by Ashley Munoz
Juan shrugged. “They might be coming as friends, but they are coming. I told them to bring their mom too and decided we’d just turn this into a big Christmas party. Also, you have a visitor,” Juan whispered, brushing his lips against mine.
I stiffened in his arms. The only people I wanted in my life were in this house or on their way.
“He’s downstairs, on the back patio.”
Panic surged forward. “Alex?”
“She’s safe, and I’ll be there if you want, or not. It’s your call.”
“I want you there.”
Juan kissed me. “Okay.”
Holden wore a suit that was too big for his body. Not by much, but I had grown used to seeing Juan in his tailored suits. He paced the patio, near the fireplace, his long stride seemingly nervous with every step. He also had flowers with him.
Oh boy.
“Holden,” I said by way of greeting.
Juan had walked me out but hung back toward the bar, where string lights hung overhead, illuminating the glass bottles and different tumblers. He was close enough to hear, but not too close that Holden would feel threatened.
“Hey…wow, you look beautiful. You don’t even look like you just had a baby.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant. I had tiny stretch marks that had shown up after I gave birth, under my clothes, along my inner thighs, and on my sides. Juan kissed them every chance he got, but I very much felt as if I’d just had a baby. My body had changed significantly.
“What brought you out tonight?” I asked, trying to be polite.
He jolted forward, handing me the flowers. It brought him a few steps closer to me.
“Thank you.” I accepted them as gracefully as I could. I wanted to ask where the gift for his daughter was, maybe a pack of wipes or a little wad of cash to help out?
“Look…I wanted to…” He suddenly looked over at Juan, who was staring at Holden while he stirred his drink. “Does he have to be here?”
I laughed. “Yeah.”
He narrowed his eyes on Juan but finally moved on. “I wanted to come and tell you that I’m ready to step up. I want us to be a family.”
Aw, poor thing. Did he consider the flowers and showing up on my birthday a declaration of love?
I clicked my tongue, noticing that Juan had stepped closer, sipping his drink. In all black, he looked like the devil there to seduce and sway the feeble minds of man to the dark side. I was already hot and ready for him; I wanted to try to test how far we could go. My six weeks was over in a few days, but it was my birthday, so there had to be a chance it would be fine. Maybe if we only did half his cock, or the tip…maybe if we went really slow and careful it would be okay.
“You’re welcome to see Alex during scheduled visitations. I’ll expect you to begin paying child support, and we can set up a parenting schedule for her. However, the family aspect is already covered.” Right as I finished, Juan walked up behind me and resumed my favorite position with his hand at my waist. “I have a family. Alex has one. If you want to make your own with Alex, you can…but I won’t go easy on you. You have to prove you’ll be there for her. You can’t flipflop—you have to decide you’ll be there for her. You can’t quit parenthood. It’s forever, Holden, so you need to decide on that.”
A red coloring overcame his face. Maybe six months ago I would have felt bad for him, but he hadn’t even texted back when I had called letting him know that Alex had been born. He hadn’t done anything, so I owed him nothing.
“I thought we discussed that your dad would cover stuff. I want to be involved, but I’m still in school…how am I supposed to manage helping and going to school?” he pathetically asked, his eyes flicking around the house as if my dad had bought it. I wanted to roll my eyes.
“Holden, Charlie will happily help with anything and everything I need, but as I said…I have a family.” I covered Juan’s hands that were at my waist with my own. “We’re covered…but that doesn’t mean you get a free pass on responsibility. It takes work to be involved in your kid’s life. If you decide you’d like shared custody, the financial obligation changes, but for right now, while she’s this young…you have to show me you’re serious about it. Anything you give will only be used for her or set aside in a savings account for her.”
“This is bullshit!” Holden yelled, shaking his head back and forth.
“You’re welcome to leave. It is, after all, Taylor’s birthday party you’re crashing,” Juan advised smoothly from behind me. He still held me tight against his chest.
Holden took the opportunity to dig himself a grave. “You know what…fuck you man.” Holden stepped closer to me, trying to get into Juan’s face. We stayed steady for a second before Juan must have felt the mood shift. Within seconds he was pushing me behind him, and Holden punched him in the jaw. Juan’s face barely moved; in fact, it looked as though the hit hadn’t even registered. Stupid Holden—he had no idea who he was dealing with.
“That was one. I’ll let you have it, let you walk out of here thinking you’ve got the upper hand. You don’t want this, man.” Juan’s tone was hard as stone, allowing no room for argument.
Holden crowded Juan’s space as if he was ready for another hit. There was even a bit of chest puffing if I wasn’t mistaken.
“You can’t keep my daughter from me.” Holden shook his head.
“No one said anything about that. Taylor laid out the terms clearly—take it or leave it, but you’ve now outstayed your welcome.”
The man who shared DNA with my child sucked in his lip and nodded his head heavily. His eyes darted to me and then Juan.
“Fine…I’ll go, but you can keep your fucked family. I don’t want anything to do with it, and I won’t be paying you a dime, so if you want the baby, you can fucking have her.”
Holden stormed off around the corner of the house. Juan stayed facing the way he’d been talking with Holden. I tugged on his sleeve to get him to turn around.
“You okay?”
His whiskey eyes burned through me. “Me? Are you okay? That wasn’t what I had planned for your birthday.”
I laughed, stepping under his chin. “I feel relieved, I guess. I mean, I didn’t mind if he wanted to be in her life, as long as he was serious…but if he’s not going to be, I don’t want him here. I feel like we know now.”
Strong fingers ran down my spine as a rumble reverberated under my cheek.
“What, you don’t agree?”
“I think he was caught up in expectations and emotions tonight. I think it wouldn’t hurt to give him another shot, if he wants to humble himself and apologize,” Juan replied smoothly.
Floored—Juan always left me floored with his goodness. I simply nodded into his chest, overwhelmed with gratitude that I got to call him mine.
He walked forward, reaching down to thread our fingers together.
“Happy birthday, baby. Let’s go celebrate your life, because you are worth celebrating.”
I followed after him, entering the house where all of our loved ones had gathered to support me. I smiled as the snow began to fall, and I realized I deserved to smile. I deserved to be happy, and most of all…I deserved to be loved.
Epilogue
Juan
Six months later
“You should just record yourself singing to her.”
I turned and looked over my shoulder to see Taylor sipping from a mug of coffee while leaning in the doorway to the study. I had Alex against my chest, my hand softly patting against her tiny back while she dozed off to the sound of my voice.
“So you can have it easy on your shifts?” I smirked, moving around the desk and a few boxes on the floor.
Taylor laughed but quickly covered her mouth so she didn’t wake our daughter. “Easy…are you kidding me? This teething shit is for the birds. Even with your voice, it’s work, but during my shifts…I don’t know.” She shrugged her slender shoulder. “I miss you.”
I walked around Taylor to the mobi
le crib we kept in the study. We weren’t quite trusting enough yet to just leave Alex in her crib and rely on video feeds to watch her. We wanted her close at all times. It made for an interesting dynamic in the house. The men who came in already knew to take off their shoes now that Alex was big enough to sit up, and soon she’d be crawling. They also knew to whisper, unless they saw her awake.
I carefully set my daughter in her crib then turned back toward the woman I planned to marry. I’d started calling Alex mine in my head, out loud…other people would call me her dad. I had no idea if Holden would ever come around, but I wasn’t waiting for him to. Alex would grow up knowing me as Dad; there was no changing that.
“You know, I never did get to have you on that desk, and now we’re moving…the desk is staying here, so I think we owe it to each other to fulfill that promise.”
Taylor’s pink lips pursed in thought as she tilted her head to the side.
“We aren’t taking it?”
I grabbed her waist and began pushing her toward the desk. “Nope. I want to get one of those built-in unit things, where you have half the space and I have the other half.” We had slowly started working together, utilizing our position within El Peligro to begin digging at the roots of the organization. It would take time, but for the time being, Charlie had asked if Taylor would be interested in heading up a new nonprofit for young girls who grew up in abusive or violent homes. He thought she’d thrive in a company built on helping young teenage girls overcome their anger and direct them toward a hobby or trade.
She hadn’t entirely committed yet since Alex was still young, but I loved seeing the look in her eye when she began reading up on the vision behind the nonprofit. I knew it was something she was excited about. She’d finished school online between nursing, pumping, and sleepless nights. I couldn’t have been prouder of her efforts and determination to finish her degree, and I had decided I wanted to invest in changing the city for my little girl. I wanted her to have a safe space to play when she went to the parks or walked home with her friends.
So, to start things out, Taylor and I were moving. We wanted to be closer to Decker and Mallory, so we planned to live between Rake Forge and Pinehurst, still close to my family and her parents. It would be a smaller house, which we both preferred, but it still had the opulence of the place my uncle had purchased. Part of the change we wanted to create in El Peligro was how leaders lived fat and lazy while the rest of the family worked tirelessly for scraps. As a leader, I wanted to live within my means. If we ended up needing more space, we’d adjust, but for now it was perfect and private.
Taylor ran her finger along the wood finish on the desk then turned and hopped on top of it, swinging her legs in front of her.
I stepped between her open thighs and brought my fingers to her jaw, brushing aside a few stray strands that had fallen out of place. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, but she’d slept in it, so it was loose and falling out. She still had on her tank top and tiny sleep shorts, similar to the ones she used to wear in front of me when I’d come and check on her in the townhouse. She used to drive me insane with how she’d walk around with half her ass showing.
“So, we should say goodbye to the desk?” she whispered, gripping my t-shirt, pulling me closer until her lips sealed against mine. I moved slowly while she seemed to be in a hurry. I wouldn’t be rushing through this. There were times I had taken this girl fast and hard, but while our little girl slept, I wanted her mother slowly and passionately.
“Yes, preciosa…” I said against her lips, moving my hands down her body.
Our lips moved firmly but slowly against each other, her wet mouth melting into mine, her tongue sweeping out in a vicious claim. I moved my head to the side, and she followed, wrapping her hands around my neck. The urgency in her touch had me letting loose a growl into her mouth. With my hands on her hips, I moved them down to her thighs and pushed them apart, spreading her legs as wide as they’d go. My palm pressed against her chest, forcing her to lie down on the desk. She pulled up her tank on her way down and tossed it into the corner of the room.
I stared down at her body, her creamy skin, still so perfect that sometimes I thought I was dreaming. Her pink nipples hardened under my stare, and her fingers quickly moved to gently caress them; since she was still nursing, she couldn’t apply much pressure. She must have seen the predatory look on my face, because her hips bucked without so much as a touch from me.
“Are you already aching for me, baby?”
I pushed my thumb into her center and began rubbing over the fabric of her shorts. She moaned, palming her breasts while she tried to move her hips to gain purchase somehow.
“Juan…”
“If I move these shorts, how wet are you going to be for me?” I skimmed up and down her slit, and I could already feel her desire through the material. “Should I do this until you soak your shorts?”
Her tongue darted out to lick her full bottom lip while those ocean eyes stayed on me.
My dick thickened in my sweats to a painful degree, making me impatient and eager to taste her. Dragging her shorts down her legs, I tossed them over my shoulder then, with my eyes on her, got to my knees.
I pulled on her ass until she was on the edge of the desk, and then I ran my nose along her soaked slit.
“I was right. Look at this…fuck, baby,” I rumbled into her heat then spread her folds with my finger and licked.
“Oh my god, Juan!” Her voice was still muted enough not to wake up the sleeping baby, but I wasn’t sure how long that would last. “It feels too good.” She moaned, bucking her hips.
“I want to ruin this desk, baby. Put your feet on my shoulders.” She did as I said, which spread her legs wider, and I leaned in to take advantage of the new position. I knew the stretch was a bit much for her, but she liked that. She also liked it when I stretched her in other ways, like when my fingers pressed into that tight bundle of nerves along the crack of her ass.
Today, I wanted to fuck her and ensure she was properly lubricated for the occasion.
I gently lowered her legs, and they dangled there while her chest heaved, her fingers still caressing those perfectly pink nipples.
“I was so close, Juan,” she whined, and I smirked.
“You get too sensitive to enjoy my cock when I give you an orgasm with my mouth.”
She rolled her eyes. “Then are you going to let me ride you?”
“You want to ride me on this desk?” I raised an eyebrow at her.
She began sitting up, a small smile cresting her lips.
“Yeah, I do. Hop up here, buddy.”
I laughed, shaking my head, but she moved a second later so I had room to get on top of the desk.
First, I dropped my sweats. Neither of us bothered to wear underwear at night. We were always grabbing each other for a quick fuck, or, in Taylor’s case, so she could pull the crown of my cock into her mouth whenever she craved it…which, fortunately for me, was frequently.
I turned, sitting on the desk, and then transitioned so I was lying flat on my back, a smile cracking my lips.
“You overestimate how big this desk is…you’re going to fall off my dick and break your face.”
She stifled a laugh and began getting on the desk, then she took my hardened length in her palm and began to rub up and down.
“Looks like I wasn’t the only one weeping under my PJs, was I?” She leaned forward and licked the precum that had been leaking from my dick for some time.
She wet my length with her tongue a few times before she was fulfilling her plan to ride me. Using my chest as leverage, she slid down and adjusted to the fullness of it, then she moved, bracing me with her knees, kicking her feet behind her in true cowgirl fashion.
My hands went to her hips, unwilling to admit to her that this position actually felt fucking phenomenal.
“Well ride me, baby.” I smiled up at her, loving the red flush in her cheeks.
She took a second, but as
if a silent beat had begun, she started rotating her hips while her hands went to her heaving tits, palming them while she moved.
There was no reprieve from how hard she rode me, bouncing up and down and rotating until my length hit that spot inside her that forced her head back and a loud enough moan from her lips that I knew she may be in danger of waking Alex.
“Juan, god…more.” She wheezed, circling her hips, pushing down against me.
I jutted up as hard as I could, pulling her waist down against me, which forced Taylor forward, her mouth gaping while sounds of pleasure and pain left her in a song of pure seduction. If anyone were to accidentally walk into our house right now, they’d likely turn right around with a heated face. The sounds she made were purely pornographic.
“Oh my god, Juan…” She moaned, and this time it was as if she were trying to get my attention, but I couldn’t stop, jutting up and pulling her wet heat onto my shaft, up and down. “Juan, noooooo, fuck—” She gasped, her hips still moving in a rhythm of desperation. “I’m not…I’m not on birth control yet, and you didn’t…”
She didn’t get to finish, because I did.
With a roar, I pumped my hips up while she rocked against my cock. I spilled my release into her until I was entirely spent, and then she screamed her own release, digging her nails into my skin at the same time. With a heaving chest, Taylor finished her sentence.
“You didn’t wear a condom.”
My eyes widened as realization barreled into me.
“Can that happen this soon after?” I looked over as if Alex would be standing there watching us.
Taylor bit her lip. “I think so…”
We’d been careful every other time…it must have just been the packing and the exhaustion from our late-night shifts.
Even still, the idea of another baby with her wasn’t an unpleasant thought. In fact…the more I thought of it, the more I liked it.
She crawled off of me, walking toward the bookshelf, grabbing a few Kleenexes to clean up, but I snuck up behind her, wrapped my arms around her, and carried her back to the desk until she was leaning over it. She let out an excited gasp as I gripped my firm length and ran the tip of my cock along the smoothness of her ass.