Who's Your Daddy?

by Gallagher, Lauren

  My mother thrust her shoulders back and set her jaw. “This doesn’t involve you. I don’t need you telling me how to speak to my daughter in my home.”

  I cringed. No one in the world could make me feel like I was a little kid all over again like my own mother.

  Don wasn’t about to back down, though. “She’s your daughter, but you’re sure as fuck not treating her like it,” he snapped. “And yes, this does involve me. She’s the mother of my child, and I’m not going to sit here and—”

  “Hey.” My father stabbed a finger at Don and stepped between him and my mother. “You don’t need to talk to my woman like that.”

  “Then maybe she ought to think twice before talking to my woman like that,” Don snarled.

  My heart skipped, and I looked up at him, disbelief lodging air in my lungs.

  “Well,” my mother said from behind my dad, “you’ve certainly marked your territory, haven’t you?”

  “Mother.”

  “My territory?” Don said. “Please. I couldn’t think of a better woman to have a child with. Yeah, we’re bringing a kid into an unusual situation, but I’ll take that any day of the week over having a child with someone who’d call her own daughter a whore to her damned face.”

  My mother sniffed. “We’ll just see how high and mighty you are when your child—”

  “I would never speak to my son that way.” The venom in his tone sent a shiver down my spine. “He’s done plenty of things to piss me off, but I would never talk to him or about him the way you’re speaking to her. That’s how my own father speaks to me, and I won’t watch you do it to her.” Before either of my parents could reply, he turned to me. “Do you want to stay?”

  I glanced at my parents. Then I looked at him. “No, I don’t.”

  He made an “after you” gesture, and we both started for the door.

  “Carmen, wait,” my mother ordered.

  I stopped, but I didn’t retrace my steps. “No. There’s nothing left to discuss.” Before I lost my nerve, I continued my escape, disbelieving with every step that I was doing this. I was really turning my back on my parents and walking out instead of letting them berate me.

  They both shouted after us, but Don put a hand on the small of my back, and we kept going. Out of the kitchen. Across the living room. Out the door.

  The front door shut behind us, and we were home free.

  Neither of us spoke on our way down the hall. When I glanced back at him, the tension in his face and shoulders was visible. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him so furious in my life, not even when Ryan pushed him or Julia got on his last nerve. Maybe after another falling out with his dad.

  While we waited for the elevator, I looked at the numbers instead of him as I whispered, “Thank you.”

  Don turned to me, and I met his eyes. He took a breath like he was about to speak, but instead, he pulled me into a gentle, passionate kiss. Right there in the hall, holding on to me with protective, sheltering arms, he kissed me.

  My woman.

  He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I meant what I said.” He swallowed. “I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather have a child with.”

  I smiled, my cheeks burning a little. “Well, I think my sister was right about you and Isaac too.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She said if I was going to get knocked up, I couldn’t have picked a better couple of guys to do it.”

  We both laughed. The elevator opened, and we stepped in. As he pressed the button for the lobby, Don’s humor faded. The doors closed, and he cleared his throat.

  Avoiding my eyes, he said, “Listen, um, back there”—he gestured in the general direction of my folks’ place—“I didn’t mean to. I mean…” He paused, closing his eyes and releasing a sharp breath. Finally, he looked at me. “I hope you didn’t think I was jumping in because I thought you couldn’t stand on your own two feet. I just, they, I lost my—”

  “Don.” I slipped my hand into his. “I can’t stand up to them to save my life. I don’t need someone to fight my battles for me, but”—I gestured in the same direction he had—“with them, I can use all the help I can get. I meant it when I said thank you.”

  He put his arms around me again, and just before our lips met, he whispered, “You deserve so much better than them.” He kissed me, and I let myself melt against him. I wasn’t the type of girl who needed a protector, but damn, once in a while there were times when I could sell my soul for someone to help me out. Only someone like Don could make me feel protected but not helpless, like he wasn’t some knight in shining armor who thought I was a damsel in distress, but like every word he spoke and every move he made simply said, I’ve got your back.

  “Then maybe she ought to think twice before talking to my woman like that.” I pulled him tighter and lost myself in his kiss. Only Don could say that without sounding like a territorial asshole.

  Why can’t I find more guys like you?

  All too soon, the elevator jerked to a stop at the ground floor. A pang of disappointment tugged at my heart when we separated.

  We walked in silence out to the car. His kiss still tingled on my lips, and maybe it was just the stress of being around my parents or the fact that I was so damned grateful for him stepping in when my own confidence had failed me, but it was all I could do not to suggest climbing into the backseat instead of the front.

  I am truly going out of my mind. I shook my head and reached for the door handle. So he told my parents off? That just means he doesn’t put up with assholes. I should take a hint, not get weak in the knees and swoon over him.

  We both got in the car, and Don glanced at me.

  “You doing okay?”

  I nodded. “I’m sorry you had to see all of that.”

  He put his hand on my knee. “I’m sorry you had to deal with it at all.”

  “Such is life.” I looked at him in the darkness, and we both fell quiet.

  All the way back to my place, neither of us said much. My mind kept wandering between the elevator and my parents’ place. From Don stopping in the hall to make sure I was okay, to him being nothing but supportive when I spoke to my parents, to the moment he’d had enough of their crap, and right back to that long kiss in the elevator. This night was…surreal. On so many levels.

  He parked in a guest spot below my apartment.

  “Thanks for coming with me tonight,” I said. “I’d probably still be there.”

  He smiled halfheartedly, and rested a hand on my leg. “Any time, babe. I know what it’s like, believe me.”

  “Yeah, I suppose you do.”

  Our eyes met, but we both quickly looked away.

  After an unusually long and awkward silence, he faced me again. “Anyway, I—”

  Once again, our eyes met, and both our gazes immediately retreated to the safety of the windshield. This wasn’t like us. Don and I never played the game of awkward silences and broken eye contact. But this had been an unusual evening. Maybe we just didn’t know how to draw it to a close.

  “I guess I should let you go,” I whispered. “Though I guess it’s still early…”

  “But it’s been a long night for you already. I imagine you’re wiped.”

  “Just a bit.”

  He leaned across the console. “Good night, Carmen.”

  “Good night.” I met his lips, and though he probably only intended for a brief kiss, I indulged myself and let it go on. He didn’t protest. His arm slid around my shoulders. With a shaking hand, I touched his face, and I shivered when his cheek hollowed beneath my fingers a second before his tongue slipped past my lips. A low growl came from the back of his throat as he pulled me closer.

  By the time he sat back, we were both out of breath.

  I swept the tip of my tongue across my lips for one more taste of his kiss. My heart thundered in my chest. Maybe we didn’t know how to draw tonight to a close because this was neither the time nor the place to do so.

/>   My voice was as unsteady as my hands when I said, “I really don’t want you to leave yet.”

  “Do you want me to stay?” Once again, our eyes met, and this time, neither of us looked away.

  “Yes.” I gulped. “I do.”

  Don killed the engine.

  Without a thread of clothing to divide his body from mine, Don lowered me onto my bed. We touched now like we’d only aspired to in the car: hands all over each other, skin touching as much skin as possible, tangled in a passionate but tender kiss.

  After a while, he pushed himself up onto his forearms, and unlike in the car, we had no trouble keeping eye contact now. I couldn’t look anywhere but right at him, and he looked right back at me. I caressed his cheek, and he turned just enough to kiss the inside of my wrist but still didn’t look away from me.

  Shifting onto one arm, he reached up and tenderly brushed a few strands of hair out of my face. Neither of us spoke. Neither of us even breathed for a long moment.

  Then Don came down and kissed me again, and I lost myself in him. Everything we did was made of equal parts lust and…something else. Some deeper need that had fingers brushing skin, then digging into hips and shoulders, then caressing again. Holding on for dear life, clawing in search of purchase, then touching each other like one of us might crumble at the slightest pressure.

  And it wasn’t until Don parted my thighs with his hand and kissed his way over my hip that I even cared about getting any kind of release. All that had mattered was being close to him, as close to him as possible, and I’d almost begged to have him inside me just so I could be that much closer, but now his lips and tongue kept mine from functioning. He knew just when and where to be gentle, when and where to be more forceful, and just like I did when he kissed me, I let myself get lost in everything he did with his mouth.

  One hand in his dark, disheveled hair, the other clawing at the sheets, I closed my eyes and let him take me right to that blissful, white-hot place few men had had the patience to get to. He did it so damned effortlessly, like he knew exactly how to make my entire body shake and melt and fall to fucking pieces, and when he slipped two fingers inside me and bent them slightly, I was gone.

  Don came back up, and when he kissed me this time, there was nothing gentle or tender about it. Now it was lust that drove us. Pure, primal, needy lust. My body tingled from my orgasm and ached for more. I wanted everything he could give me and then some.

  He slid his hand beneath my head and grabbed my hair, gripping it just hard enough to make me bite my lip and whimper, and when he kissed my neck, I raked my nails down his back. Don groaned and pulled my hair harder, and I dug my nails in. His teeth scraped my neck, drawing a moan of pure ecstasy out of me.

  “Fuck me,” I said. “God, Don, fuck me.”

  He nipped my shoulder hard enough to make me yelp. “I’m getting there.”

  “Now.” The sharpness of my demand startled us both. When I spoke again, I was back to begging. “Please.”

  “I don’t know.” He slid his hand down my arm and closed his fingers around my wrist. “You’re being awfully demanding.”

  “I am. Because I need you to fuck me.”

  He smirked but didn’t quite mask the shiver. “Maybe you should get on top, then.”

  “Do you want me on top?” I asked.

  All at once, Don flipped onto his back, taking me with him. Grinning up at me, he said, “What do you think?”

  I sat up. “What do I think? I think—” I pressed against his cock, pulling in a breath when Don closed his eyes and bit his lip. “I think I like having you like this.”

  He put his hands on my hips. “Likewise.” Moistening his lips, he didn’t even try to hide the slow down-up look. Meeting my eyes, he growled, “God, you’re hot like this.” He reached up, grabbed a handful of my hair and brought me back down to kiss him.

  Still gripping my hair and kissing me, Don slid his other hand between us. I raised my hips, and he guided himself to me. As soon as the head of his cock was against my pussy, I came down hard, taking every inch of him in one stroke.

  Releasing my hair, Don broke the kiss with a gasp. His back arched beneath us. “Oh Jesus…”

  Before he could catch his breath, I did it again. And again. I rode him hard, and when he reached for me, I grabbed his wrists and pinned them beside his head.

  His eyes flew open. He tried to stare up at me, but every time I came down, his eyes rolled back.

  “Holy…” He bit his lip again. In my hands, his wrists twisted and twitched, but I didn’t let him go. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen anything sexier than this: Don, on his back, completely surrendered and at my mercy. He didn’t fight; he just gave in and enjoyed it.

  “Jesus Christ, you feel amazing,” he moaned. “Oh my God…”

  I gave him even more, and he parted his lips, but no sound came out. Finally, he wrenched one arm free, then the other, and grabbed my hips. Screwing his eyes shut and grimacing, he fucked me from below, thrusting up into my pussy until it was so deliciously painful I thought I’d come again myself.

  A soft, helpless sound escaped his lips. He pulled me down onto him and wouldn’t let me rise, gripping my hips as his cock twitched inside me.

  Then he exhaled. One hand left my hip to wipe sweat from his forehead. The other stayed where it was, but loosened its grasp.

  Our eyes met. Without a word, he reached for my face with a trembling hand and drew me down to kiss him.

  I couldn’t say how long we stayed in bed. Ten minutes, half an hour, an hour. I couldn’t begin to guess. It seemed like an eternity, but when he finally got up and started getting dressed, I swore it hadn’t been nearly long enough. Before I knew it, and somehow a lifetime since we walked out of my parents’ condo, Don and I stood at my front door.

  He smoothed my hair. “I’m sorry tonight didn’t go well.”

  I smiled. “I don’t know. I think it could have been a lot worse.”

  Don laughed. “True. But you know what I mean.”

  “Yeah, I do.” I put my arms around his neck. “Thank you. For everything.”

  “I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” he whispered and kissed me. “I guess I should let you go. Before we have to explain something awkward to your sister.”

  I laughed. “She’s on nights this week. She won’t be home for hours.”

  “Hmm, don’t tell me that,” he growled, pausing for another kiss. “Or I’ll just try to talk you into your bed again.”

  “And I’d let you, but aren’t you on duty tomorrow?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I am.”

  “Then you’d better get some sleep.” I stood up on my toes to kiss him, and then, even though it was the last thing I wanted to do, let him go.

  “Good night,” he whispered.

  “Good night. And thanks.”

  “Any time.”

  With one last look and a quick kiss on the cheek, he was gone, and I was alone in the empty apartment. On autopilot, I went back into the bedroom. Lying on my bed, I stared up at the ceiling. The sheets had cooled, and we’d both long since come back to earth, but the air still vibrated with every sound we’d made and the orgasms we’d had.

  Being in his arms tonight, something had been different, and it took until now—once I was no longer in his arms—to figure it out. He made me feel safe. It wasn’t that I needed a man to protect me or shelter me, but I at least needed to know he was on my side.

  Whenever my ex-husband had held onto me, it was suffocating. When Don—or Isaac, for that matter—held me, I could breathe. They reassured me we could get through this situation even though I knew they were as stressed and worried as I was. From day one, they’d been nothing but supportive.

  Thinking about it all now, I realized how easily I always lost my inhibitions when I was in bed with them, and it was because I wasn’t afraid to. I trusted them on every level. They genuinely cared for me. I could be me and not be a nervous wreck around them.

  And
tonight? No one had ever gone to bat for me like that. Paul would have quietly listened to my parents chastise me, assuming he didn’t chime in and let me know they had a point. On the ride home, he would have either sided with them or given me hell for being upset about the way they treated me when I hadn’t stood up to them.

  I’d never wanted or expected anyone to fight my battles, but no one had ever become so enraged on my behalf, as if everything my parents had said had been a personal insult to Don.

  My woman?

  He hadn’t struck me as possessive or territorial. Not in a negative way, anyway. Protective, maybe. Whatever the case, did it mean something? In anger, had he lifted a veil beneath which I wasn’t supposed to see?

  A knot formed in my gut, tightening a few inches above the still-tiny baby that bound the three of us together. I’d thought being with Don and Isaac like this would make things easier until I could get back into dating. This was just making things worse, though.

  The fact was, I didn’t want to date anyone else now. It just made sense, the three of us, even though this couldn’t make sense. They had their relationship. What they had with me was friendship with benefits. Friendship with benefits and a baby, as it were.

  But why, then, did it have to feel like so much more? It wasn’t like I was getting starry-eyed because one of them was the father of my child. With any other man, I’d probably have resented him for the fact that we were now inextricably tied to each other for at least two decades.

  Not these two. In the last few weeks, my feelings for them had only gotten stronger. My feelings that had, I realized, been there much longer than I thought. It had never occurred to me how intimate my friendship was with them until we became physically intimate. Since they’d always been off the menu, I’d let my hair down around them. I’d let my guard down. When we crossed the physical lines, it hadn’t triggered a new set of emotions, it just made the existing ones impossible to deny.

  I loved them. Both of them. I was in love with Don. I was in love with Isaac. As individuals, as a pair.