We pry our bodies away from each other without letting go of each other’s gaze.
“Should I sign first?” Maggie asks.
“No need,” Leo says, turning his attention to the marriage license.
Leo walks to the desk and signs the paper with his well-practiced executive signature. My body physically hurts without his touch, and the second he is finished I snatch the pen from his hand and scribble my name on the license.
Without waiting for Maggie, I drop the pen on the desk and lean my body into Leo. This whole day has left me with an overwhelming desire to be in his arms. I know we have the rest of our lives together but right now all I can feel is an urgent need to fully give myself to him.
As if he’s read my mind, Leo’s lips are back on mine. Our first kiss as an officially married couple. I press my body against his and can’t help but notice his hard dick digging into me.
His hands trail down my back and he squeezes my ass. I have totally forgotten where we are, and I grind myself into his dick.
Mike clears his throat loudly. We ignore him and carry on loving each other.
Mike clears his throat loudly again and says, “Leo—”
Breaking the kiss, Leo interrupts him and says, “Give us the room, Mike.”
“My office?”
“Yes, we need it,” Leo says as he presses his forehead against mine.
“But it’s my office.”
“I’ll make sure Christmas this year is extra special.” He still hasn’t looked at Mike.
“Only because I love you, buddy. Consider this my wedding gift.” Laughing, Mike stands and leaves the room. Maggie follows him out and closes the door behind them.
“God, I need you,” Leo says and nibbles at my neck.
His hands are hot on my bare thighs and he slides them up, taking my skirt above my ass in the process. My core blazes with heat and my walls are slick and desperate for him. Enough that the small part of me that does realize where we are doesn’t care. There’s only one thing I care about right now.
I slip my hand under Leo’s T-shirt and run my hands up his muscular back. Driven by desire, I wrap one of my legs around him and shamelessly rub my pussy against him. He turns to the desk, placing me between him and it.
Closing his mouth over mine, he presses me back until I have to scramble to get my hands free from his shirt. I wrap them around his neck for support in order to continue the kiss.
With one hand, Leo pushes everything he can reach off the desk. Items crash to the floor but neither of us reacts. Using the same hand, he grips my panties and shoves them as far down my legs as he can. I dance and squirm to get them the rest of the way to my feet then kick them to the side.
I spread my legs as far as I can, willing him to touch me. To take me, to fuck me, to give me relief.
“There is no rush, Mrs. Newbury,” Leo says into my ear. His voice is low and rich and resonates in my core.
“My body begs to differ,” I say, and bite his neck.
Chapter 39
Leo
“Is that so?” I say and roughly cup her mound. She’s drenched, and I groan. “You aren’t kidding.”
Debating all the things I want to do to her, I decide which I want to do most right now. I’m about to kneel when someone pounds on the door.
“Who’s that?” Grace whispers.
“I don’t care who it is, they can fuck off.”
The knocking continues. I turn my head to the door just as it cracks open.
“Sorry, buddy, I forgot I have a mediation right now and need my office,” Mike says from the other side of the door.
Grace stands tall and tries to adjust her skirt, but my hand is still cupping her juicy mound, preventing her from moving away.
“So, go find another meeting room,” I say, too excited by the contents of my hand to sound annoyed.
“Can’t, all the files are in my office,” Mike says.
“Seriously?” I say to both him and Grace.
She lays her delicate hand on my chest and tries to push me away.
“Afraid so.”
“We have to go,” Grace says, nudging me.
“I don’t want to,” I say, and nibble at the fleshiness of her neck.
“Dude, they’re going to be here in two minutes, you have to get out,” Mike says louder and opens the door wider.
“Fine,” I snap and pull my hand away from Grace.
My hand is moist from her mound and I resist the urge to taste it. Instead, I take her hand with it and stride to the door. As we walk, she tugs at her skirt with her free hand.
I brush past Mike, and he screws his mouth up and shrugs. I don’t bother to say anything in response. My dick is still hard and there is only one thing I can think of right now — fucking Grace.
Partway down the sterile corridor, Grace says, “I forgot my panties in his office.”
“That’s okay, you don’t need them.”
We pass a fire exit stairwell and without thinking, I pull her into it.
“Where are we going?” Grace asks.
“Nowhere,” I say, and back her up against the corner of the landing.
She tries to say something, but I silence her with a kiss so hungry that I’m starved of oxygen. Just as hungrily, my hands move over her body, pausing at her tits and the curve of her waist. I hate all the fabric between us and briefly consider stripping her before deciding she wouldn’t like to be naked in a public stairwell.
“I need you now, I can’t wait,” I say, and pull up her already short skirt.
Undoing my jeans, I shove my boxers down and push myself against her. Grace lifts her legs, and I grab her thighs as she wraps them around my waist. Her mound is slick, and I push my hardness through her folds until my tip finds her entrance.
“This isn’t how I thought I’d consummate my marriage,” Grace says, her voice low.
“It probably wasn’t the wedding you’d always dreamed of, either.”
“No, but it was the best wedding imaginable.” Before she can finish her sentence, I drive my cock into her.
Her walls wrap around me as I sink into her, again and again. The muscles in my back contract, forcing my head back in their intensity. Grace clings onto me, whimpering and moaning and generally making me love her more and more by the second.
I didn’t even think I could love her more.
Through my T-shirt, she sinks her teeth into my shoulder. She’s close, I can tell, though I’m not really ready for this moment to end yet.
Running my hand over her hair, I grip the back of her head and tilt it sideways, exposing more of her neck to me. I plant my mouth right in the center and suck. I want her to have something to make this last longer.
The flesh forms to my mouth as I tug at it with my sucking. Grace moans and her walls tighten around my shaft. Burning heat threatens to bubble over in my core, and I release her neck.
Pulling her back from the wall, I stand in the center of the landing with Grace wrapped around me. I move her body up and down my rod, growing more and more frantic as my body fills with tingles and my heart pounds against my ribs.
Her body becomes more and more tense and her legs wrap tighter around me.
“Oh God, I’m coming,” Grace says. She turns her head and screams, the sound echoes up and down and is magnified by the staircase.
Her walls spasm around me, and I’m lost. My dick explodes violently and I stagger back to the wall for support.
“Don’t stop,” she says, her voice trembling and pleading and almost enough to make me come again.
With her back against the wall, I continue to thrust into her. My dick pulses and throbs and feels better than it ever has in my entire life. My entire body feels better than it ever has in my entire life. So does my soul.
Grace goes limp in my arms and we stand motionless in our spot against the cold cinder block.
After several breaths I say, “Let’s go home, Mrs. Newbury.”
“My home,” she says la
ughing.
“Yes, your home.”
“Our home. Me, you and the baby.”
“Absolutely,” I say and brush my lips against hers. Finally, I have the family I’ve always wanted, the one I never thought I’d ever have. It’s a shame I can never have the relationship with George that Grace has with Charity, but Grace is all I really need.
We disentangle our bodies and make our way, hand in hand, to the car.
Epilogue
Grace
One Year Later
“Hey, big girl, all done with your nap?” I say and lift Bethany out of her crib.
Leo pokes his head in the door and says, “She’s up?”
“Yes, she had an extra long nap today, didn’t you, Bethany?” I say, smoothing back her curls from her cheeks.
Four-month-old Bethany isn’t interested in my hairstyling, she reaches her hand in the direction of the giant giraffe at her crib side. The entire nursery is like stepping onto the Serengeti. Lions, elephants, giraffes and every other African animal you can think of cover the walls, not to mention all the stuffed animals. Including the six-foot-tall giraffe that we’ve dubbed Jerry.
Leo walks across the room and pats my ass before taking Bethany from my hands.
“Do you need your diaper changed, sweetie?” he asks and kisses her forehead.
Keeping our bodies close together we moved to the changing table. Leo takes off her cute little shorts that are covered in little shovels and sandcastles and removes her diaper.
I pass him the wet wipes and fresh diaper and watch as he expertly changes her and puts her shorts back on. It’s been a similar activity ever since Bethany was born.
Leo has barely left our sides.
A month after the telephone conversation between George and Leo, George agreed to sell his share of Newbury Toys. Most likely because his lawyers went over the paperwork and realized the clause was ironclad. If he’d waited until the baby was born, it would have reduced his percentage of ownership and cost him almost a billion dollars.
Leo immediately started the process of selling Newbury Toys to Sun Toys, and the sale was completed just before the baby was born. Which means Leo hasn’t had to work for one second since the baby came along, giving him all the time in the world to, as he puts it, enjoy us.
“Let’s go find Aunty Charity. I bet she’s waiting for us,” I say and pick Bethany up off the table. Her chubby little arm reaches up and her fingers wrap themselves around my hair. “Oh, don’t do that, honey. That will hurt Mommy,” I say, trying to free my hair from her grip.
“You never do that to Daddy, do you, sweetie?” Leo says proudly.
“Maybe Daddy should grow his hair long and we’ll see if you like it pulled or not. Right, Bethany?”
Bethany gurgles in response and blows bubbles from her tiny mouth, as if challenging her father to grow his hair. Leo laughs and turns to the door, ignoring us both.
I can’t wait until she’s older and can talk, we are going to have so much fun toying with him.
Carrying the baby, I follow Leo through the house to the back door. The decor is similar to the New York apartment, very simple and unostentatious. Unlike the New York apartment, we only have seven bedrooms. Leo jokes that he’s the only person ever who got married, had a baby and downsized.
While I was pregnant, we realized Charity and her kids had never been to a beach. Leo immediately insisted that we all have a trip to the beach and flew her and her kids to meet us in Myrtle Beach.
They had so much fun that they never wanted to leave. None of us did. We all decided that the beach was where we belonged.
Charity hadn’t started to build the house Leo wanted to build her. Instead the six of us drove down the coast looking at real estate. That day, we found two beach houses four doors apart, and fell in love.
Leo bought the properties on the spot.
One is bright blue with a white veranda wrapped around the entire house. That’s the one Charity lives in. Our house is modern, with an all-white exterior with walls of glass overlooking the ocean.
We see each other all the time, but the few houses between us mean that we aren’t on top of each other and we don’t get on each other’s nerves. We are also going to have lots of babysitters in a few years when Charity’s kids are a little older.
“Wait, I forgot the drinks,” Leo says, and turns back to the kitchen. He smiles at me, and like every smile he’s given me since we met, my insides melt a little bit.
“It’s okay, I have to put sunscreen on and get her hat anyway,” I say. Opening the hall cupboard, I pull out the wicker basket filled with beach supplies. I put Bethany’s pink sunhat on, fling a beach blanket over my shoulder and start slathering her with sunscreen.
I am beyond lucky to have found Leo. I can’t imagine my life without him or little Bethany. And I also have Charity back in my life because of them. I never would’ve gone back to Tennessee if I hadn’t been pregnant and jobless with nowhere else to go.
Charity and I are almost as inseparable as Leo and me.
She was relieved to get out of that small town. When we moved here, Leo talked her into going back to school, something she said she’d always dreamed of. At first, she didn’t want to because it would mean not only was she living in the house Leo bought her, she would be completely dependent on him, but he insisted.
Now she’s completing her GED and has already been accepted to study teaching next year. I’m incredibly proud of her.
Leo is still envious of my relationship with my sister, and wishes he could have at least a civil relationship with his brother, but I think he’s resigned himself to his situation.
Leo appears with the black cooler bag slung over his shoulder and says, “Okay, let’s go to the beach.” He holds open the back door and I walk through it with Bethany.
The view of the sea is breathtaking. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve looked at it, it never fails to impress me.
I lead him across the walkway and down the steps to the beach. We are meeting Charity and her kids in front of their house at four o’clock for our regular Saturday fun on the beach.
Leo bought all sorts of beach games and is teaching her eldest two to be master paddle ball players.
We turn south in the direction of Charity’s house, Leo puts his arm around my waist and we walk snuggled against each other.
Anna and Tyson got married two months after their baby boy, Joshua, was born. I didn’t go to the wedding. I’ve barely spoken to her over the past year. Not because I haven’t forgiven her for what she did, to both me and Tyson, or because she lives on the opposite side of the country, but because she’s become close friends with Shawna.
Shawna lost her house and car after the collapse of Mini Motivations and ended up sleeping on Anna’s couch for a while, during which time they became good friends.
Shawna, the person Leo hates more than anyone else in the world. In fact, she’s probably the only person he hates. He will never forgive her for the way she shamelessly dressed me up and sent me out to try to raise money for her company. Even though that’s how we met.
She continually comes up with new business ideas, and continually gets Anna to try contact me to get Leo to invest in them. Hell would have to freeze over before Leo gave her a penny. He wouldn’t even care if it was the best idea for a business in the history of the universe, he would never give her one cent.
I started to realize that when Anna phoned, she wasn’t calling to see how I’m doing but to try to get funding for another of Shawna’s ideas. It hurt that the person who was supposed to be my best friend only used me when she needed something, but I had to move forward. Five months ago, I told her to stop calling and blocked her number. Good riddance to her and Shawna.
I have Charity now, which is much better anyway.
“Where are the kids?” Leo says as we near Charity’s house. Normally they are racing around playing or in the water, but they are nowhere in sight.
Charity stands facing us, her white sundress blowing in the breeze. A man stands with his back to us and I briefly wonder if she has a boyfriend, but I know she has sworn off men until she finishes her schooling. Something about not making the same mistake twice in life.
As we get close, Leo freezes in his tracks.
“What’s wrong?” I say, looking at him. His face has fallen into a blank stare.
The man turns around and walks toward us. As he nears, I notice his jawline and eyes are remarkably similar to Leo’s.
He sticks his right hand out and says, “Brother.”
“George,” Leo says, his voice stiff.
I nudge Leo, and he sticks his hand out to George. They shake hands and George pulls Leo into an embrace. He pats Leo’s back. I step away, and observe the two brothers.
Charity walks up beside me and says, “I had George tracked down and have been working on him for months to reconcile with his brother.”
My heart warms and my love for my sister increases tenfold. “How did you manage that?”
“I wanted to repay Leo somehow for all the things he’s done for me and my children. I know as well as you do how envious he is of our relationship. I figured the least I can do was try.”
Leo and George walk to the shore and stand staring out at the ocean, talking. Charity and I watch in silence, both willing her plan to work. Eventually we lay out the blanket and sit down, playing with the baby. But I keep one eye on Leo and George.
Before long they are laughing and talking animatedly, and I stop holding my breath. They turn and walk in our direction. Charity takes Bethany and I stand.
“Hi, I’m George.” He sticks his hand out and I take it. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for my brother. And me. You’ve saved us both from ourselves.”
I’m shocked at his words and don’t know what to say. Leo says, “Come meet Bethany,” and the two of them sit on the blanket with Charity and the baby and act as though they’ve never been apart.
I look down at the four of them and cannot believe such happiness exists.
***
Desire Page 17