“We get to go to a waterfall!” Declan chimed in just as the last word left Chloe’s mouth.
I put my arm around Connie and pulled her to me. “Your Aunt Constance is a little tired today, but I’ll keep my promise and we’ll go see one, there just won’t be a lot of hiking to get to it.”
Chloe and Declan immediately looked more concerned than I thought normal as they both went to her and took a hand, “Are you okay Aunt Constance? Why are you tired?”
“I’m better than I can remember being in a long time, but I stayed up way past my bedtime last night. I can’t wait to see the waterfall your daddy’s going to take us to.” She chuckled as she noted they already had their boots on.
I hugged Angelica as I said, “Thanks for staying last night and watching them. I’m assuming they’re correct when they say they behaved?”
“We had a lot of fun playing, and when I said it was time for bed they went right away without arguing.”
“And this morning?” Connie asked. She didn’t look happy and I wasn’t sure what was up, but when Angelica leaned into me as she answered, I realized Connie was jealous.
“Oh, they brought me things I needed to make breakfast and were a big help. I’ll come stay with them anytime Bash will be working most of the night, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind coming with me to watch them if you need some time away on a night he’s off.”
Angelica had picked up on it, too, and I was almost certain she’d inserted Bash into the conversation to remind Connie she wasn’t a threat.
“We can figure that out later — I’m just glad last night went off without a hitch. I was almost afraid we’d come back to find out you’d souped-up their bikes,” I said with a grin.
She pushed at me and stepped toward Connie. “Just let me know if you need someone again and we’ll figure out a time.” Connie didn’t know what to do at first when Tink hugged her, but she put her arms around her to hug her back as she looked at me like she needed rescuing.
Next came hugs for the kids, and then she was out the door and it was just the four of us.
I sent Connie upstairs to get her hiking boots while I put together snacks and drinks for the twins, and we were on the road within thirty minutes.
When Chloe had called Tink Princess Jellica, it’d reminded me of the Jellicle cats. I’m not big into musicals, but we’d taken Clara and Nicky to see a production of Cats and we’d all been mesmerized. I don’t want to duplicate too many shared experiences, but I decided to make an exception with this, so I told the twins all about the various cats on the way to the falls, and told them bits and pieces of the story.
I took them to Bald River Falls, and stopped on the bridge so they could get the best view before we parked. It’s possible to climb on the rocks all around and almost inside the falls, but I couldn’t hold the twins’ hands and Connie’s, so I set them up rock hopping in the shallows, and then stood with Connie while we watched.
“I never imagined you’d be a big Cats fan.”
I shrugged. “It’s a long story, and one I can tell you later.” I turned to her and pushed a stray strand of hair out of her face. “I’m going to hug the women I’m close to, and you’re going to have to be okay with it. Most of them are married, but I need you to trust that when I hug someone besides you — it’s just a hug.”
She nodded. “It just caught me off guard this morning. I’ll do better.”
“If something bothers you then we need to talk it out. Maybe not right in the moment, but later when we’re alone I need you to let me know if something bothered you and I didn’t pick up on it. Those little things grow and fester and cause bigger problems later.”
I’d had the kids in my peripheral vision, but Chloe moved out of my sight and I turned to check on her. She was following the big kids on rocks I hadn’t shown her how to navigate, but she watched what they did so she was handling it okay.
Until she wasn’t, and she fell in the water. I went from rock to rock until I got to her and helped her up. The water had only been about ten inches deep, but it’d been enough to soak her.
I stood her on a rock close to the one I was standing on and bent down to her level. “I love your adventurous spirit, but it’s usually best to stick to the places I’ve shown you.”
“Am I in trouble, Daddy?”
Her lower lip quivered so pathetically, and I knew it was a combination of being cold and embarrassed, but it still tugged at my heartstrings. “I think falling in the water was lesson enough. Let’s go see what we can do about getting you warm.”
Declan had gone to Connie and was watching us with concern on his little face. I walked back without holding Chloe’s hand — she’d gotten herself out here so she needed to get herself back. If she fell in the water again she wasn’t going to get any wetter than she already was.
I turned to watch her once I was back on dry land, and she was a whole lot more cautious coming back. Her wariness almost made her fall a few times, but she finally made it back without help.
“I didn’t think to bring a change of clothes this time, did you?” I asked Connie.
She shook her head as she looked Chloe over.
“I have a blanket in the trunk. We can undress her in the car and wrap it around her in the car seat, and I can run into a laundromat and stick her clothes in the dryer.”
An hour later we were finally all seated in a restaurant with Chloe warm and dry. I’d ended up buying her another outfit as well as new shoes because waterproof boots are miserable to wear if you get water inside them through the top.
The twins ate enough for three adults and the waitress couldn’t get over how much food they went through. Meanwhile, we got to hear all about their time with Tink last night and this morning.
When they finished with their story, I looked at Connie and hoped she realized which conversation I was going to bring up.
“I have some exciting news. Your Aunt Constance and I talked last night and this morning, and we’ve decided I’m going to stay at your house a while. Brain and Dawg are going to help me move some of my things and most of my clothes tomorrow, and your aunt is going to clean out a closet for me in the guest room across the hall from her room.”
We were in a booth and Chloe was beside me, and she jumped up so she was standing on the seat and wrapped her arms around my neck, so excited she apparently couldn’t find words.
Declan hugged his aunt and said, “So you’ll be able to tuck us in every night?!”
“I wish I could, but I work at night sometimes so I might not always be home when you go to bed. It means we’ll get to see a whole lot more of each other, though.”
“Which bedroom will be yours? Will you be upstairs, or are you going to sleep downstairs like Gramps?”
I looked at Connie and she said, “We’re going to see how it works if he stays in my bedroom with me.”
Chloe’s arms went around me even tighter as she said, “Just like a real mommy and daddy?”
“No, Chloe,” I told her. “We’re a real family even when we aren’t all living together. I’m so excited I’ll get to stay with ya’ll a while, but my living with you won’t be what makes us a real family.”
“I love you daddy.”
She said it so soft, but with so much emotion, I wrapped my arms tighter around her and said, “I love you too, my little Chloe-bug.” I looked to Declan. “You too, Declan. I love you both so much it makes me want to hold on and never let go.”
Connie lifted him over her and set him on the floor so he could walk to me, and I helped him up so we could have a three-person hug. I closed my eyes as emotions washed over me. It took me a good minute before I trusted my voice enough to ask, “Okay, who wants dessert?”
Chapter 33
Gonzo
I picked the kids up from daycare and had them home when Connie arrived the next week. Some days I took care of dinner, other days I let her.
I also found out why I’d never bumped into their gymnastics sche
dule — she pays to take them two days a week, but there are classes Tuesday through Saturday and she can take them to any two of them.
I was speechless the first time I went with them to gymnastics. They were both doing front and back walkovers as well as cartwheels, could walk around in handstands for a while, and were very close to being turned loose to do back handsprings without a spotter. I talked to Connie about delineating a spot outside for them to tumble — an area with nothing they could fall into.
Most nights I went into the bar just as they were starting their bedtime routine, and crawled into bed with Connie around two or three in the morning. I got up with them to help with breakfast and see them off, then went back to sleep and woke in time to get them from daycare.
Connie refused to have sex or even play around when the twins were just down the hall, and I started working on a house plan that would work for our needs. I dragged her to the den in the middle of the night once, but I hated to wake her every night and make her walk downstairs for sex.
Meanwhile, the twins’ furniture was delivered to my house, and we made plans to spend the weekend there.
The compound is the MC’s public presence in the city, but our homes are our private sanctuary surrounded by forest. I made a trip in my truck to get the twins’ bicycles to my house early Friday, and then I got them from daycare in my car and took them to my house. By the time Connie arrived, the twins and I had been hiking in the woods, had contests to see who could stand on their hands the longest, and had done most of the prep-work for dinner.
My house is next to Dawg’s, so we ate in his back yard, because he’s set up better than me to host a lot of people. We ended up with Dawg, Ghost, Paco, Brain, and Harmony eating with us, and several more people coming with their kids for dessert. When we finished eating, we all sat at the entrance to our circle so no cars could come in, and we let the kids ride their bikes. By eight o’clock we had twelve kids. The big kids brought out their plywood ramps so they could jump, and Chloe and Declan watched them in awe.
Connie never once mentioned bedtime, but by about a quarter till nine I could see it was time to take them inside. We did bath, teeth, pajamas, and stories, and when they were asleep I showed Connie a speaker so we could hear them, and led her back outside.
Dawg had a decent blaze going in his fire pit, and people had chairs and blankets pulled up all around it. There was plenty of beer and soda, and a few people were strumming guitars and singing. There were no sweetbutts here, no casual sex. The teens were welcome to stay with us as late as their parents allow, and the ol’ladies didn’t have to worry about seeing anything they didn’t want to.
It was my hope to convince Connie we could sell both of our houses and build one here. We sat outside for over an hour, talking and enjoying the night and the fire with friends, before I took her — and the speaker — across the back yards and into my basement.
I’d moved one of my old guestroom beds downstairs and paid a design firm to come in and line the ceiling and walls to dampen the sound so we could be sure the twins wouldn’t hear us. They’d not only lined the walls and ceilings with industrial acoustic material, but they’d draped various fabrics from the center of the ceiling to the walls all around. They’d done an awesome job and it looked like we were in some exotic tent, with the bed as centerpiece, and gauzy fabrics of similar colors surrounding it as well.
I settled the speaker on a side table and opened an app on my phone so I could see the twins as well as hear them. They were both sleeping soundly, and I turned the app off before telling her, “There’s infrared at their doors. If they leave the room my phone will let me know.”
“You’re sure they can’t hear us?”
“I have an eighties radio station playing upstairs in the living room, a movie with lots of fighting and explosions playing at the base of the stairs, and we have classical music in here. Without the music and movie they might be able to pick up on screams, but with it they won’t be able to separate it all out.”
We hadn’t had sex in days and I assumed I’d have to work her up to it again, but as soon as I assured her we were good, she took her shirt off as she walked to the bed.
She only went down to her bra and panties before climbing in bed, but that was fine — I like unwrapping presents.
Chapter 34
Connie
When I’d figured out what Sandy’s butt plugs were, I’d thought there was no way in hell I’d ever consider such a thing, and yet now Gonzo had me bent over the bed, naked, convincing me to relax as he pushed one in.
This was the second one of the night, and was bigger than the first. I’d thought the first too small, but this one was almost too much.
“Just a little more. Push out and relax, take it for me. That’s it…”
I gasped as it finally went in, and then moaned when Gonzo pressed his cock against my other opening and slid in.
I was so full from the plug, and then add Gonzo’s width as well and I’d only thought I could feel every inch of him before.
“We’ll start with this one tomorrow evening, and you’ll graduate to a larger size later tomorrow night.” His voice was so matter-of-fact, so proprietary, and I pushed back with my arms to meet him stroke for stroke. I’ve never liked the idea of a man owning me or having to take care of me, but the fact Gonzo felt he owned me in bed turned me on so much, just the thoughts of it drove me crazy. I’d had to start listening to audiobooks after I dropped the kids off in the mornings, and on my drive home in the evenings because I thought of sex with Gonzo every free moment I had, and just the memory of him bossing me around in bed made me so horny I couldn’t think straight.
If anything, he was bossier tonight than he’d been before, which was going to give me even more things I had to not remember if I wanted to get through my workday without torturing myself. But oh, how I loved his growly, snarly voice when he was telling me to spread my legs, or wrap them around him, or to put my hands to my side and keep them there.
I love it when he takes me from behind, and tonight I discovered adding the butt plug creates new dimensions in pleasure. I have no idea how many orgasms he pulled out of me before he finally came. I literally hung on the side of the bed as he deposited the condom in a small trash bin he’d thoughtfully placed about a foot away, and then let him lift me onto the mattress and arrange me so he could snuggle with me.
I was nearly asleep when I reminded him the plug needed to come out.
“No, Connie.” His voice was gentle but firm. He’d made his mind up without consulting me, and another spike of heat went through me as he informed me, “You’ll sleep with it in. If you wake in the middle of the night and need some relief, feel free to climb on me and ride.”
* * *
Gonzo
I carried her to bed after she was asleep, and she was still dead to the world when I heard the kids talking as Declan woke Chloe the next morning. I disengaged myself from Connie, put some sweatpants on, and closed the bedroom door behind me. I put my finger to my lips to let them know they should be quiet, and we went downstairs and into the garage.
“Your aunt never gets to sleep in, so let’s give that to her this morning.” I showed them the huge boxes some of their furniture had been packaged in, and then had them help me stretch a tarp out on part of the back yard. I took the boxes out while they brought the markers I’d bought for the occasion, and I cut doors and windows while they added doorknobs and decorated the shutters. Chloe also added flowers on hers, as if there was a flowerbed just in front of her house. Declan started drawing bricks on his, but got bored with it and stopped. Oddly enough, the partial pattern probably looked better than it would’ve if he’d finished. The two of them together made a store and doctor’s office out of the other boxes, and then Declan decided the final one would be a police station.
We were going to have a huge lunch, so I let them eat pop-tarts in their houses for breakfast.
I’d left Connie a note that she coul
d take the plug out, wash it, put it under the sink, and then join us in the back yard.
I could tell she wasn’t pleased when she came out, but it turned out she didn’t think it appropriate for them to be in the back yard in their pajamas.
“I figured it was better to get messy with the markers in their pajamas than their clothes. We’ll go in and change soon, then let them come back out to play without the markers while you and I get lunch ready.”
I’d invited Sophia, Aaron, and the triplets to lunch — which also meant there would be at least one and possibly two or three bodyguards. I wasn’t obligated to feed them all but I’d make sure they got something to eat. Aaron was pretty good about standing watch while one of the bodyguards ate at a time. He knows the better care you take of your people, the better care they’ll take of you.
Connie and I peeled potatoes on the deck as the kids played in the yard, and she asked, “You don’t feel comfortable inviting people to my house?”
I considered the question a moment before answering. “Here, I can do all of the work if I need to. Having your help is nice, but I’m not as comfortable in your kitchen and I’d feel as if I was asking you to do the work with my help. Plus, if something gets broken here it’s my shit, but I’d worry more with a lot of people in your house. I get the feeling you aren’t used to a lot of company, and I don’t want to put you out, and… yeah, I’m more comfortable having them here.”
“Is it always like this on the weekends?”
“No. When we have stuff planned at the compound, most everyone’s there. We get to be more laid back and just kind of hang out together when we’re home. Not everyone lives here, but I’ve enjoyed having my brothers as my neighbors.”
She peeled several potatoes without saying anything, and I added, “We don’t have to decide anything this month, or next month, or even the next. I’m good staying with you during the week and some weekends, and spending the occasional weekend here.”
Gonzo (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club Book 7) Page 25