“I can see that.” Slater took me into his arms and kissed me. “I am too.” He cupped my ass.
“Stop.”
Janey came down the stairs and went directly to the girls at the table to introduce herself to Mel and help get the pancake situation under control before Sadie stacked a dozen on Mel’s plate.
“How is she?” I asked.
“Confused, mostly. Missing her mom. Not understanding why she left without her.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’ll take time, but we’ll be okay. Things were pretty bad there for a while. I’m just glad Amelia called me when she did.”
A few days later, Janey and Sadie returned to New Jersey to pack up their things and move to Bandon officially. I saw Slater and Mel almost every day, liking the little girl more and more. And every time I felt sorry for her or wondered how she’d survive this, I thought of us, of Janey and me, and decided I would stop feeling sorry for her. And that she would survive this. We had. We’d survived worse. And neither Janey nor I wanted anyone to ever feel sorry for us. Life had dealt Mel a crap hand, but it would make a survivor out of her. And Slater would be there every step of the way.
The list of charges against Nick grew, and the charges coming out against Dinah were only a bit shorter. What they’d done to Slater years ago seemed to be only the beginning, the tip of the iceberg. Watching Bright Futures brought down along with them, seeing Slater when he read the newspapers, saw the reports—it was as though they dealt him another blow with each uncovered crime.
I switched off the TV when Slater hung up the phone. He’d put Mel to bed an hour ago and had had some calls to make. Bright Futures would be closing their doors, but the Board needed him now. Nick had been fired in absentia, and one of the men on the board, a man close to Slater’s father, had contacted him a few days ago with a proposition.
“And?” I asked when he sat beside me on the couch.
“He wants to salvage what he can, start not quite from scratch but with a fresh start, here, on the West Coast. He wants me to head it up. Even has a name for it.” At this, Slater grinned. “Brightest Futures.”
“Funny. What do you think?”
“I never cared much about the politics. That was never important to me, not as important as the charity. That’s where my family really made an impact, you know? I wonder if it was Nick’s intention all along to take over and then steal from the charity. If he cared that he was running it into the ground.”
“Does it matter?”
“No, not really. Not anymore. But I know what I want. What’s right.”
“And that is?”
“My grandfather started the charity out of love. Out of gratitude for all he had been given. My father took it over in the same spirit. Saying no now would be turning my back on my family. I won’t do that. I can make this right.”
“I think you’re making the right decision.”
“I worry if Mel wouldn’t do better with a fresh start, though. No link to the past.”
“She’ll do well with you in her life. This is for her too. Besides, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you can’t detach yourself from your past. It kind of sticks. Goes with you wherever you go in the future.”
He nodded. “You’re right. I know that.”
I straddled him and took his face in my hands. “Crazy how things turn out, huh?” I kissed his forehead, then his cheek. He took hold of my hips.
“Fucking insane.”
He kissed my jaw, my collarbone.
“Good beats evil and all that,” I said, my eyes drifting closed as he trailed more kisses down the hollow of my throat.
“I want to see you covered in my cum.”
My eyelids flew open. “We were having a philosophical conversation about life.”
“Mmm.”
He tugged my shirt over my head and took a breast in his hand.
“We were. And now, we’re having a conversation about you being covered in my cum.”
He slipped a hand beneath my skirt, which he’d requested I wear more often, and slid my panties over to rub the pads of his fingers over my clit.
“Unless you’d like to carry on with that conversation on life?”
With a glint in his eye, he turned my face and licked my neck, then nibbled my earlobe.
“No,” I managed, loving the rough stubble that tickled my face. I pulled his shirt over his head, and he unhooked my bra and slipped it off. “Will Mel wake up?”
He shook his head. “Once she’s out, she sleeps like the dead.”
He kissed me full on the lips, one hand back under my skirt, pulling my panties aside.
“Fuck me, Slater.”
He shook his head and pushed me over so I lay on the couch, then slid my panties off and settled himself between my legs.
“I want to feast.”
My eyes rolled to the back of my head as he closed his mouth over my clit and sucked hard, his fingers sliding inside me while mine intertwined in his hair. I bit my lip to keep quiet.
“You taste fucking amazing,” he said, momentarily coming up for air.
“Christ.”
“Get on your knees on the couch.” He slapped my hip and pulled away. “Ass to me.”
I groaned but did as he said, knowing what he wanted, spreading my knees wide as I knelt before him. He flipped my skirt over my back, and his big hands spread my ass cheeks wide.
“Best fucking view ever.”
He buried his face in my ass, licking me from front to back while one hand found my clit. He didn’t shy away. He licked and sucked. When he pressed his tongue into my ass, I buried my face in the back of the sofa and came so hard and so long that when he finally let me go, I crumpled onto the couch, limp, breathless.
Slater stood. He pulled his pants and underwear down and took his cock in one hand.
“Kneel, MacKayla.”
I slid to my knees and took him in my mouth. He gripped my head with one hand, keeping the other fisted around the base of his cock. He worked me over him, setting the pace, fucking my face, pulling back now and again to let me watch him jerk off. Hell, it was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.
He pulled out. “Keep your mouth open.”
I did. His eyes darkened, his muscles tightened, and when, moments later, I felt the first rope of cum slash across my face, some on my tongue, I reached down to my clit and closed my eyes, wanting this, wanting him, so turned on that I came again, a hurried orgasm as I let him mark me, baptize me, own me.
I SLEPT AT Slater’s more and more often when Janey and Sadie moved into my house. Spring came, bringing with it warmer temperatures and longer days. Mel and Sadie played often, growing close, Mel acting more like an older sister in how she cared for the younger girl. In a way, I knew Mel needed that, needed the task of taking care of this little girl, one a few years younger than her, to make things easier. Maybe it was the fact of being needed in someone’s life, being truly needed. I’d find quiet moments when Mel would be sitting alone or looking off into the distance. We all paid attention to those, but Sadie always managed to draw her out. I wondered if she felt Mel’s sadness, felt some change in the little girl she loved like a big sister. Whatever it was, it worked, and we were happy.
Slater began work on Brightest Futures. He set up a home office and began to slowly rebuild the charity, deciding this time to go back to the original plan, his grandfather’s plan, and keep it smaller, award scholarships, pave the way for those who couldn’t afford schooling, to give them a chance. He wanted to do much of the work himself, always looking over applications, interviewing possible recipients, and slowly earning back trust in this new version of the charity after the scandal Nick and Dinah had left in their wake.
Nick and Dinah managed to stay gone. Slater and I didn’t talk about them much, and if Slater knew anything, he didn’t let on. The FBI paid several visits to question him, but it never seemed to ruffle him one bit. It amazed me.
Bill was in prison, awaiting trial. Janey would need to testify once that commenced, but it would be a while. The trial date was set for late fall. In the meantime, she found a job in the front office at the elementary school, which would begin in the new school year, and she’d started taking evening classes at Southwestern, a community college in North Bend, to earn her degree. While she worked, she’d be able to take Sadie with her and leave her at the day care, and I’d watch her in the evenings.
Each of us was now getting on with our lives, starting the next chapter. And it felt good. Like a breath of fresh spring air.
We spent a lazy summer together taking trips to the beach. Although to me it always felt too cool to swim, the girls loved it. Mel would be attending kindergarten in the fall, and since Sadie would be at the same school, although far too young for anything apart from the day care, she felt like they were both going off to school together.
The first day of school, Sadie was up and dressed by six o’clock. I made her breakfast while Janey got ready for her first day of work.
“Peanut butter and jelly for lunch, Sadie?”
“Yes, please.”
“And apple slices,” I added as I smeared peanut butter onto a piece of bread.
She ate a bowl of cereal while I made her lunch, and I had to giggle every time I looked at her, trying so hard not to spill on her brand-new dress that she’d cup the spoonful of milky cereal and tip it into her mouth. Half of it always landed in the palm of her hand and dribbling down her chin. She’d never been a very clean eater, but I loved her more for it. Funny that Mel was the opposite. A miniature neat freak. She always seemed to be wiping a napkin across Sadie’s mouth.
I was looking forward to the day for so many reasons. I loved having Janey and Sadie here with me. In fact, letting go of the three years I’d lost and just enjoying them now was easier to do than I expected.
I poured a cup of coffee for Janey and one for myself when I heard her coming down the stairs.
“How do I look?”
She’d borrowed one of my dresses, a flowing, long turquoise dress with spaghetti straps she’d covered up with a light sweater.
“You look wonderful,” I said, handing her her mug.
“Thanks. I’m excited and nervous.”
“You’ll be great, and they’ll love you.”
“I hope so.”
“Done,” Sadie called out.
“Oh.” Janey looked over at her daughter who had even had managed to get a Cheerio stuck in her hair.
“I’ll get her cleaned up.” I picked Sadie up and set her on the counter beside the sink. While I wiped her down, she picked up her lunch box, a gift from Mel—her old Frozen lunch box she’d gotten on her Disney World trip. She sat with a huge smile on her face, her legs kicking back and forth. “Ready for your first day?”
“Yep.”
“It’s almost time to go, kiddo,” Janey said.
“I’ll see you out.”
Janey lifted Sadie off the counter and took her hand. Slater honked the horn outside. He would drive them to school today and pick them up at the end of the day, since it was their first day. After today, Janey would take both girls with her and bring them home once school ended. It worked out perfectly, and this new arrangement also promised more alone time for Slater and me. And we’d begin with spending the day together today, picnicking on the beach.
After waving them off, I packed the last few things into the picnic basket and ran upstairs to have a shower. I was in my bedroom, standing in front of the closet looking for something to wear, when I heard the door open and close and footsteps on the stairs.
“Hey,” Slater said, leaning against the door frame, his gaze traveling over my towel-clad body.
“You’re back faster than I expected.”
“I was anxious to see you.” He came to me and stripped me of the towel before pressing me against the wall to kiss me. “Should we skip the beach?” He bit my lip and turned me, leading me toward the bed.
“No, I packed a picnic.” He pushed me down on the bed and tugged his T-shirt off before shoving my knees apart with his and laying his weight on me to kiss me again.
“You sure you can’t be convinced?” He kissed me again, lifting me higher onto the bed.
I moaned.
“Can you breathe?” he asked with a grin, supporting part of his weight on his elbows.
“Barely.” I reached up to kiss him, my hands sliding between us to undo his jeans. “We can picnic later, maybe.”
“Maybe.” His mouth traveled to my neck as he lifted his hips and let me push his jeans and briefs off, and slide his cock between the folds of my sex. “You’re wet.” He bit my neck lightly, making me squirm. He then lifted his chest up and adjusted his position so his elbows rested just above my shoulders. “Look at me.”
I did. He liked this, us close like this, eyes open, inches apart, watching each other while we fucked.
He slid his cock inside me, and I exhaled, closing my eyes momentarily before opening them again to look into his. At first, it had felt strange, had made me nervous, when we did this, watching each other. It felt too intimate, more intimate than the sexual act itself. It still did, actually, but what I saw in his eyes, it was just him, Slater, eyes dark, shining as he moved inside me. I wondered what he saw when he looked at me.
“You’re so beautiful.”
“You always say that.”
“You are. Especially when I see you like this. Just raw, nothing between us. Nothing at all.”
“I love you.”
He moved slowly inside me. “I love you.” He brought his mouth to mine, kissing me softly, then taking my lower lip between his teeth, his pace quickening, his thrusts deepening. We didn’t speak again. My hands clutched his shoulders, my nails digging into his flesh. My breathing became ragged, short, as his thrusts came harder, faster, until his cock thickened inside me, his eyes changing infinitesimally. I came, a slow, deep orgasm lasting a lifetime, my eyes locked on his as he thrust one final time, his muscles tensing around me. I watched him come and held onto him, feeling whole. Feeling right. Feeling complete.
Six months later
I BOUGHT THE house that I’d only planned on renting for a few months. Mel and Sadie both settled into their new routines, and I could honestly say Mel was happy. She asked about her mother now and again, but she had made friends at school and was just a normal five-year-old kid. Janey’s job was working out well too. She and Sadie settled into MacKayla’s house, and MacKayla liked having them, although she spent at least five nights a week at my house.
What I didn’t like was that we still didn’t have much alone time together, but I was going to remedy that.
Mel helped me set the utensils on the dining-room table, and I checked my watch.
“You ready for your sleepover?” She would be spending the night with Sadie and Janey.
“Are you ready for yours?” she asked, attempting a wink but only managing to squeeze both eyes shut in a forced blink.
“Just remember, you can’t spill our secret until after MacKayla and I leave, okay?”
“Pinky promise,” she said, holding up her pinky.
I twisted mine with hers. “Let me just grab your bag.” Her bag literally held Bear Bear. That was all. She already had a pair of pajamas and her own toothbrush at MacKayla’s house. We walked over together, and I kissed her good night at the door, leaving her with Janey and taking MacKayla.
“I don’t know why we don’t do this more often.”
I smiled and ushered her into my house, where music played softly and lit candles stood on the coffee table.
“Give me your coat.”
She slipped it off to reveal a new, very pretty red dress beneath. It fit tight to her body, accentuating her small waist, her full hips, and ass.
“You look beautiful.”
“Thanks. So do you.”
“Um, okay.”
“You know what I mean. Shut up.”
“Cheers.”
We sipped and suddenly, I felt more nervous than I ever had with her.
“What is it?” she asked, taking another sip.
I took her glass and set it down. “I think it’s time you and I move in together. Let Janey have her own space and you and I have our own space.”
“What?”
“We never get time together, MacKayla. Between work, Mel, Sadie, and Janey—I love them all—but I’d love to have you all to myself too. Well, to myself and Mel, since she’d be staying, obviously.”
“I don’t know. Don’t you think it’s early?”
I shook my head. “It’s been almost a year, and I know for some that is early, but I feel like given what we’ve come through, it’s long overdue. I want you with me, MacKayla. Always.”
She smiled, her eyes glistening with tears I knew she’d try not to shed.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the box.
Her mouth fell open, and she stared.
“Mel and I picked it out.”
Still, not a word.
I flipped the top open and turned it so she could see the diamond set on a wide band of steel. “I liked the steel, it felt like us.”
She reached a tentative hand out to touch it, as if to make sure it was real.
I set the box down and took her hands. “I love you. I love you more and more every day, actually. You’re good for me and for Mel. And the only thing on my mind for the last two months has been making you fully mine. Marry me, MacKayla Simone. Marry me.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she pulled one hand free to wipe at them. “Slater, are you sure? I mean, Mel—”
“Mel’s been asking about this since school started. She’s a perceptive kid. And I love you. I want to come home to you every night. I want to wake up with you every morning, and I want everyone to know when they look at your finger that you’re taken. That you’re mine.”
“Slater.”
She hugged me, her hands curling around the back of my head as she sniffled.
Beautiful Liar Page 19