Overlooked

by Lulu Pratt

  The first few bags from the plane start tumbling down the shoot and onto the conveyor belt, and I start looking for my duffel more intently.

  “What would I be doing if I got the job?” I glance at Harper and back at the conveyor belt, and give her hand another quick squeeze.

  Really, for the moment, all I care about is getting her alone as quickly as possible. All I can think about is the last video she sent me, the night before, starting out in nothing but a T-shirt I’d sent her and ending with nothing at all.

  “It’s a management job, which I figure you would make sense for. But I mean, if you don’t want to do it, we can find you something else in the city.”

  The plan, for right now at least, is that I’ll spend a week with Harper, getting a feel for us living together, and go to my parents’ place for at least a week, unless I have a job already on the line. Of course, if I get a job right away, that’s going to change things a bit. But we’ll handle that when we come to it.

  “I’ll check it out, for sure,” I tell her, leaning in to kiss her on the lips quickly. I keep one eye open for my duffel and finally see it, and let go of Harper’s hand to go and grab it so we can get out of the busy airport already and back to her apartment. “How long will it take us to get to your place?”

  “I think this justifies getting a cab, or maybe an Uber,” Harper says, once I’ve got her hand in mine once more.

  “How long?” I give her a little look so she’ll know exactly how important the answer is to me, and Harper giggles.

  “It’s still going to take us about twenty, maybe thirty minutes to get back to my place,” she says.

  I groan. “Seriously? What the hell is wrong with this city?”

  Harper snorts and shakes her head. “Once we’re in Brooklyn, there are like twenty places to eat that are within walking distance, and more than half of them deliver,” she says to me. “We’ll make a city boy out of you yet.”

  “Well, then, lead the way,” I tell her.

  We finally get out of the airport and into the line for taxis, and I watch Harper do her thing to hail a cab, thinking that for the first time I’m actually kind of glad she’s the leader, the one in charge at the moment, instead of me.

  One of these days, I’m going to have to thank my parents for throwing such an involved anniversary party.

  Harper gets one of the cabs to stop in front of us, and I take a deep breath of grungy city air, and follow her.

  EPILOGUE

  HARPER POLSEN

  FIVE YEARS LATER

  “Harper, you’re sure you don’t want to stop and get coffee?”

  I rub at my eyes and shake my head in response to Zane’s question. We got on the road super early to avoid the worst traffic leaving the city, but I’d much rather get some ginger ale than a cup of coffee in my system at the moment.

  “Let’s just get to the house as quickly as we can,” I tell Zane, settling myself in the passenger seat again.

  After five years of living in New York City, Zane still let me drive us out of the city proper before taking over the driver’s seat at our first rest stop.

  “It’s going to be ridiculous, you know that, right?” I grin in spite of the way my stomach is roiling and tumbling inside of me, because Zane is right.

  All four of our parents have been aware that we’re dating since we came home for Christmas together the first year that we started dating. My mom quickly realized how happy Zane made me and what a good relationship we had.

  Any lingering feelings she might have had about my previous visit disappeared quickly and she has never stopped letting me know that she is thrilled I am with someone. I suspect my mom is also thrilled that I am home for the holidays as I don’t need to visit an out-of-town boyfriend’s family.

  But for some reason, both Zane’s parents and mine have continued to insist that we have to stay in our own rooms, separately, whenever we’re both in town.

  “As always. Even if we do get to stun everyone with some news,” I say, sighing.

  Zane knows about the one piece of news that we have for our parents. But he doesn’t know about the other bit of news that I’ve been keeping to myself. I’ve been waiting for the right moment to tell him today.

  I look down at my hand and half-smile to myself, reasoning that since Zane managed to hide the fact that he was saving up to buy me a ring for a good three months, I can be excused from hiding my own news from him.

  Our parents have no idea, none whatsoever, that we’re engaged. I thought about hiding my ring until we could get all four of them in a room and tell them, but after talking it over with Zane late into the night, we decided that we’ll just tell them as soon as we get there.

  “Let’s get one last little break in before we go on to the houses,” Zane says.

  I look up in confusion for a second as I’m lost in thought to see he’s pointing out where the parking is for the lake. I can’t help but laugh.

  “We have to stop here every time we visit town, don’t we?”

  Zane nods in response to my question, grinning at me unabashedly. “Of course we do. It’s practically the spot of our first date,” he says.

  I shake my head, grinning and closing my eyes even as I blush. “That is not something we are going to admit to anyone, is it?”

  It’s hard to really say what our first date was, it all happened so quickly, but the night we went skinny dipping at the lake stands out as the point when things changed between us. Then too, there’s the fact that it’s the place where we had sex together for the second time. Zane and I have agreed to disagree on the subject of whether our first time together, in his parents’ bathroom, really counts.

  “Why not? We don’t have to tell them what we were doing,” Zane says, even as he begins to pull over to get into the parking lot.

  I smile to myself. Part of me, the part preoccupied with the uneasy state of my stomach, is hoping that Zane won’t want to do anything more than kiss me, but another part of me thinks that it would be nice to once again relive the second time we ever had sex right before we go to see our parents to let them know, officially, how wrong they were about us getting together.

  Zane parks and we both look around, making sure there isn’t anyone hanging around. It’s early morning, so there would only be a few people at the worst. We seem to have lucked out, because neither of us can spot anyone.

  I get out of the car and my stomach gives a little bit of a pitch, but after a second of holding onto the frame of my beat-up old sedan, it passes.

  “Are you okay?”

  I smile at Zane’s question and wave it off, stepping around the car to get by his side. “Actually, maybe I should just go ahead and tell you,” I say as we walk down from the parking lot to the lake itself.

  “Tell me what? You’ve been looking a little green this morning. You’re not nervous about telling our parents about the engagement, are you?”

  I press my lips together and look at Zane for a few moments, trying to decide if it is or isn’t the time. “I might as well say it, since I hinted,” I tell him.

  “Say what? Come on, Harper, just tell me whatever it is,” Zane says, taking both of my hands in his and pulling me close.

  “I guess you haven’t noticed how I’ve been avoiding coffee this morning,” I point out, resting my head against his chest and looking up at his face out of the corner of my eye.

  “I just figured you’re tired after that big project at work, and you got turned off to coffee after drinking so much of it last month to finish,” Zane says with a shrug.

  Since my first big project five years ago, I’ve taken on more and more responsibilities at the company we both work for, something I haven’t really thought about in light of my new state. I smile and my heart’s going a thousand beats a minute in my chest, what if he hates what I have to tell him? But I might as well get it over with.

  “It’s because I found out this morning that… I’m pregnant,” I say, the words tumbling
out in a rush at the end.

  For a few seconds Zane just stares at me. I look back up at him, hoping that this isn’t a precursor to him telling me how awful this is, hoping that he’s at least going to be able to come around to thinking it’s a good thing.

  “You’re pregnant? Really?” Zane’s eyes are getting bigger and he steps back to look at me.

  “Really and truly,” I say.

  “Wow! We’re going to have to get married a lot sooner then,” Zane tells me. I shake my head.

  “No, we’re going to get married in a year, just like we planned,” I counter.

  “You want to get married after you’ve had our baby?” Zane laughs.

  “Well, I sure as hell am not walking down the aisle fit to pop with some ugly maternity dress on me,” I say firmly.

  Zane laughs and pulls me back to him, lifting me up a little bit to kiss me. At first it’s sweet, just Zane showing me love and affection, and how happy he really is. Then, like it almost always does, the kiss turns into something else. His hands start to move over my body and in spite of the fact that it’s early and I’m tired from not sleeping much the night before, and everything else going on, I feel myself getting turned on.

  ZANE LEWIS

  It takes me a second to actually make sense of what Harper is saying. By the time I kiss her, I’m already really feeling it. I’d been half-wanting to make a move on my soon-to-be wife when I pulled into the parking lot, but hearing that she’s pregnant, carrying my future child, just sets me right over the edge. All I can think about is how much I want to show her I love her, how much I want to feel her body wrapped around mine with nothing in between us.

  I look around again quickly, making sure no one is coming, and I pull Harper down with me onto the grass, and she comes along eagerly. I feel hesitant to pin her to the grass, so I lift her onto me, but still press every inch of her body against mine.

  “You know, you’d think by now we’d remember to bring a blanket or something with us when we do this,” Harper murmurs against my lips as we start to slip each other’s clothes off.

  It’s a little after dawn, and the mosquitoes have already mostly disappeared for the night, but there’s a little chill in the air. As we get more and more naked I have to admit, for a second at least, that a blanket would have been a good idea.

  But we’re both too hot to care about it or anything but getting each other more naked. I kiss her again and again; it’s like I can’t stop. My hands get to work on her clothes, and slip up between her legs to stroke her. After five years of being with her, I know exactly how she likes it best, and right now the only thing I have on my mind is showing her how much I love her.

  “I love how wet you get,” I murmur in her ear, cradling her against me while I find her clit by touch and begin to rub it in slow, tight little circles.

  Harper moans, shuddering against me, and her hand reaches for my already-hard, throbbing, aching cock. I groan at the feeling of her fingers wrapping around me, stroking me slowly, almost mimicking what I’m doing to her.

  “Are we taking our time or are we here to get this done?” I nip at the sensitive little spot along Harper’s throat in response to her question, sliding one finger inside of her tight, wet pussy.

  “Right now,” I continue, “I’m all about getting you off as many times as I can before we need to head the rest of the way home.”

  Harper chuckles and trembles in my arms as I add a second finger, working her slowly but steadily.

  “Fuck, God… Zane…” Harper’s hand tightens around my cock and it’s hard for me to focus on her. It feels too good.

  “You know exactly how to touch me, you have no idea how hot that is, how great it is,” I tell her, working my fingers a little faster.

  “You too. God… you are so, so good at this,” Harper says, gasping as I barely brush my fingertips against her clit.

  “They say that it’s good to keep having as much sex as possible while you’re pregnant,” I say, and Harper chuckles breathlessly.

  “Good thinking,” she says, and I feel my cock somehow getting even harder, thinking about having as much sex as possible with the beautiful woman clinging to me as I touch her.

  I kiss her again as I work her pussy, getting her hotter and wetter, feeling her get more and more turned on by the moment. I hold her body against mine, smiling to myself as Harper begins to slow her stroking of my cock, even as she gets closer and closer to climax.

  “Aren’t you going to…” Harper doesn’t finish the sentence, and I shake my head, too turned on to even talk for a moment.

  I want to be inside her so badly, but I also want to make her feel as good as possible before I do.

  “Not yet,” I say, slowly rubbing her clit. Harper cries out, and I feel her muscles clench around me as her climax starts, her whole body shuddering.

  I work her right up until I feel her body relax against me, and slowly, very slowly, withdraw, bringing my fingers up to my mouth to taste her. She tastes just as good as ever, and knowing I got her off, tasting it on my fingers, makes me even more turned on than ever.

  It only takes Harper a minute or two to recover, or so it seems to me, and we’re kissing again, touching each other. I’m guiding the tip of my cock up against her soaking wet folds. I hold her close as I slide into her, groaning against her neck as I feel her tight, wet pussy wrapping around me.

  I let Harper do most of the work at first, twisting her hips as she rides me. Then after a few moments I can’t even help myself anymore, I have to get involved. I thrust up into her, hard and fast, and we’re just going at it without any kind of restraint at all, not even caring if we’re about to get caught.

  I try to hold back a little while longer, but it’s impossible. Harper feels too good wrapped tight around me. I press Harper’s body against mine as I feel the first jolting shocks of pleasure coursing through me. I kiss her hungrily as we both hit our climax together, riding through it until we’re both exhausted.

  I blank out for a moment, and when I come back, Harper’s breathing is just beginning to slow. We’re both drenched in sweat, but we’ll cool off quickly, it’s not the really hot time of year yet.

  “We should probably get to the house before the parents start worrying,” Harper says.

  I bring her hand, with her engagement ring, up to my lips and kiss it. “We’re going to keep this between us for a while, right? The baby, I mean. Obviously we’re going forward with telling them about being engaged,” I say.

  Harper thinks about it and nods.

  “I want to keep it between us until some of the excitement about us being engaged wears off,” Harper tells me.

  “It’s kind of appropriate, when you think about it. Considering how much of our relationship we’ve kept a secret from them over the years.”

  Harper giggles and climbs off me, and we start getting dressed.

  “Now that I think about it, it’s kind of perfect,” Harper says as we finally walk back to the car. We should get to our parents’ houses just in time.

  “You’re still sure that you want to have our wedding on my parents’ anniversary?”

  Harper nods.

  “Since we started out on their anniversary, it feels right,” she says. I give her hand a squeeze and we get into the car to head the last few miles to our parents’ houses right next to each other, and think about the fact that it actually does feel right that we’ll be starting our new lives together as married people on the anniversary of my parents’ wedding.

  “Let’s get there and let them know, then,” I say, starting the car. I pull out of the parking lot at the lake, glancing at it in the rear-view mirror, and I think to myself that I can’t think of anywhere else I would have rather learned about our future.

  Thanks for reading our story!

  Don’t stop, we have more stories for you, including NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED novel Revenge F*ck by Lulu Pratt and steamy quickie Swallow Hard by Simone Sowood.

  Reve
nge F*ck

  (NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED!)

  Revenge is a dish best served hot and sweaty

  It started as revenge.

  A simple way to punish my ex-husband.

  Fucking his divorce lawyer, Eric.

  It wasn’t supposed be anything more.

  But when he touches me, it sets me on fire.

  I don’t want to stop.

  Yet how can we carry on when it risks my divorce settlement?

  Maybe Eric is the one using me.

  Screwing me and screwing me over at the same time.

  What if I’m the one being played?

  *** A steamy STANDALONE contemporary romance with a smoking hot hero. No cliffhanger, no cheating, and a guaranteed happily-ever-after.***

  CHAPTER ONE

  KATE

  I could really use a margarita right now. Big one, shoved to the top with limes that have been marinating in tequila for three days, pink salt. Extra tip for one of those tiny umbrellas in the glass and a bartender who replaces the empty glass with a full one before I notice. Once I get out of here, I am going to have at least three. Bare minimum.

  “I don’t think what we’re asking for is beyond the realm of reason.” This from the attorney in an expensive suit and tie. Although he is working for my ex, I can’t help but think about what the attorney looks like without his shirt. I have a feeling, deep, deep down, that he is very fuckable.

  “It’s quite respectable,” he says with a hint of a smirk.

  “Bullshit.” I mutter and innocently examine my nails. Vivian kicks me under the table but I don’t acknowledge it. That would require me to look like I give a shit and shatter the illusion I’m concocting.

  “We both know that isn’t true.” Vivian bares her teeth in an unfriendly grin. She looks like a shark in pinstripes, which is precisely why I hired her. “There is a long-documented relationship and partnership between my client and yours. What you are offering is laughable at best.”

  “Documented how, exactly?” the lawyer smirks again. “The internet? We both know a few tabloid photos aren’t admissible in court.”