“The last time that someone screwed something up for the Orloffs, it was the company that handled building security for one of their hotels. One of their guys had installed cameras where cameras didn’t belong inside the suites, and uh…they basically leveled a lawsuit at the whole company on behalf of two victims, and made sure the pervert went to jail and had to register as a sex offender.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Damn.”
“Yeah, those two do not play.”
I slowed down to let a deer and her two fawns bound across the road. Come on, Bambi, move your ass.
“You did the right thing, telling them everything,” I said. “They would find out, and…the more I find out about your dad’s company…” I trailed off, glancing at her before focusing back on the road. Babies were across. I sped up again.
She sighed, her fingertips petting my thigh through the fabric. I made a low, animal noise that she seemed too distracted to catch, saying instead. “Yeah, everyone thinks I should leave. But I’ve been wondering what to do after that.”
“You mean, after you win the lawsuits?”
“Yeah.” At least now she was seeing winning as a foregone conclusion. Two months ago, she had been full of doubt.
I flashed her a grin as we reached my street. “I say you take on some big clients and kick their asses.”
She blinked up at me, flashing a surprised smile in return. “You think so?”
I slowed for my driveway, groin pounding impatiently. “Yeah. The best revenge is taking their market share.”
The dog was at the sitter’s overnight, visiting with his pack of buddies. I had planned ahead for this one.
Kissing Naomi for the first time after I closed the door was so blissful that I forgot everything else, just holding her and lingering over her mouth until she relaxed against me.
“I…” she said against my lips. “I should…tell you…”
She was trying to focus. Go back to talking. That was not ideal.
I kissed her again, softly this time, and whispered, “Later,” against her lips.
She hesitated, then opened her mouth and let her head fall back into my palm, eyes already drowsy with desire.
I scooped her up, groaning softly against her mouth with anticipation and relief as I walked her toward my bedroom.
I had never needed a woman like this before. Before now, I had gone through plenty of girlfriends and lovers, most left behind amicably when I moved out here and changed lives. I loved sex, I loved pleasing women, but I had never loved it like this.
We both got impatient with our clothes, her swearing over the catch on her skirt, me so hasty to get out of my jeans that two buttons on the fly flew off into the dark.
My hoarse breathing turned into a grunt of relief as she sprang me free and lay back invitingly. I tore her panties getting them off. I had to force myself to slow down and be careful getting the condom on.
She had given up on the clasp, hiked her skirt up instead, stockings still on, nude from the waist up. I bent her back over the pillows and kissed her, hands full of her breasts, hard against her belly. I reached down and stroked her; she was sopping, so turned on she shivered and moaned with every touch.
I slid into her slowly, shuddering with delight. “Oh, fuck, Naomi. I missed this so much.”
“Don’t stop…” she whispered.
I groaned through my teeth as I thrust deeper, my thumb brushing her clit softly in time as my hips started pumping.
We moved together, panting, her nails digging into my back, my aching dick working inside her as she started to whimper and tremble. Her legs tightened on my hips; I kept the hand between us working as I pumped my hips faster, every slide into her drawing me closer to climax but determined to see her go over first.
Her back arched, hips grinding against mine, her muscles so tight they almost drew me over the edge by themselves. I could feel my own muscles tightening, all my focus drawing toward my groin as I reached the point of no return.
She went wild suddenly, pressing up against me roughly, spasming around me while I kept caressing her as long as I could. Then she took me over with her, and I heard my hoarse, “Oh yes…yes!” mix with her wordless moans until we both ran out of breath.
My eyes opened. My head was on her shoulder, and she was limp under me, one hand loose in my hair and the other lying on my back. My eyes widened slightly as I realized what had happened, and I broke into a grin. Holy shit, I came so hard it knocked me out.
I wanted to stay like that, so relaxed in her arms, my skin tingling at the slightest touch. But then I remembered Oh. The damn rubber will spill if I don’t get it off me.
I got up carefully and got rid of the condom in the bathroom trash, glad it hadn’t slipped off while I had my little nap. I cleaned up a little at the sink and slipped back into bed with Naomi, who was dozing in a small, post-orgasmic ball. I curled around her and kissed her neck, holding her while we drifted off into a nap together.
She woke up before me, stretching in the circle of my arms, and it sent a tingle through me, but I was starved and needed a while yet.
I kissed her gently without opening my eyes and then mumbled, “Takeout?”
“Hell yeah, I’m starved.”
I found her a spare spa robe that she swam around in, gapping at the chest alluringly despite having the terry wrapped around her twice.
“I definitely have to visit more often,” she purred, nestling against me while I lounged in another robe on my big couch.
I ordered pizza with her while we recovered. She surprised me by ordering all meat and a small, separate one with feta, spinach, and anchovies. “I’ve been getting weird cravings lately,” she said, eyes searching my face in a way that set a small alarm bell off in the back of my head.
I was too blissed out to listen to it. “Yeah?” I got up drowsily, headed for the kitchen. “I’m getting a beer. You want one?”
She hesitated long enough that I turned around and looked back out through the kitchen door at her curiously. She fidgeted, palms together between her knees, and looked back at me nervously.
“No, um, I’m off booze for at least the next seven months.”
I blinked at her slowly as we looked at each other. She swallowed hard and looked down, cheeks coloring a little, fidgeting even more.
“What’s up, Naomi?” I asked her very gently, still wondering what the hell was going on. When she went pale and started talking fast, I started really worrying.
“Ace…I only waited because I thought this deserved a face-to-face. But yeah, I—I found out yesterday for certain from my doctor that I’m…about two months pregnant.”
She watched it sink in, lips pressed together, eyes full of worry. I realized what that implied, and why she was so nervous.
Two months. Oh, shit.
“Wow.” I didn’t even finish grabbing my beer, just came out and sat down on the couch again, looking at her. “You found this out yesterday?”
“That’s when I checked in with my doctor, yeah.”
So she checked first, got everything official, didn’t just pee on a stick.
“Am I the only person you’ve…?”
“In a couple of years,” she said.
Which was a little flattering. But it also meant the kid was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, mine.
“And you…want to keep it?”
She nodded.
“…Oh.”
Inside, I was drowning in mixed feelings now, being slapped about by them even as I kept my external cool.
Having my baby meant keeping a tie to me, however loose, for pretty much the rest of our lives. It also meant…that big moment I hadn’t expected in my life for years yet had suddenly hit.
I’m going to be a father.
“Give me a minute,” I said, astonished.
She nodded and waited, still painfully uncertain. I wanted to rush to reassure her that we were cool, but right then, all I could do was…process.
&nb
sp; I grew up a businessman’s son in Chicago. He and my mom were bored with each other and bored of their lives, but they had gotten into the classic rut of jobs-kids-mortgage and had been waiting it out like a jail sentence.
Dad ran a dry-cleaning business that did all right, but demanded a lot of hours. Mom ran a daycare out of the house so she could look after four rambunctious boys—and me, the late-bloomer nerd one, super responsible, clueless about anything social, pretty clueless about girls. I started studying martial arts and lifting weights to keep my brothers from constantly kicking my ass.
My oldest brother Brian had taken over the dry-cleaning business by the time I’d hit college, so I found my own way. The military lost its shine for me quickly; I was out after one tour and on to college. MBA at twenty-five, management of a local chain restaurant at twenty-seven, upper management in the parent company at thirty. And then one day, I looked in the mirror and saw that I was turning into a richer, more successful version of my dad, minus the family: a tamed man, stuck in a rut, already tired of his life.
I ran for it. Within a month, I had sold everything I couldn’t take with me on the plane, resigned from work, and left my house to my parents, who were as sick of apartment living as they were of everything else. I said goodbye to Chicago and moved to Colorado to learn to be a firefighter and rescue worker.
I loved it. At least until Miguel had died next to me on the job. Now, the joy had left it, and just as before, I found myself wondering what I would be once I stopped being Ace the Firefighter.
Ace the Dad?
Really?
I blinked twice, rolling the thought around in my head.
“Do you know the sex yet?” I asked.
“It’s a little girl. She has almost exactly seven months to go.” She sounded relieved that I was talking again. I could only imagine what was running through her head about what was running through mine.
“A daughter.”
She licked her lips, still uncertain. “Yeah.”
I grinned at her lopsidedly. “Does this mean I get to keep you?”
The joke broke the tension; she let out a little, gushy laugh, surprised, and covered her mouth with her hands, but her eyes were dancing.
“Umm…maybe?” She took a deep breath and lowered her hands. “I figured that we should talk about all of that. I know I have my life in Denver and you have your life here, but…if you want to be a part of this…”
“I do,” I said at once.
Her shoulders dropped and she huffed slightly with relief. “Okay, that answers that part. I um…the board at Archimedes Gears isn’t going to take my being pregnant well on top of everything else.”
“So leave,” I said reflexively. “That place is toxic, and you’re propping it up, from what you’ve been telling me. You’ve got tons of money, and you just got offers from two very big clients who want you, not the company. Seriously, I think jumping ship is the best thing you can do for yourself.”
She hugged herself, and I knew I had made a mistake. Poked a bruised spot in her heart without meaning to.
“It’s my dad’s company,” she said, and I saw the sadness in her eyes and knew she was still coming to terms with how that actually meant nothing. But then she looked up at me. “I’m still sorting it out. I need some time to get my affairs in order. If I just bail, it feels like giving up.”
I smirked slightly. “I actually know that feeling really well.”
She frowned thoughtfully, hands sliding unconsciously over her belly. It distracted me—a lot. My baby’s in there, I thought again.
I wondered if my parents back in Chicago would find something they weren’t already sick of, something new, in being grandparents. I was starting to roll the prospect of being a father, or co-parent, around in my head, and…I kind of liked it already.
“How do you know so well?” she asked softly.
“I’ve made major career changes twice in my life so far, and I’m about to do it a third time.” I went to get myself that beer, and leaned back out to look at her before opening the fridge. “Iced tea?”
“Sounds good.”
She took it gratefully when I brought her an open bottle and drank half of it in a few gulps. The way she wiped her mouth made my dick start to wake up, despite the serious topic.
“So, what happened?” she asked.
“Well, first, I was going to be a soldier. But then I went and did a tour, and saw a lot of dead people who didn’t deserve it, and realized it wasn’t for me. So I came back, went to college, got my MBA, and ended up managing a chicken restaurant. Then I started moving up the ladder at their corporate office.” I opened my beer with a crack as I sat back down.
“You were a manager? In a corporate office? Wearing a tie and driving a desk all day?” She stared at me with such astonishment that I laughed.
“Yeah, two meetings and at least one presentation a week, tons of emails about nothing, outdated equipment.”
She scoffed and pointed at me. “Piece-of-crap phone system?”
I snorted. “Of course. Anyway, I was making a pile of money, but after about half a decade of it, I realized I wasn’t happy.” I spread the fingers of my free hand. “So I quit again. Came here, bought the house, trained as a firefighter and in search and rescue. Now I split my time between emergency services and training all the volunteers.”
Her brows drew together slightly. “But now you say you want to leave again?”
“Yeah.” I felt a stab of sadness. “I told you about how my buddy Miguel died. We were search-and-rescue partners and handled the more hazardous fires. We were both in it to be heroes, but after he died like that…” I shook my head and took a long swallow of my beer. “Nah. My heart’s just not in it anymore.”
“How are the other guys taking your leaving?” She was leaning toward me again, no longer uncomfortable, seeming intrigued. And thoughtful.
“Some are gonna take it well. Some are gonna call me a coward for leaving after Miguel died. I’ve considered both points of view ahead of time. But the thing is…anybody who would think of me that second way, isn’t worth considering.”
I reached over and took her hand gently. “Seriously, there’s nothing wrong with leaving a situation that’s bad for you. Doesn’t matter if some of the people you’re walking away from take shots at you or think badly of you. They’re part of the reason you’re walking away, right?”
“It’s a lot of the reason,” she said. “It just seems crazy to fight for so long for my place there, only to give it up once I have it.”
“Yeah, I get it. And like you said, it’s your dad’s company. That’s got to be hard.” I gave her hand a squeeze.
The pizza guy showed up and I tipped him half the total, then watched in amazement as Naomi devoured her weird little pizza with the anchovies in under ten minutes.
“…Damn,” I said when she was done. “Has this been happening a lot?”
“Canned pasta with shaker-box parmesan,” she said. “Orange soda. Anchovies. Weird greens—I went through a plate of arugula like a mowing machine.”
I laughed softly in amazement. “No pickles and ice cream?”
“That’s about the only weird food combination I haven’t been drawn to,” she said with a shrug, and then pried open the box for the second pizza and eyed it hungrily. “I’m kinda worried I’ll end up getting fat.”
“No worries,” I promised her with a lazy grin. “Hang around with me. I’ll make sure you burn off any extra calories.”
Her eyebrows shot up as she looked up at me from the pizza. “You planning to drag me out on a run with you and the dog every morning?”
My grin widened slightly. “Not exactly.” I grabbed a slice for myself. “Now eat up.”
I gave us a good half hour after eating before I started in on her. We cuddled on the couch and talked about the kid: our daughter. No idea about a name yet. She was getting prenatal care. Off booze, cold medicine, cutting down on caffeine. No health issues.
Me, pretty soon my only tie to Aspen was going to be this house, which meant I would be free to visit a lot more, or have her over. I could live off my savings for years if I wanted. I didn’t know yet whether Naomi and I would live together, have something more serious than co-parents and friends with benefits. She didn’t know either.
This was all too damn soon.
But I was tough, and she was tougher than she thought she was. We would roll with it, I reassured her.
Then I carried her to bed.
“I guess…you don’t have to worry about condoms anymore,” she said between moans as I teased her nipples with my tongue. My robe was on the floor, hers spread under her like wings, arms tangled up in them as I pinned her wrists gently.
My groin tightened hard at the thought. “I’ve never actually rawed anyone before,” I admitted, looking up at her face. At her startled look, I laughed. “I always wrap it. I must have just fucked a hole in it while we were together last time.” My voice came out breathless, though. My dick ached with the hunger to feel her, flesh-on-flesh with no barrier.
“It’s just luck,” she said—and then moaned musically as I closed my lips over her nipple and sucked. “Oh! Oh yes there…it’s…”
She squirmed so hard it was like my mouth was on her clit.
I slowed, and she relaxed slightly, trembling each time I pulled on her again. She was biting her lip, eyes squeezed shut.
Her legs parted, then closed over mine, and for a moment I had to fight the urge to start fucking her right then. Instead, I let her wrist go on one side and leaned back a bit to give my hand room.
She jumped when I started fingering her, so wet it was like sliding my fingertips over warm, oiled silk. A fresh whiff of her sharp musk hit, and I trembled, my dick so hard it jumped a little with my heartbeat.
I teased her clit, slowing down whenever she started to shake, while I used my mouth on her breasts. I edged her like that for as long as I could stand, until she was taut under me, chest heaving, eyes drowsy, nails dug into the bedding and thighs gripping my hips bruisingly.
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