31 Days of Summer (31 Days #2)

by C. J. Fallowfield

  ‘As long as he is smiling and happy, you can call him whatever you want. Can’t she, carino?’

  ‘Yes mother,’ chuckled Dan, as he slipped his arm around me and squashed me to his side.

  ‘So Ellie, we’re told that you’re in publishing?’ Daniel asked. I nodded and we all took a seat around the table as we talked, Dan stretching his arm across the back of my chair and circling his fingertips on the back of my shoulder. About forty minutes later we all looked up as we heard a startled cry.

  ‘Our peace is over,’ I smiled. ‘Why don’t you go and get him and bring him down to meet his grandparents?’ I suggested turning to Dan. His face lit up and he virtually took the stairs two at a time. I poured everyone another glass of Champagne and myself one.

  ‘You’re bottle feeding?’ Luiza asked.

  ‘No, but I prepared knowing I might want a drink today,’ I smiled. Plus I didn’t really want to be flopping my breasts out around the dinner table at our first meeting, but I didn’t add that.

  ‘Ellie, you really are a miracle worker, I’ve not seen him so happy since he lost Rebecca,’ announced Daniel.

  ‘I haven’t done anything, it’s all him. He’s an amazing guy,’ I blushed.

  ‘Don’t sell yourself short,’ Luiza advised, with another pat of my hand. ‘He’s a different man since he … he …’ she stalled and quickly covered her mouth with her hands, as her eyes filled with tears. I followed her gaze to see Dan standing at the bottom of the stairs with Oliver sitting in his one hand, his back against his father’s broad chest, Dan’s other hand gently holding his stomach. I’d dressed him in a pair of blue dungarees with a white long sleeve top and he broke into a toothless smile when he saw me, kicked his legs and giggled. I laughed and blew him a kiss and waved.

  ‘Mother, father, this is the latest Oliver Davenport, my son,’ Dan announced proudly, as his mum grabbed a tissue from her bag and dabbed her eyes before standing up and walking over to him.

  ‘Meu deus,’ she exclaimed as she reached for his hand. ‘He is the spitting image of you as a baby. He is gorgeous. May I?’ she asked as she looked around for my permission.

  ‘Of course you can,’ I smiled. ‘He loves cuddles.’

  ‘Here mother, hold your arm out, like this.’

  ‘I know how to handle a baby, darling. You were even bigger at his age too,’ she laughed as she held out her arms. Oliver burst into giggles as he heard her laughing, which made her laugh harder and he squealed and laughed even more, which set us all off. Daniel stood up and went over to put his arm around his wife and kissed her temple, then the top of Oliver’s head and I felt my eyes welling up. I’d imagined he’d never have any real family to speak of, blood family that was, and now here he was with a set of grandparents to dote on him.

  ‘You realise they’ll be wanting to visit all the time now,’ sighed Dan, as he pulled me up and hauled me against his chest, pinning my hands behind my back and lay a trail of kisses up the side of my neck.

  ‘Dan,’ I protested, as I flicked my eyes over to his parents.

  ‘Please, we could go at it on the dining table again and they wouldn’t notice, they only have eyes for our boy.’

  ‘We still have ears, Oliver Davenport,’ his mother called out, making me narrow my eyes at him as he laughed.

  ‘Would you mind if I ask James to bring Magda over when he comes to pick up my parents later?’

  ‘Magda?’ I looked up at him surprised.

  ‘Our housekeeper, she was like a nanny to me when my mother was away on shoots. She’s dying to meet you and Oliver.’

  ‘Of course I don’t mind, I want you to let anyone who’s important to you be a part of his life.’

  ‘Our life,’ he corrected. ‘The three of us.’

  I smiled up at him, and neglected to mention it was actually going to be the four of us, because while he’d been focussed and committed to us for the last two days, I knew the lure of his wife would pull him back to Scotland, and we still hadn’t even discussed how we were going to make this work. The afternoon went fast, too fast. Dinner went down well with everyone and we sat upstairs talking as Oliver fell asleep on his grandfather’s chest, drooling all over his expensive shirt. I kept catching Luiza smiling as she looked at Dan sitting with his arm around me, as he was telling us about where his company was at with the up and coming software launch. It was nearly time for James to drop Magda off, so I excused myself and headed downstairs to prepare a tea tray and was suddenly hit with a wave of emotion and grabbed some kitchen towel to wipe my eyes.

  ‘Ellie? Are you alright?’

  ‘Luiza, I’m sorry. I just … it’s …’ I blew out and fluttered my hands in front of my eyes as I looked up at the ceiling.

  ‘Too much meeting us?’

  ‘No, God no. It’s just made me so happy to know that Oliver will have some family, baby Oliver that is, I just … I wish my parents were here too. I miss them so badly and they’d have loved him so much.’

  ‘And they’d have been so proud of you, sweetheart,’ she advised, as she handed me a proper handkerchief with the blue family D on it, that I’d thought stood for Dan when he handed me his up in Scotland. ‘You’re strong, independent and honest. You could have taken advantage of my son when you got pregnant and you didn’t.’

  ‘He’s been through enough,’ I nodded, as I wiped my eyes.

  ‘As have you. No one will ever replace your mother, but if you have space in your life for another friend, I’d like to be that for you, you can count on me for anything you need,’ she smiled as she rubbed a reassuring hand up and down my back. I nodded and cried a bit more, so she gathered me up in her arms and hugged me, which made me even worse.

  ‘What’s going on?’ came Dan’s concerned voice behind me.

  ‘She’s feeling emotional, only to be expected so soon after the birth and being reunited with you, and now we’re all here and her parents aren’t. Come and take her off my hands, she needs you, carino.’

  ‘Carino?’ I uttered, as she released me and spun me around into Dan’s comforting chest and headed back upstairs.

  ‘It means darling,’ he confirmed, as he kissed the top of my head. ‘What can I do, baby?’

  ‘Exactly what you are doing, just hold me for a while,’ I whispered, as I put my arms around his slim waist. He was like a shield for pain when he held me, like nothing could ever touch me. I don’t know how I’d survived without him in my life and I never wanted to find out. I’d thought that initial six months without him was bad, but that eleven month spell, when I needed him most, that had been the worst. I looked up at him and pursed my lips for a kiss.

  ‘You feel tense, if only I knew a way to relax you,’ he winked with a smirk.

  ‘As soon as we’re all alone, I’ll hold you to that,’ I smiled.

  The rest of the afternoon went quickly. Magda arrived and I insisted it was unfair to leave James sitting in the car, so he was invited in too. Oliver had missed his early evening nap, he was too excited watching all the new faces and babbled away to them making them all laugh. He was such a sociable baby. I missed him, he was right in the room with me, but everyone was enjoying taking their turns holding him so much I’d barely had a cuddle with him myself. I felt a hand on my forearm and looked around to see Magda smiling at me.

  ‘You’ll have more, Miss Ellie.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ I sighed. ‘I really can’t see him allowing it.’

  ‘He’ll come around. He has a stubborn streak, but when he wants something he wants it. He wanted you, you can see he wants this gorgeous little boy in his life and pretty soon he’ll want more. With you in his life he is starting to forgive himself. Maybe one day he can finally let go and move on with his new family.’

  ‘I hope so,’ I smiled. ‘He deserves so much happiness after everything he’s been through.’

  ‘You are a very special lady and I’m so happy my Ollie has you in his life.’

  ‘I’m the lucky one bec
ause not only do I get him, but this extended family too,’ I smiled.

  ‘You have a built in baby watching service,’ she confirmed. ‘He is such a good boy, Magda will have him any time for you.’

  ‘Thank you.’ I put my hand over hers and squeezed it tightly before looking over at Oliver being bounced on his grandfather’s knee. Magda suddenly stood up, marched over and grabbed him from a protesting Daniel and carried him back over, offering him to me.

  ‘I think he needs his mother,’ she announced loudly, with a sly wink at me. I burst into a wide smile. She knew it was the other way around, I needed him. His little smile and happy gurgle to see me broke my heart and he snuggled against my chest as I kissed his soft neck, breathing in the delicious scent of baby powder on him.

  ‘Thank you,’ I whispered to Magda.

  ‘It is normal to have separation anxiety,’ she nodded. ‘As long as it doesn’t continue for ever.’

  ‘I’m just so attached to him, especially as I didn’t have Dan,’ I nodded.

  ‘He’s a good man, a very good man. We are so pleased that he has found you and that you and little Oliver make him so happy. It has been a long time since we saw him smiling like this.’

  ‘Thank you,’ I blushed.

  We all went down to see everyone off and I was embarrassed at everyone thanking me for the change in Dan. He was still the same man, I hadn’t done anything, it was just maybe now he had stuff to look forward to, instead of his monotonous daily routines. I set Oliver down for a sleep with the new teddy sitting at the end of the cot watching over him and he went out like a light. With all that excitement and a shorter than normal daytime nap he was done in. I stood watching him, his little hands balled up into fists either side of his head and his mouth ajar, and I swept his hair back from his forehead.

  ‘I may be biased but I think he’s going to be a looker,’ announced Dan, scaring me as he slipped his arms around my waist. How did someone so tall manage to sneak up on me?

  ‘He is a looker, but with the genes in your family I’d expect nothing less.’

  ‘I’m so proud of you. You looked after him so well for all those months.’

  ‘I had lots of help, it wasn’t all me.’

  ‘You carried him, you gave birth to him and you did it all without me at your side. I’m in awe of you, Ellie Baxter,’ he sighed as he kissed the top of my head.

  ‘So,’ I sighed in return, knowing we couldn’t delay the inevitable. ‘How are we going to do this?’

  ‘Come,’ he ordered, grasping my hand as I laughed at his order again. One word, one word said in his sexy tone had me turned on in an instant. He led me to the sofa and pulled me down onto his lap, his arms around my waist and I automatically kissed him and rested my head on his shoulder. ‘I want you to move to Scotland to live with me. Permanently.’

  ‘What?’ I exclaimed, as I bolted back upright.

  ‘You know that I can’t live in London, I have obligations up there, my life is up there now.’

  ‘But my life is here,’ I protested. ‘My job, my friends, this amazing house.’

  ‘Your life is with me.’

  ‘Why should it be that way around? There are two of us here, maybe your life should be here, with us.’

  ‘Ellie,’ he sighed and raised one hand to pinch the top of his nose. ‘You know why. I’m really trying, but I still feel guilt if I’m away for too long. I also love the quiet and the fresh air. It’s a much healthier environment to bring up my son than here in the city.’

  ‘So I don’t get any say in the matter? Everything has to be your way?’ I looked at him, feeling hurt. Much as it touched me that he wanted us to be part of his life, he was just expecting me to pack up and move up there just like that?

  ‘You don’t need to work, I can provide for you both. I’ll fly your friends up to stay whenever you want. In fact I’ll stop the rentals on the boathouse and it can be where they stay when they come to visit. I don’t see what the problem is.’

  ‘You can’t just dump this on me and expect me to pack up my life just like that,’ I objected.

  ‘It’s hardly dumping, Ellie. You must have considered what would happen once I found out about Oliver? You really thought I’d be happy not being part of your lives every day?’

  ‘I hoped you’d want to be part of our lives, here.’

  ‘God damn it,’ he muttered, as he shoved a hand through his hair. ‘You expect me to live here and fly to Scotland on a daily basis to see her?’

  ‘I hoped that you’d have resolved the guilt and would no longer need to see her,’ I responded quietly and quickly got off his lap and walked over to the cot to watch Oliver fast asleep. Was it so awful to want to be a family without a reminder of his past every day?

  ‘I told you that’s a work in progress. I can’t just get over that because you’re jealous.’ I closed my eyes and took a calming breath. He was getting irritated now.

  ‘Then we’re at an impasse because I won’t just bend to your will without my feelings being considered either. I’m not an employee that you can boss around Dan, who’ll jump every time you say how high.’

  ‘I beg to differ,’ he growled in my ear, before spinning me around and throwing me over his shoulder.

  ‘What the hell are you doing?’ I exclaimed with a smack to his utterly grabable backside. ‘We’re having a serious conversation.’

  ‘No. You’re defying me. I’m used to getting my own way and if you think you don’t submit to me willingly, I’m about to make you revise that statement,’ he announced, as he quickly rose up the stairs to the bedroom.

  ‘You … infuriate me!’

  ‘Look in a mirror, baby,’ he bit back as he launched me in the air and I bounced, sprawling on the bed as he towered over me at its base. ‘Take off your clothes.’

  ‘No,’ I gasped as I propped myself up on my elbows and scowled at him.

  ‘Take off your clothes, Ellie. Don’t make me ask you again,’ he advised, as his long fingers started working on his shirt. Button by button he unveiled his toned torso, those firm pecs, defined abs and that V … O my God, that sexy damn V. I bit my lip and gulped. ‘We’re having sex, right now. I’m going to work you over so well you’ll forget all the reasons you want to be apart from me. You’ll be reminded of how much you need me on a daily basis. Multiple times a day.’

  ‘You arrogant, arrogant man,’ I uttered in disbelief, trying hard to ignore the sudden ache in my breasts and throbbing between my thighs.

  ‘You know fucking me is as good as it gets, Ellie. Those boys before me didn’t know how to treat you sexually, how to lick those pert nipples or tease and suck that large clit of yours until you shatter multiple times screaming my name. They didn’t fill you to your womb with a cock so large you feel like your world is ending when I slide it out of you, leaving you craving me for months until even masturbating can’t satiate that itch. Come on, tell me that we don’t have the best sex of your life?’ he asked with a raised brow, as he moved to undo his trousers and shoved them down to the middle of his thighs, along with his boxers, as his heavy cock bounced free and jutted upwards from his pelvis.

  ‘I seriously hate you sometimes,’ I responded quietly, as I quickly reached for the buttons on my blouse and a slow lazy smile lifted the corners of his mouth.

  ‘You love me, Ellie Baxter. Like I love you. Deep, painful, can’t survive without each other love. Every day apart is like a slow agonising death. Memories of being inside you were what keep us both going these last few months, I won’t live on memories anymore. I want you close at hand so if I get the urge to sink this cock of mine into you, I can at any time,’ he confirmed, as he curled his long fingers around his wide girth and slowly moved his hand up and down, moisture gathering on his plush head. ‘I can bury myself in that tight cunt of yours, that wet, warm succulent mouth, or maybe even that virgin backside you clench so tightly every time my cock brushes past it. I own you now, just as you own me and if you need an orgas
m you’ll ask me for it. I control your pleasure from here on out.’

  I gulped and nodded as I wriggled my shirt off and kneeled on the bed to unzip my skirt. I was on the point of orgasm from his speech alone. My knickers were warm and damp, signal enough of how much I needed him sexually. No one had ever turned me on the way Dan did, no one ever would. He was right, being without him had been like a slow death. One I never wanted to experience again. I made short work of stripping and kneeled there on the bed, naked, my chest heaving as I watched him speeding up the strokes on his shaft. ‘Don’t,’ I complained.

  ‘Why not? This is what I’ll be doing frequently if you continue to disobey me. I’ll deny you the pleasure of my cock, my fingers and my tongue.’

  ‘You can’t bribe me to move to Scotland with sex,’ I moaned as I reached for my aching nipples.

  ‘Stop!’ he barked. ‘You don’t touch yourself unless I tell you to. Spread your knees,’ he ordered. I cursed myself internally for immediately complying. ‘You’re wet.’

  ‘Yes,’ I whispered.

  ‘Tell me what you need, Ellie.’

  ‘You,’ I nodded. ‘I need that thick cock of yours inside me, stretching me, making me come over and over.’

  ‘Then suck your index finger, slowly.’

  I nodded and raised my right hand and did as I was told. I was pulsating down below, every clench imagining his thick shaft was there to grip, moisture seeping from me on every release. He may be in control, but that didn’t mean he was the only one who could tease. I slowly trailed my tongue over the tip of my finger, letting it rotate in small circles as I kept my eyes on his. I watched as his nostrils flared and his lips parted as he hissed in a breath of air. I ran my tongue up and down my finger before my lips enveloped it and slowly moved all the way down to the base as I shifted slightly and parted my legs even further. I heard him groan and flicked my eyes down to where his hand had tightened around himself. Without waiting for further instructions, I dipped my other hand between my thighs and ran my fingers through my puffed up swollen slick flesh and let out a soft cry. His eyes narrowed immediately, his chest rising and falling rapidly as his cock surged in his hand. Before I knew what was happening, I was on my back, my wet fingers in his mouth as he powered into me with the force of a battering ram, letting out a guttural groan and I cried out his name.