We circled the bed and took in the sight of the pretty, young mother and her tiny baby. Pepper’s expression was one of pure delight, even though tears streamed down her cheeks. Fallon smiled like a proud papa and Church… I didn’t bother looking his way.
I just nodded as the others provided commentary on the beauty of the baby’s appearance and which facial features resembled whose. Really, I didn’t even hear the comments. I was focused on the tiny bundle cradled in his mother’s arms, a tiny miracle of flesh and blood and bone and brain. This baby, not yet even named, as far as I knew, represented unimaginable potential and vulnerability.
I looked up at Fallon, who was still smiling, standing off to the side, like a spear carrier in some play, half onstage and half off, basking in the reflected glory as his leading lady takes a bow. Was he aware of the challenges this little package would bring to him, or all of the worries and joys? Did he yet realize that his own childish pursuits and pleasures would diminish, and that his task was to create a safe, loving environment in which this child would grow and thrive?
‘We’ll see how you do when your time comes, Mister.’ Pepper’s challenge echoed in my ears.
Fuck.
It was becoming apparent that day wasn’t too far off in my future. I just hoped I’d be ready.
Chapter Two — Pepper
Church was the first of our group to bail out. He said he’d felt like one of the three wise men looking down at the Christ child and felt guilty about not bringing any myrrh. For the most part, though, he’d behaved himself, and I was glad that he’d made the effort to come. I was sure that Mills was happy to see him, too.
In total, we were there about twenty-five minutes before the nurse returned, gathered up the baby and gave us the boot. Obviously, Mills was tired, and we didn’t want to overstay our welcome anyway.
I was proud of my little sister. Even after Fallon’s initial reaction when she told him she was pregnant, she never once wavered. Sure, she cried a lot and vomited even more often, but she was determined that—with or without Fallon’s participation—she was going to give birth to that baby. It was like she suddenly leapt a light-year ahead of me in the maturity department.
“You rest up, sis,” I said, and leaned down to kiss her goodbye. I gave her a couple of extra kisses as well, just because she looked so cute and I loved her so much. “Thanks for giving us a head-start,” I winked. “You can notify Mom now.”
Despite her fatigue, she managed to laugh, but I could see she was drifting into a sweet afterglow, closing her eyes but still smiling. Of course, it might have been the drugs.
I held Gabe’s hand as we walked down the corridor. “You were so sweet in there.”
“Who, me?” he asked, looking stunned.
“I saw you! You couldn’t take your eyes off that sweet little boy.” I gave his hand a squeeze. “Just think, you’re going to be his Uncle Gabe, if you play your cards right.”
“Uncle Gabe,” he echoed. “Has a nice ring to it, eh?”
I could tell he liked the idea. “And whatever his father doesn’t teach him, he can go to his uncle for help.”
“For anything other than playing video games, you mean?” I gave him a light elbow in the ribs. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Our ancestors did the same thing, passing down their hunting knowledge to their offspring. I just pray that he inherited Fallon’s thumbs.”
“Come on, don’t be mean. He’s going to grow up really quickly. He really loves my sister, you know.”
“Then he can’t be all bad,” Gabe smiled. “Some people have to learn to care about others if they don’t experience it at home at a young age. His mother has passed, right?”
“Yeah,” I said, “but his father’s a sweetheart.” We’d arrived at the main entrance and stepped outside. “Where are you parked?”
“Right next to you.”
“So… are you still going into work early? It’s only 6:15.”
“Why?” Gabe asked, his eyes narrowing all suspicious and sexy. “Did you have something else in mind?”
“Actually, I did,” I smiled. “I felt guilty about you going to work so early. You haven’t even had anything to eat. So… maybe I could whip up a little something for you? Something to put a little zing into your step!”
“Zing? Hmmm, I don’t believe I’ve zung in quite some time.”
“Well, what are we waiting for? Race you to the cars!” I took off at full speed, weaving through the cars toward the Escalade. I had the keys in my hand and unlocked it with the remote. The lights flashed, helping me to zero in on where I’d parked. I looked over my shoulder and saw Gabe trotting behind me with a slow, easy gait. Hell, at that pace, I’d be showered before he even got home.
Then I saw what he’d done. He’d parked the pickup so close to my driver’s door that I couldn’t open it. I’ve known jerks who’d done that unintentionally, but Gabe was no fool. Sometimes I wondered if he knew me better than I knew myself, and somehow had known that I’d try to beat him home.
“You ever heard the fable about the tortoise and the hare?” he chuckled, turning his key in the truck door lock. “I’ll read it to you sometime.” I’d already entered through the passenger side and climbed over the seat to reach the wheel, but Gabe fired up the work truck and rolled away before I turned the ignition.
I wasn’t going to drive crazy to make up for lost time. I was going to be a safe, responsible driver. So what if he got home before I did? What was he going to do… start without me?
As I pulled up to the guest house, Gabe’s parents were walking out the side door of their house. “Good morning, Pepper,” Adrian called out, and James waved at me. They were headed out for a morning stroll. “You’re out early today.”
I updated them on the blessed event. “That’s wonderful, Pepper!” Adrian said. “I’m glad they’re both doing well. I hope I’ll get to meet your sister someday.”
“I’m sure you will. Well, I’m going to make Gabe some breakfast now. He wanted to go in a little early today. Enjoy your walk!”
I entered Gabe’s house and tossed the keys on the kitchen counter. I peeled off my jacket and blouse as I made my way toward the shower. I found Gabe lounging on the bed, naked, on his side, head propped up on one arm in a centerfold pose. He looked gorgeous!
“Hello, pussycat,” he purred. “What took you so long?”
“Remind me to tell you the tale of the tortoise and the hare sometime,” I sniffed. I turned my back to him and bent over, slowly sliding my jeans down my legs. Gabe made a hungry, growling sound.
“Be with you in a flash,” I called out, running to the shower and adjusting the water temperature. “I have to wash off last night’s sex!” I quickly lathered, scrubbed and rinsed, but allowed a little extra time to caress my breasts and clean thoroughly ‘down there.’ I dried and wrapped the towel around me before I emerged.
“Voila!” I announced, holding my arms out as if I were some retro model.
“French is my favorite thing!” Gabe cried out. “Do you think you could accommodate me?”
I perched on the bed, but kept my feet on the floor. “Oui, oui, monsieur! French, wee-wee, yes?” I took his cock in my hand and stroked gently. “Would monsieur like all-French or zee half-and-half, s’il vous plait?” I giggled.
Gabe pulled me on top of him, and we rolled around the bed, kissing and fondling each other. He squeezed my breasts and brought his face between them, kissing one and then the other—driving me wild.
“Please, sir, I am zee cook! Please, do not treat me like a whore!” I could feel his big, hard cock under my ass through the towel. I squirmed, pretending to try to escape, even as my hand clenched his cock. “I must go, sir! Please don’t make me wet!”
Gabe ducked his head under the towel, sniffing and snorting like a pig seeking a truffle. “It’s too late for that, little one!” he growled, and stuck his head back between my legs, his nose burrowing into my pussy, followed by his long,
thick tongue.
I almost gave up then and there, but I’d promised to make Gabe breakfast and I was a woman of my word! I delayed my duties for a minute or two, allowing him to feast on my pussy while I amused myself with his dick. I leaned my back onto his stomach and reached for his erection, wetting the large head by popping it into my mouth and sucking. I ran my tongue along its length like an ice cream cone. I loved sucking his cock, all huge and warm. He was ready and leaking pre-cum by the time my first orgasm hit.
I reached with my free hand and pulled Gabe’s head harder against my pussy, trapping him between my thighs as I came hard against his tongue. “God, Gabe, you are so good, baby!” God, he was a wonderful man! “Okay, babe, you gotta stop!” I gave his cock a nip with my teeth and hopped off the bed.
“Where you going, babe? Come back here!” he protested, but I had other plans.
I ran into the kitchen, dropping the towel on the floor and tying an apron around my waist. “I bet this is his Mom’s!” I mumbled to myself, hoping they’d be gone for a while.
I began gathering items from the fridge—eggs, butter, bacon. I clattered in the cupboards, bringing out pans and plates. I was determined to make my man some breakfast!
What I really wanted was to be fucked hard and long, but something inside me wanted a different way of doing it. This was discipline! This was tearing myself away from the thing I wanted most—to see if I could focus on another task while my body screamed for more!
“Can I help?” Gabe whispered into my ear, his big dick squeezing between my butt cheeks. I gasped in anticipation. His cock trailed down along my ass toward my cunt—I was so wet. I could even feel my wetness seeping onto my thighs.
“I’ll have your breakfast ready soon, big boy.” I said, not looking back at him. The bacon sizzled as it hit the pan. “You can make toast, if you like.”
“Here, hold this,” he rasped, sliding his hard cock into me. He leaned against me as he took out two slices of bread and jammed them in the toaster, slapping the lever three or four times until it caught.
Gabe’s hands grabbed my tits and kneaded them as he pumped his cock in and out of me from behind. He kissed and bit at my neck until I couldn’t take it anymore. My knees weakened under me.
Effortlessly, Gabe lifted me and carried me over to the kitchen table, laying me down onto my stomach. He fell right back into that jackhammer rhythm, fucking me for all he was worth, and I grabbed the sides of the dinette, holding on as he pounded me from behind. I smelled the bacon burning, but I didn’t care. Dark smoke poured from the toaster, causing the smoke alarm to go off. The piercing alarm was too loud to ignore. I pushed Gabe back and turned around to face him, throwing my arms around his shoulders and wrapping my legs around his waist. He saw me reaching toward the smoke detector and carried me to it as he bounced me up and down on his dick.
It took several tries, clawing and twisting at the shrieking alarm, but I finally yanked it from the wall and tossed it to the floor. Gabe laid me back down on the table and hooked my ankles over his shoulders. I loved it when he fucked me like this. He was going for it—hard and nasty!
We rocked the table so hard, I was sure it would collapse, but I knew Gabe wouldn’t let me fall. The table legs hopped around the floor so much it was joining in, like we were having a ménage with an inanimate object with me in the middle, but I didn’t care. I just needed to come! And the way his dick was pounding my G-spot, I knew it’d be messy. But oh so good!
Gabe’s body tightened up and with a loud groan and a heave, he shot his creamy jizz inside me. His arms were taut and I grabbed hold of them, crying out as my pussy pulsed and lights flashed behind my eyes. The whole world stopped as my body trembled and rocked on his cock. “Gabe! Baby! Yes! Yesss!”
Our bodies quivered and shivered and heaved until it all spilled out. Not only did the earth move, I think I saw the chandelier sway as Gabe fell forward onto me. Buried alive under his heaving body, I held him tight and rode out each spasm, each spark till the very end.
Damn! He was good!
In fact, he was the best.
“Food?” I squeaked out, trying to catch my breath.
“Burnt.” He answered, “Let’s call for takeout.”
“Great idea, baby.”
Later, after we’d eaten and returned to being our normal, articulate selves, no longer mere animalistic fuck bunnies, we cuddled on the bed. Now we could be tender. The tension was gone. The hunger was gone. We didn’t have to speak—but I couldn’t resist.
“I meant what I said earlier.”
“Mmmm?”
“About the way you looked at that baby today. And how sweet you looked.”
“Mmmm. Has that baby got a name? When are they gonna name him?” he asked.
“They’re still deciding. I think the State of Florida allows you so many days and then they name the baby for you.”
“Really?” Gabe said, sitting up a bit more.
“Yeah, they have a list of names they use—former governors, secretaries of state, and then, you know, Parks and Recreation, sewer commissioners and stuff.”
“Did you tell Mills about this?” Gabe asked.
“No. She’d never believe a bunch of shit like that!” I laughed as Gabe wrapped me in a bear hug.
“And neither would I!” he insisted. “I just wanted to see how gullible your sister was!”
“Oh, I had you going!” His grip relaxed and I snuggled in his arms. I didn’t want to pursue it. Maybe Gabe was ready to have kids or maybe he wasn’t. Not yet, anyway.
As much as I loved my sister, I didn’t want to follow her path by getting pregnant before Gabe and I got married. I didn’t want him to feel like he’d been forced into anything. We hadn’t set a date yet, and that was okay for now.
I was surprised that he’d popped the question, to tell the truth. I thought most people saw Gabe as being a very rational guy, maybe a little too rational, and people like him found it hard to be spontaneous. That’s what I’d thought, as well, but he surprised me, and he surprised me in some way every day. I loved that about him. I loved that he’d given me caveman sex in the kitchen. Who’d have thought?
Gabe was a serious man, and so unlike that other guy I used to chase around with, whose name I won’t even try to conjure up while I was in the same bed with Gabe. He loved his work, and he may have wanted to stay at that job for the next twenty years, and that was fine with me. It was important work. Sea Lab helped people connect with nature, and what was more important than that, really? Staying in touch with the real world helped keep us real, even if the fish and mammals were in tanks. For some people—that’s as close as they’d ever get to nature.
But maybe there was a part of Gabe that wanted to see some of the world, get out and have some fun before he settled down and had kids. Gabe had knuckled down while party animals like me were drinking and having fun every night. I’d bet some people made fun of him or called him a nerd because he was so straight and narrow—focused. Maybe it was harder for him to ever loosen up if he’d gone through that.
“Gabe?”
“Yeah, sweetie.”
“You know, if you ever feel like you need a break from what you’re doing, I’d be okay with that.”
“What do you mean, Pepper?”
“I know you’re a driven kind of person. You’ve pushed yourself most of your life to get where you are and to know what you know. But if you should ever decide that you want to do something different—or do nothing at all for a while—I’d support you.”
“Okay,” Gabe said, sounding a little tentative. “But I’m not planning on changing anything, other than my… domestic situation.”
That made me smile. He meant me.
“Well, I’m just saying… you’ve been through a lot lately, and the doctor said the shark injury caused some minor heart damage. You might want to just take it easier, as you…”
“What?” Gabe laughed. “Grow old? I’m not old!”
&nbs
p; “Well, you’re older than me!” I teased. Gabe was about to put another one of his bear hugs on me when there was a knock at the front door. We heard the door open and pulled the covers over us. It was Adrian.
“Gabe? Pepper? It smells like something’s burning! Is everything okay?”
“It was, Adrian,” I called back. “It was burning, but we put it out!” I elbowed Gabe and we rolled together, trying to keep from laughing out loud.
“I see,” Adrian said, no doubt taking in the mess in the kitchen. “Okay. Carry on.” The door closed shut.
“Are you sure it’s out?” Gabe smiled, pulling up the blanket. “You sure it’s not smoldering under there?”
“Go ahead and check,” I replied. “Better safe than sorry.”
Chapter Three — Gabe
After making certain that our ‘fires’ had been fully extinguished, I hopped in the shower to rinse the sex and sweat from my body. Having crazy sex with Pepper was a great way to start the day, but now I’d be arriving at work at the usual time of 8am instead of the 5:30am I’d originally planned on. Granted, 5:30am was an ungodly early hour, but I felt I could have used the extra time on-site.
Friday was the big day—the arrival of our two new residents, Romeo and Juliet, and everything had to be ready for when the whales arrived. The new tanks had been constructed, but more testing was required to make sure everything worked perfectly. The public unveiling would be on the following Saturday, and there was still a lot of publicity work to be done, as well as final preparations for that evening’s VIP banquet.
I was busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest, and to top it off, my injured leg was bothering me. Thank goodness for the endless refills of my pain medication and as soon as I finished showering, I gulped down two of the capsules.
“Honey, is your leg still hurting?” Pepper asked.
“Yeah, it’s throbbing pretty badly. That uphill walk at the hospital didn’t help.”
Destiny Undone: The Complete Series Box Set Page 44