A Kiss to Remember: NYE Kisses Collaboration

by Geri Glenn

  I thrust my hips, plunging inside her, my thumb moving between us to massage her swollen clit as I fuck her. She feels incredible. I swallow her moans and cries with my kiss, the whole time giving her my own.

  My release builds in the base of my spine, and I know I’m not going to last much longer. I try everything to wait as I feel her growing close to another release herself. I think about dead kittens and scratched motorcycles. Nutsy in a toga and roadkill on the side of the street. It’s useless though. When Emery’s fingernails dig into my ass, I lose it. My entire body shudders as I release myself into her, trying like hell to focus as she comes all over my cock.

  Collapsing on top of her, I gasp for breath as she does the same, her fingers running through my hair. “Sorry that was so quick. It’s been a while,” I finally say, raising my body to look at her.

  Emery giggles. “Never apologize for making a woman cum two times in twenty minutes, Xander. And it’s been a long time for me too.”

  Eight

  Emery

  The doorbell rings over and over again, dragging me from the most peaceful sleep I’ve had in a very long time. I lift my head and glance at the clock. It’s three o’clock in the morning. Xander is still sound asleep at my side, his hand wrapped around mine as if he’s afraid I would disappear in the night.

  “Xander,” I whisper, giving him a little shake. The doorbell keeps ringing. “Xander. The door.”

  Xander groans and opens his eyes, a smile appearing on his face when he sees me beside him. The doorbell rings again and he frowns. “What the fuck?”

  “It’s been ringing for a few minutes,” I tell him. “Somebody really wants in.”

  He rolls out of the bed and pulls on his t-shirt and jeans. “Stay here,” he says and I stare at him with wide eyes as he pulls a gun from the drawer in his nightstand.

  I watch as he disappears out of the room, but I’ve never been one to listen to instructions. Climbing out of bed, I glance around the room for my clothes, but they are still in the living room downstairs.

  I move to his dresser and pull out a drawer, digging through it until I find one of his shirts. It fits me like a nightgown, the hem of it coming halfway to my knees. I make it to the bottom of the stairs just in time to see Xander rip the door open.

  A woman stands on the other side, her face awash with tears. “Carla?” Xander says, his voice choked with something I don’t recognize.

  “I’m sorry,” she sobs. “I can’t keep him.”

  I watch in horror as she lifts an ancient looking car seat with a tiny baby inside and thrusts it toward Xander. “He’s yours. I just had him last night. Jonny won’t let me keep him.”

  She places the car seat at Xander’s feet and dashes down the front steps. “Carla!” Xander screams, jumping over the seat and rushing after her.

  I move to the open door and watch as the woman jumps into a waiting truck and it tears off down the street. Xander stops in his tracks, his hands laced on top of his head, his shoulders heaving as he watches the taillights disappear into the night.

  With wide eyes, he turns and meets my gaze in the doorway. We both stare at each other in shock for a moment before dropping our gaze to the car seat. The baby inside is so tiny, it’s face still covered in the tiny white spots that come from inside the womb.

  He’s dressed in nothing but a pair of tiny pajamas with a hole in the neckline. Definitely not enough to protect a newborn from the chill in the air this time of year. “We need to get him inside,” I tell Xander, snapping out of the shocked trance the strange woman had left me in. “Did she leave anything else? A blanket? A bottle? Anything?”

  Xander remains on the front lawn, his head slowly shaking from side to side, his face still awash with shock. Not knowing what else to do, I pick up the car seat and bring it inside, setting it on the couch. Xander enters the room, his eyes on the baby, but he doesn’t speak.

  “Is he really yours?” I whisper, unable to believe this whole thing is happening.

  “I don’t know.” Xander drops to the chair behind him, his gaze never leaving the squirming infant.

  “Who was that?” I ask him, worried he might be going into shock.

  He looks up at me with wide, terrified eyes. “My wife.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Xander

  I sit on the chair, watching as Emery feeds the baby from one of the bottles I’d picked up at the all-night pharmacy. A baby? Carla had been pregnant and hadn’t told me.

  “He looks so much like you,” Emery says, running the tip of her finger along his tiny cheek. “Are you sure you don’t want to hold him?”

  I shake my head from side to side, wondering when the hell I’m going to wake up from this nightmare. A year ago, I’d have given anything to have a child with Carla. We were fucking like rabbits, praying she’d get pregnant and we could finally start our family. But I never expected it to happen like this.

  “What kind of woman gives birth one night and drops the baby off on a doorstep the next?”

  I don’t know how to answer that. Carla had turned out to be so different than I’d thought she was, but even I never would have dreamed she’d abandon a newborn like this.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were married, Xander?”

  I shrug. “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t want to scare you off with the idea that I hadn’t gotten a divorce yet.” I finally lift my gaze to meet hers. “She left me. Eight months ago, I came home and my house was empty. The only thing she’d left was a few photos and the table my Gran had given me when I moved out on my own. I haven’t heard from her since, but one of her friends had told me she was shacked up with some guy she’d met down at the night club.”

  Putting the bottle on the coffee table, Emery readjusts the baby’s blanket and carefully places him in his carseat. “That’s terrible.”

  I nod. When she’d first left him here, I’d been skeptical that he was even mine, but Emery is right. He looks just like me. “What the fuck am I going to do with a newborn? I’ve never even held a baby before.”

  Emery stands and moves toward me, settling herself on my lap and wrapping her arms around my neck. “We’ll figure it out, okay? But that little boy’s mommy just abandoned him. You need to get it together.”

  Her lips press against mine and that’s when I know that I can’t do this to her. The idea of a relationship with Emery had been too good to be true after all. I can’t subject her to an instant family five minutes after sleeping with her for the first time.

  “You should go.”

  Her head comes up and her mouth drops open. “What? But how will you do this? I don’t mind staying to help.”

  I shake my head and push her off of my lap, my heart screaming at me to stop before I fuck this up beyond repair, but my head telling me that I’m doing what’s best for her. I stand and pick up her scattered clothes. “I’ll call my Gran in the morning. We’ll figure it out together. She’s family. She’ll help. You need to go.”

  I meet her eyes and wince at the pain I see in them. “Why are you doing this?”

  Because I can’t subject you to the fucked-up mess that is my life. “Because I can’t do this with you right now, okay? Don’t you see? I have a fucking baby now. I have a toxic wife that just dropped him on my doorstep without even a spare diaper. Because starting something with you was a mistake.”

  Emery’s lip trembles as she shoves her legs into her jeans and scoops up the rest of her belongings. “How will I get home? You drove me here?”

  I sigh and fish out my wallet, knowing damn well I’m ruining everything I’d worked so hard to build with her. I hand her twenty dollars. “Take a taxi.”

  When Emery walks out of that door, she takes a piece of my heart with her. I haven’t known her long enough to be in love with her, but I’d had so much hope pinned on a relationship with that woman. And now, it was gone.

  Nine

  Emery

  It’s been three days since Xander had kick
ed me out of his house. I haven’t heard from him and I haven’t bothered to try and call him. Part of me understands why he did what he did. He’s a man after all, and if I am basing all men after my father, I know that they tend to be a tad irrational during a crisis situation.

  I pull my motorcycle into my parking spot and pull the small bag of groceries from my saddle bag. Ice cream, popcorn and sour keys. The perfect recipe to mend a broken heart. I had an exciting night ahead of me.

  As I climb the steps to the breezeway, I fumble with my keys until I find the one for my front door. Movement in the shadows catches my attention, but when I look closer, nothing is there.

  My apartment is at the far end of the building, butting up against a wooded area. It’s an open concept building much like a motel, and I’ve always enjoyed having a door to the outside unlike most apartments in the city.

  I insert the key into the dead bolt and twist it, pushing the door open. That’s when I’m shoved from behind, my grocery bag flying from my hands as I put them in front of me to break my fall. The door slams behind me and I look up from the floor to see Randy standing in my entryway, his face twisted with hate.

  “I lost my job because of you,” he seethes, taking as step closer to me. “You flaunt your ass all over the fucking place but you don’t wanna give it up. Fucking cock tease, that’s what you are.”

  I shove myself up from the floor, but before I can gain my feet, Randy’s hands fist themselves in my hair and he drags me into the living room, throwing me on the couch. His hands instantly go for the button on his jeans and I scream.

  I scream for help. I scream so loud my throat and lungs feel like they’re bleeding, but it’s Saturday night and this is a single’s building. Nobody is ever home at this time on a Saturday night.

  I kick my feet, trying like hell to connect with his balls as he places a knee on the couch and shoves himself between my legs. Randy is a huge man, and when he pins my arms to the couch behind me, I know I’m screwed.

  “Not gonna tease me this time though,” he growls, his face red with exertion. He’s smart enough to steer clear of my head, already been witness to my head butting abilities, but in order to get my pants off and his, he has to release my wrists. As soon as does, I make my move.

  My thumbs sink into his eyeballs with a sickening squish and he rips himself out of my reach with a howl of pain. Reaching behind me, I grab the only thing I can reach and bring it down on top of his head. The lamp shatters on top of me and Randy drops like a stone, his weight pinning me in place.

  He’s out cold, blood seeping from a gash on his temple where I’d struck him. With a great amount of effort, I roll him off of me and onto the floor. I don’t know why I do what I do next. Most women would call the police. They’d press charges and file a complaint.

  But that rarely works for them. Because he hadn’t actually gotten a chance to rape me, he’d get a slap on the wrist and be back out on the streets by morning. And he wouldn’t stop coming after me.

  So, I call Nutsy. He answers on the first ring. I don’t even realize I’m crying until I hear his voice. “Yeah?”

  “Nutsy?” I gasp around chest wracking sobs. “It’s Emery. Randy broke into my apartment and he …” Tears pour down my cheeks and my sobs grow louder as I stare at the men crumpled up on the carpet of my living room floor.

  “Where you at?” Nutsy growls. I give him the address. “I’ll be there in five minutes. Get your ass outside and wait where he can’t see you.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Xander

  “This little peanut needs a name,” my Gran says, handing my son back to me. “He’s almost five days old, ya know.”

  I smile down at him and realize that she’s right. I hadn’t thought much about it to be honest. I’d been too busy learning how to heat a bottle, change a diaper and swaddle a newborn that pretty much everything else had faded into the background.

  That first night with my son had been hell. After Emery had left, he’d slept for about four hours and then woken up, screaming at the top of his little lungs. Thank fuck for Google. It had gotten me and my boy through a lot. I’d called my Gran first thing the next morning and she’s been here ever since. I don’t know what I’d have done without her.

  “What about Benjamin, like your father?” she suggests, and I look down at the tiny boy in my arms. He looks so much like me it’s almost jarring. He has my nose, and my eyes and the same curve of the lips. The only difference between us is the light dusting of golden hair on top of his head that he’d clearly gotten from his mother.

  “I like it,” I tell Gran, reaching out to squeeze her hand. “Benjamin Carson, Jr.”

  “It suits him,” she says, leaning over the back of my chair.

  “Thank you, Gran. For everything. I know this must have been just as exhausting for you as it has for me.”

  Gran waves her hand at me dismissively. “Oh, posh,” she mutters. “It’s been nice having a new baby to spoil. And it’s been nice spending all this time with you too. It’s a beautiful thing seeing your grandson holding their own child.” She reaches out to touch little Benjamin’s face and smiles. “I can’t say I like how you came about him, but you’re going to be an amazing father to this little boy, Xander.”

  I glance down at him and think of Emery. “Do you think she’ll forgive me?”

  I’d told my Gran everything. I’d told her all about Emery and how incredible she was. I told her about our date, minus the mind-blowing sex part. And then I’d told her about how I’d treated her after Carla had dropped the baby on my doorstep.

  “If she doesn’t, then she’s not as wonderful as you think she is,” is all she says before moving into the kitchen and giving me and my son a bit of privacy.

  She’s right, of course. I just hope Emery understands where my head was at and can forgive me for being such a jackass and tossing her out into the street in the middle of the night.

  Ten

  Emery

  It’s the last day on this house, and I’m more than ready to get it over with. With Ron sick, most of the wiring had been left to me, and between meeting Xander and dealing with Randy, I just don’t want to be here anymore.

  Xander hasn’t been back to work since his ex-wife had dropped the baby off. I’ve thought about calling to check on them a few times, but I don’t. I know Xander hadn’t been in his right mind when he’d sent me away, even if he had been a total asshole about it. I’m not sure what I’d do if someone dropped a baby off on my doorstep either.

  But it’s been over a week, and he still hasn’t called. There’s been plenty of time for him to make things right between us, but he hasn’t. For that reason, I refuse to give him any more of my time. Starting now.

  I roll my eyes and collect the last of my things from the basement. Who am I kidding? Xander and the baby are all I’ve been able to think about all week. I can’t just stop that with a snap of my fingers.

  “All done?” Nutsy asks, taking one of the wire spools from the pile I’m carrying.

  “Yep,” I tell him, forcing a smile. “All wired up and ready for the rest of the walls to go up.”

  He follows me out to the truck and helps me load my things. He never did tell me what he did with Randy that night. He’d showed up with another man he’d called Pounder, and together the two of them had taken Randy’s unconscious body from my home and neither of us had ever mentioned it again.

  “Gonna be weird finishing up this house without you around to stare at,” he says with a lopsided grin.

  I smack him on the arm and he bursts into laughter. “Pervert.”

  I walk around and open the door to the truck, but before I get in, I turn and face Nutsy. “Thank you. For everything.”

  Nutsy just nods and closes the door behind me as I climb inside. He places his hands on the edge of the open window and leans inside. “He’s doin’ good, ya know. Xander. He’s gettin’ this daddy shit down to a science.”

  I force a smile
and ignore the pain in my heart just hearing his name gives me. “Good for him. For both of them.”

  Nutsy stares at me a moment and then nods. He pats the inside of the door and pushes away. “See ya ‘round, Emery.”

  I drive away from the work site, wondering how just a couple of weeks on the job with one man can leave me feeling so broken.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Xander

  I sit on the edge of the stairs to Emery’s apartment, Benjamin’s brand new car seat nestled between my feet. I stare down at my sleeping son, unable to believe how quickly someone can fall in love with a child. In just seven short days, he’s deprived me of sleep, alone time and hundreds of dollars, and I’ve never loved anybody more in my whole life.