by Jamie Knight
She trailed off, her pretty cheeks flush with an embarrassed blush.
I realized she was going to say that it would be better if there was a father in the picture, but she clearly didn’t want to go there. She had never said anything about him to me, so I didn’t prod. Now, I tried to think quickly about how to change the subject so that she would feel more at ease.
“It seems like you and Kate kind of switch shifts when it comes to watching Kelly?” I asked, as I had been wondering what their arrangement was like.
“Yeah, exactly,” Molly said, looking a bit more relaxed now, to my relief. “It’s a blessing and I’m really grateful for her. She works at the Hinton CPA office; it’s a steady 9 to 5 type job, because she graduated from college whereas I…. didn’t.”
There was another awkward pause, but then Molly continued.
“It’s good that she works days because then she’s usually available during the evening and over the weekends to take care of Kelly while I’m at work.”
“That sounds like a real friend,” I said.
“She is,” said Molly. “She’s been there for me during some of my hardest times. She’s like an honorary aunty.”
I nodded. I didn’t like hearing that Molly had had hard times. I guessed it only made sense. I wanted to make sure she never had any again, though.
I had to figure out how I was going to bring up the topic of me wanting to take care of both Molly and Kelly, because I wanted Molly in my life for good. This was new territory for me and I wasn’t sure how to approach the “settling down” part of, well, settling down.
I really liked the fact that Molly was mature and not some silly party girl like others I’d dated. All the experience she had with her daughter was showing in her basic mannerisms.
I wished I could explain to her here and now that I hadn’t always been a player. I had my reasons.
I had once gone out with a woman named Beatrice who was also a CEO of a large communications firm on the other side of town. One of my friends had hooked me up with the date and everybody assumed our relationship was going to be perfect because of the similarities we shared in our lives.
It was an equally rosy period for me, because the relationship with Beatrice had started off really well. She had similar tastes and we enjoyed being in each other’s company. I started seeing myself as being able to “settle down,” believe it or not.
Most of my friends were convinced that I had finally found a wife and that it was only a matter of time before we got married. However, Beatrice was quite demanding about some of the things she wanted me to change about myself.
She was religious and wanted me to go to church with her. She liked to have all my time, and wanted me to work less to be around her more. I tried in vain to please her, but she was always wanting something different, so it was impossible.
Plus, even back then, I hadn’t been the kind of guy you could put on a leash or in a cage or on display in some pretty shelf. I was hard-headed and stubborn, and so perhaps my efforts to change weren’t sincere and Beatrice had seen right through them. For whatever reason, it clearly wasn’t working out, and we weren’t as good of a fit as I had originally thought we were.
Finally, I told her that I couldn’t change any more and that she had to take me or leave me. She told me it was an easy choice, and left me. I wasn’t expecting that level of hostility, but, looking back, she had always been rather cruel and selfish. I should have fucking stood up for myself a lot sooner.
From that point on, I became a player, sleeping with as many women as I could find, and letting them know that I wasn’t going to change one bit for them because I wasn’t going to be around long enough for it to matter.
I can’t even say I particularly enjoyed the life of living like a player or the reputation that came with it, but I seemed propelled by it, as it was the only way I hadn’t gotten myself into another shitty relationship.
I was determined never to be put on a leash again, even though I wasn’t exactly fond of the methods I went to in order to ensure it didn’t happen. My distaste for what I was doing wasn’t strong enough to stop me from constantly seeking the company of other women.
My friends and co-workers were surprised by the turn of events in my life and in their eyes, I had become a shameless player. But it suited me, and I wasn’t sure how to change it. I hadn’t even wanted to, until now, that I’d met Molly.
As I stared at Molly seated across the table, I knew that I had to do everything to keep her. She was the opposite of Beatrice.
She had no intention of intruding in my life and she was happy with the way I was. For the first time, I was realizing that I could open myself up again and perhaps not get hurt. Or at least, it was worth trying to do that.
She was smiling widely at me as I noticed that I had been staring at her for a while now, but she had become used to it. I wanted to tell her just how happy I had become since the first time we met, but somebody in a suit walked up to our table and I was surprised to see one of my co-workers.
“Hi, boss,” he said, as he approached and stretched out his hand. “I didn’t expect to find you here.”
John was one of the accounting specialists in my office and we often worked together. We had a good friendship and since we spent so much time in the office together, we inevitably shared different aspects of our lives with each other. He was one of the co-workers who knew I was a player and knew that HR had told me to clean up my act, lest I bring bad press to the company.
I exchanged greetings with him before he extended his hand to Molly. He had a big smile on his clean-shaven face as he looked at her, and then he returned a knowing stare in my direction.
“This has got to be the first time I’ve seen you with the same woman twice,” he said, as if oblivious to the fact that Molly was not only there but also that she was staring directly at him.
In fact, he now turned to face Molly, all the while still nodding and beaming widely. “I remember you from the party at Steve’s house. Take care of our boss, will you, darling? He’s special to us and I’m glad to see he’s in good hands with you.”
Molly could only nod and smile. I noticed for the first time that John appeared to be slightly intoxicated. He must have had a little more than usual to drink, and I noticed it even more as he turned to me once again and kept talking, when any normal, sober person would have known to keep their mouth shut.
“Sorry for interrupting,” he said. “I just hope HR doesn’t find out about your latest bout of commitment to the same woman, because it will only help your bad boy image improve.”
I laughed.
“That could only be a good thing, right?”
He laughed, too, and continued on his way out of the restaurant. I was glad, because the things he was saying were slightly embarrassing.
Molly shot up her eyebrows at me but, to my relief, didn’t say anything. We continued our dinner in a peaceful, mostly quiet manner, with some talk about the tasks that lay before us at work in the upcoming week. Finally, we joked with each other that we didn’t want to be thinking about work right now, and that there were better things to be doing, so it was clearly time to go back to my place and have fun together.
Chapter 7
Steve
Once we were at my house, I was glad that Molly didn’t have to go back home. She seemed happy enough being in my company and she went back and forth about whether she should get home to Kelly but then Kate called and reassured her that she was in good hands. This was something that happened pretty frequently for Molly and made me realize how hard it must be for her to be a single mom.
I got her straight into my room after driving from the restaurant, and I was hoping that nobody would see me out with her at least for the next few days, so that they would stop the fucking jokes that I was only with her in an effort to improve my reputation around the office.
I could understand how this was a new phenomenon for them, but it was fucking annoying as hel
l for me. At least no one could see us while we were tucked away at my place, though.
When John had walked up to our table and started making all sorts of comments about my past relationships, I was genuinely worried that Molly would immediately become resentful and think I was using her.
That was far from the case, as Molly seemed like my perfect dream girl. Worse, I supposed, I worried that the constant jokes would make her aware of my former playboy status, and which dream girl would be happy about being with a player?
I tried to put that out of my mind now, though.
“Are you ready to be properly put to bed?” I asked her.
“I sure am,” she said.
Eagerly, I began to undress her, removing her tight-fitting jeans with some struggling as she looked at me seductively. She, in turn, removed my clothes and I stood there for a minute with my hard cock standing at attention for her.
She was enjoying having sex with me, I could tell. The way she firmly held my body, the way she moaned and grunted my name let me know.
I loved looking at her because she had a gorgeous body. She had large breasts that I could never take my eyes off, and she was very inviting whenever we were in bed together.
On this occasion, she clung onto my body tightly as we started kissing and I sunk into the bed sheets with her.
Her skin was velvety smooth and she grabbed onto my cock and started stroking me slowly. I was so erect I feared that my dick might fall off, but she was giving me a deep sense of pleasure that made me sit back and relax.
She leaned into the bed sheets and then disappeared underneath them and before I knew it, she had my cock in her mouth. Her wetness made me feel even more excited to fuck her, as she sucked on my dick for a couple of minutes, making me moan.
Then she reached into the bedside drawer for my packet of condoms and slipped one on me. She then climbed on top of me and slid my dick in between her legs.
“You really wanted this too, didn’t you?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she murmured.
“I love it when you take charge. And I love holding your curvy hips as you fuck me.”
“That’s good, because I like fucking you,” she said.
She was quite wet and it felt amazing to be inside her. She started moving her hips slowly, making sure that my dick was filling her as much as possible. That wasn’t a hard task, since she had a tight little pussy and my big cock crammed itself in.
I wanted to tell her how amazing she was making me feel but I was unable to speak because the words simply would not come out of my mouth. Molly was an expert in bed. She moved slowly and purposefully at first, until I couldn’t bear the pleasure she was giving me and had to switch things up so that I could retain control.
“My turn to take charge,” I told her.
“Good,” she laughed.
I placed her flat on her back on the bed and clambered on top of her, thrusting continuously until she started moaning in pleasure. Her pussy was so wet I had no intentions of ever getting out of her. I began sucking on her nipple while she writhed underneath me.
“This feels so good,” she said, gripping my back so hard I was sure she was leaving marks – but I didn’t mind at all. “You’re going to make me cum.”
“Good,” I told her, after removing her nipple from my mouth for a second. “I’m going to cum, too.”
I returned to her delicious breasts while I felt myself cumming uncontrollably, and it was so much that I remained groaning slightly, even after I slipped out of her and removed the condom.
My heart was racing, and I was wondering whether I was going to be able to keep my head.
“I always want to be with you,” I whispered, as I tried to catch my breath.
“Really? Despite being a player?” asked Molly.
She was lying next to me, and her comment immediately made me bolt up in bed.
“What did you say?” I asked.
My eyes were wide open.
“No, nothing,” replied Molly, turning around to face the opposite wall of my room.
Her beautiful back was facing me, and I could see the yellow ribbon that was holding her hair in place. I wanted her to talk more about her comment, but I was feeling exhausted and didn’t want to ruin an otherwise great night by arguing.
“Perhaps I used to be,” I told her. “But not anymore.”
She didn’t say anything else. But I couldn’t help but wonder if she was thinking, “That’s what they all say.”
Damn my annoying colleagues for putting these thoughts into her head. I wasn’t sure how I could prove to her that I really had changed. But I was determined to do so.
I hadn’t ever felt this way about anyone before, and I had to make sure I kept letting her know that so that I could keep her in my life.
We were having such a great time together and I was excited about what the future held for us.
If only I could convince her that I was worth sticking with for the ride.
Chapter 8
Molly
A couple of weeks had passed since I had seen Steve.
I could not remove the thoughts of his friend approaching our dinner table the last time we had gone out. He had called Steve a player and said he already had a bad reputation around the office.
And what was getting to me even more than that was what his colleague had said about him using me to improve his reputation. Steve had even confirmed it was true, albeit jokingly. I didn’t like the implication that he was trotting me out into public in order to get himself out of trouble.
I’d heard similar comments at his house when he had that party, but I hadn’t totally understood them and felt bad for eavesdropping and had tried to forget about them. But now I couldn’t do that.
I realized it was possible that he was playing me, just like the other girls, or, probably worse, using me to try to cover up his playboy past. I didn’t want to be a fool.
When we had sex at his house after dinner that night, I told myself to just have a fun time and then go home. Two could play that game, after all. But then he’d made the comment about wanting to “always be with me” and I couldn’t help but wonder if that was the line he used on all the girls.
He seemed to think I was upset about him having been a player and I hadn’t wanted to get into the fact that what bothered me more were the comments and jokes about my being some kind of reputation saver for him. So, I didn’t say anything and decided to just think about it on my own the next day.
That next day ended up turning into weeks, as I felt stuck in indecision and inertia and figured it was better to avoid his calls until I had figured out what to do about this. But I also didn’t know how to figure it out, so I ended up continuing to ignore him.
I knew I had no right to expect commitment from him, but I also didn’t like my heart being toyed with. It had been a long time since I had even dated, and I didn’t have a lot of time to waste on someone who was going to fuck with my heart or head.
I wasn’t sure whether I should remain mad at Steve indefinitely, but what I did know was that I had no intention of talking to him at the moment. He had tried calling me quite a lot, and had sent a string of messages asking to talk, but I had simply kept ignoring him.
I couldn’t help but think of the strangeness of Steve being in love with me despite being a senior person in his company. Somebody of his caliber really should be having a wife by this stage in his life or a steady girlfriend he could count on.
At first, I had lacked confidence and was overly flattered, wondering “why me?” But now I’d started to wonder why none of the other women he’d obviously dated had wanted to be with him long-term. What was I missing that they hadn’t? Or could it simply be true that he hadn’t been interested in them but was actually interested in me?
When we first met, he had been very kind to me, giving me the two hundred dollars that enabled me to meet my rent payments on time. However, now that the dust had settled, I was still amazed t
hat he would actually want to settle down with me.
Finally, after much back and forth with Kate – who did not agree with me, but acknowledged that it wasn’t her heart on the line – I decided there was no way that he was interested in me for real, long-term. I assumed that his work colleague’s comments must have been for real and that he must be a player using me to improve his image.
It upset me, thinking about the time I had spent with him, but it was not entirely wasted, considering he had helped me get a new job. Now that things had appeared to be going well between us, I was starting to panic.
It had been a long time since I had been in a relationship and I was already used to living the life of a single moment. It wasn’t that bad, actually, because I got to spend lots of time with Kelly and Kate.
The last time I had been in a relationship, I had to get myself out of that situation mainly because the man could not handle the fact that I already had a daughter. Henry was a nice guy and we started dating without him knowing that I already had a daughter and when he found out, we were broken up within days.
I thought the same would happen with Steve, because I was under the assumption that he was not going to be interested in being around a child who wasn’t his. Especially if he was a player.
But as it was, he was extremely cool about it and even found it interesting to talk about Kelly once in a while. This confused me. Most players just wanted to have good sex and move on.
Still, I decided to ignore him because it was in my best interests. It was better that whatever this thing was that we had between us not grow very strong because I had no intention of being emotionally attached to him.
After everything that had happened with Kelly’s dad, I had learned to stand on my own two feet and not rely on anyone else – and that had gotten me far in life so I didn’t want to stop now, just because an amazingly handsome billionaire had come along and temporarily swept me off my feet.
On this particular day, I was home with Kelly, watching her play video games, which I was trying to take turns playing, but sucked at. I had been going through the motions to humor her, but finally figured it was pointless to keep trying because she was doing well enough without my inept involvement.