The Single Dad and his Soul Mate

by Rebecca James

  I pulled out my phone to check the time and saw I had a message from Matteo.

  Free tonight?

  I gnawed on my lip a moment, debating the wisdom of continuing what we were doing. Who was I kidding? I tapped out a reply.

  What do you have in mind?

  Movie?

  Only if you want to watch it from my couch. Coop’s going to be out when we get home.

  Sounds good to me. Time?

  Let’s say seven.

  That would allow me time to shower.

  I refilled my plate and went back to my seat, passing Liam on his way to the kitchen. A slim, dark-haired man sat in the chair Greg had vacated to go deal with his daughter, who from the sounds of it, was having a minor meltdown.

  “Hi. I’m Jack Milton. I was the new guy until today.” He smiled and offered his hand to shake.

  “Nice to meet you,” I said. “Flynn Bishop.” I sat down and balanced my plate on my thighs while I ate.

  We went through the get-to-know-you thing, and I found out Jack was a hairstylist, which got us talking hair and then my cowlick at my temple that drove me crazy. I wound up making an appointment with him for a cut the following week. His son, Briar, was three and at that moment asleep on a pile of blankets in the corner.

  “When he’s done, he’s done,” Jack said, and we both chuckled at the sight of the little boy passed out in the middle of all the noise and activity.

  Pretty soon, Coop started showing signs of wearing out. I told Jack I’d see him next week and went to seek out Liam to say my goodbyes. I found him in the kitchen opening a container of cookies. He made me promise to come to the next gathering, which would be at a children’s pizza place. I left with a tired, whining child, a bag full of food, and a juice box.

  “This is a special treat, eating in the car,” I told Cooper as I started up the engine. He was buckled into his seat, hand already in the bag. “Be as neat as you can.” That said, I was sure I’d have to vacuum out the car the next morning.

  Every so often on the thirty-minute drive home, I glanced in the review mirror to make sure Cooper was still awake and eating his food. His eyes drooped, but his empty belly was winning out, and by the time we got home, he’d eaten everything in the bag and emptied the juice box.

  Since he was still awake, I gave him a quick wash in the tub and got him into his pajamas. He was asleep before I could cover him up in his bed. I stood in the darkened room looking down at him, so much love in my heart it hurt. How could Heather have wanted to give up all this? She couldn’t possibly understand what she was missing. I didn’t understand it, but I was thankful he was all mine.

  When Matteo arrived, I’d just gotten out of the shower. Holding the towel around my waist, I let him in before excusing myself to pull on a pair of lounge pants and a T-shirt.

  “How was the daddy thing?” Matteo asked when I returned to the living room.

  “Good. I met some nice guys.”

  Matteo watched as I walked around the living room turning on lamps.

  “Any of them cute?” he asked.

  I glanced at him over my shoulder as I pulled the curtains closed. “Yeah. A few.” I wasn’t sure why he’d asked. Was he jealous? Or was he interested in finding someone? Which brought me back to the question of what the hell we were doing.

  Before I could open my mouth to finally bring it up, Matteo pressed himself against my back, his hands moving up my torso, under my T-shirt, lighting a trail of fire. He zeroed in on my sensitive nipples, plucking at them as he kissed my neck.

  “What about the movie?” I asked breathlessly.

  “After.” He bit my earlobe, and I nodded, not having a problem with that at all.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Matteo

  For some fucking reason, Blaze had chickened out of asking Lake to marry him. I’d opened my mouth to say something to Lake about the engagement I thought was a thing, but before I could get a word out, Blaze grabbed me and escorted me to the kitchen on the pretense of getting us some beer.

  “I didn’t do it, man. I got cold feet,” he told me when we were alone.

  “After we found the ring and everything?” I couldn’t believe it.

  “I wound up giving him a bracelet.”

  “Are you having second thoughts about staying with him?” I asked.

  “Fuck, no. I just…I want it to be perfect when I ask him, you know? And everything was going wrong that night.”

  Good grief.

  Halloween had come and gone. I’d wanted to go trick or treating with Flynn and Cooper on Halloween, but I’d had to work that night. It was the first time I’d ever regretted offering to work holidays because other people had families. Flynn had wound up going to Henry and trick or treating with some friends he’d made at the single dad’s group, while I’d had a boring evening watching video feeds and doing rounds of the building.

  Earlier that week, Cane had called me about coming to work for him as head of security at Winters Corporation. The move would not only bring me more money, but it would take me off night shift, something I suddenly realized I wanted pretty badly. I hadn’t worked days in years, and that had been only a temporary job I took on now and then. I’d told him I’d think about it.

  I’d realized sleeping and waking up beside Flynn felt different this time around. When I tried to figure it out, all I could come up with was we were the same people, yet time had changed us. Years ago, Flynn’s desire to have me with him all night had felt demanding, although I’d enjoyed those nights when I could manage them. I just really hadn’t been able to understand why my being there had been so important. We’d always had plenty of sex; what did it matter where we did our sleeping?

  I’d felt Nonna had needed me more. What if something had happened to her? What kind of man would I have been if I hadn’t taken care of the grandmother who had done so much for me growing up? And it wasn’t just Nonna. I’d had my club. Seven years ago, when my relationship with Flynn was coming to an end, Blaze had needed me. After his best friend J died in a motorcycle accident, Blaze had felt the responsibility of leadership more than ever, which had only doubled when J’s younger brother Morgan had come home and needed our protection.

  Now, though, the club was stable. Nonna was older and getting frailer, but I’d gotten her the medic alert bracelet, and I’d learned to ask her friends for help when I couldn’t be there.

  Lying beside Flynn, listening to his rhythmic breathing, feeling the warmth of his body beside mine—it meant so much more to me after having gone years without it. I’d stayed with him several nights when I should have been at home, and even though the guilt had weighed on me, I didn’t regret them. Nonna had thought I was working overtime, and Flynn hadn’t asked how I was managing it. We didn’t talk about what we were doing, but I suspected that we would soon because Flynn was the type who like having his ducks in a row. I suspected that had only grown stronger after having become a father. I had to admit, I was impressed with him. Taking on a baby all by himself while trying to run a business must have been really hard. And from the looks of it, his shop was doing well.

  Now, a week into November, not having spent the night together since before Halloween, I felt like I was having withdrawals. We’d texted, talked on the phone a few times, and I’d brought lunch to his shop on several occasions. But none of that could take the place of getting naked and pressing our bodies together. It wasn’t so much about sex, but more about physical closeness, and that was so different for me compared to how I’d used to be. I’d always loved Flynn, but now I seemed to be able to appreciate him.

  After assuring Blaze that he would find the perfect time to propose to Lake, I stepped onto the back porch and called Flynn.

  “Can I come over tonight?”

  Flynn was silent a moment before saying, “Sure. You’re off?”

  “Yeah. I want to spend the night, if that’s okay.”

  “I’d like that,” he said, voice warming several degrees, whi
ch somehow felt like a stroke to my cock.

  We made plans, and when we disconnected, I called Nonna.

  “I’m not going to be home tonight. Do you want to ask a friend to stay with you?”

  “No, I’ll be fine. But you’re working too much, Matteo. Is there a problem with money? Because—”

  “No, Nonna. I promise that’s okay. They just need extra help right now.” I felt like a jerk for lying to her. I should just tell her the truth—I had plans. But she’d only get excited that I was seeing someone and then would want to meet her.

  She assured me again that she’d be fine. When I walked back inside, Tony was in the kitchen making a sandwich.

  “When did you get here?” I asked. He’d obviously come from work, as he was wearing a suit.

  “A minute ago. Your grandmother okay? I saw you on the phone out there.”

  “I do talk to people other than my grandmother,” I said.

  “Really?” Tony took a bite of sandwich. “Who?”

  I punched him lightly in the arm. “Shut up. And she’s doing well, thanks. She’s a dynamo.”

  Tony chuckled. “Yeah, she’ll probably live to be a hundred.”

  “Her father lived to be a hundred and three.”

  “Wow.”

  “Hey, T,” I said as he crossed to the refrigerator to get a drink. “You think Cane is really serious about hiring me?”

  Tony swallowed his bite of sandwich. “Of course. He wants you there. Are you considering it?”

  I nodded. “I was thinking it would take some of the stress out of my life.”

  “So what are you waiting for?”

  I shrugged. “Guess I felt like it was charity or something.”

  Tony socked me in the arm much harder than I’d done to him a moment ago. “Ow! What the hell, man?”

  “Offering the job isn’t fucking charity, Matteo. We’re family, and you’re good at what you do.”

  I nodded, rubbing my arm. He was right. “Sorry. I know it. I can be a little thick-headed sometimes, I guess.”

  “That’s an understatement. By the way, we’re going to Dante and Isaac’s for Thanksgiving. Can you swing it? You know you can bring your grandmother.”

  I chuckled at that. “You say that every year, but I’m telling you, Nonna is set in her ways. We’ll have an early meal and when she’s in bed, I’ll come out and have dessert with you guys.”

  “You could bring anyone else you might want to bring,” Tony said, eying me over his glass of water.

  “Such as?”

  Tony shrugged. “A little bird told me you might be seeing someone.”

  “Does this little bird like to prance around in skirts and call a certain badass Brazilian we all know and love ‘Daddy?’”

  Tony smirked. “Maybe.”

  I sighed. “I might want to. We’ll see. I don’t know what he’s got going on.”

  “Don’t have anything interesting to tell me on that subject, do you?” Tony grumbled.

  I smiled and tried to ruffle his hair, but he ducked out of my reach.

  “Just don’t hurt him, Matteo,” Tony said before rinsing out his glass.

  “I don’t want to hurt him,” I said.

  Tony turned and looked me in the eye. “Good.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Flynn

  When Matteo’s mouth locked on mine, I felt like a drowning man getting his first breath of air. My hands shook as I pushed the leather jacket off his shoulders and began unbuttoning his shirt, a difficult task with us fused at the mouth and Matteo squeezing my ass cheeks and grinding our lower bodies together.

  I gasped, the friction deliciously naughty. I’d put Cooper to bed half an hour before, and Matteo had barely gotten inside the door before we were on each other.

  I managed to get his shirt open, revealing the rippling muscles of his chest and abdomen. I ran my fingers through the dark sprinkling of hair and teased his small, brown nipples while we continued to hungrily lick into each other’s mouths.

  “Want inside you so bad,” he said, voice low and sultry. My dick leaked in my pants, and the next thing I knew, he was freeing it. Pushing me against the wall hard enough to dislodge the starburst mirror hanging by the door, Matteo fell to his knees and took me into his mouth.

  “Holy fuck…”

  Matteo looked up at me, dark eyes smouldering with lust while he bobbed over my dick, one warm, rough hand cradling my balls while the other tugged at my trimmed pubic hair.

  I made a garbled noise in my throat, fingers scraping the wall at my sides.

  Skillfully, Matteo brought me to the edge. My legs shook and my heart thundered. I whimpered as my orgasm built, and then he pulled off.

  “Matteo!” I whined.

  He stood and kissed my neck, then ear, before whispering, “Bed, baby.”

  I didn’t recall walking, but suddenly I was in the bedroom and Matteo was helping me out of my clothes. He pressed another kiss to my lips. “Ass in the air.”

  I jumped onto the bed and rolled onto my knees. Looking over my shoulder, I watched as he pulled off his black boots and stripped off his jeans, revealing his long, swollen cock, the head glistening with precum.

  “God, yes.” I spread my legs wide and arched my back so my ass was on full display.

  He moaned and, stroking his cock, bent to lap at my hole, bringing whimpers from my lips. I was more than ready when he took the lube from the drawer and slicked himself. I crawled up the bed to give him room, and when he finally slid inside me, I hung my head low, hands curled into the sheets. Slow, deliberate thrusts quickly turned hard and fast. We weren’t going to last long, and that was fine with me.

  Matteo pushed me to my stomach and covered my body with his own.

  “Like that?” he asked, pounding my ass.

  I could only lace our fingers together and squeeze, way beyond words. Hard or gentle, when Matteo was inside me, he owned me, heart, soul, and body. It just was; I couldn’t change it if I tried.

  Matteo bit into my shoulder as he came, and it set off my climax, which shook my body and rippled through me for long moments as he kept thrusting erratically against my sensitive prostate.

  “I love it when you come apart,” Matteo whispered in my ear as we lay in a trembling pile of limbs.

  “Same. You.”

  He laughed, kissing along my shoulders before gently pulling out of me. “I think I short-circuited your brain.”

  We quickly cleaned up and snuggled together in the bed.

  “This feels amazing,” he said.

  I kissed his chest. Matteo had the same responsibilities he’d had seven years ago, yet he wanted to sleep beside me. I wondered what had changed.

  I wasn’t going to question it. Hell, I knew what we were doing was bound to end the exact same way it had before, and anticipating that pain would kill me if I allowed myself to dwell on it. As it was, I was taking what I needed and not giving it much thought. I couldn’t stop yet.

  I watched him for a long time. His breaths evening out, chest rising and falling as sleep overtook him, face washed of expression. I felt the dull ache in my ass and his cum dribbling out of it. I knew none of it would last, but I wanted it to so damn much.

  ****

  I woke to sunlight streaming through the curtains I’d forgotten to close when Matteo and I had fallen into bed the night before. Stretching, I flung my arm to the other side of the bed only to find it cold. I rose onto my elbows and looked at the clock, and then my eyes went to the closed door.

  Rising, I pulled on some clothes and ventured into the hall. Coop’s bed was empty. Hearing noises from the kitchen, I padded that way, pausing when I saw Coop dressed and kneeling on one of the bar stools, hair standing on end and flour all over the place, a humongous apron wrapped under his arms and tied in front.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, leaning against the wall and admiring the planes and muscles of Matteo’s bare back as he helped Coop pour batter onto the electric fry
er.

  “We’re making pankits, Daddy!” Coop said happily, shooting me a quick look before getting back to the task at hand.

  “Pancakes. Really? Yum,” I said, smiling. Matteo’s jeans were riding low on his waist, and I wanted to peek inside to see the swell of his ass. I imagined ladling pancake batter between his cheeks and licking it off.

  Realizing I was giving myself a woody with my son in the room, I shook my head clear of thoughts of sex and moved closer to watch.

  “Mad said you guys had a sleepover last night,” Cooper said.

  “Um, yeah. We did.”

  “Did you play pirate like Aunt Glo and Aunt Jess?” he asked.

  I had trouble not laughing. “Yeah. We had fun.”

  “We’ll have a batch ready for you in a minute,” Matteo said, glancing at me and making a face at my smile. I’d have to explain to him later. “Go sit down at the table.”

  “Hm. I could get used to this.” I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down, my words replaying in my head. God, it would be so easy to get used to it. And Cooper was clearly having a great time. He loved Matteo. That realization grabbed hold of my heart and my head at the same time, stilling my hand midway to bringing the cup to my lips.

  God, why didn’t I think of this before?

  It wasn’t just my heart on the line anymore. My son was quickly getting attached to Matteo and would be devastated when he left.

  “What’s wrong?” Matteo asked, setting a stack of pancakes in front of me as Cooper slid into his chair with the booster seat.

  I blinked. “Nothing. This looks delicious.” I reached for the syrup, aching as Cooper and Matteo chatted happily over the meal they’d made together.

  “What are your plans for Thanksgiving?” Matteo asked when we were clearing up and Cooper had run off to make his bed. “You and Coop want to go to Dante’s with me?”