“No,” I said stubbornly. “I’m not. I think it’s important.”
Vanessa rolled her eyes. “Well, then, you need to ask him about it if you think it’s important.” She heaved a dramatic sigh. “It is freaking amazing to me how women will wind themselves up into a tight little ball of anxiety, rather than just tackle the issue head-on.”
“Well, what if he lies to me?” I challenged.
She crossed her arms and looked at me. “If he’s the type who would lie to you about this, then isn’t it better for you to ask and find out, than not to ask and never find out?”
Damnit. She had me there.
“Tell me why I’m your friend again?” I complained.
“Because you need someone to hand you a dose of reality from time to time, to save your neurotic ass from yourself,” she tossed back without missing a beat.
Later that day, when Trig showed up for his therapy appointment, Vanessa made herself conspicuously present, much to my irritation.
“Hey, there beautiful,” he murmured to me as he walked in, dipping his head low so that his breath tickled the sensitive skin behind my ear.
“Sshhh, someone will hear you,” I hissed, pushing him away as I felt my face flush.
Luckily, Adele was on the phone and didn’t notice anything, but Vanessa waltzed right up to the two of us with a grin on her face like the cat that ate the canary.
“Hello, Mr. Jackson,” she said, giving him her winningest grin. “How’re you doing? Eva tells me your therapy has been going very well.” She wiggled her eyebrows significantly.
He grinned back at her. “Yes, indeed. Eva is exactly the therapist I needed to whip me into shape.”
He tried to put his arm around me, but I ducked away.
“Well, I’ve got some paperwork to do,” Vanessa said breezily. “You two have a good session, now.”
As I watched her walk away down the hall, she mouthed “Talk to him!” behind his back.
I glared at her and turned my attention to Trig.
“Okay!” I said brightly. “So, how’s the leg feeling today?”
“Leg’s fine,” he growled under his breath. “Other parts of my body could use some attention, though.”
I risked a quick grin at him. “Just what are you proposing, sir?”
“Come over to my place tonight. I’ll cook you dinner and then I’ll show you exactly what I’m proposing.” He reached down and grabbed my ass. I squealed, and then covered my mouth as I tried not to burst into laughter.
“Actually,” I replied as I swatted him away, “Could you come over to my place instead? Zoe’s got the sniffles, and I don’t want to leave her for the evening. I think she might have picked up what Mrs. Hayes had.”
“Sure thing.” He nodded. “You want me to pick up some pizza or something, so you don’t have to cook?”
“No, that’s okay. I’ll make something.” I looked at him regretfully. “I’m sorry to do make you come over to my place. I know you’d probably prefer to be alone.”
“It’s no big deal at all, Eva. You’re a package deal,” he said simply. “Zoe’s part of that package. And I like her. She cracks me up.” He gave me a sly grin. “Besides, making out with you on the couch is hot.”
“Well, maybe… we could risk taking it into my bedroom tonight. If we’re quiet.”
“If we’re quiet?” he protested. “Honey, you’re the screamer in this relationship.”
I froze for a moment. Relationship. Are we in a relationship? I didn’t know. Did I want to be?
Did he?
I pushed the thought away.
“I can be quiet. Just you wait. You won’t hear a single peep out of me.” I tossed my head defiantly.
“Challenge accepted,” he chuckled.
As I led him through his exercises, my mind kept wandering back to the word he had used.
Relationship.
We had seen each other every night since the first time we’d had sex. He got along great with Zoe. I was pretty sure he wasn’t seeing anyone else — hell, he’d hardly had time to.
In many ways, what I had with Trig was exactly what I would have imagined if someone had asked me to describe my ideal relationship. The fact that he was a tattooed biker notwithstanding, he was pretty much perfect.
And that was just the problem.
Wasn’t he too good to be true?
17
Trig
It turned out that Eva’s last patient of the day canceled on her, so she was done earlier than usual. As it happened, I had been her second-to-last patient, so I was there when she found out she was free.
Never being a man to pass up a golden opportunity, I suggested that we take a quick detour to my place before it was time for her to go pick Zoe up from pre-K.
My cock was practically bursting out of my jeans by the time I was halfway to the house. I watched Eva’s car behind me in my rear-view mirror and tried like hell not to speed all the way there. Once in my driveway, I threw the truck into park, strode up the walk, held the front door open for her, and had her up against a wall before she could say a word.
“Do you know how long I’ve waited to do this to you?” I panted against her neck as I pushed her shirt up, exposing her full breasts barely contained by a lacy pink bra.
“Uh, about sixteen hours?” she teased me, raising her arms up so I could pull the top off over her head.
“Exactly. A fucking eternity.”
My mouth came down on hers, my tongue insistent and probing. Her lips parted, accepting me eagerly, and she moaned softly into my mouth. Her breasts pressed against my hands as I cupped them and began to tease the nipples to hardness.
My cock throbbed in my pants and I ached to take it out and slide it between her slick folds. I was already imagining the gasp I knew she’d make when I thrust myself inside her. I would have thought I’d get bored the more I fucked her, like I did with every other woman, but with Eva, it just got better and better. Now that I knew just how fucking good she was — what she liked, the noises she made — it just made the anticipation sweeter. I fucking craved Eva. There was no other word for it.
“Jesus Christ, I fucking want you now,” I rasped, breaking away from the kiss.
Lowering my hands, I reached down and cupped her ass, then pulled her to my waist and began to carry her to the bedroom. She whimpered and pressed her hot pussy against me. I knew she needed it just as badly as I did.
I crossed the threshold to my room and tossed her on the bed. Reaching down, I grasped the bottoms of her yoga pants and grunted: “Off.”
Eva bit her bottom lip, staring up at me, and lifted her hips. I yanked the pants off and then I was on her. I spread her legs and licked her inner thighs, nipping at her already-stiffening bud through the fabric.
Eva threw back her head and moaned loudly, arching her hips to meet my mouth. Her panties were fucking soaked, I noted with satisfaction. I pushed them to one side and plunged my tongue deep inside her, tasting her juices and slicking them over her lips and nub with my tongue. She wasn’t going to last long, and I wasn’t going to prolong it.
I plunged deep inside her again, and glanced up to see her reaching for her breasts, tweaking her nipples as she writhed and whispered my name. I flicked her stiff nub with my tongue once, twice, and then wrapped my lips around it and began to suck as I continued my assault. Eva’s legs widened even more as she thrust herself against my tongue, frantic. Suddenly, she stiffened, and screamed sharply as she came. I continued to lave at her softly until she gently pushed my head away.
Making her come like that was so fucking hot it had pushed me to the end of my self-control. I stood up and ripped my T-shirt over my head, then roughly undid my jeans and kicked them aside.
I stood in front of her, my cock at full attention and dripping pre-cum. I stood for just a moment, drinking her all in as I stroked myself.
“Turn over,” I barked.
Eva was still gasping from her orgasm, but she quic
kly got up and did as she was told. She knelt on all fours on the bed, then turned to look at me seductively through the thick curtain of her hair.
“Fuck me, Trig,” she breathed. “Please. I need it. Now.”
I grabbed the condom from the night stand and sheathed myself, then knelt behind her. Slicking my tip against her folds, I grunted with satisfaction as she let out a loud moan. Unable to wait any longer, I drove my cock inside of her.
She gasped, just as I knew she would, and then her hips thrust backward, meeting me. I grabbed her by the hips, withdrew and plunged in again, groaning from the sheer agonizing sweetness of it.
“I’m not gonna last long, babe. I need release.”
“Take me. Oh, God, Trig, yes, that feels so good,” she moaned. Her hands gripped the sheets as I drove deep inside her, over and over. She began to pulse around me, and I knew I could make her come again. With one hand, I reached around her and began to stroke her clit, knowing instinctively just how much her sensitive nub could take.
She angled her ass upward, taking me even deeper, and her pussy tightened around me.
“Come for me, Eva. Come for me now…” I crooned.
Seconds later, she bucked crazily and cried out as her orgasm shattered through her. Her pussy tightened around me, milking me, and that was all it took for me to be a goner. With a final driving thrust, I roared my release as I emptied myself deep inside her. I reached down and hugged Eva tight against me, burying my face in her hair as I shuddered.
We stayed that way, braced against each other, as our ragged breathing slowed to normal.
When I came back to my senses I was holding her tight, kissing her neck softly as she caressed the arms that enfolded her.
“Jesus Christ, Eva,” I said softly. “I don’t know how you do this to me.” I wanted to say more, but I didn’t trust myself. I wanted to tell her how perfect she was, how I knew I’d never get enough of her no matter how many times I tried, how much I wanted her in my bed forever.
Forever.
I could barely admit it even to myself, much less her. But Eva Van Buren had me thinking about forever. About what it would be like — how fucking amazing it would be — to make love to her body when I’d known her for ten years. Or twenty.
It scared the fuck out of me.
But I’d also never wanted anything so badly in my life.
A few minutes later, Eva leaned back and kissed me softly. “I need to go get Zoe,” she whispered.
“Gotcha.”
Pulling out as gently as I could, I held onto the condom and knotted it discreetly as Eva crawled off the bed.
We got dressed in silence, but it was a comfortable silence. Easy.
“When do you want me to stop over?” I asked her.
“You can come whenever you want. Now, if you’d like.”
I looked over at the clock on the nightstand. It was a little after three. “I’ll give you a half an hour head start so you can go grab Zoe at pre-K.”
I grabbed my jeans and pulled them on, watching as she ran her fingers through her hair to put some semblance of order into it.
“Eva,” I said, my voice hoarse with emotion.
“Yes?” She looked up at me distractedly.
“You’re fucking beautiful.”
She smiled, her cheeks pinkening. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
As we were leaving, Eva remembered she had planned to pick up a couple things at the grocery store on her way home from work. I told her I’d go grab them so she could get Zoe.
We split up and I ran to the store to get milk, bananas, and breakfast cereal. When I showed up at Eva’s about an hour later, I found her and Zoe sitting on their front stoop, waiting for me.
“Mrs. Hayes is sick again,” Eva announced as I walked up the drive. “She just called me and told me she was too ill to take Zoe tomorrow. She sounds really terrible, Trig. I told her I wanted to take her to urgent care, just to be sure it’s nothing serious.”
“That makes sense,” I agreed.
“Would you mind watching Zoe while we’re gone?” she asked me. “It might be a bit of a wait. I think she might get bored, and I don’t want her to agitate Mrs. Hayes.”
“Sure thing. What do you think, buttercup?” I turned to the little girl. “Think we can find something to do while your mom’s gone?”
“YEAH!” Zoe yelled, standing up and pumping her fist. She ran to me and slipped her tiny hand in mine. “Come on! Let’s go play dolls!”
I looked askance at Eva as the little girl pulled me toward the door. “Uh… yikes?” I said.
She smiled. “Thank you. I owe you big for this.” She reached up and kissed me softly on the cheek.
“Actually, I think you paid me for it already, about an hour ago.” I wiggled my brows at her.
“Wow. I must be better than I thought, if you think that pays for playing dollies with a five year-old.” Her eyes widened in amusement.
“Babe, you have no idea,” I chuckled.
Eva ran inside and grabbed her purse and keys, then headed out the door with a quick wave to us both.
“Well, now, buttercup,” I said, turning to Zoe, “What’re we gonna do with ourselves?”
“Dolls!” she repeated firmly. “You can be the dragon!”
I spent the next half hour or so roaring my way through a free-form stream of consciousness “story” that Zoe was weaving, involving a couple of Barbies, a stuffed horse, and a mean dragon who apparently just needed to make some friends to turn into a nice dragon. It was weird as hell, but also kind of charming. And hearing the way Zoe erupted into fits of giggles whenever I did my dragon roar went a long way toward making me feel like less of a complete jackass.
Eventually, she tired of playing dolls and asked if we could go draw on the patio with sidewalk chalk. We grabbed the chalk from a low shelf filled with books, and were on our way out the sliding glass door to the backyard when a beeping noise stopped us.
I looked in the direction of the sound to see it was coming from a cell phone sitting on a small table by the front door.
“Huh. Your mom must have forgotten to take her phone with her,” I said to Zoe.
I went to answer it, on the off chance that it was Eva herself, calling from someone else’s phone. I noted the name on the display — “David” — and pressed the answer button.
“Eva’s phone,” I said into the mouthpiece.
There was a moment of silence, followed by the sound of someone taking a breath. “Hello?” a man’s voice said abruptly. “Who is this?”
“This is someone answering Eva’s phone for her,” I replied tersely. “Who’s this?”
“This is Eva’s ex-husband. Zoe’s father,” the voice said back just as tersely.
Interesting. “Well, Eva can’t come to the phone right now.” I looked over at Zoe, who was looking at me impatiently and pointing toward the back patio. “Do you want to talk to Zoe?”
More silence. Then: “Where is Eva? Is she there?”
“I’ll leave it to Eva to tell you what she wants to tell you.” She hadn’t told me a lot about the man who was her ex-husband, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to give him any information she might not want him to know.
“Do you want to talk to Zoe?” I repeated.
“Yes,” said the man, his voice cold. “I would like to speak to my daughter, please.”
“Zoe,” I motioned to the phone. “It’s your dad on the phone.”
Zoe’s reaction was strange. At first, she ran up to me excitedly, but as she got closer, she seemed to reconsider. When I handed the cell to her, she hung back for a moment, then reached for it reluctantly.
“Daddy?” she said into the phone, her voice tentative.
There were a few moments of silence on our end, through which I could hear the tinny voice of Eva’s ex-husband through the speaker.
“That’s Mommy’s boyfriend,” Zoe eventually said. More silence as she listened, and then. “He’s nice! His n
ame is Trig. He has a dragon on his arm, and he bought me a dragon animal. They’re both named Toothless.”
Uh-oh. I was starting to think that letting Zoe talk to her dad wasn’t such a good idea. But still, you couldn’t stop a kid from talking to her father, could you? I had no experience with this kind of stuff.
“No, Mommy’s not here.” The voice on the other end of the phone grew louder. “Mrs. Hayes is sick, so they had to go to the hospital.” After a moment, Zoe added: “Trig’s playing dollies with me. Now we’re gonna do sidewalk chalk.”
Her voice started to grow more animated as she shared this with her father. Her face seemed to fall with his response, though. I guess he wasn’t interested in hearing about dollies and sidewalk chalk.
Something in my chest tightened as I watched Zoe’s little face darken in disappointment as she listened to him talk. Finally, in a tiny voice, she said simply,“Okay. Bye, Daddy.” She handed the phone back to me without a word.
I looked at it. He had hung up already.
Never in my life had I seen a little girl look so dejected as Zoe looked now. Jesus, what kind of shit for brains would be such a self-centered piece of shit that he didn’t even have five minutes to listen to his daughter tell him about her day? Eva had told me the guy lived in Seattle, and from what she’d told me he didn’t see much of his kid. It sure seemed like poor Zoe essentially had just enough of a father to make it worse than if she had no father at all.
“I don’t wanna do sidewalk chalk anymore,” she said miserably. Her eyes welled up, and I was afraid she was going to start crying. I had to think fast.
“Hey, I have an idea,” I said quickly. Pointing at the clock, I smiled at her. “It’s almost dinner time. How about you and I order a pizza and watch a movie while we eat. You pick the movie.”
She smiled up at me tremulously. “Okay… Can we get cheese pizza?”
“Sure thing.” I heaved a small sigh of satisfaction. Carbs and grease always made things better.
I made the call to a local pizza place while Zoe chose one of her DVDs to watch. She went upstairs briefly, and came back down with her pillow and a few stuffed animals, which she arranged around herself like a fluffy fortress on the couch. I grabbed a beer for myself, poured a glass of milk for Zoe, and sat down to wait for the pizza.
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