by Claire Adams
I couldn't keep living like this, though.
I put my shoulders back and marched out of the room and over to his. I was never going to be ready for this conversation, so I might as well get it over with, I reasoned.
I knocked on the door, and when no one answered, I knocked again, a little louder this time. I frowned, wondering if it was possible that he'd already gone to bed. I knew he was there. I'd heard him head upstairs while I was telling Emma her story. Maybe he'd had a rough day at work and didn't want to talk about it, though. He'd been late getting home.
After a moment of indecision, I decided to peek inside. Maybe he'd gone back downstairs and wasn't in there at all. If I could verify that he wasn't there, I could go looking for him.
I slowly opened the door, poking my head inside. “Andrew?” I called.
I was just in time to see him walk out of the bathroom, clad in only a towel. I knew I should back up and pretend that I hadn't seen him, but for a moment, I couldn't tear my eyes away. I could see the faintest traces of moisture still sliding down his chest. He'd been incredibly hot the last time I'd seen him naked, I remembered, but he looked even more muscular now. Or maybe I'd managed to forget how chiseled those abs were and how slim his waist was.
The crisp whiteness of the towel emphasized his tanned skin. He looked like a bronzed Greek god come to life before me, a perfect example of classic masculinity. I wanted to run my fingers over his body, to trace those water droplets with my tongue, and to fall into bed with him.
It hit me like a punch to the gut. I wanted to fall into bed with him.
I'd been attracted to him over the past weeks that Emma and I had been living in his house, but not with this level of carnal need. Seeing him nearly naked like this, it took all of my willpower not to rush over to him. But I could already feel a distinct dampness in my panties. My legs felt weak, as though they wouldn't support me.
I didn't realize I'd made a noise until Andrew's eyes swung towards me. He looked surprised to see me standing there, no hint of cockiness like I might have expected. “What's wrong?” he asked. “Is Emma okay?”
“Yeah,” I managed, my mouth dry as a desert. “Everything's fine.”
Some of his arrogance began to creep back in. He raised an eyebrow at me. “So, to what do I owe this visit?”
I blinked, trying to focus on the present. I realized that I was standing there, half in his room, when he had clearly just come out of the shower. “I just wanted to talk,” I admitted. “I didn't realize that you would be, uh, indisposed.”
My eyes flicked down to his towel again, and then I forced myself to look back to his face. I could feel that I was blushing, and I was sure he could see it as well.
We stood there in silence for a moment. It felt as though we were hanging on the edge of some precipice. It was my choice, I realized, how we proceeded from here.
I took a hesitant step into the room, shutting the door carefully behind me. I could hardly breathe as I walked over to him, my thoughts buzzing and my body practically vibrating with nervous energy. I didn't know what was propelling me forwards, but I didn't try to stop it.
Instead, I stood up on my tiptoes to kiss him.
Andrew didn't seem shocked. Indeed, he kissed back immediately. His mouth moved warmly against mine. It was as though this was planned, as though it hadn't been years since the last time that we'd coupled with one another. There was a hunger to the kiss that spoke to all that sexual tension, though. I wouldn't go so far as to say that sparks sizzled in the air, but there was something undeniably right about the kiss, something that I couldn't put my finger on.
I sighed into it. My hands came up to loop around the back of his neck. I pressed up against him, and I could feel his hardness, thinly veiled beneath his towel. I shivered.
Andrew turned us around and took a step forward, slowly leading me back toward the bed. He gave me plenty of time to resist, to pull away or to leave, but I didn't want to. Instead, I let him push me back onto the soft sheets.
He followed me easily, continuing the kiss the moment we were settled. His hands came up, fingers working to deftly strip me of my clothes. Even though I knew this wasn't the smartest idea, even though I knew that this was how we'd ended up in this mess in the first place, I couldn't deny how badly I wanted this. I was practically trembling with desire.
His fingers drew lines of fire along my skin, sending wave after wave of heated lust cascading through my core. I whimpered, begging him without words to move faster and give me what I needed. What we both needed, actually. His cock was rigid and leaking precum as I stripped away his towel. He needed this just as badly as I did.
Sure enough, he didn't delay, didn't tease me as he had the previous time. Instead, he pushed inside me, moving carefully, surely aware of how unused to this my body was after years without.
I sobbed at the perfect sensation, and my body arched into his. I wouldn't have been able to keep quiet if I'd wanted to. It was impossible to hold back little noises of pleasure as he began to thrust into me, sending me spiraling into the strongest feelings of pleasure that I'd ever experienced.
Goosebumps erupted across my skin as he continued to use my body, effortlessly finding my pleasure-spots. My eyes slammed shut of their own accord, and my hands found their way up to the headboard, using it for leverage as I pushed back into his thrusts. I rocked my hips so that he hit that bundle of nerves deep inside me.
I came, and loudly cried out his name. That only seemed to spur him on, until he thrust his hips in wild abandon, using my body for his own pleasure. It wasn't long, though, before his hips stuttered against mine, and he groaned, long and low. He pulled out, spilling his cum across my stomach. His manhood twitched helplessly as it spurted its completion.
When the orgasm had faded, and he had gotten his breathing back, he smiled up at me. “Figured it was safer that way,” he said, gesturing towards the mess.
He reached towards the tissue box on the bedside table and began to tenderly clean me up, smiling as I giggled. Then, he flopped down beside me.
I yawned widely, worn out but worried. “Should I get out?” I asked, already sitting up.
But Andrew caught my wrist, pulling me back towards his chest. “Come here,” he said, pulling the covers up around us and wrapping his arms around me.
I knew I should probably protest. What did this even mean? We should have talked before we'd just climbed into bed together.
But it was nice being there, resting in his warm, strong arms. And I was pretty tired, after all. I smiled a little to myself as he kissed my forehead, his lips the barest trace of heat against my skin. Then, I succumbed to sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Andrew
I woke up later than I normally did, with the sunlight streaming through the windows and puddling across the bed. I stretched widely, careful not to jostle the still-slumbering woman at my side. Then, I rolled into her and folded my body around hers.
She murmured softly and arched against me as I ran my hands down her side. Then, she rolled over to face me.
Lexi.
It wasn't that I had forgotten about the previous night, but in that half-awake state, I hadn't really thought about what the ramifications would be. Once she turned to face me, though, I couldn't avoid thinking about it any longer. It was as though a bucket of cold water had been thrown over me.
“Good morning,” I said slowly.
She smiled at me. “Good morning.”
I stared at her for a moment, bringing my hand up to cup her cheek. But then, I pulled away, dropping all contact with her. “Lexi,” I sighed.
Her face shuttered, and her expression went neutral. “We need to talk,” she said before I could.
“Yes,” I agreed.
“That's actually why I came in here last night,” she continued. “I wasn't looking to fall into bed with you. I wanted to talk about what our long-term plan was going to be. Not long-term, because that sounds like I'm askin
g you for a forever commitment, but I need to quit living week-to-week here. I need to know when you're planning on having Emma and I move out to our own apartment, or what you plan on contributing to Emma's future, or what our relationship is, and all of the other details of this arrangement. I've been here for a month and a half now, and I think we've both had plenty of time to think about what we want.”
“You're right.” I frowned, wondering how to start the conversation.
To be honest, I'd been focusing on not thinking about the long-term plan over the past month. Instead, I'd wanted to get to know the two of them better, and since I was no longer dating Renée, there hadn't really been a reason for me to move them out of my guest rooms and into an apartment downtown. I was working from home more often lately, experimenting with how that affected company morale, and I enjoyed hearing them around the house while I worked.
I didn't know what she was looking for.
“Where do you and I stand?” Lexi asked, narrowing things down at least for the moment. “Especially after last night. Are we friends?”
I sighed again. “I like you,” I admitted, the words coming more easily than I had expected they might. I held up a hand to forestall whatever she was about to say, needing to get my thoughts out first, without interruption. “I like you. I'm drawn to you, but I'm not ready to commit to anything yet.”
“Okay,” Lexi said, frowning at me.
“What I mean is, I'm not ready to go declaring feelings for you or anything like that,” I said. “I'm not ready to say I love you. I don't know if I do. For all I know, you're just another woman who I'm sleeping with. We have fun, and we have fun with Emma, but I'm not sure what I'm thinking.”
To my surprise, Lexi looked relieved. “I feel the same,” she told me. “And I appreciate your honesty.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “And here I would have thought that you'd be pushing for a commitment, purely for Emma's sake, if nothing else.” I had yet to witness a woman who didn't start hinting about commitment at some point in the game, and given that Lexi had wanted me to commit to dating her after our first night together, I found it hard to believe that she was any different.
She paused, thinking it over. “From what I've seen, you are starting to love Emma almost as much as I do,” she finally said. “Whether you're committed to me or not, I don't see you just dropping out of her life at some point in the future.”
“I don't plan on it,” I said quietly.
“And to be honest, I'm not ready to start saying I love you either,” Lexi continued. “This whole thing with Emma really complicates things. I feel like, for all the time that I've spent around you lately, I haven't really gotten to know you because Emma was also there.”
“That's true,” I agreed. I paused, trying to find the words for what was really holding me back. “I've never had a real relationship before. Not a normal one, anyway. I don't really know what it means to have a normal relationship.” I took a deep breath. “Growing up, my parents' relationship was always strained. It definitely wasn't loving. And their relationships toward us kids were likewise not very loving.”
I shook my head. “Katherine, my younger sister, is at least relatively normal, but I don't know what she's like in a relationship. She's had serious boyfriends, of course, but I've mostly tried not to interact with the guys. It's always left me feeling awkward. I don't know what to say to them or how to act around them.” I grimaced, but Lexi looked understanding.
“I'd like to meet her sometime,” she told me. “Katherine. You mentioned wanting her to meet Emma at some point, but then we never talked about that again.”
I fidgeted, feeling embarrassed. “Katherine's never met someone who I was intimate with before,” I blurted out. “I knew that as soon as she met Emma, she was probably going to have to meet you as well, and I didn't really know how to approach that.”
Lexi smiled. “Don't worry,” she said. “I'll just ask her for all the embarrassing stories about you. Just so that I can be prepared for the kinds of mischief that Emma might get up to, of course.”
“Of course,” I said, wishing I could feel as amused by the idea as she did. I ran my hand down her side. “Katherine is out of town for the next couple weeks. She's nannying for some kids in Paris. But when she gets back, I'll set up a meeting.”
“Have her over for dinner,” Lexi suggested. “It doesn't have to be anything formal.”
“All right,” I said, nodding.
Lexi was silent for a moment. “You know, I'm not exactly the queen of normal relationships, myself,” she mused. “I only had a few serious ones before I got pregnant, and most of those were the kinds of relationships where once I got out of them, I wasn't sure why I'd stayed in them for so long. And once Emma came along, I was looking for guys who would make great dads, rather than guys who would make great boyfriends for me.”
“That's not very fair to yourself,” I pointed out, frowning. “You shouldn't have to stay with someone who makes you miserable just because he would make a great father for Emma.”
Lexi sighed. “Of course, the ideal combination would be someone who checked both of those boxes, but either way, it was hard to commit to anything. Anyway, what I mean is that, even the guys who I liked who I went on more than one date with, it was nothing normal. Providing the best life for Emma was always there in the back of my mind.”
I thought that over. “That makes sense,” I said slowly. “But still, I hope you're not selling yourself short.”
Lexi laughed. “By being here with you?” she asked. “If anything, I'm reaching for something that's way out of my league!”
“Not what I meant,” I said, rolling my eyes, but I couldn't help smiling as well.
Lexi's expression turned serious again. “I still feel bad about the Renée situation, though.”
“What do you mean?” I asked in surprise. Renée and I had broken up about a month ago now, and I had hardly thought of her since. If I'd needed any proof that she wasn't the one for me, it was that.
I spared a moment to be grateful that she hadn't done like she'd threatened and come after me for vengeance. But then, I tuned back in to what Lexi was saying.
“I feel like I screwed that one up for you,” she told me, looking guilty. “Here you were, in a relationship with this beautiful woman, and I came along with Emma and demanded a place to stay. That was bound to make any new relationship awkward. I should have been able to figure out some other plan. Or I should have been better about hiding who I was.”
“First of all, you didn't demand a place to live,” I reminded her. “I offered.”
“Even so,” she said, shaking her head. “Don't get me wrong; I think you're better off without her. Not that I knew her all that well. Not that I knew her at all. But she didn't respect you the way that she should. And you're great with Emma.”
I laughed. “Are you saying that it boils down to, I shouldn't have been with her because I'm great with Emma?”
Lexi blushed a brilliant shade of red, perhaps redder than I'd ever seen her before. She rolled away from me so that she was looking up at the ceiling. “What I mean is...” She trailed off, sounding embarrassed. Then, she cleared her throat and glanced over at me. “Don't you think it's only natural that you be with me, given that you're the father of my child?”
I frowned, seriously thinking over that. “I'm not sure what I think,” I told her guardedly.
What I really thought was, I wasn't going to stay in this relationship if it wasn't working out for us, regardless of whether we had a kid together. At the same time, I didn't want her to misinterpret my saying that out loud, especially not since I knew she must already be thinking that, somewhere in her mind.
Lexi turned back to face me, carefully analyzing my expression. “Okay,” she said simply, no judgment in her tone or her expression.
“I do want you to stay for at least a few months, while we figure things out,” I told her slowly.
I brushed back
her hair and leaned in to kiss her, moving unhurriedly, giving her plenty of time to pull away if this wasn't what she wanted. But although I shied away from saying it in words, I hoped to convey how much feeling I already had for her.
It seemed to work, if the smile on her face as we pulled apart was any indication. “Thank you,” she said appreciatively. “For letting us stay.”
“It's all for Emma,” I teased. But then I fixed her with a serious gaze. “You've grown on me too, though.”
“You've grown on me as well,” Lexi admitted. “At first, you were a total jerk. It seemed like all you cared about was yourself and the success of your business. But I don't know; since we've been here, you've seemed different. More caring.” She ducked her head, as though she couldn't believe she was saying the words. “Not that it's any of my business anyway.”
I tilted her chin up and kissed her again. The kiss was gentle and sweet, only hinting at our hidden passion. “I'm trying to be a better role model for Emma,” I told her.
It was my first time I had admitted it even to myself, but I knew it was the true story behind my transformation at work, as well as the true story behind how frequently I now worked from home.
From Lexi's pleased smile, I could tell that she appreciated the revelation. She leaned in to reward me with another kiss, this one much more heated than the last.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lexi
I looked up as Andrew came into the room where Emma and I were playing with some cars on the floor, zooming them around the “town” that we'd built from blocks. It was still early in the evening, but Andrew was already home. I was impressed with how much he was trying to temper his workaholic side and become a real family man. The fact that he made an effort to change at all surprised me.
“How was your day?” I asked as Andrew joined us on the floor, heedless of the fact that he was in a tailored suit.