Asking For A Friend

by Parker, Ali

  My fingertips trailed down to his belly button, circling it once or twice. I found the coarse smattering of hairs that formed a trail to his thick erection. He groaned into my mouth, and I swallowed the sound happily before whispering, “You should get that pillow ready now.”

  I licked the shell of his ear and nipped its lobe. Layton’s hands gripped my hips, his fingers digging into my skin.

  Feminine power coursed through me. It was a wonderful thing to have a man who commanded every room he walked into at your mercy.

  I positioned myself between his knees, letting my hair trail over his chest and stomach as I licked and kissed my way down his body. My hands gripped his upper thighs, my thumbs resting a hair’s breadth away from his balls. I brushed against him every so often as my tongue made its way to my target.

  Keeping up my downward trajectory, I stopped when his thick, rock hard erection was inches away from my mouth. He was huge. Thick veins throbbed under his skin, which was soft as satin under my touch.

  He sucked in a sharp breath as I stroked him softly. Showing him the same adoration he had showed me. The muscles in his neck worked. He groaned as I milked a drop from him.

  Bending my head over him I closed my mouth around his tip before I licked across his slit, gathering the liquid on my tongue. His hips bucked, nearly coming off the bed.

  Layton’s stomach dipped on a deep breath as his hands burrowed into my hair, gripping it tight. “Fuck, Marissa. Yes.”

  I felt his need as acutely as my own, my own stomach tightening at the thought that I was responsible for his pleasure. No one else. Just me. He trusted me with it. He trusted me with so much more too, his body and his heart. It was a responsibility I took seriously. I wanted to make him feel as good as he had made me feel. Better even, if that was possible.

  Bringing my hands to his balls, I massaged them between my fingers and slid my mouth down his length, hollowing my cheeks. I circled the bottom of his cock with one hand while keeping the other on his sack. I brought my mouth to meet my hand on him again and again, swirling my tongue around his broad head and over the nerves bundled there.

  Hips bucking, he released with a loud groan and suddenly tugged on my shoulders, hooking them under my arms and pulling me off him and put me down beside him.

  Layton’s eyes were wild, his breathing labored as he reached for my nightstand and produced a condom. Rolling it on hastily, he rose over me, taking the bulk of his weight onto his elbows.

  Lying underneath him, the feeling of his heated, bare skin against mine and his cock nudging my entrance was exquisite. He took my mouth in a ravenous kiss, fit himself to me and pushed in, rocking against me as he moved deeper.

  Fingers wrapped around my thigh, he pulled me against him as he rocked, gradually gaining a rhythm as our bodies moved together.

  We touched and kissed each other, taking our time until the sweet sensation of pressure started building again. How Layton managed to hold back, I didn’t know. All I knew was I was quickly racing for the edge again.

  He stroked into me in a way that pushed me higher, winding the tension tighter and tighter. His skin was plastered to mine. When he groaned, his whole body shuddered. Mine erupted with pleasure at the same time.

  Hot, bright perfect waves of bliss rocked through me as Layton buried his face in my neck, his hot breath fanning my skin and his moans subsiding with mine. He was still inside me, and I never wanted him to leave.

  Pulling back his head, he looked into my eyes and I saw a storm of emotion brewing in his. His lips curled up into a soft smile. “I love you, Marissa.”

  Tears wet my eyes, but I didn’t care. This moment was perfect exactly the way that it was. “I love you, too. I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you that I do, but I really, really do.”

  Chapter 73

  Layton

  Six months after Marissa first told me she loved me, I walked onto the construction site where the museum was just about done. The scaffolding was coming off today and the team was moving inside. We had two months left to go, tops.

  The past six months had been the best months of my life. By a long shot. The museum was progressing without any major hold-ups, which was more of a relief than I cared to admit out loud.

  Marissa, Annie and I were doing better than ever. In the last few weeks, we’d started talking about moving in together, and I was sure it was going to happen soon.

  I knew it was going to be an adjustment to live together, especially for Annie and me, but it was what I wanted more than anything. I wanted to wake up next to Marissa every morning, to have breakfast with her and Annie before we headed to work.

  I wanted to be there to tuck Annie in at night and to spend lazy weekends with them. Only a year ago, if anyone had told me I would ever want that kind of life, I would have laughed them right out of town.

  But things changed.

  Settling down had never been part of my plan, but it was what I wanted now. Marissa, Annie and even Denise were my family now. Families lived together. Well, maybe not with Denise too, but that was hardly the point.

  It was time for us to take that next step and thankfully, Marissa agreed with me. When I left early this morning to go get ready at my place, she huffed out a sigh of frustration. Then she walked over to her closet, yanked out a bunch of clothes and planted her hands on her hips as she said, “Here. This is your closet now.”

  She looked adorable, standing in a sea of clothes lying on the floor around her feet with her hands on her hips. Her eyes flashed in annoyance. “Now you don’t need to leave every morning to go back to your place first. Bring your clothes over tonight. This is ridiculous, it’s so impractical that we’re both living out of suitcases or driving back and forth all the time.”

  I had stood up, walking over to loop my arms around her waist. “I agree. Thank you. I’ll bring some stuff over later. You know you could have just started me out with a drawer, right?”

  She smiled, shrugging. “You dress too well for a drawer to fit anything substantial. I doubt your suits would all fit into my room, let alone half of my closet, but that’s the best I can do.”

  “I don’t have that many suits,” I smirked. “They would definitely fit into your room.”

  Marissa rolled her eyes, nudging me playfully in the chest. “Yeah, maybe if we got clothes rails and just stacked them all along the walls. At least you’ll be able to fit, like, a week’s worth of your clothes in there.”

  I’d chuckled, giving her a light smack on the ass. “That’s more than enough for me.”

  And so, I went home and got showered and dressed. Once I was done, I packed a suitcase which held way more than I would wear in a week, and loaded it up before I headed down to the site.

  I also packed a few more of my things. A picture of my mom I kept on my nightstand, spare chargers for my phone and my laptop. Odds and ends I needed every day.

  It had been a bittersweet moment when I left my place, not quite knowing when I would be back. My stuff was all waiting in my car now, so I called Marissa to tell her I was going to go drop it all off when I was done at the site.

  A few weeks ago, she’d given me my own set of keys for her place. I planned on letting myself in and making myself at home, wondering what Annie’s reaction was going to be when she got home from school.

  I smiled to myself as I tried to picture it. She’d been asking me when I was going to bring my things for weeks, insisting that their house needed some ‘boy stuff’ in it. She went to visit a friend of hers just before this all happened and came home declaring that their house was too girly.

  Apparently in a house where dad’s lived, there had to be ‘boy stuff’ too. My heart had raced at the reference to dads and the insinuation that came along with her sweeping statement regarding me moving my stuff in, but Marissa had simply smiled and agreed with her.

  Our eyes had met and held, understanding passing between us. Marissa was no longer afraid I was going to disappear from their liv
es. She trusted me now when I told her I was in it for the long haul, and was comfortable with the relationship Annie and I were building.

  There had still been a spark of fear in her eyes that day when the ‘dad thing’ happened, but she’d lifted her chin and pushed it away. Instead of pushing me away or running away from me—these days, she ran toward me instead.

  On that day, she’d walked up to me and slung an arm around my waist, hugging me to her side as Annie babbled on and on about all the tools her friend’s dad had scattered around the house. Marissa batted her eyelashes when she looked up at me, smirking. “Please don’t bring tools. I really don’t want to trip over a hammer every time I get home.”

  “You got it,” and that had been that. The inevitable transition of my going from being Mom’s boss, to being a legit and accepted father figure had been smoothly completed.

  “What are you smiling about?” Craig asked now, coming up to me at the construction site.

  “I was just thinking about something that happened with Annie a few weeks ago,” I told him, shaking the memories out of my head. As the site came back into focus, I noticed how much progress there had been in the week since I was last here. “It’s looking good, Craig. You guys are really outdoing yourself on this one.”

  “We’re doing our best,” he said, shrugging. “I encouraged you to do this by yourself without that other asshole involved. Least I can do is to have your back now that you’re actually doing it.”

  “Thanks, man. I appreciate it.” I still couldn’t believe some days that this building really was all mine. I tried not to think about it too much, since there was still a lot that could go wrong. I didn’t want to tempt fate by thinking about how well it was going. “Has the flooring been delivered yet?”

  “Right on time,” Craig said. “They delivered on Friday morning as promised.”

  I breathed out a sigh of relief. The people who manufactured the flooring called two weeks ago to say there had been some kind of snag in the process. They promised to try to sort it out and deliver on time since they knew we had to wait for them before we could carry on with some other stuff, but I had been anxious about it. A part of me was still waiting for the construction to come to a halt for some reason and wipe me out. But it didn’t look like that was going to happen today.

  “Good. I was worried about that,” I admitted.

  Craig gave me a sidelong look before nodding his agreement. “Yeah, I didn’t want to say it out loud before, but so was I. The last time I got a call like that on a job, I had to wait a month for new timber to arrive so they could complete the order.”

  “Yeah, it’s happened to me too,” I told him. “I’m still kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know? I keep feeling like it’s just too good to be true.”

  “That’s because you’re living the dream right now, man.” He smirked. “Your dream anyway. You’ve got a great girl, an adorable kid and a fucking awesome building about to be completed.”

  “Why is that my dream?” I frowned. “Who doesn’t want those things?”

  “Me,” Craig laughed. “I don’t want the girl or the kid. Not yet.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought, too,” I said, grinning at him. “But you’re next, man. You’ll see.”

  He laughed even harder now, shaking his head at me. “Not gonna happen, so I wouldn’t hold my breath if I was you. But I’m happy for you. This life seems to suit you just fine.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “It does. When it’s your turn, you’ll see how fast it happens. When you least expect it.”

  “Nah, don’t get your hopes up,” he said, when the laughter subsided. “How’s it going with them anyway? I haven’t seen Marissa for a while.”

  “They’re really good,” I told him, then glanced down at my watch. “In fact, I’m going to be late for a date if I don’t get going. You sure everything’s good here?”

  “Perfect,” he grinned. “You go. I’ll hold down the fort.”

  I flipped him off, laughing as I said goodbye. “I’ll forgive you for making me out as a slacker, because very soon it’s going to be you having to rush off to a date. I’m going to enjoy rubbing this in then, so you have your fun for now.”

  Shaking his head, he returned my middle finger and smirked. “Keep living in dreamland, Bridges. Because that’s the only place all this shit you’re talking about is ever gonna happen.”

  I left after that, knowing Craig was wrong. It was going to happen for him, he was too good of a guy for it not to. Some lucky woman was going to come along and crawl right into that big heart of his. It was just a matter of time.

  After stopping at Marissa’s to drop off my stuff, I headed to Annie’s school. She was in a ballet recital this afternoon and if I was late, she was going to kill me. The recital was all she could talk about for weeks now.

  Driving around the parking lot, it looked like she wasn’t the only one who’d been going on about it. The lot was packed and it took me much longer than usual to find parking. I slipped into the seat beside Marissa just as the lights were dimming.

  She slid her hand into mine, a smile on her face as she turned to give me a chaste kiss. “Hey. I’m glad you could make it.”

  I scoffed. “I wasn’t going to miss this for the world.”

  “How’s everything going on the site?” She asked quietly as the other parents and families hushed around us.

  “It’s all good,” I whispered back, slinging my arms over her shoulders and holding her as the recital began. She snuggled into me, one of her hands in mine and the other on my thigh as fourteen little girls in pink ballet tutus danced their way onto the stage.

  Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t have believed a year ago I would be here. I for fucking sure wouldn’t have believed the intense pride blooming in my heart as I watched Annie beaming down from the stage. But now? Now I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.

  Chapter 74

  Marissa

  Layton’s eyes were glued to Annie on stage. Watching him now, it was hard to remember a time when I doubted his love or his commitment to her. Or to me, for that matter.

  The past six months had been perfect. A fairy tale I never believed was in the cards for me. But somewhere, somehow, someone sent Layton to me and let me keep him.

  After I finally told him I loved him, there was no turning back. And neither of us wanted to. We came clean to Annie about our relationship that same week and she was thrilled.

  She hugged both of us and refused to let us go. That next week Layton stayed over for the first time that Annie knew of. She was so excited when she saw him arriving with an overnight bag that she zoomed and bounced around all night before finally crashing hard. When she fell asleep, it was on the couch between us.

  Layton had insisted on being the one to carry her to her bedroom and when he came back to the living room, he had this expression of absolute serenity on his face.

  “She’s down.” He’d told me before taking his seat beside me again. He’d tucked me into his side wordlessly and settled in to finish watching the movie we started.

  Later that night when we went to bed was the first time we’d gone through an actual nighttime routine together and hadn’t just fallen asleep after a round of passionate lovemaking. And though it was the first time, we moved around each other like it was a well-choreographed dance we’d performed together thousands of times before.

  We got into bed and fell asleep while we were talking. Several hours later, I woke up with Annie crawling into bed with us. It was the first time that had happened, but it wasn’t the last.

  Layton and I talked about that the next morning. I was worried it was going to bug him, but it was just something Annie did sometimes. That night, it had been because of a nightmare she’d had. The next time it happened was because she thought she’d heard something outside and was scared.

  Contrary to what I expected him to say, he smiled at me and told me it didn’t bother him the least. He claimed to
like it, even. He said it made him feel like a superhero that she was coming to him to protect her from monsters in her dreams or imagined threats from outside.

  I’d remembered thinking then that my life really had turned into a fairy tale. I never imagined finding a man who was willing to accept both me and Annie just as we were. Never mind a man who fit into our family—including Denise—as seamlessly as Layton did and was absolutely crazy about being there.

  But I had. Thanks to Jeremy Bridges. I still missed my old boss sometimes. He had been good to me. I always wondered why he had taken me under his wing the way he had. I found out from his last videos to Layton that it was because I reminded him of his late wife.

  Jeremy Bridges hadn’t struck me as a sentimental man and he certainly wasn’t a gentle one. Yet with me, he’d always asked after Annie and told me stories about his own family. He treated me so gently, with reverence almost.

  When I first interviewed for a job at his company, I honestly didn’t believe I was going to get it. It had been such a dark time in my life and all I needed was a break. He gave it to me with almost no questions asked.

  After I started working as one of his assistants, he noticed I was good with numbers and slowly began training me to become his accounts manager without my even realizing it. The day he gave me the promotion, there had been tears in his eyes.

  He had been good to me. So very good that it took me a long time to understand Layton’s obvious animosity toward him. It had only been as we got to know each other that I learned why Layton felt about him the way he did.

  He was better about him now. The videos had helped a lot, as did having me around to tell him about all the good things about his dad he had either never known or had long since forgotten. The night I told Layton how I met his dad and what he did for me after, he was quiet for a long time.

  Later that night once we got in bed, he’d spooned me and held me tight, whispering in the darkness. “I wish I knew him the way you did, but more than anything I wish I could thank him for bringing you and Annie into my life. The biggest regret I have is that I can’t thank him for giving me the best thing that has ever happened to me.”