"Arrangement" Part I

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“Arrangement”

Part I

An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle

“Oh, shit!” Trevor whispered, throwing a panicked look at his wife to make sure that she was still sleeping only to find Shadow and Cujo watching him, looking bored as they took over his side of the bed while Kisses, and god did he hate that fucking name, was running around the bed, tongue hanging out, and tail wagging frantically as he tried to lure the other two dogs into playing with him.

Praying that he’d make it, he threw a panicked look at the bedroom door to find his children standing there, gesturing wildly for him to move his ass and get out of there before Zoe woke up and realized what they were doing. He moved to take a step towards them only to have Jessica throw up her hands and mouth, “Stop!”

He did.

Instantly.

Swallowing, he glanced over his shoulder to find his wife snuggling Shadow and nearly sighed with relief, but he knew better. Shifting his attention back to the children, he slowly made his way towards them, occasionally looking over his shoulder to make sure that the coast was clear. It felt like an eternity before he finally reached the safety of the bedroom door, but once he did-

“Run!” Mathew yelled as the twins did just that and Jessica sent him a pitying look before she took off, leaving him standing there, frozen on the spot as he waited for it.

He didn’t have to wait long.

“You…bastard!” Zoe gasped in outrage, making him wince.

Deciding that he was out of options, he turned around and smiled, praying like hell that she didn’t notice that he was still dressed.

“My love?” he asked, going for innocent, because that was all he had at the moment.

Well, that wasn’t all that he had at the moment, but the only other thing that he could do, the one thing that was guaranteed to save his ass was also the one thing that he only used when there was absolutely no choice in the matter. As he stood there, smiling at his glaring wife, he realized that he might not have a choice in the matter, not if he wanted to spare his children from their mother’s wrath.

“You bastard,” she repeated, shaking her head in disbelief as he bit back a sigh and snapped for the dogs to get off the bed and leave.

His boys immediately jumped off the bed as fast as their weary bones would take them while Kisses stumbled around a bit, but eventually managed to follow his brothers out into the hallway. As soon as they were gone, he closed the bedroom door behind him, hoping that he’d survive this, and flicked the lock.

“Zoe-”

“You were really going to do it,” she said, shoving the covers away and climbed off the bed with a snort of disgust.

“Zoe-”

“I can’t believe you,” she said, grabbing an elastic and pulling her hair up into a messy bun as she grabbed a book and headed to the master bathroom, letting him know just how pissed she was.

“Sweetheart, I-”

“We are so over,” she bit out, storming off and making him bite back a groan as he reached back and pulled his shirt off as he kicked off his boots, trying not to think about what he had to do.

“It didn’t mean anything,” he promised her, hoping that he was able to talk her down so that he wasn’t forced to do this.

“Really?” she snapped as she grabbed a jar of lemongrass bath salts off the shelf and added an insane amount to the tub. “Is that what you have to tell yourself at night so that you can sleep?”

“Baby, I-”

“After everything we’ve been through,” she said, shaking her head in disgust as she turned on the bathtub.

“I-”

“And the kids? I can’t believe this,” she said, angrily pulling off her nightgown and tossed it aside, making him lick his lips as his eyes zeroed in on that generous bare ass that he loved so much.

“Don’t blame them,” he said, not bothering to mention that it had been Jessica and Mathew that had planned this.

“Oh, believe me, I’m not,” she said, shooting him a glare that should have killed him on the spot.

“It didn’t mean anything,” he argued as she climbed into the tub and pointedly ignored him.

Shit!

If she wasn’t glaring or snapping at him, then she was pissed, seriously fucking pissed.

“I’m sorry, Zoe,” he said, waiting a minute for her to respond and when she didn’t, he unsnapped his jeans and sent the poor bastard between his legs a silent apology for what he was about to put it through, but there was no choice.

He’d fucked up, big time and there was no other way around it. He needed to do the one thing that always saved his ass and he needed to do it now.

Over the years, he’d both loved and hated the effect this one word had on them, because it made them lose control. It wasn’t something they’d planned, but somehow, someway this one little word had managed to take over their lives and leave them helpless to do anything but tear each other’s clothes off, desperate for each other, and uncaring where they were or what they were doing.

He’d lost count of all the places that they’d been banned from because of this seemingly innocent word that had the power to turn him on in a split second and shatter his control. The only thing that seemed to work against it was the children. If they were anywhere around they usually managed to control themselves, which only made it worse later.

Much worse.

“I didn’t want to go behind your back, but I didn’t know what else to do,” he said, giving it one last try with the hopes that he could make this right with an apology, a night of normal sex, and perhaps a banana split that she could eat in front of him so that she could get back at him without either one of them ending up dehydrated, exhausted, and unable to stop.

Silence.

“Don’t you think that I would have loved to have brought you with us?” he said, sighing as he shoved his boxer briefs down and yanked off his socks.

She didn’t say anything as she sat there in the large bathtub that he’d installed for her when he’d bought the house, glaring at the tiled wall with her arms folded over her breasts. He opened his mouth to apologize, again, only to find himself at a loss for words and his panic doubling, because there was no way that he could answer that without making this worse.

“Is it because I embarrass you?”

Normally, he would say no, but for this…

Yes, yes she did.

He loved her, fucking adored her, and would be lost without her, but that didn’t make up for the fact that she lost her fucking mind when it came to Marvel action movies. Spiderman, Thor, Captain America, Ironman, it didn’t matter, whenever they went to see a Marvel movie she turned into the ultimate comic book geek, which he could probably live with if it wasn’t for the fact that she didn’t know a fucking thing about them.

She got all the facts and terms wrong, didn’t know who the villains were, got the powers wrong and actually fucking cried when the villains were killed.

It was a nightmare and the reason why the kids had cornered him in the kitchen earlier, begging for him to bring them to the late night viewing without her so that they could watch the movie in peace. It was also the reason why he’d agreed to do it, knowing that things might end like this.

Even knowing what lay ahead of him, he couldn’t regret his decision. Going to the movies without hearing her ask why Tony Stark wasn’t Spiderman any longer had been more than worth it.

At least, that’s what he told himself as he stood there, trying to put this off for as long as humanly possible.

“I love you?” he said with a smile, hoping she’d just give in.

“Lies,” she said with a sniff as she returned to glaring at the wall, leaving him standing there, closing his eyes and so close to crying that it wasn’t even funny, because he was honestly getting too fucking old for this.

Exhaling slowly, he nodded, realizing that it was time.

He opened his mouth to say that one magical word only to have her beat him to the punch.

“Arrangement.”

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