by Unknown
Cumberland home in the morning and hoped that was okay with her.
Turning onto his street, he sighed in contentment—that is until he reached his driveway and saw the woman who was standing in it.
Chapter Seven
Summer didn’t have to be told who the woman was standing in Ian’s driveway. She was drop-dead gorgeous, and her mane of blond hair could only be described as breathtaking. She was statuesque, too, with long legs and a tiny waist. Just a small pucker at her lower stomach gave away the fact that she’d had a baby not too long ago.
When a sudden breeze blew a few locks across her face, she raised a hand and brushed them away while shaking her head. The movement was calculated to capture all male attention in the immediate area, which meant Ian’s. Summer gritted her teeth, but she refused to look at Ian to assess the woman’s impact on him.
Anyone staring into the green eyes and seeing the small pert nose could guess this was JR’s mother. She couldn’t have denied it if she tried, despite his darker hair. Yet, why would she with such a sweet son? More than that, why would she have ever given up a man like Ian?
“I can’t believe my timing,” she cooed to Ian. “I just got here. You said you’d be back Friday.”
Summer frowned. “He said?” She did look at him this time and caught him tightening his mouth into a straight line. Something told her he didn’t appreciate Penny spilling the beans about them talking. He hadn’t mentioned it to her. “I thought you two weren’t in contact.”
The beauty blinked and looked at Summer in cute confusion. “Who is this? You didn’t mention her when we talked.”
“Oh, hell no.” Summer shifted JR to her hip and stepped forward. Ian blocked her path.
“Stop trying to start trouble, Penny. You know our conversation was brief, and I wouldn’t have mentioned when I would be back had I known you would show up. Why are you here?”
Penny’s inquisitive gaze went from Ian to Summer and back again.
She pouted, and Summer resisted gagging. “Can’t I come by and see our son? You’re not going to keep me from being involved in his life, are you?”
For a moment, Ian didn’t say a word, but he didn’t need to. The fact that he hadn’t told her that he was still on speaking terms with the woman who had supposedly walked out on him and JR was enough. Summer pivoted on her heel and reached for the suitcase Ian had removed from the trunk.
“Thanks for the trip, Ian. I need to get home. I’ve been neglecting work for long enough, and the bills have to be paid.”
He swiped the case from her hand and headed for the house. She frowned at his back, but he ignored her and Penny. The rest of them were left to follow him or stand all night on the sidewalk, and Summer realized she still held JR. She had no choice but to follow him. Penny shuffled to get ahead of Summer, and Mrs. Cumberland fell into step at Summer’s side. She noticed Ms. Beauty Queen hadn’t once looked at her son, never mind trying to hold him. She was full of it, but Ian could find that out for himself. She was sticking around long enough to get her things, and then she was gone. Let him play the game with his ex alone.
Summer stepped inside the house and walked down the hall to JR’s room. She laid him in his crib and pulled a onesie from his dresser. Then she went into the bathroom and prepared a bath in his tub. When she’d tested the water with her elbow to be sure it wasn’t too hot, she returned to his room and stripped his clothes off. After, she bathed him, sprinkled powder on him, and put a fresh diaper on him. With his skin lotioned, she dressed him for bed and left the bathroom to get a bottle.
Mrs. Cumberland was in the kitchen just finishing with warming one.
“Thanks,” Summer said. “Where are they?”
The question didn’t need to be answered. Penny’s raised voice extended from the family room. Summer frowned. She stomped down the hall and stood in the doorway. From the room where she’d left JR, she heard the baby just starting to fuss. Summer opened her mouth to tell them to knock it off, but she faltered. Ian stood facing the window, his shoulders stiff in his anger. Penny moved up behind him and rested her hands on his back.
“Come on, baby, remember how it used to be? I know you want to give me another chance. Think of Ian Junior. He needs his parents together, and I know I walked away from the two of you, but I want to try to make it work. I am his mother after all. Not that… Well she’s not little Ian’s mother, and she can never be.”
All of Summer’s insecurities came crushing down on her like a weight bent on snuffing out her life. Tears filled her eyes. She searched her mind for anything that would refute the truth of Penny’s words, but she couldn’t think of a thing. Not being as upset as she was.
She spun on the balls of her feet and marched back down the hall. She dropped the bottle in Mrs. Cumberland’s hand. “Please take care of the baby. I’m leaving.”
Mrs. Cumberland chased after her. “Wait, Miss Summer. I thought you were putting him down for the night. He needs you.”
“He needs his mother, and apparently she’s back.” Summer blinked away the tears. Why did she have to be such an idiot and start to hope?
The fault of it was that trip to Barbados. She’d left reality for a few days, but now it hit her between the eyes. She’d been a fool, but no more. Ian had Penny. She was enough, and it was only a matter of time before she realized she needed to be a part of her son’s life. This wasn’t unexpected.
“Tell him… Tell, Ian, it’s fine. Thanks for everything.”
Summer grabbed her bag and left the house. She strolled down the street lugging her suitcase behind. When she came to the corner, she paused to search her phone’s contact list for her ex’s number. She never should have broken it off with him. They’d had fun, and well, motherhood wasn’t to be.
To her surprise, the words and numbers blurred before her vision.
Tears streamed down her cheeks. She would miss JR as much as she’d miss Ian. In the short while she’d spent with him, she had come to love him as if he were her own, making her loss a million times worse. Her heart felt like it had shattered in her chest, but such was life. She needed to suck it up and move on. Instead, she didn’t budge, and she couldn’t press the connect button that would make the call.
Maybe I’m meant to be alone and nothing more.
Screeching tires caught her attention, and she gasped when Ian’s car slid to a halt in front of her. He leaped from the interior and left his door open as he stormed around the front of the car toward her. Summer took a step back.
“Ian, what are you doing?”
“Coming to get my wife, damn it!” He jerked the suitcase from her hand and slung it away. Summer’s eyes widened. He wrenched the driver side door open and turned back to her.
“Stop it, Ian.” She retreated farther. “You need to face the truth.”
“The truth is I love you,” he growled, and she jumped. “I’m sick of trying to convince you that you’re the one.”
She put her hands on her hips and raised her chin. “Then why the hell are you here? I left and—”
“You can either get into the car under your own steam, or I can put you there,” he threatened.
“You can’t just keep bullying me into being with you, Ian. I have to want it too.”
He grabbed her shoulders and dragged her closer. Her whole body came alive with that one touch, and she fought not to show it in her expression. He seemed too angry to notice though. “You’re telling me you don’t want it?”
“I… You don’t understand, Ian. Please.”
He didn’t miss a beat. “Summer, tell me who gave JR a bath tonight?”
She frowned. “Why are you asking about that now? I did.”
“Who changed his diaper?”
“Seriously! I did, okay? What’s the big deal?”
He released her arms and cupped her face. The rough touch disappeared to be replaced by a caress so gentle, it set her off balance.
“Baby, simply this. If Penny was JR�
�s mother, she would have cared for him tonight. She would have recognized that he was tired and that it was his bedtime. Instead it was you. You’re the one who did it without a second thought.”
She blinked at him. “You called him JR twice.”
Ian kissed her. “You love him.”
Fear tightened the muscles in her stomach. “But, Ian…”
“My love,” he interrupted, “do you think being a parent means you never get scared?”
She didn’t know the answer to that.
“Sometimes I think I’m going to do something so wrong that I’ll screw up my son for the rest of his life. At times, I agonize for an hour about what decisions I should make regarding him when he’s a teenager and he breaks his curfew.”
She couldn’t believe what he was saying. “Are you crazy? That’s years away. He’s not even walking yet.”
“Exactly.”
She lowered her gaze and stared at his chest. All of what he’d said ran through her thoughts, and she figured Mrs. Cumberland had told him about her getting the baby ready for bed. The busybody nanny probably told him she’d left as soon as she’d walked out the door. She couldn’t fault her for that, though.
“Whether I allow Penny to see JR—and it is up to me since she signed her rights away—doesn’t have anything to do with you and me, or you and JR. You’re his mother, Summer. You’re the best one he could ever have.”
He released her, and she flicked her gaze to his at the sudden freedom.
He clenched his fists at his sides and heaved a sigh. She saw the strain and struggle in his expression and wondered what he was thinking.
“I’ve been wrong to keep pushing. I tell myself to stop, to back off and let you make the decisions for yourself.” He smiled. “I guess I’ve been too used to shuffling around those that work under me on the job. You can do whatever you choose, but I hope—I pray with everything inside of me, Summer—that you will choose me and my son.”
“Our son,” she corrected.
Ian’s eyebrows went up. “Baby, does that mean…?”
“Yes. I love you, Ian, and I love JR. I want to be with you two. I want us to be a family.”
He drew her into his embrace, and Summer went willingly. She rested her head on his shoulder and then raised it for his kiss. Ian parted her lips with his tongue and moaned into her mouth. She pressed in tight to him, aligning her body with his.
When he lifted his head, Ian smiled down at her. “You can’t imagine how happy you’ve made me. Does that also mean you agree to be my wife?”
“Yes!” She slapped his shoulder and wriggled free to get into the car.
“Now come on. I want to make sure JR is down for the night. Otherwise, he’ll be cranky in the morning.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
* * * *
Summer patted JR’s back and spoke softly to him. The sweet baby cooed in his sleep and sucked on his thumb. He smelled fresh and clean, the scent of baby powder, and she wanted to cuddle and kiss him, but he needed his rest. “My baby.” She whispered it, trying the words on for size.
“I’m his your mama now.”
“That’s right.”
She jumped at Ian’s voice and turned. He strode across the room and took her hand to stand in front of the crib. They watched over JR a while longer before Summer asked, “Where’s Penny?”
His nostrils flared. “Gone. Turns out she just wanted money. Her last boyfriend dumped her and left her with a bunch of credit card debt. I would have respected her more if she’d come out and asked me right off for money rather than pretend an interest in JR.”
Summer nodded. “See? That’s why you should have let me handle her when we got back to the house.”
He chuckled. “You’re not a fighter, Summer.”
She sucked her teeth. “Does that mean you think I couldn’t have taken her?”
“No, it means I don’t want you to take on unnecessary battles. She’s no one. You’re JR’s mother. You’re the one who loves him and cares for him. I see it in everything you do for him. You might not have felt confident, but you kept trying your best because you wanted it more than anything.”
“I…” She was about to deny what he was saying out of habit, but all of a sudden she realized it was true. She wanted what was stolen from her years ago, and somehow she’d convinced herself that it was Ian who wanted kids. Now she could admit at last, that she did too. With all her heart, she wanted to be a mother.
Summer began to shake with the truth coming home at last. That’s why she had broken it off with her ex. Not because they didn’t work out or because she didn’t care about him. She had hoped against hope when it didn’t make sense. When she and Ian married, it would be official. One day soon, JR would call her mommy.
“Ian,” she breathed.
“I know, baby.” He lifted her into his arms and strolled out of the bedroom and across the hall to his room.
He set her down on the bed, but Summer reached out to stop him when he would have joined her. She worked the button open on his pants, and he gasped as she stroked his bared cock. “Summer,” he moaned. “Baby, you’re making want to come.”
“Not yet.” She pulled his pants lower on his hips to expose more of his cock. He was already rock solid, and her mouth watered to taste him. “I’m going to suck you.”
“No, you don’t have to do that.”
She didn’t listen but took his thick length into her mouth. Air hissed between Ian’s teeth. She knew her man, and she knew he loved her going down on him. All she wanted right then was to satisfy him. Ian would do all he could to return the favor, so she wasn’t worried about that.
She licked up one side of his dick and then ventured down the other.
His leathery skin had a slight salty taste, which was satisfying and exciting at the same time. She stuffed the cock tip between her lips and pulled on him. He suppressed a howl of pleasure, but that just got her going all the more. He would come before she was done with him.
Summer gave a light nip to the sensitive area just beneath Ian’s cock head. She swallowed him down her throat and pulled back. Then she took him deep once more. While she teased his member, she stroked his ball sac, massaging them in her palm until she felt the vibrations of her lover about to come.
“Summer!” he complained. “Baby, I’m close. You should stop.” The strength seemed to have left him so he couldn’t push her off. She went at him—sucking, stroking and licking. Just when she thought he would explode, Ian clasped her shoulder and gave her a slight shove. Summer toppled onto her back, and Ian came after her.
“What are you doing?”
He didn’t answer but flipped her onto her stomach and smacked her ass. “Did you think I would let you get away with that, baby?” He tsked in her ear and moved his heavy length above her. Summer struggled, but she couldn’t get away. He pinned her down and smacked her ass again.
“Ian,” she called out. Her breath left her in a whoosh when he bent down and licked her ass cheek. She clenched the sheets. What did he think he was going to do? She had her answer the second he threaded a finger between the slit of her rear and touched it to her back entrance. Ian’s digit sank deeper, and Summer’s jaw grew slack.
He pumped deep into her hole, pulled back, and then pushed in again.
The way he worked his finger in slow circles while keeping it inside of her drove her wild. She squirmed and moaned, but he didn’t let up. Just when she didn’t think she could take it another second, he upped the ante. Ian spread her legs, raised her hips, and plunged his cock as far as it would go into her pussy. Summer shouted his name.
Ian held her around the waist while he pounded into her. He switched out his finger in her ass to a thumb, and she lost the ability to do anything other than give herself to him. Before long, her orgasm built, and she keened through the strongest one she’d ever had. The sensations took her on a wild ride where her core muscles contracted and unclenched around his cock. Still he dro
ve into her again and again. He grunted his encouragement, his breath coming in heavy pants. The waves of pleasure eased, but Ian kept going. She knew he needed to reach his release, and she stretched behind her to stroke his thigh. The muscles corded beneath her fingers, and she squeezed.
“Fuck, yes,” he growled, and then she felt it. He’d come—hard and fast.
He wrapped both arms around her and pushed her flat on the bed, following her down. Summer turned her head to kiss him, and for a while she was lost. Ian was the first to resurface, and he dropped a caress on her shoulder.
“Good, baby?”
“Excellent,” she murmured.
“Want more?”
She rolled her eyes and then grinned. “You haven’t even scratched the surface. Ian Scott, I’m going to spend a lifetime accepting everything you have to give, and I will give all of myself in return. I promise you that.”
His dark eyes turned cloudy. “That’s all I’m asking…and what I’m willing to give. My heart and my soul have been yours from that first day.”
“And mine are yours. Forever.”
The End
About the Author
Tressie Lockwood has always loved books, and she enjoys writing about heroines who are overcoming the trials of life. She writes straight from her heart, reaching out to those who find it hard to be completely themselves no matter what anyone else thinks. She hopes her readers enjoy her short stories. Visit Tressie on the web at www.tressielockwood.blogspot.com.