Stand (Black Addiction Book 3)

by T Gephart

  “So, what do you want to play?” asked Beth, scooting down to his level.

  “You’re pretty.” Zack reached up and touched her face, the little guy proving how smart he was by that statement alone.

  “She sure is buddy.” I joined the two of them on the floor. “You trying to steal my girl?” I tucked him under my arm in a bear hold. “You’re cute, so I’ll overlook it this one time.” The kid erupted into giggles.

  “Maybe we can make cookies for dessert? Would you like that?” Beth stood up, big grin on her face as she watched me wrestle with the kid.

  “Only if they are chocolate chip,” I added, lifting the little dude with me as I straightened up. “Oatmeal cookies suck.”

  “Suck!” Zack parroted, his little fist waving with conviction.

  “Fine, chocolate chip it is.” Beth shook her head, not comprehending how offensive oatmeal was to a cookie. I mean seriously, why bother? “But you need to watch your mouth.” She jabbed a finger between my lips while trying to hide the smile.

  Probably some sound advice. It would only take one random fuck and this little exercise would end badly. And there was no way I wanted for the kid’s first cuss word to be courtesy of yours truly.

  “Noted.” I flipped Zack upside down as we made our way to the kitchen.

  Angie had given Zack dinner before she left, so we figured a little dessert was cool. Then it was going to be a story and bedtime and Beth and I were going to get a pizza. Chill in front of the television. Possibly make out. Have to admit, the idea of getting to second or third base with the babysitter was sort of hot. And if I could take care of that little fantasy after the kid was safely in dreamland, what was the harm? Sounded like a win to me.

  Beth took charge in the kitchen. Carefully explaining each of the ingredients to the little guy before letting him put them in the mixing bowl. She was so good with him, the process taking three times as long because of Zack’s assist, and yet she didn’t lose her cool once. Nope, just kept going slowly and allowing him to help every step of the way.

  Man, I had it bad for this girl. Looking at her with that little boy and it wasn’t hard to imagine her with one of mine. Straight up, I’d always figured I’d eventually have kids. Like down the line, when I was older. But watching her be so sweet with him and I could easily move that schedule to within the next few years. Ring on her finger, a dog—the whole nine yards. Yeah, that was a good plan and one I fully intended on making happen as soon as the time was right.

  Cookies went into the oven, and Zack and I offered to clean up. Seemed fair since Beth had done most of the work with the baking. And it also gave me the opportunity to keep an eye on the kid so he didn’t mack on my girl when I wasn’t looking.

  Not sure why Angie had been so worried, but her kid was awesome. Remembered his manners when asking for a second cookie and didn’t give us any lip. He may have grumbled a few times when we told him it was bedtime, but after sweetening the deal with one more cookie and an additional story, he gave us no extra trouble. This parenting stuff was pretty easy if you asked me, absolutely no problems at all.

  After making sure his teeth were brushed and his pajamas were on, we tucked up the little guy into his bed and said goodnight. The idea of some alone time with the babysitter probably excited me a little more than it should, my dick already starting to take an interest and we hadn’t even ordered the pizza yet.

  The delivery guy earned his tip. Our pie was delivered hot and within the thirty minute window the tagline had promised. Then with a couple of sodas—no booze while on kid duty—we camped out in front of the television and enjoyed our dinner. Best. Pizza. Ever.

  And as much as I enjoyed watching her devour her slices, I could think of a better use for her mouth. My lips agreed as they moved in without notice.

  My arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer as my tongue got where it wanted to be, the kiss moving past the hi-how-are-you-stage to let’s-get-it-on. I didn’t stop, my hands taking a little wander down to the front of her shirt, my fingers curling around one of her perfect tits as I continued to fuck her with my mouth. The bulge in my pants already rock fucking solid.

  “What if he wakes up?” Beth pulled away glancing to the doorway, no noise coming from anything but us and the television.

  “We’ll hear him if he gets up. I’ll be very quiet.” My lips moved to her neck as my hand moved to the other tit. I didn’t want to play favorites, both of them equally spectacular.

  “Max, we shouldn’t.” She half-heartily protested, her mouth telling me a completely different story as she kissed back.

  “Just let me play a little.” I tried to negotiate, needing to touch her just a little more. “I’ll stop before it goes too far.”

  Probably not the smartest thing to have come out of my mouth, but to be honest, I wasn’t thinking straight. I wasn’t thinking at all, with my dick clearly running the show, but as much as it had bad idea written all over it, I couldn’t make myself stop.

  While she didn’t agree, she didn’t stop me either, my hand sliding underneath her bra as she moved into my lap. Our mouths fused as she used my hard-on to give her what she needed, the rocking back and forth enough to make me want to blow my load.

  We should have stopped. Enjoyed the make out session for what it was and looked forward to some serious sex once I’d got her home to my bed. But all the confidence my dick had had earlier—we’ll totally stop before it gets too far—was completely MIA as I struggled to keep my voice down.

  “Did you hear something?” Beth’s head snapped back, her lips puffy from my mouth, my hand still up her shirt.

  “Nope, didn’t hear a thing.” I shook my head, my eyes watching her tits heave up and down with each breath.

  “Max, it might be Zack. We need to stop.” She untangled her arms and pulled back on my lap, straightening her top.

  I could have cried, my balls so tight I wasn’t sure they weren’t going to explode as my dick throbbed in my pants. “Okay, Okay.” I cursed under my breath, needing a minute to commiserate before I could stand.

  “We should check on him.” Beth lifted herself out of my lap and climbed to her feet. “Just to be sure.”

  “Yep, just give me a minute.” The bulge in my jeans not going anywhere despite us calling time out. “You stay here, I’ll go.”

  The hall was still dark as I left the living room and climbed the stairs. Zack’s bedroom door was still closed, not a peep coming from it as my head poked inside the room.

  “What the fuck?” I flung open the door, the glow of the nightlight revealing an empty bed, the child that was supposed to be in it not in the room.

  “What’s wrong?” Beth raced up the stairs, her footsteps echoing off the walls as she met me at the door. “What the hell?” Her eyes got wide as they looked at the empty bed, the kid still missing.

  “He has to be in here somewhere; it’s not like he can disappear into thin air.” I threw on the light and started searching. “Check the closet.” I got down on my hands and knees to see if the little guy was playing hide and seek under his bed.

  “He’s not here.” Beth looked around panicked. “How can he be missing? He was right there.” She pointed to the mussed up sheets, no clues as to where he’d gotten to.

  “Start going through the rooms. If he’d gone out the front door, we would have heard the deadlock and there’s no way he could have climbed out the window.”

  I might have seemed calm, but deep down I was a hundred percent losing my shit. The idea that we let something happen to the kid played in my head like a bad dream.

  “Zack,” Beth called out running through the upstairs rooms. “Zack, sweetie where are you?”

  I took off down the stairs, figuring we needed to divide and conquer. Jase and Angie’s house wasn’t small, so it was going to take more than a few minutes to do a search. Kid wasn’t big either, so could have easily wedged himself behind the drapes or into a cupboard, the list of hiding places literall
y endless as I moved from room to room.

  My pulse raced as I checked bathrooms and the laundry, freaking out that he’d gotten himself into trouble while we’d been—yeah, if something happened I was probably not going to forgive myself.

  “He’s not here,” Beth called out, taking the stairs two at a time as she met me in the study, the room deserted as she turned on every light in the house.

  “Zack, buddy.” I opened doors, each room turning up nothing. “Come out, little man, you’re not in any trouble, but we need to make sure you’re okay.” I made my way slowly to the kitchen.

  Empty.

  Every fucking room, empty.

  How could we have lost a human? Did he evaporate into thin air? Logically, I knew he had to be somewhere but I couldn’t stop the worst-case scenarios looping around in my brain. This was so not good.

  “Zack!” Beth screamed, her voice carrying down the hall as she double checked the rooms I’d just been in. “Come out and I promise you can have another cookie.”

  We stopped hollering; just hoping to hear something that would give us a clue. Then finally we heard it—a muted groan just barely audible.

  “Kitchen.” My head whipped around, turning to the direction of the sound. I swear I’d checked it before and came up empty, not that I cared now if it meant we found him.

  “Zack, where are you?” I looked around the kitchen, the room no different to the last time I’d been in there, my head ducking under the counter as Beth checked under the table.

  “Ughhhhh.” Another groan, the noise coming from the walk-in pantry.

  “In here.” I pulled open the door, the little guy sitting on the floor curled up with a face full of cookie crumbs.

  “Hey.” I dropped to my knees thanking God we’d found him as Beth joined me in the tiny space. “You gave us a bit of a scare.” I pulled him in for a hug, my silent thank fucks remaining unspoken.

  “I don’t feel so well.” Zack clutched at his stomach the empty plate of cookies beside him a big fucking clue as to why. “I’m—”

  He didn’t finish his sentence, his mouth opening and blowing chunks all over me in the process.

  “Shit.” I tried not to gag, the stench jacking up my nose making me want to hurl too. My shirt covered in vomit as the kid started to cry.

  “Oh God.” I covered my mouth, my stomach retching wanting to do its own eject. The cough I was unable to suppress playing havoc with my gag reflex as I tried not to think about tossing my own cookies. It was going to be a close call.

  “No, no it’s okay.” Beth grabbed a dish rag, the tiny piece of fabric doing jack shit to kill the fucking smell or the mess that was on the two of us. “You’re okay.” Her reassurance fell on deaf ears as the kids launched into full water works.

  “Let’s get out of here.” I tried to stand up, my foot hitting a patch of spew pitching me back against one of the shelves. “God damn,” I gritted out through my teeth, my shoulder bouncing off the edge before I went down on my ass, thankfully not landing on the kid.

  “You’re okay.” Beth pulled him out of the pantry, the kid crying hard either from my yelling or the fact I’d almost made him a pancake. Spew freaking everywhere as I tried again to fucking stand up.

  You know that scene in The Exorcist where the chick’s head spins around and a stream of pea soup shoots out her mouth? Yeah, double that and you were in the neighborhood of what we were dealing with. He wasn’t even that big, how he could have produced so much vomit was still a freaking mystery.

  “It’s all good, Zack.” I bit down on my lip to stop from cursing as I climbed to my feet, my shoulder screaming from pain while I stuffed down the urge to dry heave.

  “Let’s get you cleaned up; we’re going to make it all better.” Beth took control of the situation, sitting him on the counter while she pulled off his jammies. The kid still hiccupping as she grabbed another tea towel and wiped down his face. “See no need to cry.”

  No need to cry? I begged to disagree, my puke filled shirt sticking to my chest as I grabbed paper towels and tried to mop up the chunks. Yep, this was going so well. And fuck you, universe, my metaphorical finger flipping off karma; my punishment, obviously, for insinuating the parenting gig was a cakewalk.

  “I’m just going to get some towels and run a bath.” Beth looked over at me, my fruitless exercise of trying to clean up abandoned as I peeled off my shirt. I wasn’t even going to bother. The idea of being shirtless preferable to the spew I’d been wearing. “Can you stay with him until I’m ready?”

  “Yeah, of course.” I walked over to the counter, tossing the shirt in the garbage as Zack’s sobs started to taper off. “It’s going to be fine, Zack. We’re just going to clean you up and then it will all be over.”

  I don’t know who I was trying to convince, because shit was most definitely not fine. But I needed him to stop crying, so at this point I’d stand on my head if it would get the job done.

  “Un-cle Max.” He sucked in a breath, snot dripping out of his nose as he tried to talk. His hands reached for me as the tears looked to start again.

  “No, no.” I grabbed him off the counter, praying to God Beth would walk in any minute. “No need to cry.” I cradled him close to my chest hoping the jiggling wouldn’t bring on spewfest round two.

  “Potty.”

  He probably didn’t need to say it, the stream of warm pee traveling down my stomach enough of a hint that he needed a bathroom. Could have used the memo a few minutes earlier so there’d been time to get to said bathroom.

  “Are you kidding me?” I laughed, the top of my jeans now soaked. I mean seriously? Clearly it wasn’t enough that I’d had been covered in spew. No, I needed to stink like a fucking urinal too.

  “What’s happened?” Beth came running back, the fucking towels redundant. “Is he feeling sick again?”

  “Nope, hopefully we’re done with the bodily functions though. There’s only one left and I’m really not down with that.”

  And fuck me, what a freaking mess. I still had no idea where he was storing all of it, the volume of shit—thank God not literally—coming out of him still baffling the hell out of me.

  “Oh, you had an accident. It’s okay.” She wrapped a towel around Zack, the kid still howling.

  Again, okay not a word I’d use right now.

  “Why don’t you get him taken care of and I’ll try and clean this up.” The floor, the inside of the cupboard—I was going to need a mask and some holy water just to get through it.

  “Are you sure?” Beth hesitated a beat, my earlier performance not convincing her I’d be cool. Had to admit, I wasn’t so sure myself.

  “It’s fine.” I said as much for my own benefit as I did for her. “I’ve got this, go.”

  “I’ll be quick.” She nodded, taking the Zack bundle towards the bathroom. Hopefully keeping whatever else was inside of him where it belonged.

  Great.

  The kitchen looked like a war zone, and I was nowhere near ready for battle.

  Deep breaths.

  I could totally do this.

  Grabbing a stack of paper towels, I attacked the mess, breathing through my mouth so I didn’t contribute to it. It really was amazing how far it had managed to spread; if we could just harness the kid’s ability to throw for good rather than evil we’d have a World Series pitcher on our hands.

  I finished up grabbing a bucket, a bottle of Clorox and a mop and if anything had ever lived on that floor it was fucking dead now. The place spotless by the time Beth had come back down with a clean, freshly PJ’d Zack.

  “Wow, you did a great job in here.” She surveyed my handy work, Zack hiding in the crook of her neck.

  “You didn’t do too badly yourself.” I nodded, the little guy peeking up at me from under his arm. “You feeling better little guy?”

  “Sorry, Uncle Max.” His bottom lip started to do the wobble.

  “Ah it’s okay.” I gave him a big grin. “Probably shouldn’t have eat
en all those cookies, huh?”

  In all the excitement we hadn’t heard the front door. Jase and Angie back from their hot date came home to a house that was lit up like a Christmas tree, doors open left and right, but at least their floor smelled lemony-fresh.

  “Oh my god, is everything okay?” Angie rushed into the kitchen, Jase following close behind.

  “Someone got out of bed and ate a few more cookies than they should.” I started to explain, Zack shoving his head back under his arm. “It didn’t end well for my shirt.”

  “Zack, you know you aren’t supposed to eat at bedtime.” Angie hauled him into her arms. “You get a belly ache every time. Now let’s get you to bed.”

  After a round of goodnights, Angie and Beth took a sleepy Zack back to his room where hopefully he’d stay.

  “This your new direction? Topless maid?” Jase laughed. “Am I supposed to tip you? I think I have a fiver in here somewhere.” He leaned up against the counter, thoroughly amused.

  “Yeah, laugh it up. You’re going to have two of them running around here soon.” And if that had come out of one little person, I could only imagine the damage two could do. “I’m getting you both a case of bleach for the baby shower.”

  “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He puffed out his chest, proud of his growing brood. “Dude, did you piss yourself?”

  “Don’t even, Jase. It’s not been a good night.” I didn’t bother explaining, there was really no point. It wasn’t going to change the fact that I was still standing in someone else’s pee.

  “Well, thanks. We owe you.” He held out his hand.

  “You don’t owe me shit.” I clapped his hand with my own. “It was our pleasure.” Well mostly, I was hoping if there was a next time it could be without the evac of bodily fluids.

  “And you might want to hold onto that girl of yours.”

  Ha! He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t know.

  “Don’t worry about that.” I nodded, the intention well beyond just holding onto her. “I have no intention of letting her go.”