This was the first season since the baby had been born though, and she hadn’t managed to get into football at all, not even the college games. Sitting down for hours to watch anything was out of the question. If she had a few free hours, she slept. Or slipped away to the gym.

  Sometimes both.

  Not that Sawyer didn’t help with Alexander. He did. He was a great dad. He took turns getting up with him at night and never shied away from a dirty diaper. She’d really lucked out in that department.

  But the baby wasn’t the only one in the house who’d like the man’s attention.

  Sophie should’ve known her displeasure would’ve leaked to her friends eventually. Not that she’d been prepared for their response. A bitch-fest? Oh yeah. She’d learned the dynamics of girlfriends uniting for a commiserating session back when she was in college. But to make actual plans to seduce her husband? Yeah, that’d been a shocker … and a wake-up call.

  “Sure,” she called out to Sawyer from the kitchen as she stared down at her tank top, her boobs on full display. After chatting with the girls the other night, she knew it was time to take decisive action, and there was no reason she had to wait until Saturday to flex her feminine muscles.

  Not that she’d decided then what she was going to do. Oh no, the idea really started the moment she’d tried on her trusty push-up bra after she’d taken a shower following her morning walk. She’d actually reached for the nice and comfy beige one, but the black lace peeking from the side of her drawer had practically screamed at her. It had thrown down the gauntlet, taunting her to choose sexiness over practicality.

  So she’d pulled it out and put it on.

  She’d been right. The damn thing barely fit! She’d turned from side-to-side, frowning at her reflection. Stupid black push-up bra. She’d almost taken it off and shoved it to the bottom of her lingerie chest, but Morgan’s words had echoed in her ears. Sophie couldn’t sit idly by and do nothing. Doing nothing was what had gotten her to this place. She had to push down her awkwardness and refrain from removing the lacy thing.

  But throwing on a plain T-shirt over it, paired with some cotton pants, wouldn’t have worked. Sawyer might’ve thought she had developed some kind of neck tumors since her breasts were taking up real estate farther north than they had ever before. Nope, covering said boobs after contorting them up and out would’ve defeated the purpose. She’d had to swallow her nerves and slip into a tank top to showcase those puppies.

  Forgoing her typical—of late—lounge pants, she’d tried on a pair of her jean shorts, but they’d been too snug. Her fitted clothes still didn’t fit her right. She could get them on, but they were either not comfortable or not flattering. Oh, the shirt was also too snug, just like the rest of her clothing, but at least it worked in her favor for the time being. If she wore tight bottoms though, she’d be sporting a muffin top from hell. No way would that be sexy. Not to be defeated—yet—she’d grabbed an old pair of Sawyer’s jeans from the back of his closet, snatched the scissors from the bathroom cabinet, and proceeded to fashion her own shorts out of them. She kept them slightly longer than hoochie level and had frayed the ends. Once she’d pulled them on, she couldn’t help but smile. The shorts were slightly loose, so they hung on her just right.

  At least boob spillage would distract from her fuller hips.

  She tugged on her tank top as she pulled a paper towel from the roll. You can do this. She almost giggled at the idea of Sawyer’s mouth dropping open cartoon-style and his tongue rolling out.

  She stepped around the corner and into the den, napkin in hand. She walked up behind him and draped it over his shoulder. “Here you go,” she said softly.

  He glanced back quickly while he grabbed it. “Thanks.”

  Then focused on the game again.

  What the hell?

  She narrowed her eyes as she stared at the back of his head. He’d just looked at her face, and his gaze had darted quickly from the game. Crap. Her shoulders slumped as realization kicked in.

  She wasn’t wearing any makeup, and her hair was still damp from her shower. He probably just assumed she’d thrown on her comfy clothes. Geez, she should’ve taken the time to get all dolled up … but then she’d have to explain why. God, she felt totally inept. She forced down a frustrated groan and retreated toward the safety of the kitchen.

  Sawyer roared at the television, pissed at some official’s ruling.

  “The baby’s asleep,” Sophie hissed around the opening, her head the only part of her visible.

  “Sorry,” he said back to her, looking contrite … and then focusing on the game.

  She walked into the kitchen again and paced. What should she do? It wasn’t like she could parade in front of him, begging him to take her. She scoffed at the idea, knowing that’d be too obvious.

  Who cares? You can make it as obvious as you want!

  She would’ve rolled her eyes at her internal reprimand if she weren’t being borderline pathetic already. The intent was for her husband to get her naked, and she’d made his job easy by barely wearing any clothes as it was. Being obvious was the objective.

  Okay, so she’d go in there and just walk around? That felt too lame. Hmmm… She could go in there and pretend to clean a little. Do some bending over and dusting on some of the lower shelves.

  Right in front of him, giving him a nice view of her ass.

  She smiled. That would totally work.

  She opened the cabinet and grabbed the duster. As she walked into the den again, her steps faltered. She suddenly felt ridiculous. If she were treating this like some game, she should’ve gone all out, worn a French maid uniform … not a pair of cutoffs and a tank top.

  And why was she even playing games? It felt weird to her, and she wanted to stay true to herself. She was normally a no-nonsense kind of girl, and being fake wasn’t her kind of thing. This was so not going to work. All she’d do was embarrass herself. Sighing, she tossed the duster onto the edge of the couch and started to walk around it. She hadn’t watched football all season and there was no time like the present. She’d just spend some alone time with him watching the game and let nature take over.

  Just because she wasn’t going to parade in front of him didn’t mean she’d need to change out of her revealing outfit. Nature obviously needed a kick-start.

  “Who’s playing?” she asked as she sat next to him.

  “Cowboys and Saints. Shit! Why’s he running up the middle? Kincade’s wide open.”

  She gnawed her lip as she studied him from her perch. Okay, so no games … but that didn’t mean she couldn’t give him some subtle hints.

  Those are two completely different things.

  She leaned over him to snatch a chip from his plate—a non-low-fat chip that’d require extra minutes on her walk tomorrow. Unless she could get a hot and sweaty horizontal workout now. She liked that idea much better, so she tilted her head to the side as she reached for the salty treat, giving him an unobstructed view of her exposed chest.

  Sawyer shoved at her as he shot up from the couch, chip of distraction breaking from where she held it and falling to the floor. “Fumble, fumble! What the fuck, Jones? Jesus, I knew he should’ve thrown the pass!”

  Sophie grabbed the chip pieces and stomped to the kitchen to throw them away.

  Well, that had been real smooth. Not only did he not notice her, she felt she was invading his personal space. Now that was two attempts failing miserably. She had to kick it up a notch. She didn’t want to play games, so pretending to clean was out, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t drop a more obvious hint. She wiped the salt from her hands, took a deep breath, and walked purposefully back into the den. He needed directness and she was going to give it to him.

  She rounded the couch and the coffee table this time, facing Sawyer as she bent over to pick up the remote.

  His eyes finally left the television longer than a second to look at her. She wasn’t blocking his view, so at least he got points for taking it upon himself to notice her. He raked her in, his gaze traveling south from her eyes to her feet and back up, stopping at her breasts, before looking into her eyes again.

  She looked over her shoulder as she turned down the volume a little with a few clicks, and then focused on him again. “We wouldn’t want to wake Alexander, now would we?” she asked softly and licked her lips. She placed the remote back on the table slowly, leaning over to give him another view of her cleavage. His eyes strayed once but flashed back to her gaze as she righted herself.

  “Er, sorry. Getting excited since it’s fourth quarter. It’ll be over soon.” He frowned slightly as he looked away and grabbed a chip hastily.

  And then began to watch the game again.

  With her standing in front of him.

  Rejected.

  Insecurities nagged at her, and if it had been a couple of months ago, she’d have slinked away in her embarrassment. But she wasn’t feeling any humiliation now.

  Oh no, there was another, more powerful emotion taking root—anger.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” she exploded before thinking better of it.

  He jumped, his head snapping in her direction.

  “What’s it going to take for you to make a move?”

  “Wha— ”

  “Do you not find me attractive anymore? Is that it?” Her hands were on her hips as she glared at him, and he looked completely shocked. Good. “You used to not be able to keep your hands off me. There were days we wouldn’t even get out of bed. But now that I’ve procreated for you, you’ve lost interest? Is it some kind of testosterone thing that has evaporated with the success of having a baby, or do you just find me totally repulsive now?”

  If he looked shocked before, his expression was completely stunned now. He grappled for words before stammering, “I-I never said anything like that.” He slowly stood. “You’re the most beautiful woman in the world to me, and I find you even more attractive now than I did when we first met.”

  “You have a funny way of showing it,” she barked, but her muscles started to relax. Maybe this was all they needed … communication. They’d talk about her feeling neglected, and they’d work on it. They obviously should’ve had this conversation months ago, before it got to this point.

  “Baby, I’m sorry— ”

  Interception, interception … and the Cowboy’s take in for a touchdown!

  His eyes shot to the game behind her.

  And her moment of resolve hardened into something different, something darker. The conversation from last night came back to her, taking on a whole new meaning.

  Sawyer looked at her again after wincing at the television, but the damage was done.

  And the two-point conversion is good! With only two minutes left, the game is tied at twenty-one.

  “I’m glad you like watching sports, Sawyer. It’s the only action you’ll see for the next week. Not that you’ve shown any signs of wanting other kinds of action around here.” But she’d sure as hell do everything in her power to make him want it now.

  “I didn’t know you were ready to start having sex, baby. The doctor said—”

  “The doctor said we could start four months ago, Sawyer.”

  “He said we could start trying then. I didn’t want to push you into something you weren’t ready for.”

  “Your penis is impressive, but it’s not eight pounds, four ounces, and I handled it just fine before.” Yes, she was being a bitch to him, but six months without sex did that to a woman.

  Cowboys are lining up for an onside kick. Will it work? They need this if they want to—and the kick is good. Cowboys retain possession!

  Sophie narrowed her gaze at Sawyer when he flinched, but to his credit, his eyes never wavered. She might’ve felt guilty if either of these teams were one of his favorites, but she knew he was watching the game out of habit.

  “I would love nothing more than to take you to bed right now. Yes, I love sports, but I love you more, and watching football has been a much needed distraction from my desire to rip off your clothes and fuck you until you can’t walk…because I remember how difficult your labor was and that you couldn’t actually walk for two days after it.”

  “I’ve healed, and you know it. You’ve been with me at my checkups. You’ve heard the news from the doctor’s mouth. And yet, you avoid any physical interaction.”

  “What do you want me to say?” He lifted his hands and shook his head, obviously at a loss.

  “Nothing right now. Just know that you’re going to have a raging case of blue balls this week. Maybe when it’s over you’ll learn to appreciate me.” Maybe she should have waited and not done anything until Saturday night when she and the girls were all getting dressed up. At least then she would have had them right there with her to help her with said seduction. Too late to dwell on that now. She’d created this mess, and she had to follow through.

  “You can’t be serious. I do appreciate you. And if you’re ready for sex, why do we have to wait? You’re not making any sense.”

  “Well, neither are you.” She never had to throw herself at him before, why did he make her now? Just her mentioning sex and he was ready to forget about the past four months of her wondering when he’d make his move? Oh no, that was not going to work. She already felt insecure about her body, which his neglect—and even outright rejection earlier—added to. He had some making up to do.

  The baby cried, and they both immediately relaxed from their verbal fight. “I’ll get him,” she said softly walking away.

  “This conversation isn’t over, Sophie.”

  “But your actions have been speaking for you for four months, Sawyer,” she said as she left the room.

  And the Cowboys win! echoed behind her.

  Cowboys—one. Sophie—zero. And that zero would stay there all week. Hopefully next Sunday she would be getting all hot and sweaty with Sawyer after dishing out her punishing reminder that she was a person with feelings.

  Assuming she’d be able to hold out that long.

  Chapter Three

  Sawyer yawned and stretched as he glanced at his sleeping wife the next morning. Boy, he’d done a fine job of pissing her off. Not that he blamed her … or was surprised by the sudden outburst. Her saucy behavior was what drew him to her in the beginning … a sass he had sorely missed since the birth of their son.

  He was going to chew his cousin out for her damn advice. Don’t get all up in her business… She doesn’t care about your dick right now… She’d love it more if you let her sleep. And many other little snippets Georgia had said to steer him away from initiating sex with his wife. He’d wanted her so bad he could barely concentrate on anything else, and he thought he was doing what Sophie wanted by avoiding the topic altogether.

  So much for good intentions.

  The floor was cold when he slipped out of bed without waking her, so he shuffled quickly to the bathroom to shower before work. This time of year the weather was warm one day and cold the next. Yesterday had been unseasonably hot, so he hadn’t been too surprised to see Sophie in shorts, and nowhere near as surprised to see the shirt she’d been wearing. Any blood in his body had immediately routed itself south to his dick at the sight of those luscious breasts.

  He groaned at the memory as he stepped out of his boxers and into the shower, cursing the wood he was trying to sport. Just thinking about his wife did that to him. The fact that she thought he didn’t find her attractive was so utterly absurd he’d been stunned-fucking-speechless when she’d implied that.

  Implied? More like outright accused.

  And just what the hell was he supposed to do now? He’d trusted Georgia to help him with how he should handle Sophie after giving birth to Alexander. He was close to Georgia. They were almost the same age and had grown up together. She was the sister he never had, so he had no reservations about reaming her on her worthless advice. The damn woman was a mother herself. She’d gone through the same exact things as Sophie. Hell, Sawyer remembered her bitching to him about Quinn on the very issue of sex and Quinn’s heartless—her word—actions in the months after she’d given birth.

  Then again, Georgia and Quinn were now divorced.

  He sighed and started soaping up. Who else could he have talked to? Their female friends were in the circle. If he’d asked for advice from one of them, Sophie would’ve found out about it. The last thing he wanted was for her to worry about him and sex. Unfortunately, that was exactly what had happened, and she’d been furious. He would chuckle at the memory if his cock wasn’t already responding another way.

  God, she questioned her attractiveness to him? Was the woman insane? She’d been beautiful before, a vision that delighted all his senses. But now, that vision was stronger, more powerful. Her fuller breasts and hourglass figure were treats she dangled in front of him as if she were a siren calling him to do unspeakable things. It took all his strength not to act on his desire to have her, take her. She wasn’t just some woman tempting him … she was his wife, which made the restraint that much harder. Seeing the glimpses of her when she’d undress, feeling her body against his at night, watching her free a breast when she’d feed their child, all of it fueled the strongest temptation he’d ever had to fight. Not attractive? Ha!

  He shut his eyes, eased his head back under the spray of the hot shower, and let his hands fall to the engorged shaft that pulsed its own challenge to that ridiculous thought. His hands still slick with soap made the trek easy, his hips automatically thrusting as soon as he touched himself where he physically ached the most. Enveloped in the warm steam, he let his mind continue to draw on visions of Sophie, with her beautiful eyes and wet hair giving her an angelic look rivaling the vixen she portrayed in tight clothing.

 

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