Free Stripped by Abby Niles

wanted to deal with screaming children and she really couldn’t blame him.
    “Hey,” she said as she opened the door. Her gaze instantly dropped to the Mario’s pizza box in his hand and DVD case lying on top of it.
    “I said I’d pay for dinner, and I don’t go back on my word.”
    Yes, he’d said he’d do that. But she’d let him off the hook. Her child had thrown a fit.
    And he’d bought the pizza anyway.
    Tears blurred her vision. A hiccupped sob sputtered out of her mouth. Horrified, she slapped her fingers to her lips then she spun around, leaving the front door wide open.
    She raced through the living room, into the bathroom and slammed the door as the tears started to flow. She yanked a towel off a rack and stuffed it against her mouth then turned the faucet on high. She wailed like Faith had earlier today into the material. Days of stress, worry, and fear ripped out of her. Normally, she saved these moments for the shower. Damn Jaxon for his sweet gesture. He’d caught her in a weak moment. And she couldn’t have stopped this from happening even if she’d tried.
    A light tap sounded on the door. “Madison?”
    Her gaze flew to the door. She lowered the towel, swiped at her face with the back of her hand, then turned off the faucet. Swallowing, she took a second before saying, “Be right out,” feeling very thankful that her voice sounded normal and hadn’t quivered with all the emotions she’d just released.
    Feeling slightly lighter than she had a few minutes before, she lowered the lid to the toilet and sat down, letting the towel hang between her knees. It’d been awhile since she’d had a good cry, but she hated it’d happened in front of Jaxon Sutherland.
    What would he think? Hell, what did he think about what he’d seen all day?
    She never cared about what people thought about her. But for some reason Jaxon’s opinion of her stung.
    Rising to her feet, she looked at her reflection in the mirror over the sink and grimaced at the redness of her eyes. There was no way he wouldn’t be able to tell she’d been crying. She grabbed a wash rag out of the cabinet and wet it with cold water. After washing her face, she reapplied some make-up, trying to cover the splotchiness caused by her emotional moment.
    She stood back. Better than before, but not perfect.
    It’d have to do.
    She opened the bathroom door and stepped into the large area that served as a kitchen, dining room and living room and froze. Jaxon had the kids sitting at the table, plates and drinks in front of them, and was serving them pizza.
    For a moment, her eyes burned again as her heart stuttered. She placed a hand over her left breast. She’d been a mother for almost seven years, and a man had never helped take care of her children. It had always been on her.
    Jaxon hadn’t been asked. He’d just done it.
    Seeing him standing over them, smiling and laughing as he slipped a slice of pizza on Noah’s plate, was the sexiest thing she had ever seen. The fact that it was Jaxon Sutherland, a man that she believed incapable of such a domestic quality, was stunning and a bit humbling.
    Maybe they both had something to learn from each other.
    He glanced up and their eyes met. In that instant, simmering heat hummed through her, priming her. Low, pulsing, unmistakable. She swallowed.
    “Hey,” he simply said. There was a deep huskiness to his voice that made her believe that he hadn’t been unaffected by that moment either.
    She was the one who broke eye contact first, reminding herself that this was her boss. She stepped toward the table. “Dinner smells wonderful. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m famished.”
    “What does famished mean?” Faith asked.
    “It means,” Jaxon said as he pulled out a chair for her at the end of the table, his eyes still on her. “Very, very hungry.”
    “Oh. Then I’m famished too.” She took a big bite of her pizza. Madison noticed the pile of mushrooms on the child’s plate.