as much as he did. On some level, it could be worse, seeing as Misty was a sister and Misty strapped the sisterhood with the shit he piled on Lexie, shit she didn’t deserve. Misty perpetrated a betrayal to that sisterhood, an unforgiveable one.

But Lexie was treading cautiously, probably not even knowing she was doing it. Twice, he f**ked up, twice he was a dick, twice he lashed out and mouthed off. The first time, she didn’t do shit to deserve it, the second time, she did but his response was way the f**k over the line. Now, he could see, she was going to do everything she could so she didn’t buy a third time.

Ty would take that tone over the one she spoke to him with when she was on the beach, her voice void, dead, remote. He never wanted to hear her talk like that again, feel the darkness that shrouded her, experience her being so far gone, he knew he could run flat out every day for the rest of his life and never reach her. He never wanted that back, for him or for her, that was so agonizing, he’d take anything else from her, even this.