He’s already called his lawyer about this. I know it’s big now and I’m having a hard time not freaking out. So I look back out the window and try to breathe as I see the lights of DFW airport.
It’s nearly eleven at night and I promised my mother I’d call when we arrived safely at our destination. I left out it was going to be Dallas. She thinks I’m going back to New York.
I let her know I was going to Bora Bora with Jason and she was none too pleased. I told her we were going away to see if we wanted to get back together which made her furious.
She told me, of course, he could be good for a week, away from all of his tramps. But I felt something very different with him during that week. I felt a change in the man I used to know.
He said the same thing himself. He told me he felt a change in himself he never dreamed he’d feel.
I’m not sure if he’s become a brilliant liar or really means it. I’m putting my faith in that he really means it.
As I sit here and watch the lights getting closer and closer as we descend, I can’t help comparing this to where we are in our lives. On the way to a marriage and family.
Just like landing this jet, it’s iffy. I’ve seen planes crash right as they land. We could too.
Jason and I could make it right up to the altar and everything could go wrong. I don’t know how or why, but things could go wrong.
I glance back at Jason. He’s laying his head back on the headrest with his eyes closed. I know it’s not because he’s nervous about the landing. I know he’s nervous about telling me what this meeting is really about.
It’s that bad of news that he’s nervous about losing me over this. Otherwise, he’d have told me about it right away. Instead, he’s skirted around it and that makes me extremely worried.
I lay my head back on the headrest too and close my eyes. Seems right now a little prayer wouldn’t hurt.
Please let things work out for us!
Chapter 2
JASON
Somewhere inside me, I know Brittany will stay by my side after I tell her this news. But as I sit in this very nice hotel room and look at her as she stares at me, waiting to hear what I have to say, I am paralyzed.
Fear has me in its clammy hands and refuses to let me go. Her foot tapping on the cherry wood floor makes me look at it and she makes a huffing sound. “Jason, it’s been ten minutes. You’re going to have to bite the fucking bullet and let the words out.”
“But you might leave me,” I mutter.
She gets up and comes to sit right next to me. Her hand slips over mine and she pulls it to her lips. “Tell me. I won’t leave you.”
I take a deep breath. I feel stronger with her next to me, holding my hand in hers. “I’ve been accused of being the father of a baby.”
Her eyes move down then quickly back up to mine. I can see the disappointment behind the green color of her beautiful eyes. “You’ve said that you have always used condoms, and you told me that you also made the women you’ve been with use other birth control too. So how could this have happened?”
“I don’t think it’s true. I don’t think I am the father. This woman has said I am, though. She has a judge who’s a family friend and ready to sue me for child support.” I squeeze her hand. “But let’s just run down this road for a minute. What if I am the father? Would that break our engagement?”
She looks right into my eyes. “No.”
My insides melt with her one word. No, she will not leave me if the worst happens.
“Thank you, Angel. You have no idea of the torture I’ve been putting myself through since I heard this news. I really thought this might be something you couldn’t take.”
“What I can’t take is dishonesty and hiding things from me. I know you were worried about how I would take it, but the fact is I’m more upset with you that you waited so long to tell me. You could’ve avoided all of that worry if you would have been honest with me from the very beginning.” She pulls my hand to her cheek and runs my knuckles over her cheek. “I love you. I know you have a past. A very daunting past. I’m no fool. I know things will arise now and then that will have to be taken care of.”
“I’m not used to being forthcoming, Britt. I’ve held my cards close to the vest for many years now. Well, always, if I’m going to be honest with myself. This new way of living is kind of hard to maintain so quickly. I am sorry.” I pull her hand to my lips.
She looks at me with a bit of sadness in her eyes. “Okay, I forgive you. My bad, bad boy.”
“I don’t want to be bad. Not anymore. And now that you know what I’m up against, I’d like you to go with me to court.” I wait to see what she’ll say. I’m not sure at all she’ll want to be involved in this ugly situation.
“Are you kidding me?” she asks in a high squeaky voice. “You better take me with you. If this broad is thinking she can run over you, then she has another think coming. Whether the baby’s yours or not, she won’t be getting her claws into you.”
Pulling her to me, I wrap my arms around her. “That’s fantastic to hear. I had no idea how you’d take any of this. I really feel like I have a partner for the first time in my life, I really have someone in my corner.”
Her hands move over my back. “You have me, Baby. I will be in your corner. No matter what you’ve done in the past, I’m here for you now. You won’t have to clean up any of your messes alone.”
My heart is pounding in my chest as it fills with a lot more love for this woman. She’s become quite fearless in the last six years. No longer the timid, shy girl she was when we were young.
Little kisses are peppered along my neck then her lips meet mine and she takes me away with her sweet kiss.
We’ve both slipped out of our clothes and into the fluffy white robes the hotel had in the bathroom. Her hands creep under mine to run over my chest then she pushes me back on the sofa.
Straddling me, she sits up and looks down at me. I push her robe open and run my hands over her plump breasts. “Still love me, then?”
She nods. “More than ever.”
Her fingertip traces the valleys between my abs as she hums. Her humming has me itching to see what she has planned for me. A gleam is in her eyes and I can see she wants to show me how much she loves me.
I push the robe all the way off her and pull her to me. “How about you let me taste those bad boys you have there, Pudding-pop?”
She smiles as she leans over me. I take one of her tits and lick the nipple until it’s as tight as it can get. She moans with the teasing and grinds her hot sex against my stomach.
My fingers press into the springy softness of her other tit as I change from licking to sucking. Her hands are on the armrest, behind my head, as she leans over me. “Baby, that feels so fucking good.”
I suck harder and feel her wet against my skin. Running my free hand down her back, I grip her ass cheek. The softness in each hand and the luscious tit in my mouth has me aroused to the point I have to do something about that.
Popping her tit out of my mouth, I sit up and pick her up with me, taking her to the bedroom. She wraps her legs around my waist and kisses me. Closing my eyes for only a second has me running her into a wall and I open my eyes.
“Sorry,” I say as she giggles.
“Don’t be,” she says then runs her mouth to my neck. “Do me here.”
I growl and press her against the wall as I move into her slow and easy. Her nails gouge into my shoulders then her mouth is back on mine. The way she’s kissing me lets me know she wants a little rough stuff, so I thrust into her hard and fast.
She pulls her mouth from mine, panting hard as I plunge into her. “I’m aching to feel your hands on my ass, Jason. Take me to the bed and bend me over your lap.”
“Fuck me, Britt!”
Putting my hands on her ass, I grip it and walk to the bedroom, sitting on the side of the bed. I hold her on my lap, still connected as she runs her fingers over my chest and bites her lower lip.
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“I want you to spank me for leaving you like I did, Jason. I was wrong for doing that and it led us down bad paths. Leave an impression on me so I won’t ever do that again.”
I stare into her eyes. “Britt, I won’t be punishing you for doing that. It’s all my fault that you left. If anyone needs their ass beat, it’s me.”
“Yeah, I know,” she whispers with a husky sound in her voice. “But I’ve been aching for your hands to make my ass burn. So pretend you’re doing it for you. Plus, I’ve done some bad things with other men, doesn’t that make you want to teach me a lesson?”
“I so do not want to hear about you doing things with anyone else,” I tell her as I lean my forehead on hers.
“Then make me shut up. Spank me. Show me who's boss.”
Seems she’s aching for it, so who am I to deny her anything she wants? I pull her around and lay her over my lap. Her pristine flesh has a new bronze glow from our trip to Bora Bora.
I run my hand over her rounded ass cheek and relish the way its firm but conforms to my hand as I press it a bit. Putting one hand on her back, I raise the other and bring it down with a hard smack.
She makes a little yip sound then says, “Again.”
“Britt…”
She interrupts me, “The day after I left for college, I fucked three guys the first day I got there.”
I smack her hard. “You did not!”
“I did. I let two of them have me at one time.”
I smack her again. “You did not!”
“I did. I let them fuck the shit out of me because I was so mad at you.”
I give her three strikes in rapid succession. “Why would you do that?”
“To get back at you,” she says. “I wanted to hurt you.”
I pull her up as I hear tears in her words. Tears flow over her cheeks. Pulling her around, I put her back on my lap. As I stroke her hair, I say, “Baby, how in the hell did you see that as hurting me? I wasn’t even aware of that.”
When she opens her mouth, a sob comes out. “I know. It was so stupid and dumb and I never even told anyone about that before. I did so many things, telling myself I was hurting you with each depraved action I did.”
Pulling her to me, I hug her and feel more guilt than I’ve ever felt before. She pulls back from me and looks at me. “I was a fool. Please tell me I’m not being one again.”
“You’re not being a fool. I love you. I’m not about to fuck things up again. You can trust me, Baby.” I kiss her mouth and can taste her salty tears. “I’m so sorry. I will spend the rest of my life making up for what I did to you that made you do the things you did. But know this, Britt, I will never judge you about anything you did.”
She rests her head on my shoulder as she sniffles. “Thank you. I don’t want to lie to you. I want you to know I’m not a good girl anymore. But I want to be good for you again.”
“You will be. I can see it inside of you. You and I can be good together. We’ll help each other.”
Laying her on the bed, I move my body over hers. She opens her legs and her arms for me to come into them. “Make me good again, Jason. Help me be that sweet girl again.”
I push her hair back as I enter her. Her hot wet depths seem to be welcoming me. “You and I will be good together.” I kiss her as I make slow strokes into her.
My heart aches that she’s been through so much. My fucking around did so much more to her than I ever knew was possible. And now that I know what I did to her, it makes me sick to think about what I’ve done to the other women I’ve trampled on.
I was never meaning to cause any harm, but I have. When I end things with all the women who think we have something real, I know it’s going to mess me up.
Easing my kiss, I move my mouth to her neck and kiss her there. Her nails graze my back as she moans, “Jason, no one has ever made love to me. Only you.”
“And only I will ever touch you like this until the end of time. You are mine.”
I pull back to look at her. She runs her hands over my cheeks. “I am yours.”
Moving into her with deliberate slow strokes, I feel the tension that was in her body leaving it. Her eyes are lighter. Her face is softer.
“And I am yours,” I tell her. Then deliver another tender kiss to her ruby lips.
If she’ll allow it, I will cherish this woman until the very end.
Chapter 3
BRITTANY
The morning is foggy as is my brain as we walk into the courthouse in New Holland. A tall, older man is waiting just inside the double doors. “Hello, Jason.”
Jason nods. “Hi, Jackson, thanks for meeting me here. This is my fiancé, Brittany.”
The older man raises his silver eyebrows as he looks at me. “Fiancé?”
“Yes, sir,” I say as I reach out to shake his hand. “As of only a few days ago.”
“When’s the wedding?” he asks.
I shrug and Jason speaks up, “As soon as this shit is dealt with.”
The attorney leads us upstairs. “Beatrice Simmons is suing you for child support for her three-month-old son, Morgan Brennan.”
We stop on the top step as Jason asks, “How in the hell was she able to give him my last name?”
“She filled in the birth certificate with more than that. She put your name as the father too. She said you were out of the country when the baby was born and that you gave her permission to do that,” the attorney tells him. “Were you aware of the pregnancy, Jason?”
He shakes his head. “Not at all. It’s been about a year since I’ve seen her. I’ve talked to her on the phone some but I’ve been telling her I was in Brazil on business.”
The attorney runs his hand over his face which has gone ashen. “Jason, what does this woman think you do for a living?”
“She thinks I’m in the import-export business.” Jason looks at me with a blank expression. “Are you ready to hear me lie some more?”
The attorney shakes his head. “No more lies, Jason. The truth comes out today. End of story.”
“But, she’s not telling the truth either,” Jason says as the attorney walks forward and we follow.
“She isn’t my client. You are. No more lies, Jason.” He pushes a door open and there sits an older woman judge behind a very clean desk.
On the other side of the desk sits a dark haired woman with brown eyes. She’s a little chubby and looks right at Jason as we go into the room. She stands up and walks toward him.
The attorney gets between them. “No physical contact is going to be allowed, Miss Simmons.”
She looks a little sad but nods and sits down. “Hello, Jason. I’m sorry about this. If you’d come around, then you’d have known more.”
“Beatrice, this…” Jason says but his attorney turns back to him and raises his hand to stop him from talking.
A couple of chairs are pulled up and we sit together on one end of the desk while the accuser sits alone on the other end of it. She looks down and I can see where she’s been biting her nails.
She seems not completely insane so I don’t know why she’d be doing this if she didn’t honestly think Jason was the father of her son. The judge clears her throat and we all look at her.
The name plate on her desk says, Judge Staples. Her deep black hair is dyed as her wrinkles indicate she’s probably seventy or so. Far past retirement. I’m not sure why she’s still allowed to be a judge. But the town is small so maybe they let them be judges as long as their minds hold up.
I hope this woman has a mind that still works!
“Hello, I am Judge Staples and we are here today in the matter of child support for Morgan Brennan, the son of Beatrice Simmons and Jason Brennan…”
The lawyer interjects, “My client has viable concerns he is not the father of this child. Furthermore, he was never told of a pregnancy and never approved of his name being used on the birth certificate or the child carrying his surname. These are things we will attend to today, Your Honor.”<
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The judge looks at Beatrice who looks a little pale. “You assured me this man was aware of a pregnancy, Miss Simmons.”
“He was, Judge. I swear it,” she says, but she won’t look at Jason so I have my doubts.
“Look, Judge,” Jason says as he leans forward, taking the woman’s attention. “Here’s the deal. I always use condoms and Miss Simmons assured me she was on oral birth control. I can’t be the father.”
The judge gives him a smile. “Stranger things have happened, Mr. Brennan. Do you admit to having sex with Miss Simmons during the time she became pregnant?”
Jason gets out his phone and taps it a few times then turns it around to show the judge. “That date right there is the last time she and I were intimate.” He looks around his lawyer at Beatrice. “That date is a good month before you were pregnant if that baby is three months old.”
Beatrice nods. “This is true. But It wasn’t through sex that I got pregnant. It was through in vitro fertilization.”
Jason’s eyebrows go so far up they get lost in his dark hairline. He looks at the judge and asks, “Is that legal? I didn’t know about that nor would’ve ever approved of it.”
The judge takes a deep breath and looks at Beatrice. “Did you do that behind Mr. Brennan’s back?”
Beatrice nods. “But we were in a monogamous relationship. He was out of the country so much with his job that we didn’t get to really discuss things. I’m thirty-four and I found myself worrying about never having a child. So I did something some people might find dishonest. I’m a nurse, you see. I know how to keep semen and I kept three condoms full of it. I took it to the clinic and had it stored.”
Jason growls, “How could you do that?”
Beatrice looks upset and who could blame her but also who could blame Jason. And now I think there’s about a hundred percent chance this baby is his. Now I find myself breaking out into a sweat.
This woman may be a part of my life if I do marry Jason. I may help in raising their son. I don’t know how I feel about all of that.
It was me who was going to give him his children. It was me who would be co-parenting with him. Now this woman is going to be a part of that and it makes me uneasy.
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