Operation Sex Kitten
Page 28
She heard Travis bump into a barstool before she felt him sit on the edge of the bed. When he reached down to stroke her hair, he seemed surprised when she rolled over and smiled at him.
“Hi.”
“Hi yourself. How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay. I was just tired.”
Continuing to run his fingers through her hair, he asked, “Do you feel like getting up and coming out? Your family is about to start some game I’d never heard of.”
Oh yes, her family and games. She had to admit, she did enjoy them, particularly when Steve was home because the two of them were ultra-competitive with each other. When they were younger, their father actually forbade them from playing Monopoly because it was ending in fights between them.
She smirked. “Are you up for some Ericson family game time?”
Leaning over, he kissed her on the mouth. “I’d rather have naked Ava Ericson time, but that can wait a while longer.”
Kissing her again, he then added with his mythical powered wink, “I guess.”
She hoped he enjoyed spending time with her family as much as she had with his. He and Steven were like long-lost brothers when they partnered to gang up on her. Travis didn’t seem like he was worried when she threated he was “going to pay for that.” On the contrary, he acted like he was looking forward to it.
The evening ended, and Ava started making her way to the door toward the pool house, looking at him as if to ask if he was coming. His expression when he looked back at her and shook his head indicated she should know better. When she pretended she didn’t understand what he meant, he strode over and scooped her up in his arms, then marched out the front door with her. The pool house was now no longer an option; she was going home to his bed, for good.
* * * *
From Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve, the two behaved like newlyweds, spending more time in bed than out. They decided to host a party the night before Christmas for both their families to meet and get to know each other.
This was Ava’s first time hosting what she referred to as ‘a grown up’ party. She was impressed with how much knowledge her mother had imparted to her over the years and was pleased with how things had come together. She was hoping they could blend both their family’s traditions and maybe make a few of their own.
After everyone had arrived, but before dinner was served, Travis was standing with his arm around her waist when his family started their custom of making toasts at family gatherings. When it got to Travis, he smiled and stepped forward as if to take the floor.
“I want to thank all of you for coming and spending your Christmas Eve with us.” He reached for Ava’s hand and pulled her toward him. “We are so blessed to have such a caring family and hope you’ll all be there when we welcome our son into the world. If you are, then the only thing that could make that day more perfect is if Ava was my wife when he arrived.”
Ava felt her stomach drop. Did he just—?
She looked to find him in the traditional proposal pose—on one knee while he held out a ring.
“Baby, will you marry me?”
Tears streamed down her face, and she could barely talk. He looked at her, worried when she didn’t answer him. Laughing and crying, she nodded yes.
Finally being able to find the words, she cooed, “Of course I’ll marry you.”
After slipping the ring on her finger, he stood and picked her up to swing her around while kissing her, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
* * * *
She later learned that her parents were surprised at their tears, thinking they were prepared. Travis had taken them to lunch to ask their permission to marry their daughter. They all understood it was simply symbolic since he hadn’t asked their permission to screw her ninety minutes after meeting her, but she knew her mom and dad appreciated the gesture anyway.
Frannie volunteered to go ring shopping with Travis, but he had already gone to see a friend who was a jeweler and had her ring custom made. He designed the dainty channel band to completely surround her flawless three-carat pear-shaped diamond. He confided to Ava that his mother had a pear-shaped stone and he felt he was somehow paying tribute to her by giving his future wife something similar. She cried when he told her how he wished Ava had gotten to meet her—meet both his parents, actually. He knew they would approve of his union with her.
When they laid in bed that night, Ava sat admiring her ring and said, “I just had an idea! The New Year’s party can also be our engagement party!” She thought she was brilliant for thinking of it.
He didn’t say much, just sighed and responded with, “Mm hmm.”
She sat up suddenly and turned to face him. With an accusatory tone, she asked, “Did you plan that? Is that why you wanted it to be such a big deal?”
He laid there quietly for a second before sitting up to look at her.
“No, I want that to be our wedding reception.”
She was taken aback. This was too sudden; they didn’t have time to prepare.
“But we haven’t booked a church or anything! There’s no way we could find something with this short notice.”
Sliding his hands around her back and nibbling her neck, he said, “Let’s have it here. In our backyard. We’ll be surrounded by our closest family and friends. Nothing too big. Your dad can marry us.” Pulling away from her neck, he looked at her with an eager expression. “Whaddya say?”
Ava sat dutifully still, as if she were pondering the idea, which she wasn’t doing at all because the second he suggested it, she loved it.
“I think that sounds perfect,” she said as she kissed his lips and brought her forehead to his.
Lowering her body back down onto the bed so he could make love to her, he couldn’t have agreed more.
Epilogue
THEIR New Year’s Eve party/wedding reception was just about perfect, except for the photo from it that somehow managed to end up a quarter-page size in the Out and About section the next day. It was a wonderful picture of the two of them during their first dance, Travis gazing lovingly at her while she smiled up at him in her beautiful pink gown with the headline, Off the Market!
The ball’s theme was black and white, but her mother insisted she stand out, and they found a pink dress that in no way hid her pregnant belly. When Ava was lamenting that fact, Travis smiled and emphatically told her he thought that made her look even more beautiful.
My, how she loved that man.
Ava introduced Ron to Tracey but could tell right away there wasn’t a connection between the two. “I gave it a shot,” she mused. “They’re on their own.”
*
As Ron watched Travis and Ava together, he couldn’t help but feel a bit envious. This was the second time he had not gotten the girl and decided the next time an opportunity came along, he wasn’t going to play nice and let it pass by. He wondered if it was serendipity that the moment he thought that, the most beautiful blonde he had ever seen smiled as she took her seat at his table and introduced herself as Brenna Roberts. She charmingly looked down shyly when he caught her eye.
The older woman sitting next to Brenna put her hand sympathetically over hers and said, “I’m so sorry about Danny.” The gorgeous woman just gave a meager smile and offered her thanks and said she was doing all right.
Danny Roberts? As in, the Danny Roberts, baseball player for the San Diego Padres?
He knew Danny had been killed in a car crash a few years ago and sizing his widow up, had no trouble believing she had been a professional ball player’s wife. She was damn-near flawless, even if some of her parts were probably not authentic. No woman in her forties had real boobs that perky, but he was perfectly fine with how high hers sat. Perfectly fine. Genuine was overrated. He was applauding his decision to attend Ava and Travis’ party after all when he asked if he could get her something from the bar, and she flirtatiously offered to go with
him.
Thank you, whoever made the seating chart, for putting her at my table.
*
Travis took Ava’s hand not long after their first dance and unapologetically exited his expensive party with his bride. He was going to make love to his wife before the day’s events caught up with her and she was too exhausted. After they finished their first love-making session as man and wife in the penthouse suite of The Plaza, Ava turned to Travis and asked out of the blue, “How did you know about Operation Sex Kitten?”
He grinned at her wickedly. “I honestly have no idea what it was. I just saw it flash on a text Anne sent you one time when your phone was sitting on the counter.”
She smiled and shook her head at him. “That explains it.”
* * * *
Travis brought it up years later when their oldest daughter was about to go on her first date.
“He better not have any sex kitten operations in mind,” he growled in Ava’s ear as they watched their girl’s date follow her out the front door.
“I have some in mind, Mr. Sterling,” she purred while tracing his cock over his pants with her finger.
“You do? Didn’t you learn your lesson the last time, Mrs. Sterling?” he teased as he pulled her hard and tight against him.
She just grinned and continued stroking him. “Not in the slightest, baby.”
Kissing her neck, he threatened, “Good thing you finished your research project yesterday because I don’t think I’m going to let you out of bed this weekend.”
Pulling away from him, Ava asked in mock concern, “Who will feed our three children?”
“We’ll have pizza delivered,” he replied with a wink.
She was still a sucker for that wink, even after all these years.
The End
Publisher’s Note
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About Tess Summers
Tess Summers is a former business woman and teacher who always loved writing but never seemed to have time to sit down and write a short story, let alone a novel. Now battling MS, her life changed dramatically, and she has finally slowed down enough to start writing all the stories she’d been wanting to tell, including the fun and sexy ones!
Married over twenty years with three grown children, Tess is a former dog foster mom who ended up failing and adopting them instead. She and her husband (and their six dogs) split their time between the desert of Arizona and the lakes of Michigan, so she’s always in a climate that’s not too hot and not too cold, but just right!
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