The Stud Next Door

by Kendall Ryan

  I nod and kiss the top of Marley’s head. “She’ll be wearing clothes for six-month-olds in no time,” I murmur, shaking my head. “I wish there was a way to make time stop, just for a little while.”

  “Well, it sounds like you kind of figured that one out. Weren’t you supposed to be in El Salvador like, yesterday?” Scarlett asks with a sly, questioning grin.

  “Yeah,” Penelope says, crossing her legs and nodding toward me. “Connor gave me the basics, but I feel like we need the whole story from you.”

  My lips curl into a half smile, and I shrug. “A new position opened up here in the city, and they needed someone to stay behind to fill it. I jumped at the chance, really. If you’d asked me a few months ago, I would have told you I was ready for a big change like moving to Central America. Turns out that big change was something else entirely.”

  My gaze wanders across the yard to Connor, who’s laughing, the heat from the grill making him appear to shimmer. His eyes meet mine and his smile softens a little, sending my stomach into a series of backflips.

  I really am a lucky girl.

  “You two are adorable,” Maren says, nudging my side with her elbow.

  I can feel a blush warming my cheeks. “Thanks. It’s fast, I know, but trust me. It’s more real than anything I’ve ever felt before.”

  “I know what you mean,” Penelope says, giving me a smile that reminds me a lot of her brother. “I’m really happy for you both.”

  Scarlett sighs and claps her hands together loudly. “All right,” she says, rising from her seat. “As thrilled as I am for the new lovebirds—and don’t get me wrong, I really am happy for you, Jess—I’m starving. Please tell me the boys are done with those burgers already.”

  She couldn’t have spoken too soon. The men clamber up onto the deck, teasing each other and roughhousing like always, with Connor herding them up the steps, a platter full of cooked meat in his hands.

  “I hope you ladies came ready to eat,” Connor says. “Come on into the kitchen. We’ve got it all set up in there.”

  Everyone files into the house, and I hang back to wait for Connor. He sees me waiting and slips an arm around my waist, kissing the top of my head.

  “How’s my little girl doing? Time for a change?” he asks, nodding to Marley.

  “I think she’s okay. We should eat first, then I can change her.”

  He nods again and pulls me closer to his side. “I like this. Having you here all the time. Hosting with you. Getting to make eyes at you across the yard whenever I want.”

  His voice is low, possessive, and impossibly sexy. Suddenly, my skin feels electric under his touch.

  “I like this too,” I say, my eyes searching his face. “But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to when everyone’s gone.”

  His mouth goes slack for a second before twisting into a devilish smile. “You’d better get inside before I do something to make them all leave early.” He leans in and kisses my neck, quick and hot, in just the right place to make me let out a small gasp.

  This man will be the death of me.

  Connor and I walk inside to find our friends gathered in the kitchen, putting plates of food together and talking loudly about the latest customer horror story from the store.

  “And I tried to explain to her as nicely as I could that we don’t accept returns at Frisky Business,” Caleb says, a mischievous glint in his eye. “But this woman just wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

  Scarlett shrugs. “So she’s a woman with strong convictions.”

  Caleb stares at her incredulously. “It was a used dildo, Scar. There’s no way I was taking that thing back.”

  “Okay, can we change the topic, please? Some of us are trying to eat,” Maren says, shooting daggers across the room at Caleb.

  When Caleb raises his hands in apology, Hayes shoots him a pointed look. “Maybe a slightly more dinner-friendly topic?”

  “How’s the new job, Jessa?” Wolfie asks between bites of his burger.

  “It’s still early yet, but so far, so good,” I say.

  Connor takes Marley out of my hands so I can make myself a plate of food. “They’re lucky to have her,” he says, “and so are we.”

  The girls all sing “awww” in unison, while the boys, I’m sure, are just tucking that sappy comment away to tease Connor about later. They really do like to rib each other like brothers.

  We fill in the crew on the new nanny we hired for Marley. She’s in her fifties with four grown children and a grandbaby on the way, and seems to be a perfect fit so far.

  After we finish eating, everyone hangs out in the living room to chat for a while before the couples pair off and head home for the night. Connor puts Marley down, and I slip off to the bedroom, where I’ve got a little surprise planned for him.

  Marley was pretty tired by the time everyone left, so I know I’ve only got ten minutes tops before Connor joins me in here, and I have to move fast. I slide my sundress over my shoulders and slip into the black lace bra and panty set I bought last weekend, complete with a skimpy, see-through, knee-length robe that I leave untied and open. I can hear Connor walking down the hallway, so I run my fingers through my hair and perch myself on the edge of the bed, one leg crossed over the other.

  When Connor steps through the door and lays eyes on me, he stops dead in his tracks. Raw lust washes over his face, and his gaze roams hungrily over my body.

  “Hi, there,” I say, uncrossing and recrossing my legs.

  “Hi,” he says, his voice a low growl. He walks toward me, his eyes still trained on my body.

  “Did Marley go down okay?”

  “Mm-hmm. She’s fine,” he says absently, like sleeping babies are the very last thing on his mind.

  “Good. So, I was thinking . . .” I let my voice trail off as I play with the tie of my robe.

  Connor’s gaze meets mine, his eyes on fire. “Yeah?”

  “Remember our first date? All that stuff about accelerators and brakes?”

  He chuckles. “It’d be pretty hard to forget.”

  “Well, is your engine revving yet?”

  With a mischievous look, he pulls me to my feet to fully admire the lingerie. His hands trail over my skin, sending chills down my spine. In that class on our first official date, we’d both indicated lingerie was an accelerator.

  He wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me to him, kissing me hard but slow, like he’s drinking me in. When we part, he brings his lips to my ear and murmurs, “My engine’s been revving since you decided to talk dirty on the deck just out of earshot of our friends. But yeah, it’s definitely heated.”

  I slip the robe off my shoulders as Connor tugs his T-shirt over his head. Then he just admires me, running his big palms along my sides. I press up on my toes to briefly kiss his lips.

  He sheds his jeans and kicks them into the corner, then pulls me onto his lap on the bed. We kiss again, more urgently this time, my knees on either side of his hips, and I can feel his bulge pressing into my belly.

  The need I have for him is insatiable, like no matter how many times I feel his body pressing into mine, I’ll always want more. More of him, more of this, more of us.

  He brings his lips to the tender skin above my breast, kissing and sucking gently as his fingers fiddle with the clasp of my bra.

  “Can I help you with that?” I ask, a slight tease in my voice.

  He nips gently at my skin and growls, brushing his tongue over my nipple. Even through the lace, the sensation sends a shock to my core.

  The hook of my bra unclasps, and Connor groans in triumph. As I toss it to the floor, he takes my nipple in his mouth, rolling it under his tongue. I grind down into him in response, and he groans again, but this time it comes from somewhere deeper and darker inside him.

  “Do you remember what else we talked about that night?” I ask between breaths.

  He looks up at me and nods, his cock twitching in his briefs. “We talked about a lot o
f things.”

  “Anything you want to do, I’m game.”

  His eyebrows rise. “Anything?”

  I nod. “I said I like to try new positions, didn’t I?”

  His lips curl into a smile, and he presses his face into my chest. “You’re going to be the death of me, you know that?”

  I shrug and nibble at his ear. “There are worse ways to go.”

  Connor laughs, his breath hot against my skin. He kisses my neck and lies back on the bed, spinning me around and dragging my hips toward him until I’m aligned over his face.

  This is something I’ve been thinking about nonstop since it came up in the game of yes or no, and I’m relieved that this is his choice. I wasn’t lying when I said I was game for anything, but the two of us pleasuring each other at the same time has been at the top of my to-do list for weeks now.

  He presses his lips to the dampness of my panties. I moan and arch my back, holding on to his hips for stability. Okay, this is going to take a lot more focus than I thought.

  “Fuck, babe, you’re so wet,” he murmurs.

  I pull at the elastic of his briefs until his cock springs free. God, I’ve missed this. Since I moved in, we haven’t been able to keep our hands off each other, and still, none of it ever feels like enough.

  He pushes my panties to the side and kisses my center just as I take his length in my mouth. We groan simultaneously. It’s magic.

  Raw need pulses between us, and the pleasure is almost blinding.

  Connor murmurs sweet and dirty things into my flesh between swipes of his tongue. How good I taste, how much he adores me, how happy he is. My heart is filled with emotion, and my body sings with pleasure. I never imagined being so worshipped and happy. It’s almost disorienting.

  And this is only the beginning . . .

  19

  * * *

  JESSA

  Six months later

  “All right, kid, here’s the sitch.”

  With a little extra effort, I kneel down to Marley’s level on the foam play mat. It’s not easy in my figure-hugging date-night dress and heels that still need some breaking into.

  Marley’s big blue eyes peek out from under her dark curls and find mine despite her latest obsession—actively gnawing on the ear of a new bunny friend, courtesy of Uncle Hayes. At this age, she’s always got something in her mouth.

  “Aunt Penny and Uncle Wolfie are coming by soon. They’re gonna watch you while your daddy and I go on a date. Remember Aunt Penny and Uncle Wolfie?”

  Marley gurgles, smacking her wet lips together until she . . . makes a dolphin sound? Unclear.

  “Eeooo!”

  Yep, that’s definitely a dolphin sound.

  I laugh, shaking my head in disbelief. “Yes, that’s right. Uncle Wolfie is coming.”

  “Eeoooooo!”

  “That’s her saying ‘Wolfie’?”

  I turn to find Connor standing over us, fastening the cuff links on his crisp white button-up.

  Well, hot damn. He’s looking all kinds of fine in his date-night suit, a sharp gray number that makes his green eyes pop like freaking traffic lights and ignites my libido into overdrive.

  “How long has she been barking?” He holds out a hand to me and pulls me to my feet.

  “Honestly, I have no idea. And I thought it was more like a dolphin,” I say with a sigh as Connor chuckles and gazes down at Marley with adoration. “Scarlett and Mare hogged her the whole time at the Christmas party, and I can see them planting that seed.”

  Connor laughs, a sound that reverberates straight through my core and down to my toes.

  You’d think my immense attraction to this man would have, I don’t know, chilled out since we started living together full time six months ago. But these ovaries say, Chilled out? Chilled out, who? So, here I am, still getting hot and bothered when Connor so much as breathes in my direction.

  “Well, Wolfie and Pen can decide if it’s worth fixing that when they arrive.” Connor checks his watch, and I just enjoy the sight of him, still amazed that he can make noting the time look sexy. “By the way, did she text you an ETA?”

  “Yup,” I murmur, centering a hand on his chest as I lean into his broad frame to kiss him on the cheek. I can’t help myself anymore. Just a taste before date night really gets going. “They should be here any second.”

  “Not soon enough.”

  He growls, dipping his head down to kiss me hungrily on the neck. My giggles are embarrassingly explosive.

  Connor catches my lips in a slow, easy kiss—the kind of kiss I could easily lose hours of my life to. And even though all of my nerve endings are lit up like Christmas lights, the clock is ticking and date night hasn’t even begun yet, so I pull back—but not before kissing him with everything I’ve got.

  Without another word, he takes over baby supervision so I can scamper off to the bathroom and put some finishing touches on my makeup.

  It’s kind of impressive how we can so easily pass the guardian baton between us now, sharing so many months of caretaking together. Marley isn’t my daughter, but that doesn’t matter. Connor makes sure of it. We’re a family now.

  A favorite memory floats to the forefront of my mind. A glowing fireplace and several picture books strewn across my lap . . . Marley asleep in my arms and Connor dozing on my shoulder. It was that moment that I realized I don’t have to be Marley’s mom. I can just be Jessa, because Jessa belongs here.

  It helps that Connor has this innate ability to sense when I need a moment to myself. And I certainly appreciate the few extra minutes in front of the mirror. We haven’t gone out on a date in . . . I don’t even want to count the months. Putting a number on it would force far too much pressure on this evening to be perfect. But that doesn’t mean I won’t try to make it the best night we’ve had in a while.

  I’m not a stylist, by any means, but I know my way around some bronzer and a little eyeshadow. And let me tell you—this look? Smoky, warm, and all kinds of sexy. It’s too bad this velvet slip dress will spend most of the night hidden away under a winter jacket . . . but such is early spring in Chicago, I’m learning. It’s not not winter until it’s very suddenly summer.

  I’m just about done perfecting my lip liner when a knock echoes down the hall.

  “They’re here,” I call, peeking my head out the bathroom door.

  “I’ve got it,” Connor calls back.

  It occurs to me that we’ve still got all of our holiday decor up, even though we’ve long since entered Valentine’s Day territory. It would be easy to kick myself for not cleaning up before having friends over, but a little voice in my head reminds me that I’m juggling a full-time job with co-parenting a tiny human—who isn’t even a full year old yet, I might add.

  I listen to the familiar voices of our friends at the door—Penelope’s excited chirp, Wolfie’s rumbling growl. Part of me wants to just cancel our plans and hang out with them, but we rarely get an opportunity like tonight for just the two of us. And I can’t pass that up.

  When I emerge from the bathroom, Penelope has a very pleased Marley propped on her hip.

  “Oof, Marley girl. You’re getting heavy.”

  “Milk o’clock is her favorite time of the day,” I say with a shrug before pulling Penelope into a side hug and shooting a smile Wolfie’s way, who returns it with a silent nod.

  “You look so hot.” Penelope gasps, making a show of looking me up and down before glaring at her brother with an adorable pout. “Hey, why do you always get to go on dates with Jessa? When’s my turn?”

  “Always is a strong word.” Connor chuckles, but his voice is strained. Date night has historically come second to parenting, a pattern we’re both guilty of falling into over the winter.

  “How’s work, Jessa?”

  This earnest question comes from Wolfie, catching me a little off guard.

  “Oh. It’s great. We just finished processing a ton of citizenship paperwork, and one of the students I’m tutoring
learned how to spell his name and all of his siblings’ names this week. It’s a lot of work, but it’s very fulfilling.”

  I’m still not used to talking about my job. I mean, going from part-time nanny to full-time nonprofit employee is a pretty wild evolution. How much information do I share? How much do people care? I could go on and on, but I’m always careful not to bore people either.

  “Sounds like good, decent work,” Wolfie says with a serious expression. “Helping those in need through a substantial life change is no joke. You’re better than the rest of us, that’s for sure.”

  Not only have I never heard the man string so many words together in succession, but I’ve also never been so speechless. Before I try and fail to find the right response, Connor comes to my rescue. Thank God.

  “That’s not news to me.” He chuckles, putting an arm around my shoulder and planting a warm kiss to my temple. “She works harder than anyone I’ve ever known. I’m lucky to be on her arm tonight.”

  I beam up at him. “Oh, stop . . .”

  “It’s true. I don’t know how you do it. You deserve a break.”

  “And you deserve one too,” Penelope says, raising an eyebrow at her brother in a look that says we’ve had this conversation before.

  I reluctantly duck out from under Connor’s arm to untangle Marley’s chubby fingers from Penelope’s hair. “We’re so grateful to you both for coming out to watch her for a bit.”

  “Of course. I think the two of you taking a night to yourselves is a great idea. And I love spending time with my perfect, darling niece.”

  “And she loves spending time with your perfect, darling hair. Let up, Marley,” I say, scolding her gently, but Penelope just laughs.

  “C’mere, Wolfie. Hold her,” Penelope says, and Connor and I share a look of mild alarm.