by Zoey Marcel
Mellie’s chest swelled with tenderness. “I’m sure you’ll be more beautiful.”
Katelyn smiled and pointed toward the table. “You can just set the present there. I’ve got to check on my peeps. What was your name?”
“Mellie.”
“Katelyn, as you already know. It was nice to meet you, Mellie.”
“You, too.”
She watched Katelyn scamper into another room and then heard a screen door open and shut. The chorus of girlish screams and entertained giggles floated in from outside, and Mellie assumed the party was in the backyard.
Seeing that she had the living room to herself, she walked around and studied the pictures on the walls and coffee table. The photos showcased a family of three. Katelyn and her parents looked so happy and loving in all of them. There were a few pictures of her with some friends, too. It looked like her daughter had a good life, much better than when she’d been living with the trashy Garvins.
The sound of movement diverted Mellie’s attention and she turned to see a woman who matched the female in the photographs. It must be Katelyn’s adoptive mother.
“Are you Melanie?”
“Yeah, and you’re Susan?”
“I am. Nice to meet you.”
“It’s good to meet you, too.”
They shook hands.
Susan offered her a polite smile, but her weakly guarded eyes betrayed her concern and possible fear. “So, you’re Katelyn’s biological mother.”
“Yeah. The adoption agency had nothing but good things to say about you and your husband.”
The woman smiled bigger this time, but she still seemed uneasy. “Did you want something to drink?”
“No thanks. I’m fine.”
The silence felt awkward.
“So how long have you guys had Katelyn?”
Her smile weakened and the thin veil of nonchalance dropped from Susan’s eyes. “Since she was two. The state got a hold of her when she was eighteen months. She was in foster care for a little while before we got her.”
“I’m glad she got away from that situation when she was young.”
“So am I.”
Another uncomfortable silence followed.
“Do you have any other kids?” Mellie asked.
Susan shook her head, eyes glistening. “No, just her. Frank and I couldn’t have any kids, so we adopted. What about you?”
“No. No kids.”
The woman gave her an acknowledging nod. “The party’s in the backyard if you want to stay for a while.”
“Thanks. Maybe for a few minutes. I can’t stay long. I have people waiting in the car.”
Susan acted worried as she led Melanie out to the backyard.
A grown man stood over the barbeque grilling hamburgers and hotdogs. He looked normal and seemed friendly toward everyone. His appearance wasn’t thuggish nor did he have “I’m a perv” in any of his mannerisms.
“Daddy, is it done yet?” Katelyn asked.
“You mean as opposed to a minute ago when you asked me?” he teased.
“Emily asked you before that, though. We have shifts to harass you. Don’t you feel special?”
He narrowed his eyes playfully on her and then pretended to lunge for her. She ran squealing and laughing. Her friends ran screaming and giggling when Frank continued to chase them off before returning to his grill with an amused grin.
Mellie smiled. This man was definitely an improvement on jackass Alf and on Katelyn’s real father.
“Does your husband work swing shift or something?” she asked.
Susan shook her head, eyes glowing with tenderness at the mention of her spouse. “No. He took the day off so he could be here for Katelyn’s birthday.”
Mellie was touched. These people were good to her daughter. “That was sweet of him.”
Susan nodded. “He loves her to death. We both do.”
They watched the girls bouncing on the trampoline and giving each other makeovers.
Susan’s voice broke. “Are you going to take away our baby?”
Mellie’s head jerked and she saw that the woman had tears in her eyes. A stray droplet of misery trickled down the poor thing’s cheek. “What makes you think that?”
“Why else would you come all that way after all this time? You want her back. I don’t blame you. She’s a wonderful girl. Sometimes I have to remind myself we actually adopted her because we love her as much as if we’d had her ourselves.” Susan wiped away her tears.
Mellie’s heart went out to the woman and she saw herself in those fearful, misty eyes. She recalled the awful feeling of holding that baby girl in her arms and realizing how badly she wanted to keep her even though she’d promised to give her away when Katelyn was born.
Now that same pleading anguish and haunting loss was reborn in another woman’s eyes—a woman that Katelyn called Mom.
“I honestly just wanted to see my daughter and know that she was happy and loved. That and I wanted to give Katelyn a birthday present.”
Susan nodded, smiling with relief, but her eyes were still cautious and afraid. “That’s fine. She’ll like that.”
“I’ll just give it to her now before I go, if you don’t mind.”
“Go ahead.”
Mellie went back inside and got the gift before bringing it out to Katelyn. Pangs of regret made her chest ache, but through the sorrow was an unexpected sense of peace. Her little girl was happy and she was loved. It was what she wanted, though something unbreakable and paternal inside of her desperately yearned to grab her daughter and run with her.
“Katelyn.”
The lovely brunette that was in that awkward stage between childhood and adulthood stopped gabbing with her friends and came over to her. “Yeah?”
“I’m…” She didn’t even know what she intended to say.
I’m your mother, baby. I miss you so much. My heart is breaking. Come away with me.
The words didn’t come. They were selfish, but merciful god, were they tempting.
I’m so sorry for what I put you through, Katelyn. I should have kept you and spared you the pain of those awful people who abandoned you. I’m so glad you have Frank and Susan, though. They’re what I always envisioned for your family, what I always wanted for you.
Thousands of words rushed through her head, all offering to be the utterance she made to convey to her daughter what was truly in her heart. None of them seemed adequate and not one of them was spoken. She just stared at Katelyn for a long, powerful moment.
“I’m going to leave and I wanted to give you your gift before I go.”
The words were appropriate, but they were empty. Katelyn didn’t know who she was and if Mellie walked away from her now and carried the secret of her identity from her daughter, Katelyn would never know.
“Sweet! What is it?”
“Open it and see.”
Katelyn clawed at the wrapping paper and then opened the box to reveal the elegant jewelry box. “Oh my god, this is awesome! It’s so beautiful.”
Mellie smiled. “It was my mother’s. She gave it to me when I was around your age and told me to give it to…someone really special who deserved it.”
“That’s so cool. Thanks. Don’t you want to give it to your own daughter someday?”
Her heart died inside. Her eyes watered, but by some miracle she kept the tears from falling. “I want you to have it.”
“Thanks. Oo! There’s a necklace in here. Aw, it has my name on it. I love heart-shaped jewelry. This is really cool.”
Mellie smiled, feeling deeply moved by her daughter’s joy and gratitude. “I’m glad you like it. Promise me that you’ll always keep the jewelry box and necklace.”
“Oh heck yeah, I keep everything. My mom calls me her little pack rat.”
I’m your mom, baby. Stop, Melanie. Giving birth is part of it. You weren’t there to dry her tears or hear her laugh and hold her hand as she grew. Susan did that. She’s Katelyn’s mom as much as you
are.
“I love jewelry. I’ll always keep these,” Katelyn promised her.
Mellie melted inside like hot butter when Katelyn put her arms around her and gave her a thankful hug. She squeezed her daughter tight and inhaled her hair, wanting to remember her little girl’s natural scent all her life.
Katelyn pulled back. “Oh my god, are you crying?”
Mellie shook her head and brushed away a tear. “The sun was in my eyes. It’s kind of bright.”
“I know. I totally need to put my movie star shades back on. It was good to meet you, Mellie. Thanks for the present.”
“You’re welcome.” She watched Katelyn bound over to the friends she’d apparently dubbed as her peeps.
Susan looked anxious, but to her credit she was civil. “What did she say when you told her who you were?”
“I didn’t tell her.”
The woman gaped at her in surprise and her eyes misted in relief. “Why not?”
“Because she’s where she belongs. Thank you for letting me come here today.”
She nodded. “I can send you pictures of her if you’d like…unless that would hurt you.”
A fresh rush of tears slid down Mellie’s cheeks. “I would love that. Thank you. I should go.”
“Katelyn! Honey, come here a minute,” Susan called out to her daughter.
Katelyn scampered over. “Wuz up?”
“Why don’t you get a picture of you and Melanie together before she goes?”
Katelyn smiled. “Okay. Let me just get my shades on.”
Mellie wanted to erect a monument in honor of Susan in that moment.
“Let’s get one without your sunglasses. I don’t want to hide your beautiful eyes,” Susan told her.
“How about one of each?” Katelyn suggested.
Susan smiled. “Fine.”
Mellie knelt and huddled in close to her daughter while Susan took a couple of pictures of them.
“Food’s ready, children!” Frank called out.
“Hey!” the girls objected at once.
He chuckled. “You’re smaller than me. That makes you children.”
“Thank you,” Mellie whispered tearfully.
Susan nodded. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay for some food? We’ve got all kinds of stuff.”
Melanie shook her head with a bittersweet smile. “Thanks, but I should get going.”
“If you give me your address or P.O. Box, I’ll mail these to you and send you some more of her.”
“That would mean the world to me.” She wrote down the address and then handed Susan the note.
“Melanie.” The woman continued when Mellie stopped walking away and turned to face her again. “Thank you.”
This time Mellie’s smile was backed with more peace than before. “Thank you for giving her a happy home and a good life. You two are what I always wanted for her, the reason I had her.”
Susan seemed touched by the compliment. “All her life I never understood how anyone could give her up. I thought that implied a lack of love for Katelyn, but now I realize that the love you have for her is a deep, sacrificial kind of love. It takes an amazing kind of person to be able to walk away from someone you love because you want what’s best for them. I will always be grateful to you.”
“Thank you.”
The women embraced as they wept.
“Honey, your burger is gonna reincarnate if you don’t come get it!” Frank called out.
Susan grinned. “Well, that doesn’t sound very good. I’ll be there in a minute!”
Mellie said good-bye and then went back out the front door and over to the rental car that Hunter and Emmett were waiting in.
“Well?” Emmett asked.
“She’s beautiful.” Mellie wept into the tissue Hunter handed to her. “Thanks.”
“Where’s your daughter?” Hunter asked.
“She’s at home…with her parents.”
Chapter Eight
Greyson stood under the running water with his head bowed and his eyes closed. He barely heard the movement coming from the other side of the glass, but he could tell by the distinct footsteps that it was Diego.
His cock responded with a subtle lift, but his heavy spirit kept his pecker from standing up and cheering all the way. Neither man said anything as the faint tugging noise of the glass door opening filled Greyson’s ears. He felt a faint tightening in his groin that was again overshadowed by his troubled soul.
He removed his head from the hot sprays coming from the multiple shower heads and then wiped his face off. Diego eyed him with a tantalizing look of hunger and a slight edge of anger. Greyson’s stomach muscles contracted.
After closing the door, he saw that Diego held a pocket knife that he flicked open. Greyson’s penis swelled and pulsed with wild need. The man stepped toward him and turned Greyson’s body so his buttocks felt the length and heat of Diego’s erection. This time Greyson’s carnal interests eclipsed his inner turmoil and his cock rose.
Diego glided the blade gently down Greyson’s wet torso. He used the dull end on Greyson’s nipples, encouraging them to perk beneath the pseudo-threat. His breath caught when the other man gave his hair a tug and held the knife to his throat. Greyson fought the instinctive urge to swallow as his friend walked him backward. Diego sat on the built-in seat in the shower and held Greyson on his lap.
He shivered when the knife descended from his throat to his chest. When he tried to get up in a pretend struggle, Diego wrapped his arm around Greyson’s middle. His belly quivered beneath the blade that grazed his lower abs without cutting him.
“You’re going to come so hard for me,” Diego murmured into his ear. “You’ll shoot off all over your body, knowing that at a whim I could emasculate you.”
Greyson shivered. His body burned with lust when the knife raked over his balls, raising gooseflesh on his arms and hot tingles in his testicles.
“Do you feel how hard my cock is—how long and thick it is?”
He gulped at the fleshy shaft burning against his ass and lower back. “Yeah.”
“It’s going to fill you completely and destroy your final claims of being straight.”
Greyson melted and his breathing suspended. He slumped against the other man in a puddle of nerves and submission. The touch of fear added to his crazed excitement, and he couldn’t hide his body’s reaction to his inevitable fate.
The blade slid up his shaft, leaving a sharp trail of prickles in its wake. Diego didn’t cut him, but his words had Greyson bleeding so many different emotions that he couldn’t think straight.
After flirting with his erection and proving its seductive, dangerous power over him, the knife retreated from his bobbing prick and settled at his scrotum. Diego fisted Greyson’s cock and stroked him with ease while holding the blade to his ball-sac.
“That’s right. Don’t struggle. You’re too weak to fight this,” Diego lulled. “Just submit to it.”
Greyson had chills. The slit in his penis oozed with pre-ejaculate, and the nerves in his glans exploded with sensation when Diego ran circles around Greyson’s cockhead with his thumb. The warm, wet feel of the man’s rough finger smearing his pre-cum around made him weak.
He squirmed when Diego began to jerk his dick faster. Sparks of want sizzled all throughout his length. The knife teased his nuts with idle threats, but when Diego’s hand moved faster around Greyson’s penis, the blade pressed harder against his sac.
The friction of his lover’s callused hand working his throbbing cock over and the sharp, warning pressure of the knife against his testes were too much. His body felt like it was in meltdown mode as he succumbed to his best friend’s demands and shot off onto his lap and belly. His cum splattered on Diego’s hand, and he felt the blade press against his right testicle with only the flesh of his sac separating them. It was humbling and delicious to be in such a vulnerable position.
Greyson trembled in his lover’s arms for a moment and struggled to brea
the again. His knees shook when he stood.
Diego dried the blade, closed the knife, and then tossed it out on top of his clothes. The cool draft diminished when he shut the glass door again. The dark authority in his eyes put a cold feeling in the pit of Greyson’s stomach, but his body felt overheated with arousal.
“I read some of your e-mails to that man from years ago,” Diego confessed without a hint of shame.
Greyson crumbled. How many had he read, and which ones? “What?”
“You didn’t log off. I didn’t get the chance to read very many, but enough to surmise that you discussed some of your fantasies with him.”
“You asshole, you had no right to read my mail.”
“Don’t I?” Diego’s jaw set and his eyes narrowed in warning.
Greyson felt so ripped open by the other man’s knowledge that it left him breathless. “No. You don’t. It’s my business.”
“Your business is my business.”
The bastard was asking to be clocked in the face. If the fucker didn’t shut up he just might give Diego what he was asking for.
“Where do you get off sticking your nose in my business?”
Diego’s dark eyes shadowed with a dangerous note. “When you claim to be straight and apparently corresponded with another man for months, you make it my business.”
“It was before you and I were together.”
“I know, and I have a theory as to why you chose an online relationship with a man as opposed to getting involved with me back then.”
Greyson’s shields went up and he took a step back when the other man stepped forward. He didn’t want to be analyzed. Diego was too good at reading people, especially him.
“Don’t.” The order sounded too much like a desperate plea.
Diego took another step and stood in the middle of the shower beneath all the spraying heads of water. “You’ve wanted me since we were eighteen. It’s why we started sharing women together, so we could have some form of contact and pretend you were straight.”
“I am straight.”
“Bullshit.”
Greyson flinched at Diego’s harsh rejection of his claims. Even he knew it wasn’t true.