by Paige North
He looks at it for a long, long time. Then he starts swiping through the rest: me and my family posing with tiny Sebastian wrapped in his blanket. Sebastian coming home to colorful balloons and gifts. Sebastian in his bassinet with the sun from my bedroom window shining over him.
Colt’s voice is hoarse as he puts aside the phone. “You took that last picture yourself.”
I nod, rubbing my cheek against his arm.
“I can tell because of the way you use the light. You’ve got a talent for photography. You always have.”
“And you always had a talent for making up stories to go along with all my pictures. I still have the photo I took of that old, abandoned, rusted-out car by the lake. You thought up a story about an old man who might’ve owned it and how he used to sit in it at night, looking at the moon with the love of his life by his side until, one night, she wasn’t there. She’d died from a tragic disease. Every night after that one, he would still come to sit in that car, even when his bones started to hurt and his skin got wrinkled. He died in that car, thinking of her.”
Colt leans down to press his mouth against my head, breathing me in. It’s as if he won’t acknowledge this sensitive side of himself for anyone, even me. I wonder if he’ll ever let that piece of him loose onscreen, where he can claim that he was only acting.
“You should share your stories with everyone,” I whisper. “Write a screenplay, direct movies someday.”
He laughs against my head, then murmurs, “You don’t know what it’s like in LA, especially if you let any of those leeches get too close.”
I turn my head so that my lips are against his hard arm, and something in my belly spins.
He goes on. “It’s life in the fast lane there, and once you’re speeding along in it, you’re fine. But if you screw up and veer out of the lane they put you in, you’re done.”
I hear the strain and pressure in his tone, and I run my hand over his forearm. Goose bumps prickle over his skin, and the same thing happens to me.
“I hate being alone in LA,” he says. “Without you.”
I close my eyes at the pain in his voice.
“Every month that passes by without you,” he says, “I lose more of my grip, and it’s gotten to the point where I’m veering out of every lane, heading for a cliff. Thank God I came back here to cool off.”
I open my eyes, frowning, worried about him. “Other than how our situation affected you, things are going so well for you there.”
“For now.”
“Colt, don’t do anything to blow your career, not when you’re finally about to take off in a major way.”
He traces a finger down my arm, bringing out more goose bumps wherever he touches, even though I still have my light sweater on. “I’ve already made more money than I know what to do with.”
“And this is just the beginning.” I rest my hand over his. “Now that things are going your way, you need to take this seriously.”
He tips his long finger under my chin and turns my gaze up to his. “I do take it all seriously. Very seriously, Serena.”
He’s not talking about his career anymore—he means me and Sebastian. I feel it in my melting bones.
As he leans down to press his lips to mine, I close my eyes, floating down and down into a blessed hole. He sucks at me gently, then rubs his mouth against mine until I let out a soft mewl. That little sound seems to unchain something inside of him, because he digs his hand into my hair, bunching it, then skims the tip of his tongue between my lips.
With a splash inside my belly, I open up to let him inside. He lavishes me with his tongue, slowly, greedily, going deeper and harder with every stroke. Then with a low growl, he lifts me over to the fluffy pillows behind me, and as I moan, he kisses me again, more intensely.
I feel one of my sandals fall off as I lift my legs to wrap them around his hips. I arch against him, and I didn’t realize how slick my pussy had gotten until just now. Just being in Colt’s presence is enough to get me hot, and as we make out like we haven’t seen each other for decades, I rub against his cock, feeling my folds slide against my panties and his jeans.
He makes a bestial sound against my mouth, and I bring both hands up to grip his hair. I spread my legs farther apart, feeling the tip of him through his jeans as I churn against him, feeling that tight, rapturous feeling every time he hits my clit. The sounds of my juices and the harshness of my breathing against his lips only turn me on more.
“You want to be fucked again,” he whispers against me.
It’s the new, edgier Colt talking, but I know the Colt who still has deep feelings for me is still here. The combination is intoxicating.
“Please,” I whisper.
“How much do you want it?”
“Ten million dollars’ worth.”
He laughs, then kisses me even deeper, slipping his hand beneath my ass so he can press me against his cock even harder. My thoughts are spinning, swirling into a world of colors, and when he starts dry humping me with expert ease, I mewl again, wanting him to know how much I like it.
As he lazily pumps, he slips his fingers between the backs of my thighs, then inches into my panties. When he thrusts his finger up inside me, I squeal. I wiggle around, wanting his cock there instead.
He doesn’t need another hint, and he dips his hips, pushing his tip into the same place his finger just was. As I roll my hips, I slip against his jeans, his cock, and I wiggle again for more of him. And damn, do I ever get it as his head prods my opening another time.
Hell, I could do this all night, especially as a button on his fly begins to nudge my clit every time he barely strokes into me, teasing, taunting, making me want to scream.
“Are you going to get off for me?” he grits.
“Mmm…”
“I know what’ll get my girl there.” He eases a hand up my skirt and begins to gently rub just above my belly. “That’s my girl’s special place. Isn’t it?”
“Mmm.” Very special…so special that a series of pulses start to throb deep and low within me, then speed up, slamming around my belly like an animal that’s looking for a desperate way out. I know the only way it’s going to be set free, and with my hands shaking, I fumble with Colt’s damp fly. My cream is all over the denim.
“Please,” I whisper, totally unhinged. “Please!”
His response is fast and furious, as if he’s been waiting to be unleashed. He rips off my panties, and on a burst of desperation, I manage to get his fly undone. He’s already reaching back into a pocket, pulling out a rubber, and he rips the packaging open while I take his cock out of his jeans and…
Wow, it’s engorged, enormous, pulsating in my hand. Pre-cum beads his head, and I circle my thumb over him, reveling in the velvet feel of him, shuddering in anticipation of him filling me up.
The pulses inside me are getting bigger, more forceful, and with him in my eager hands I’m ready, so very ready to come that he barely has time to slip on the rubber before I’m moaning. He takes me by the hips and thrusts into me with a stroke so slick that it makes one final monster pulse suspend inside of me, then blast apart.
But I need more of him, more, and as he begins to really fuck me, the sounds of my wet pussy and his slathered cock glide in a frenzied rhythm.
“Colt,” I groan. “God, Colt…”
It’s as if the way I say his name pushes him farther toward an edge, and he snarls, driving into me faster, harder.
I start to angle sideways off the sofa, the cushions going with me, and I hook one of my legs over the top of the furniture, bracing myself as he keeps fucking me hard and fast. When I say his name again—Oh, Colt!—he curses, pulling me up to him so we’re face to face. He kisses me until my mind goes as black as a dark theater, and when I can focus again, I bite at his neck before we’re swept back up in a sloppy, famished kiss. After another orgasmic jerk makes me break away from his mouth, he flips me over on the sofa and pulls my hips back until he impales me again.
Maybe it’s the sound of me coming again…maybe it’s the way I’m grinding back against him, taking him deeper and deeper, but when he climaxes, it’s with a string of curses and ecstatic jerks. Then…
Then I fall to the sofa, limp and sweating, so filled with joy that I want to cry.
Colt collapses against me, slipping his hand under me to cup my breast. He kisses my neck, holding me so close that we feel like one person.
Together again, at least in this private world where it’s just the two of us for a stolen moment.
Chapter 3
From that day forward, Colt and I are together as much as we can manage, and we couldn’t be more serious about it.
And we couldn’t be more secretive.
For the next couple of days, Margot is a good sport about looking after Sebastian before she goes into work, and Colt uses that time to rock my world with what he does to my body, playing me like a fine instrument, making me feel as if I’m the only woman who ever mattered to him. Yesterday before I left, we finally had “the talk” about how I’m getting the birth control shot and how he’s clean of STDs, and I’m dying to feel all of him inside me soon.
Everything would be so perfect except for the thought of how my family will react to us, and I also don’t like being away from Sebastian. Colt is dying to see our son too, insisting that we need to come clean with my family.
He’s right—I’ve been putting off telling them anything, fearful that our enchanted paradise will fall. But as I told Colt before, rushing in isn’t a good idea, so I tell him again that we’ll take this one step at a time, starting with Colt and Sebastian getting to know each other better.
This is the first morning we’ll be taking that important step, and I dress my son in a pants set with a racecar on its shirt. Then I slather his skin with sunscreen and take him to my car to secure him in his baby seat in the back.
“Are you ready to see Daddy again?” I ask him.
He looks up at me with those big eyes, then gets busy trying to grab onto the sock monkey I’ve given him to play with. Clearly my son has no advice to offer.
Okay then.
I drive us to the lake and then pull in to the usual, illicit spot. Colt is already there, skipping stones in the water. He hears my car and turns to us. I could watch him forever like this—the shimmer of the early sun on the water behind him, his golden skin, his perfect body, the way he looks at me as if I’m his everything…
I smile dreamily and get out of the car.
“He’s with you?” Colt asks.
“He sure is.” I go around to the back, opening the door and getting Sebastian out of his seat. I fix a floppy brimmed hat on him to block the sun, even though it’s not too strong, especially under the shade of all these trees.
Colt wanders over to us, almost as if Sebastian might disappear from my arms if Colt moves too fast. When he comes to stand over us, Sebastian looks up at him, giving his dad another thorough scan. Colt is doing the same with his son as if he’s just as stunned seeing him now as he was the first time.
Then he quietly says, “Hey there, Bash.”
Without another thought, Sebastian leans over and holds his arms out to Colt, who breaks into another heart-spinning smile as he scoops our baby into his strong arms. I think he wasn’t sure Sebastian would remember him and he’s relieved that he does.
But how could he not? Colt is unforgettable.
As he walks with our son toward the shore, I stay back for a moment. Who could’ve predicted two summers ago that Colt and I would be here with a baby? That was never the plan. I’m pretty sure it happened when I was on some antibiotics after getting sick, totally clueless that the meds could mess up the Pill. And we didn’t want a condom between us either; I thought the Pill would be enough. But as I watch Colt and Sebastian getting to know each other now, I’m surer than ever that this is how things were meant to be, the three of us together.
Colt bends down to collect a couple of stones from the ground, then proceeds to show Sebastian how to skip them over the surface of the water. Sebastian waves his hands as if he wants to try it also.
“Not today, little man,” Colt says, laughing. “There’s lots of time ahead to throw stones, play catch, and win baseball trophies for the old man.”
I’m not sure, but there could be a note of bitterness in his voice, as if he resents that his old man never said these words to him. But I could be wrong.
I walk over to them, standing by my two guys, then resting my hand on Colt’s arm. Now that he and Sebastian are obviously comfortable with each other, I’m ready to take the next step in making things right. I know it’s going to break the romantic bubble Colt and I have been living in for the past days, but there’s no way around it if we’re going to move forward.
“Maybe we should talk about what to do next,” I say.
“That sounds good to me. Right, Bash?”
Colt lifts an eyebrow at our son, who titters in response. That makes Colt laugh too. I myself can only manage a little smile.
“Just so you know,” I say, “Jack knows you were in town. I think he still suspects we’re in contact.”
Colt grips the last stone he’s holding. Sebastian stares up at him, clearly sensing the change in his father. Shit, I knew bringing up Jack would do this; that’s why I kept procrastinating.
“Why do you think Jack knows?” Colt asks.
“He saw tabloid pictures of you in Lala’s the night we were both there, and some of the comments on the sites mentioned that you were focused on a girl who was wearing the same kind of black fringe dress I was.” I smooth back Sebastian’s hair. “I should’ve worn something less remarkable.”
“This isn’t your fault in the least. Jack wasn’t ever a fool.” Colt throws the stone with extra force, and it skips far and away. We watch it finally plunge into the water, leaving ripples. “That’s the reason Jack and I stopped talking—he clearly saw my tendency to self-destruct up close and personal, and he grew up to be too responsible to tolerate that. There were only so many times he could talk me out of fighting or pulling yet another move that would get me suspended from school. The day came when he had enough.”
“It sounds like you don’t have any hard feelings against him.”
“I don’t. Jack’s entitled to his feelings, though. I can see why he would think I wasn’t good enough for you. The same goes for your parents.”
His mouth hardens. I know how awful it was for him when my Mom and Dad finally swore him off after all those infamous Colt Brooks brawls and stunts. He broke their hearts on a regular basis, and with every screw up, my parents grew a little more distant. They said Colt wasn’t capable of learning from his mistakes, that he had too much of his father in him. Their heartbreak and disapproval only came to a head the day I told them the truth about who got me pregnant.
Colt is still looking out at the lake. “Jack was bound to catch on to us at some point. I’m only surprised that he hasn’t tracked me down to tell me to back off.”
“I never confirmed his suspicions about us when he called me out on them, and he hasn’t said anything to me lately. Maybe he believed the story your PR people fed the press about your leaving town. You’ve been laying low ever since then, staying out of the public eye.”
“Laying low isn’t enough anymore, Cookie—not as far as telling your family the truth goes and not as far as us truly being together goes.”
Colt turns to me, looking into my eyes. I can feel Sebastian’s serious stare on me too. My guys. They’re so perfect and right together.
“I’m going to show everyone that I can change,” Colt says, “especially Jack and your family.”
I can see that bastard-of-a-dad c
hip on his shoulder clearly now, and it’s starting to cast a shadow over Sebastian. But Colt wants to break away from his past. I know he can do it too.
“I believe you,” I say. “But just indulge me in taking this slow?”
“Anything for you.” Colt’s voice lowers to a pained whisper. “But I want to take you and Bash away for the weekend so I can have the two of you all to myself for once. That needs to be our next step, Serena.”
A swarm of excuses attack me: I’ve got work for my final Master’s class. I should be seriously gathering resources for my new classroom. But my heart is pulling me in an entirely different direction, and once again, I’ve got to follow it.
I nod, agreeing to run away with him just for the weekend. Then I fall against him as he pulls me in with his free arm, bracing me for this crazy storm that Colt brings wherever he goes.
When I arrive home that afternoon, my brother’s BMW is there.
I sigh, because Sebastian is completely pooped out from our visit with Colt, and I’m just as emotionally exhausted. I love Colt, but meeting in secret like this isn’t easy. And now I’ve got to face Jack.
I carefully lift my sleeping son out of his car seat, his hat angled like he’s a sailor who’s just stumbled out of a bar after too much spiked milk. I’ve got my hands full with my son and his baby bag, and once I come through the front door, I’m only in the mood to put Sebastian down for the rest of his nap and then close my own eyes for a brief time.
Not gonna happen.
Jack is in the backyard on his laptop, so I go to my room and ease Sebastian into his crib, then walk to the patio with the baby monitor. I slump into a seat across from my brother.
“You’re off early,” I say. Jack does IT work for a restaurant supply chain.
“I’m just getting some work done out of the office. Besides, I wanted to talk to you guys about this weekend.”
This weekend? You mean the one that I’ll be spending with Colt and Sebastian? “What about this weekend?”
“I can get tickets to the Portland Children’s Museum and the zoo through work. I thought it might be fun to have a staycation in the city. Things have been tense around here lately, but now that Colt is out of the area, that’s cause to celebrate.”