It had been a long-ass time since I’d found a release by anything other than my own lame hand, and this felt like heaven wrapped in a dream.
A dream, my subconscious screamed at me but I ignored it. Having Laurie’s mouth on me felt too damn good to explore the actual possibilities about what was happening.
She smirked up at me, releasing my hard cock with a pop and twirling her ponytail between her fingers. “My, my. Look who finally woke up. I’m surprised it took you so long. Maybe I should write that book after all.”
Even in my fucking dreams, she was aggravating. “You and I both know by now that I don’t have a tiny cock. What’re you going to write about now, huh? Unless you’re into lying to your readers.”
I didn’t even know if she had any readers, but I wasn’t about to ask right then. She sat up in front of me with a pair of breasts in my face that left me no doubt I was dreaming, jiggling them a bit while pouting her lips and stroking my length.
“Well, yeah. This guy definitely isn’t tiny, and I’d never lie to my readers, but I still don’t know if he’s any good.”
Growling as I leaped up and tackled her to the bed, it occurred to me again that this couldn’t be happening. Doesn’t matter. Still need her.
By the way she was glistening when I pulled her legs apart, I’d have been willing to venture a guess she felt the same way. We didn’t like each other, but we needed each other with a vengeance.
Licking my way down her soft torso, I nipped and kissed while my hands planted themselves on her thighs. She moaned loudly. “God, Jacob. Yes!”
I was about to shush her when I remembered this wasn’t real.
If it was, she’d have been dismembering me instead of encouraging me. Since all things were perfect in my dreamworld, though, she spread her legs even farther apart while planting kisses at the corners of my mouth.
“Please, Jacob,” she begged while her green eyes bored into mine. “Fill me up and show me how wrong I was about you being a selfish jerk.”
Just as I was about to plunge into her to prove that very point, I jerked upright in bed. Blinking while trying to come to terms with the fact that it really had been just a dream, I swept my arm out to the side to make sure she wasn’t really there anyway.
When my hand groped nothing but cold cotton, I groaned and dropped back down into my pillow. I was hard as a fucking heavy metal concert, my heart was pounding, and my dick was being very insistent about needing attention.
Rolling onto my side to check the time, I realized it was still early enough to give myself what I needed before going downstairs for breakfast. With one hand curled into a fist against the shower wall a few minutes later, my head bowed from the sheer force of my orgasm as I emptied myself into the warm water and the evidence got washed down into the drain.
Fucking pathetic, twenty-one-year-old me chided as I wrapped a towel around my waist. That could’ve been any of the women at that play, and here we are, still fucking the same old hand.
If only he had known how much trouble fucking anything but that hand would get us into, he’d shut the hell up. Not that I regretted Allie. I’d been the one to bring up having a baby to Shannon after we’d gotten married.
Hell, I’d hoped and prayed for Allie for years before Shannon freaked out about there being more than one line on the stick. If only I had the ability to have had Allie by myself without having added Shannon to the mix, that would’ve been great.
I’d thought I’d loved her at the time. In the years that had followed, I’d questioned that assumption more than once. If I ever got seriously involved with anyone again, I wouldn’t make the same mistake. I’d have to be sure that I loved her, and not only the idea of being with someone for the rest of my life and creating a family with them.
In the meantime, my hand would have to do.
I sighed and rubbed my wet hair absently while getting dressed. Sweats and a T-shirt for now. Better clothes would have to wait until the messy part of the morning was over.
The girls were still lying in bed in Allie’s bedroom, chatting and giggling in their pajamas while combing some dolls’ hair. Hearing my little girl sound so happy and carefree was like music to my ears. I leaned in the doorway, watching them for a minute before clearing my throat to announce myself.
“Good morning, girls,” I said cheerfully. “How’d you sleep?”
Allie’s bedroom had been decorated in colors she’d chosen. It looked like the inside of a princess play-castle with walls painted in lavender and marshmallow pink. Her four-poster bed was made up with a pink comforter with a large unicorn on it, and bookshelves, toys, and a dollhouse took up the rest of the space.
She jumped out of bed to give me a hug, but Katie looked unsure about what to do. Freezing with the doll in one hand and the brush in the other, her blue eyes widened as they darted from mine to Allie and back again.
“Good morning,” she said tentatively. “I had a lot of fun. Thank you for having me.”
I smiled. “You’re welcome, honey. The fun isn’t over yet, though. How would you two like to help me bake an apple pie?”
Allie giggled some more before glancing at her friend. “Dad is an awful cook. Come on. Watching him will be funny.”
I rolled my eyes but clutched my chest in mock hurt. “That’s why I always order the actual food for dinner. I won’t make our family suffer for my shortcomings, but you don’t have to point it out.”
She slid her arm around my waist and squeezed, tilting her head back to look at me. “You have other talents, Daddy.”
“Thanks.” I winked at her, then looked back up to wave Katie over. “Come, well-mannered, kind child. Ignore this one. She loves to sass me.”
Katie chuckled and climbed out of bed. “I like sassy people. Laurie’s sassy too.”
She didn’t need to tell me that. I was already well aware. It caught my attention that she’d called her mom by her name, but I knew there were some families who preferred doing things that way. Maybe I was old fashioned, but I was perfectly fine with being called Dad. Thank you very much.
The girls followed me to the kitchen where they helped me bake the pie. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t go very well.
My lack of culinary skills was so obvious that even the kids laughed at how horrible the melted, gooey, sad-looking pie turned out. All three of us stood side by side in front of the counter once it was out of the oven, our heads cocked and hands on our hips.
“Well, that could’ve gone better,” I said finally, checking the time before lowering my arms to my sides. “It’s almost eleven. You guys should go pack up Katie’s stuff so she’ll be ready when Laurie gets here. I’ll clean up and see if I can do anything to save this mess.”
They nodded and ran back to Allie’s room while I sighed and wondered if it was too late to add a pie to my order for dinner. I got the kitchen cleaned and set out the serving platters that I’d need later, checking the time again once I was done.
A frisson of annoyance ran through me when I realized Laurie was late. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to call her when it rang with a call from her.
“I’m so sorry,” she rushed before I could say a thing. “I have an emergency meeting I have to get to and my parents are busy at their store. I’m so embarrassed and I never usually do these kinds of things, but is it okay if I pick Katie up after the meeting?”
My annoyance grew tenfold. I’d told her I had a dinner to prepare for. It wasn’t like she hadn’t known I would be busy. I didn’t really want to cut her a break after how rude she’d been when she’d dropped Katie off, but I closed my eyes, drew in a deep breath through my nose, and nodded.
“Yeah, sure. Just be here before four. That’s when the guests will arrive.” Just because I didn’t want to cut her a break didn’t mean she didn’t need someone to cut her a little slack. Besides, I could hear she was already in her car.
What was I going to do? Tell her to turn around and come pick up her kid when I knew she
was in a bind? I was an asshole, and I didn’t know what kind of meeting she had, but that sweet little girl didn’t deserve to sit around a conference table on a Saturday when she could be playing. Not even I was that much of an asshole.
“Thank you. Thank you so, so much.” She sounded stressed before hanging up the phone. I tossed mine down on the granite countertop and braced my palms on the cool surface, letting my head drop between my shoulders as I dragged in another deep breath.
Great. Now I have to juggle entertaining the girls while prepping the house to have a large Thanksgiving gathering.
It wouldn’t make a lick of difference to stand there feeling sorry for myself, though. I’d have called Shannon to help out, since I knew she was in town for the dinner, but she was here with whoever her plus-one was, and we hadn’t heard from her at all.
My parents were only landing from an overseas trip this morning, and the members of our extended family who were coming were generally always busy running around right until it was time to arrive. So it was up to me.
Thankfully, the girls weren’t toddlers. Maybe I could even convince them to give me a hand. I found them in the TV room, sitting on the rug covering the hardwood flooring around the coffee table. They were building a puzzle they’d started before bedtime, and both of them looked up when I walked in.
“There’s been a change of plans, Katie. You’re staying with us for a little while longer.”
“Oh.” She grinned and glanced at Allie. “Is that okay?”
“It’s awesome.” My daughter clapped her hands and leaned forward toward her friend. “If you stay long enough, you’ll get to meet my mom and Dad’s cousins. We have this dinner before Thanksgiving every year, but then on the day, it’s just the two us.”
“It’s our tradition,” I said. “We get the best of both worlds. Family and alone time. I’m going to need your help today, though, okay? The caterers will be here in a couple of hours, but we’ve got a lot to do until then.”
Both girls nodded, but the rest of the day was a bit of a struggle for me. They wanted to help, but eventually, I settled them in with a movie because they kept literally running into the caterers while trying to take trays from them.
They also packed mini cupcakes on the same plate as some roasted vegetables, which meant the potatoes were now full of icing. Oh, well.
Later, only about half an hour before we ate, Laurie showed up looking overwhelmed and still frazzled. Her hair was in a ponytail again, but there was more of it that had fallen out than what had stayed up.
The apples of her cheeks were bright red, and there were mottled blotches of that same flush running down her throat and covering what was visible of her chest. Her eyes were wide and glassy when I opened the door.
“I’m so sorry about this,” she blurted before I could say a word. Our guests had already arrived, but they were all gathered in the dining room. “I know you had your hands full today and I know you asked me to be here before four. I came as soon as I could. I’m so, so sorry for just throwing Katie on you like this. I’ve never done anything like this. I just…”
I lifted my hand when she trailed off, shaking my head while giving her what I hoped was a discreet onceover. The woman looked like she’d been put through the wringer.
There were a hundred things that had popped into my head throughout the day that I’d wanted to say to her, but now that she was here, none of them came to mind.
“It’s fine,” I said instead of giving her a hard time. “I know you said you didn’t want to be friends, but would you like to stay for dinner? I don’t know what happened to you today, but turkey fixes everything.”
The girls must have come up behind me at some point because suddenly Katie’s voice rang out from my side. “I had the best, best day. Please can we stay?”
Laurie’s green eyes lowered to meet Katie’s before she nodded slowly. “Yeah, sure. Of course. Thank you for inviting us. We’d love to.”
Well, fuck. I didn’t see that coming.
Chapter 13
Laurie
My day had been a total disaster. Not only had I been physically and emotionally hungover after my rough night, but then I’d gotten summoned to Eric’s offices just when I’d been on my way out the door to pick up Katie.
True to form, he’d made me wait for hours even though he’d told me it was urgent. Every time I threatened to leave, his receptionist simply shrugged and said, “It’s your lawsuit he wants to update you on. If you don’t want to hear it, that’s on you.”
In the end, it hadn’t even really been an update. He still wasn’t able to tell me much about the actual case, but had gone into painstaking detail about how expensive this kind of litigation was.
Money.
That was what the “emergency meeting” had been about. He either couldn’t or wouldn’t answer me when I asked what’d happened to the substantial sum I’d already paid him, and then we’d gotten into it when I told him I needed to see something done before I would just blindly transfer more money.
I’d cried all the way to Jacob’s fancy building and had barely been able to stop while I steeled myself to see the arrogant asshole. The last thing I’d expected was to be invited in for dinner. I would’ve refused because even though it was a kind offer, I didn’t want to intrude.
That only lasted until I saw the hopeful, pleading expression on Katie’s face. As much as I didn’t want to intrude, I didn’t want to disappoint her either.
Jacob looked more than a little surprised when I accepted, but he opened the door wider to let me in and stepped back. “Welcome to our humble abode, Laurie. Can I get you a drink?”
I nearly gaped at him. Since when did he sound so amicable? Nodding dumbly while frowning at the warm light in his eyes, I pulled Katie into my arms to hug her hello. “I’ll have whatever is easiest.”
“There’s wine on the table, as well as water and juice.” He motioned us farther into their home, and I got my first good look around.
This place is huge for downtown. It was gorgeous too. Original hardwood flooring shone beneath my feet. Expensive art decorated the walls, but it was interspersed with so many photographs of him and Allie and others I didn’t know that it made their entrance feel cozy and homey instead of like a museum.
There was a sweeping staircase on one side of the space, and directly in front of me, the place seemed to open up. As he led us deeper, I realized there was nothing humble about their abode.
Sure, it was warm and homey, but it was also spacious and modern. “You have a beautiful home.”
“Thank you.” He smiled, and it actually seemed genuine. “The kitchen is through there and there’s a guest bathroom down the hall. If that’s occupied, you can use any of the bathrooms upstairs.”
Their kitchen was large and squeaky clean, which seemed surprising for a guy who was about to host a Thanksgiving dinner and had been taking care of two kids all day. Another intense wave of guilt came over me, but it was quickly replaced by nerves when I heard voices filtering in through my awe of the place.
We walked into a dining room big enough to have dancing lessons in. A massive table covered with a white linen cloth and laden with food took up the center of the space. Every seat around it was occupied with people talking, laughing, and drinking.
One wall was covered by a farm-style buffet and server, while another was entirely made of glass. Soft light shone in through the floor-to-ceiling windows but also from an industrial type of chandelier hanging above the table.
I really love what he’s done with the place. I also really wouldn’t have expected his house to look like this.
A statuesque blonde in a forest green shift dress caught my attention when she suddenly let out a loud burst of laughter. When Jacob made the introductions a minute later and said she was his ex, I nearly fainted. The other people present were friends and extended family, and they quickly fell into the easy rhythm of conversation that’d been interrupted when we’d walk
ed in.
“It’s nice to meet you, Laurie,” Shannon said, standing up to pull me into a hug instead of shaking my hand. “I had a chat with the girls earlier. Katie is lovely. I’m glad Allie has found a friend like her.”
“Thank you. So am I.” My eyes widened when I realized what that sounded like. “I mean, I’m glad Katie found a friend like Allie.”
Meanwhile, Jacob and an older man with silver hair but a bone structure to kill for dragged another chair to the table. Apparently, Katie already had a seat. I learned the man was his father, and I flushed when he kissed the back of my hand.
“I’m glad you’re joining us,” he said cheerfully. “The more the merrier. Meet my wife, Jackie.”
The woman who stood up to greet me was also gorgeous and elegantly dressed. Meeting his parents immediately made it clear where Jacob had gotten his looks from, but I also suddenly realized that this was not a jeans and T-shirt kind of family dinner.
Jacob himself was in charcoal slacks and a pressed white shirt. His sleeves were rolled up and the top few buttons undone, but he still looked swanky as hell.
“I’m so sorry I’m underdressed,” I whispered to him before he told Shannon to move over to make space for my chair.
He grinned at me. Again. Maybe he’d had some wine and that was why he was suddenly so friendly. It was a marked improvement on his usual personality.
“It’s no problem. There’s no dress code here.” He gestured me into the empty chair he’d brought in, which also happened to be right between him at the head of the table and his ex that had been sitting at the first seat on the left.
Neither of them seemed to mind when I sat down between them, though. It was then that I noticed her hand was on the leg of the man on her other side.
She smiled when I sat down. “This is Craig.”
“Craig is Shannon’s boyfriend,” Jacob said. “She was just about to tell us how she met him.”
She turned her gorgeous face toward Craig, her brown eyes filled with stars when she glanced at me while she spoke. “He’s one of the chiropractors at my office. We’ve only been together a couple of months, but I wanted him to meet the family. I think he might just be a keeper.”
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