Then There Was You: A Single Parent Collection
Page 61
“I can’t sleep.”
Dammit. I knew that extra piece of cake would keep her up. Stupid sugar. I turn around to tell her to go back to bed. “Oliv—”
“Can Ryan read me a story?”
4
RYAN
I don’t even ask Opal if she cares because after what happened earlier, I’m not leaving until we find a way to work each other out of our systems. “I’d love to.”
Olivia holds her arms out, and I lift her up, then head up the stairs she came down from. I take in the photos on the wall and listen to her babble on about how fun her party was. When I get to the top of the steps, I go to the first room on the right and am blinded with pink and purple.
“What do you want me to read you?” I set her on the bed and reach over to grab a couple of books from her nightstand. “Puppy or princess?”
“Princess.”
Not surprised, I chuckle and open the page. Before I’ve even started the second paragraph, she’s out. Her thumb is in her mouth, but her lips are open around it, little puffs of air passing through. Quiet as I can, I get up and close her door, standing outside it for a second to make sure she doesn’t get up.
Then I take a peek inside Opal’s room and hold back a groan at the sight of her bed. Her headboard has slats—perfect for me to cuff her to and play with her body until she screams. I walk back downstairs to the living room where she’s folding laundry. She doesn’t glance up, but her hand shakes slightly, and I don’t like that I’ve made her nervous.
“Come here, Opal.”
She shakes her head and continues folding laundry. “Thank you for getting her down. She’s normally out like a light three seconds after her head hits the pillow, but with the excitement of the party and all the cake, she—”
“You don’t kiss me like you did earlier, digging your damn nails into me and moanin’ into my mouth, and think I can just walk away. Fuck, you weren’t even touchin’ my cock, and the way you sucked my thumb made me feel like I was gonna explode. And you certainly don’t do those things and think I’m the kind of man to leave you wet and wanting.”
“Ry—”
Fuck this noise. “How wet were your panties when you got home?”
“What?”
“Did you have to change ’em or did you walk around—”
“You kissed me.” Now she raises her eyes to me.
“Fuck yeah, I did. And you kissed me back.” I kick the laundry basket out of the way and push her onto the couch, following close. When she lands on her back, her legs fall open, and I settle between them. “And I want more.”
“I don’t know, Ryan.”
“No?”
She shakes her head at the same time as she pushes her hips into mine.
“If you tell me right now you don’t want me here”—I grind down into her heat, and she bites her lip—“then I’ll get up and walk out. But no joke, Opal. You don’t, and I’ll strip you down and kiss every soft inch of your beautiful body before I sink every hard inch of me inside you.”
“I…”
“You what?”
“I want to but…”
I bring my hands up to her face and rub my thumb across her cheek. God, she’s so pretty. “But what, baby?”
She takes a breath as if she’s amping herself up. “I’m nervous.”
“About what?”
“It’s been… I’m not.” Another breath before she finally says, “I don’t know how to do this.”
I lower my head and gently kiss her lips. She has a kid, so it can’t be that. “Don’t know how to do what?”
“Nothing. It’s been… just never mind.”
“Are you afraid I’m going to hurt you?”
“No. I know you wouldn’t.”
I’m thrilled she knows that and get even harder at her declaration. “Then what’s the problem?”
“I have Olivia, and I’m busy, and it’s been a while, and I don’t have time for anything else. If we do this, it’s nothing more than—”
I cut her off by slamming my mouth on hers, I can’t wait anymore. Her mouth is like heaven. I reluctantly pull away to lay it out one last time. “I’m not making promises here, Opal. But if you wanna put us both out of our misery, then wrap your legs around me and hang on tight. You don’t, just say the word, and I’ll walk away tonight instead of in a couple months.” Because yeah, I took another damn assignment.
She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Then she wraps her legs around me, and I do exactly what I told her I would do. I kiss every inch. Down her neck. Across her collarbone. Between her breasts and back up. She wriggles beneath me when I take her bra off and cup her perfect tits in my hand.
I suck a nipple into my mouth, and her back arches. “Oh God.”
Giving them equal attention, I nip and lick, suck and blow until they’re both hard peaks. Sliding down her body, I stop at the waistband of her pants. She doesn’t say anything, and I pause. “If you don’t want this, tell me. Right now, doll, it’s just me and you. I’ll do whatever you want… stop when you don’t want more. But you’ve gotta tell me.”
“I do, I just…”
“You want my hands here?” I slide over the material and cup her pussy. “Fuck me, I can feel how wet you are.” Soaked through. “Holy fuck, I want to taste you. You want me to eat your pussy until you scream, Opal?”
She moans and nods, pressing up into my hand. I push the heel of my palm down and circle it. “What about my cock, baby? You want that in here too, or just stop with my mouth? Been dyin’ to taste you. Dreaming about what your pussy would feel like comin’ around my fingers.”
“All of it.” She gasps. “All of you.”
I hover over her, waiting for her to open her eyes and look at me. “You sure?”
“Yes.”
She needn’t say any more because I have her naked and her thighs spread open in seconds. “Jesus.” I run my finger between her folds and marvel at how fuckin’ gorgeous she is. Smooth and pink and… “Tight,” I hiss as I sink my finger into her.
“Ryan.” Her hips shoot up, and I clamp my mouth to her.
Fuck me. Much as I liked how pretty her pussy is, I fuckin’ love how she tastes on my tongue.
“Oh, God.”
I’m gonna need to spend lots of time getting her ready. I can barely fit two of my fingers inside her. “Need you to come, baby.” I tease and suck on her clit, circling my fingers inside to find the spot that makes her gasp. Her thighs shake, and I take advantage of her orgasm and add a third finger.
“Too much, Ryan.” She tries to push my head away, but I don’t move. Can’t. I want to live right here. I pull my fingers almost all the way out, then slowly slide them back in.
“Fuck, Opal. My hand is drenched, baby.”
She thrashes her head, and I dive back in, devouring her pussy and making her come so hard no man will ever compare to me, to this. She’ll always think of me, of my head between her legs and my fingers, my tongue, and pretty soon, my cock inside her.
A groan slides up through her throat, and she grabs my wrist. I lift my head, watching her hips move. “There you go, baby. Find it. Get nice and ready so I’ll slide in easy.”
She grinds down and clenches around me. My dick pulses right along with her, and I push my pants down with my other hand, freeing my cock and giving it a squeeze. “Oh, my God.” She climaxes again as she watches me roll on a condom.
“You ready?”
“Yes.”
I pull my hand away and slide her wetness all over my dick, wishing for the first time in my life I could go bareback. Sitting up, I position myself in the middle of the couch. “Hop on, baby doll.”
She hesitates, and I lift her up by her arms. “Grab my cock. Slide yourself down and fuck me, baby.”
The moment her hand closes over me, I nearly come. And when she rubs the tip of me at her entrance, I can’t hold back anymore and thrust up into her. “Fuck me, Opal. Make yourself come again.”
Her hands rest on my chest, and I lean back, enjoying the view. Her perky tits jiggle, and her hair covers her face as she bounces in my lap. Fuck, she feels good. Amazing. Like heaven.
“Ryan,” she whines, and her movements become erratic.
“Right here.”
“I. Shit, Ryan.”
I sit up, grabbing her hair and pulling her head down to look at me. “Let it happen.”
“I… oh, my God.” Her eyes roll back in her head, and she falls forward.
“There you go. Christ, I can feel you comin’.”
Unable to hold back any longer, I grab her hips and fuck her from below. Her body shakes with the power of my thrusts, but every time I bottom out, she gasps and moans. “You got another one?”
“I, no…”
“Yeah you do. Come for me one more time, Opal.”
“I can’t.”
I slam her down, and she curses. “There?” I do it again with the same result, only louder. “Fuck, if I hit that spot again, you’re gonna explode around me again, aren’t you?” I don’t wait for an answer and fuck her just like that until she collapses on top of me, exhausted from pleasure, and I come so hard I’m afraid the condom’ll break.
Fucking perfect. Better than I could have ever imagined, even though I already knew she was a game changer.
“You okay?”
She nods and slowly slides off me. I stand and then lean down, gently kissing her. “Be right back.”
From the bathroom, I can hear her hurried movements, and I give her a second to gather herself. When I stalk back in the living room, I grab my clothes and put them on, trying to decide how to approach her.
She’s sitting on the couch, legs crossed and her head in her hands. She hasn’t even looked up.
I sit next to her. “You sure you’re okay?”
A slight nod is her only response.
“Can you look at me?”
A slight shake of her head is her only response, so I sit up and gently grab her chin, turning it until her big brown eyes meet mine. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I just… I-I…”
“That was fantastic. More than fantastic, it was phenomenal. We have chemistry, and we both know what this is. So relax. I’ll chill with you for a little bit, then I’ll take you upstairs where I can have you on your back while I’m fuckin’ you.”
5
OPAL
I can’t believe I did that. Did him. Twice.
As soon as I hear his motorcycle engine, I hop out of bed and peek between my curtains to watch him drive away. As much as I hate, hate, hate to admit it, he looks really hot on that bike. But I hate even more how worried I am that he’s going to die on that thing. If I think about it, I’ll obsess over it, and the only thoughts allowed to enter my brain will be that he’s going to die.
Once he’s gone, I yank my sheets off my bed and run to the laundry closet downstairs and toss them in as another thought consumes me. “I’m such a slut.” The washer door slams shut, and I race back upstairs to my bathroom so I can take a shower and get to work on time.
Olivia goes to preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and my parents watch her on Mondays and Wednesdays when I work during the day at the makeup store in the mall. I love that Friday is my day off, so Olivia and I usually spend all day together doing fun things. But that also means I have to work weekends. Luckily, Jay and Liv or my parents watch her on those days. I don’t know what I’d do without my family.
Three to four nights a week, I’m at the coffee shop, and I have a babysitter who comes to the house and puts her to bed. She’s a retired woman who lives just down the block and hardly charges me anything.
Granted, I barely make anything at the coffee shop, but once all is said and done, it’s about three hundred dollars a month. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s enough to pay for Olivia’s preschool.
I take a super-fast shower, and while my hair is still air-drying, I wake up Olivia. I’m amazed at how hard she sleeps. I can count on my hand how many times she’s woken up before me, and those times were usually when she was sick.
“Hey, baby.” I brush some hair off her face and kiss her cheek. “Time to get up.”
Her eyes pop open, and she smiles, little white teeth on display. “Hi, Mommy.”
“Gotta get dressed and take you to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.”
“Okay.” She hops out of bed and drags herself to the bathroom. Part of our routine is her getting her clothes out the night before, and I smile when I see the pink cowboy boots, purple princess dress, zebra stripe tights, and her favorite Chicago PD hoodie.
“I’m going to finish getting ready, okay? We need to leave in five minutes.”
She doesn’t answer, or she does but I don’t hear her because I’m already in the kitchen packing myself a lunch and pulling some ground beef out of the freezer for dinner.
When we walk into my parents’ house, the smell of pancakes makes Olivia run faster to the kitchen. “Bye, baby. Be good.”
She stops and turns, then squeezes my leg. “Bye, Mommy.”
“Bye, Mom,” I holler down the hall.
“Wait.” She hurries down the hallway and hands me a shallow Tupperware container with a couple of pancakes in it. “You have to eat something.”
“Thanks, Mom. I’ll be back at five thirty.”
“Drive carefully.” She waves at me from the porch, and I cram a pancake in my mouth before I drive away.
The day goes by painfully slow, and when my shift is over, I hurry to grab Olivia. We get home, and I make some spaghetti and listen to my little girl tell me about all the things she did today. I give her a bath, and we’re sitting on the couch reading a story when the doorbell rings.
“Hi, Ms. Pam.” I smile at my sitter.
“How are you?” She holds the doorframe as she steps into the house.
“Good. How about you?”
“Oh, just fine.”
Olivia hops off the couch and runs over, hugging Ms. Pam and then me. “Bye, Mommy.”
“Good night, baby. Sleep good, okay? I’ll come give you a kiss when I get home.”
“Okay.”
As I’m walking out the door, I hear Olivia telling Ms. Pam about the book we were reading. I wish I could be here to finish it, but I’ve gotta pay the bills.
The coffee shop is only open until nine, so when I arrive at seven, the employees are happy to run out, most of whom are still in high school. I’m scheduled from seven to ten tonight, but I usually end up getting the drawer counted and the place cleaned up in a half an hour, so I’m out the door by nine thirty. I worked at the coffee shop full time but had to leave because of the pay. I got lucky the manager likes me, so she lets me pick up the crappy hours at the end of the day that nobody wants.
The doorbell beeps, and I don’t look up from the nightly sheet until I hear footsteps stop in front of the register. “What can I get youuuu?” You have got to be kidding me. Might as well dump a scalding hot pot of coffee all over me because I am burning up just looking at him.
“Dollface.” Ryan smiles.
“What are you doing here?”
He puts his knuckles on the counter and leans forward. “Came to get some coffee before I head out for the night.”
Of course. The warmth on my face slides down, and I swallow the burn. “Yeah. Okay. Well, what can I get you?”
“I’m going out for work, Opal.”
“’Kay.” One night. One night. One night. I have no right to be upset if he’s going out tonight.
“You think after I’ve had you anybody else could fuckin’ compare? Christ, I couldn’t function today because all I could think about was you.”
My lips are dry, and I lick them before I reply. “What can I get you?”
“Yo
u again,” he replies immediately.
“Ryan, last night was—”
“Best I ever had, baby.” He leans in even closer. “Best. Ever.”
The door chimes as two guys walk in, probably about my age, and Ryan steps aside while they order. I whip up their coffees and hand them the to-go cups, thankful for the distraction. Yeah, it was the best ever. I don’t have much to compare it to, but I still know I’ll never feel that way with anyone else.
“You’re right,” I tell him as he watches the guys walk out. “It was. But you’re leaving soon and—”
“I am. Just like I told you last night.” He did tell me that. Just say the word and I’ll walk away tonight instead of in a couple months.
I square my shoulders and hold his eyes, telling him the only thing I can think to push him away. “It was a mistake.” It’s lame and it’s a lie, but I can’t get any further in with him. Even though I really want him to stay, want him to come home with me. I want to fall asleep in his arms again and wake up with his mouth on me. But I can’t afford the distraction. I could easily fall in love with him, but I can’t go through losing him. It’s hard enough right now knowing he’s only temporary. I’m not strong enough to fall any further… there’s no way I’d be able to dig myself out of that hole.
If I wasn’t looking for it, I wouldn’t notice the tic in his jaw. “Riiiiight.” He draws out the word. “I don’t believe you for one second, but if that’s what you need to tell yourself, then so be it. You have my number now and the power. Use it, Opal, before I’m gone, and it’s too late.”
Then he walks out the door. Without any coffee.
“Mommy.” Olivia comes into the living room where I’m falling asleep folding laundry.
“What’s wrong?” She never, I repeat never wakes up after she’s fallen asleep.
“It’s loud in my room. I can’t sleep.”
Son of a bitch. This is the only time since we’ve lived on our own that I wish I was back at my parents’. Or that a man lived with me. Ryan spent the night two weeks ago, and we got a new neighbor last week. Every night, I hear him and his teenage son until about two in the morning. Our duplex is two floors, and usually, when they make noise, it’s just downstairs, so she can’t hear it up in her room. Olivia’s bedroom shares a wall with their side, and even though I can hear it from the living room, I’m surprised it’s loud enough to wake her up. “Why don’t you sleep in my bed?”