by Vi Keeland
“So…it’s Wednesday.” I signed it, and apparently third time’s the charm because my performance earned me a big, toothy smile. “Do you do something special on Wednesday?”
She laughed at me again. “White. We wear white.” Ella twirled, showing off her outfit. She wore a white shirt with gold, sparkly letters that read Mermaid Life, coupled with a pair of white shorts. Her sandals were white, too.
“Oh.” I looked down at my clothes. I had on a pair of khakis and a navy polo. “I must’ve gotten my days mixed up.”
She scrunched up her button nose and began to tick off the days of the week with her little fingers. Her pointer was first. “Monday Magenta.” Middle finger. “Tuesday Turquoise.” Ring finger. “Wednesday White.”
I interrupted her by signing the word Wednesday and then winked. Her smile grew.
She kept going, ticking off through one hand and starting on the next. “Thursday Teal. Friday Fuchsia.” (Which she adorably pronounced foo-sha.) “Saturday Sage. Sunday Sapphire!” She slapped her hands down to her sides when she finished.
“You always dress a color to match the day?”
She nodded.
I really needed that fucking notebook.
“Which one is your favorite?”
“Sapphire! Blue, blue, blue!”
“Blue is my favorite color, too.” At least it was now after seeing how happy it made her. A thought popped into my head. “Do you remember Layla?”
She nodded.
“Her favorite color is rainbow.”
Ella cracked up. “Rainbow’s not a color!”
“Maybe not. But when you like a lot of them, why pick just one? Special girls can have any favorites they want.”
Max popped her head into the room. “Everything okay here?”
“Mommy, Mommy!” Ella jumped up and down. “My favorite color is rainbow!”
Max looked to me and smiled back down at her daughter. “It is, is it?”
“It’s Layla’s, too! We’re special so we can have more than one color as our favorite!”
Max’s smile wilted. “That’s nice, honey. Do you want your snack now?”
“Yes!” She jumped up and down, delivering her answer. Her energy glowed.
“I’ll make two plates.”
A few minutes later, Max returned with two small plates, one for each of us. Wednesday. White. Apple slices and peanut butter. Maybe I should’ve taken those notes in my phone.
We sat together on the floor in the living room, with our plates on the coffee table. While we were eating our apples, I noticed Ella was using her left hand to eat. “Which hand do you hold a crayon with, sweetheart?”
She raised her left hand.
“I write with my left, too. Most of the world writes with the other hand.”
“Mommy writes with a different hand.”
That’s because you take after your daddy.
When we were done with snack time, Ella asked if we could go for a walk. I had forgotten all about the stroller-trike I’d bought her. I’d left it in the vestibule when I came in. I collected our plates, and Ella and I went to look for her mother.
We found her in the kitchen, drinking a protein shake.
“Ella wants to go for a walk.”
“Oh, okay. You two have fun.”
Ella ran to her mom and tugged at her shirt. “You come, too, Mommy.”
Max’s eyes flashed to me. Ella first, I reminded myself. I gave her a silent nod.
“Okay. Let me get a sweater.”
While Max got her sweater, I showed Ella her new stroller-trike. She literally squealed. Then she took off running back to the living room. I watched from the hallway as she pulled open the end table drawer, picked something out of a box, and crammed it into an envelope. She sped back to me just as Max came back with her sweater.
Holding the envelope up to me, Ella said, “Thank you!”
Curious as to what the hell was going on, I slipped the card out of the envelope. It was a small note card with a silver Thank You printed on the front, and the inside was empty.
Max started to laugh. “Ella, honey, we’re supposed to fill those out before we give them to people.”
Ella frowned.
Max explained. “I don’t let her use the toys she gets as gifts until we write a thank you note.”
The kid was damn smart. And I didn’t need anything written. I knelt down to her. “My thank you card is perfect the way it is. You’re very welcome, Ella.”
“Can I try it?”
I glanced at Max, who nodded.
“Absolutely. How about if I push you around the block once, and then I hop on and you push me around?”
Ella let out a loud belly laugh. I couldn’t imagine ever having a bad day if I could wake up to the sound of that.
“You’re too big!”
I patted my waist. “I did gain a pound or two.”
Max locked up the house while I strapped Ella into her new ride. I guided her feet to the pedals and showed her where to put them if she got tired.
The minute we started walking, I could have let go of the handle that pushed the thing. Ella pedaled her own weight almost immediately. The stroller-trike had a canopy top to shield her from the sun, and Ella was in her own little world, pedaling away. She wouldn’t hear us talking, but I spoke low anyway.
“Does she have any allergies?”
The peanut butter snack had made me think about how many kids seem to have nut allergies these days.
“Feathers. I had her allergy tested because she got a rash from a pillow. The only thing she tested positive to was feathers.”
“Any medications?”
“No. Just a children’s vitamin every day.”
“What is she afraid of?”
Max glanced at me and looked down with a big sigh. “Me going away.”
“Going away?”
“I’ve read a dozen books on how to prepare a child for the death of a parent. Children her age don’t really understand the concept of death. They see it as temporary or reversible. I guess it makes sense, since they watch cartoons where characters are flattened by a car and then blow up to their normal size and walk around again. I tried to explain death to her by saying that sometimes mommies and daddies have to go away, even when they don’t want to. I thought she’d understand that, but a few days later, I had to go upstate for the afternoon to a business meeting, and when I told her I was going away, she started to sob. So I think I screwed that lesson up pretty good.”
I smiled sadly. “She told me her daddy is smart. I assume she thinks Aiden is her father?”
“What?” Max scrunched up her face. “No. I never introduced Aiden as her father. We broke up when she was less than a year old. I doubt she even remembers him.”
“So who was she talking about then?”
“You. I talk about her father in the general sense once in a while. She thinks her daddy is away on a long business trip. She has no concept of time and hasn’t really ever questioned it.”
I raked my fingers through my hair. “Jesus.”
After a twenty-minute walk, Ella had tuckered herself out from pedaling so much. Max looked like she had exerted all of her energy, too. I walked them into the house, and the two of them went to the bathroom. While I waited, I took out my cell phone. I was shocked to find out it was almost five thirty. It seemed like I’d just gotten here.
“Would you like to stay for dinner?” Max asked when she returned.
The truth was, I wasn’t ready to leave Ella yet. There was so much to learn, so much to catch up on. Yet I also didn’t want to take over Ella’s routine and throw her off. Google had said the introduction of a partner should be done gradually—not that I was any kind of a partner to Max. But I figured the concept was the same.
“I should probably get going. I don’t want to push my luck and outstay my welcome with Ella. She’s probably pretty accustomed to having one-on-one time with you.”
“Oh.
Okay.”
“When can I see her again?”
“Friday is my last day of work. I have half days until then. So my schedule is pretty flexible.”
“You’re taking time off?”
“I’m leaving. I love working—the highs and lows of the market were an important part of who I am. But since my diagnosis, I’ve known I’d eventually leave to spend the last of my time with my daughter. I can feel the changes in me coming faster now. My strength is going, and simple things are getting more difficult.”
The last of her time.
I felt a heaviness in my chest. My daughter would soon have no mother. Not to mention, as horrible as she was to me, Max was only thirty years old.
I nodded. “Okay.”
“How about the day after tomorrow? Ella has a checkup at one, but we could get together afterward?”
“Can I come to the checkup?”
“Umm… Sure. Of course. Ella’s going to have to get used to that anyway.”
Ella ran out from the bathroom, and I suddenly pictured her bigger—maybe eight or nine years old. She wouldn’t want a man at her checkups by then.
“Ella, Gray is going to leave. But we’re going to see him again really soon.”
“What day?”
The corners of my lips twitched. Even if she wasn’t mine, I’d think this kid was pretty damn awesome.
I knelt to talk to her. “Friday. Can I guess what you’ll be wearing?”
She grinned. “Fuchsia! Pink!”
I cupped her cheek with one hand, stroking her baby soft skin with my thumb. I’d done it without thinking, but it didn’t scare her away. My daughter seemed comfortable with my touch. I wondered if that was a physiological thing. I’d be Googling that later for sure.
“I’ll see you soon, sweetheart.”
Without warning, she jumped into my arms and wrapped hers around my neck. I got choked up as she allowed me to engulf her in a tight embrace. When she was done, she hopped away, as carefree as before she’d given me the hug—blissfully unaware that she’d just rocked my entire fucking world.
Max smiled warmly. “I think this was a great visit.”
I stood. “Me too. Take care of yourself, Max.”
Chapter 30
* * *
Layla
I hadn’t noticed the appointment on my calendar until after lunch.
“Hey, Peggy.” I buzzed through the telephone intercom to my assistant. “Did you just add the appointment at four o’clock today?”
“I added it this morning. Mr. Westbrook called and asked if you could squeeze him in as the last appointment of the day. You were on the phone, so I didn’t clear it with you. But nothing was on your calendar. Do you need me to change it?”
“No. It’s fine. I just thought maybe I’d missed it there. Thank you.”
Gray and I hadn’t seen each other in a few days. He’d been spending time with his daughter, and I’d kept myself busy with what I did best—working fifteen hours a day. I missed him, but things were a lot more complicated than just having a boyfriend now.
A part of me had thought I could step back from where we were in our relationship, but the more we were apart, the more I realized there was no going back to casual and taking things slow—not that Gray and I had ever really done casual. We’d had that special connection from the very first time we’d met.
When we’d talked on the phone last night, he hadn’t mentioned he needed to speak to me about work, so I took out my phone to text him and see if everything was okay. But as I did that, my office phone rang, and I was summoned to one of the partner’s offices to discuss a new case. It was typical for associates to have to drop what they were doing and spend a few hours in a partner’s office when they felt like it. They didn’t exactly feel the need to schedule time when it might be convenient for everyone. Hence, the reason I’m on a first-name basis with the security guards who lock up the building. Whatever a partner needed just piled on top of whatever I needed to get done.
I didn’t get back to my desk until just before four o’clock. I’d been fighting a futile attempt to not check the time every few minutes during my meeting. Peggy buzzed before I could even finish putting on a fresh coat of lipstick.
“Your four o’clock is here.”
“You can send him in.”
I stuffed my purse into my desk drawer and folded my hands on my lap, waiting for Gray. My heart sped up hearing his footsteps come down the hall. He definitely had a distinct stride—and he was walking at a fast, no-bullshit pace.
He came through my door with a cocky, devious smile. Stopping to look at me as he stepped into my office, he said not a word. I stayed quiet as well, but damn if my body didn’t say a lot. My nipples pebbled, the hair on my arms stood up, and my pulse started to race. I shifted in my seat, and the light in Gray’s eyes flared.
He closed the door behind him and very slowly clicked the lock shut.
When he turned back around, I raised a brow. “Is our business so sensitive that my door needs to be locked?”
Gray wore a dark, three-piece suit, the kind that fit him in all the right places and made his already confident persona shoot up tenfold. His tie was a beautiful blue color that would have normally reflected the color of his eyes, only they were darkening right in front of me.
“If it were up to me, I’d leave the door open while I make you come. In fact, I’d prefer if the office heard it. But I thought you’d rather have privacy.”
God, he was so arrogant. And I loved it. I so, so loved it.
I folded my arms over my chest. “Pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“That I can make you come? Absolutely.”
“I wasn’t referring to that. I was referring to the fact that you think I’d let you try, in the middle of the day, in my office.”
He smirked. That smirk.
I braced as he walked toward me. Grabbing one arm of my high-back chair, he swung it around and then surprised me by lifting my ass out of it and up onto my desk. He raised a knee and used it to spread my legs, then pushed his hips between them as he pressed a kiss to my jaw. “I missed you.”
His voice alone could make me wet. In fact, it might have. “Did you come to…” I trailed off as his mouth moved to my throat. “Did you come to see me about business?”
He kissed his way up to my ear. “I came to make you come.”
One of his hands slipped between us and under my skirt—easy access. I felt my face heat as I let him rub up and down the silk of my panties. I should not be doing this. Yet I did nothing to stop it from happening.
“We shouldn’t.” A feeble attempt, at best.
Fingers slipped under the silk of my underwear. “Are you sure?” He found my clit and started to massage it. “You’re already wet. I can make it quick.”
Before I found words to respond, one finger slid inside of me.
My eyes shut, and I swallowed whatever answer I’d been about to give. I couldn’t even remember what that was. He gently pumped in and out a few times, then pulled out and thrust back in with two fingers. I moaned, and he silenced me with a kiss.
“Shhh. I wanted to lick you first, but I don’t want you to get in trouble. So we’ll have to do it this way before I taste you so you’re more relaxed.”
His hand went to work. Curling his fingers inside me just right to rub that sensitive spot, he relentlessly pushed in and out. The man had magnificent fingers. Not three minutes ago, I’d been steadfast that we were playing a cat-and-mouse game, and I was never going to fool around with him in my office in the middle of the day. Now I was propped up on my desk, stretching the material of my skirt as I tried to open my legs wider, and shamelessly moaning into his mouth.
“That’s it. Come for me, baby. I can’t wait to lick you clean.”
At that moment, I honestly didn’t give a shit how reckless I was, the climb had begun, and all I could do was hang on and wait until I was on the other side. Gray’s hand—the one
that wasn’t busy working miracles—threaded into my hair and tugged my head back so we were nose to nose. “I want to watch you come. Show me, beautiful. Show me.”
His thumb pressed firmly onto my clit, and everything inside of me coiled. It felt like I might explode if I didn’t release. Sensing my desperation, Gray thrust in and out harder and faster, pushing me over the edge. I gripped my desk for dear life and hung on as I rode the pulsating waves of pleasure. Gray’s intense eyes watching me came in and out of focus as it crested. Our gazes locked; I couldn’t have looked away if I’d wanted to.
On my way down, he tugged at the hem of my skirt and lifted my ass so he could push the fabric up to my waist. Still in a complete fog, I had no idea what he was doing—only that the exposed cheeks of my ass were now sitting on the cool top of my wooden desk. Gray dropped to his knees and began sucking on my swollen bud. My body roared back to life. I had been ready to snuggle and nap, but one lash of his tongue had me realizing the party was just getting started.
Giving in completely, I lay back on my desk and reveled in the feel of his tongue flicking and sucking, penetrating and promising. When my orgasm hit, I wasn’t sure if it was a second one or if the first had just ebbed until it had enough strength to form the next big wave.
Gray didn’t stop until I was boneless. Spent, I looked up at the ceiling, catching my breath as he slipped off my panties and righted my skirt. Then he scooped me up into his arms, took a seat in my chair, and plopped me onto his lap. My head was spinning.
Gray kissed my forehead. “This has been a productive meeting. You’re very efficient. I’m glad I stopped by.”
“I’d say something witty, but I don’t think my brain is functioning yet.”
He chuckled. “That’s good. Because I figured it’s been working overtime and needed the break.”
I leaned my head against his chest. “I have been working a lot.”
“I was referring to your brain overthinking everything when it came to us.”
“Oh.”
A few minutes later, Gray said, “I hate to eat and run, but I actually do have an appointment with an attorney across town in a half hour—the attorney for the company we’re investing in. Apparently he’s an old friend of my father’s.”