Free I Just Can't Stop Loving You by Imari Jade Page A

chest. She gulped. Oh shit. We are going to skinny dip . She continued to stare at him as he took off his pants and stood before her in a skimpy pair of briefs. He had a nice butt. Damien turned slightly and she got a good look at the front of the briefs. She bit her bottom lip and sighed. He’s packing some serious artillery .
    “Are you going to stand there gawking or are you going to join me?” Damien asked, rewarding her with a sexy smile.
    Tricia gathered her wits. She had a little more clothing to get out of than he did. She kicked out of her shoes and wiggled out of her skirt. A cool breeze touched her bare legs and she trembled. The pool water might be heated, but the patio wasn’t. Finally, she stood before him clad only in her bra and panties. Damien trained his eyes on her and she saw the color deepen to an emerald green.
    He lifted his gaze. “I always knew you had a fantastic body with clothes, but I had no idea how stunning you would be without them.”
    Tricia blushed. Whether he was feeding her a line, she didn’t know, nor did she care. His words confused her, but she felt comfortable with him. Her mother had taught her respect herself and not to put out just for anyone she didn’t care about. The coy, demur and respectful shit wasn’t working. She wanted to be with Damien, not just spiritually, but sexually as well.
    Tricia reached behind her and unfastened the hooks of her bra. The straps slipped down her shoulders, revealing her breasts.
    Damien’s eyes widened, but he did not try to approach her. He casually slipped out of his briefs and stepped into the pool.
    Tricia gulped again, removed her panties, and followed him into the water.
     
    ****
     
    Ichiro sat on the floor in the nursery sipping a cup of tea. His eyes landed on the twin cribs that he had no part in putting together. Damn, he’d messed up royally. He should have been the one to construct the nursery, to paint the walls and to drive his pregnant wife to the hospital. He sipped the tea knowing he couldn’t do anything about the past. But he hoped to do right in the future. The only problem was he didn’t know how to convince his wife to accept his apology. Hell, he hadn’t seen her since she tried to strangle him in the delivery room. He frowned. Although he knew that she couldn’t seriously harm him, he didn’t want to anger her any more than he already had. They were both responsible for two little lives now and eventually, they would have to get together and discuss the babies’ futures. But for the present, the two of them had to name the babies.
    Satoshi and Takumijo were nice Japanese names, but he would feel bad about it if either of them became fathers and couldn’t use the names for their sons. He and Shaundra had sat down and wrote a list of possible names, but hadn’t decided since they had no clue what the sex of the babies were at that time. They had been happy back then and then shit had gone downhill quickly after that.
    “Mind if I join you?”
    Ichiro looked up. Satoshi leaned in the door with a cup of tea in his hand. “Sure.” He patted a spot on the floor. “The more the merrier.”
    Satoshi sat next to him. “You will be spending a lot of time in this room shortly. I’ve been told that babies need a lot of attention.”
    “I’ve been taking care of you guys for years,” Ichiro replied. “What are two more babies?”
    Satoshi chuckled. “You have a point, but you don’t have to get out of your bed at two in the morning to feed and change us.”
    “That’s because you guys are usually still out partying at two in the morning.” He sighed. “I was so happy when I found out that we were expecting, but I never got the feeling that Shaundra was happy about the news.”
    “She has four other kids, Ich, that she had to raise alone when her first husband died. Tricia told me it was real hard on her mother. She hardly ever slept and she struggled just to feed them and keep a roof over their heads.