by A. J. Downey
“K dad!” and let loose a stream of water right into my face. Hayden howled and I grinned. Oh it was on!
“Come here you!” I said and went after him, I couldn’t think of a more perfect Sunday afternoon, playing with my son under a summer sky at my best friend’s place while my girl sipped sweet tea and looked on. It was the closest thing to normal I had ever had in my life and I would do anything to keep it that way.
Later that night, after I’d dropped Connor off with his mom I returned to my girlfriend’s house. I’d been replaying the exchange between Hayden and Connor a lot in my head and it never failed to make me smile. I pulled my bike up into her driveway, glad to be out of my truck. Connor wasn’t old enough to ride by his mother’s decree and I could respect Aimee’s wishes on a lot of things. That being one of them. As soon as I’d dropped him off I went back to the trailer, packed my saddle bags for another week and went straight for my girl.
Her place was almost ready for paint. The electricians and building inspectors had held up a lot of the drywall repairs. We’d been busy in the kitchen first, trying to get all the basic amenities up and running for her. She could now eat, sleep and shower in her own home versus just sleeping and showering and since the first night she’d come home and asked me to stay with her, the only nights I’d spent away were with Connor and God damn I’d missed her body snugged against mine the last two nights.
I’d been shocked as hell that first morning when I’d woken up to that picture of us hanging on her wall. Even more shocked when I’d seen the scallop shells in their picture frames over the tub when I’d gone to take a leak. The little sculpture of the light house she’d bought was perched on the edge of the tub in the corner. An alabaster vase held fronds of the long, waving, golden sea grass we’d seen along the beach in the opposite corner. The woman knew how to decorate. The bed and bath looked like something out of a magazine to the point I even picked up after myself.
“Hayden!?” I called. I could hear running water upstairs and she called down.
“Up here!” I took the stairs two at a time and ducked into the master bedroom. Candles glowed in the little votive sconces to either side of our picture and I smiled. I ducked past the closet and into the master bath and found more, fat, white pillar candles surrounding the tub on the step and the edge. The bath was nearly filled with water and bubbles. A silver bucket of ice sat on the creamy carpet with a bottle of wine and around three of my favorite beers sticking out of it.
“What’s all this?” I asked smiling. Hayden sipped white wine out of a large wine glass and shrugged one shoulder up out of the bubbles.
“Thought you might like to relax with me before we go back to work tomorrow,” she said.
I snorted. “You thought right!” I hung my cut on the hook by the shower door and got naked in a real damned hurry. Hayden watched me over the rim of her wineglass, eyes alight and smiling.
“What?” I asked stepping into the tub with a mild curse. That was hotter ‘n hell!
“I love watching you get naked,” she said and I choked on a laugh. She was pretty much back to the girl I’d met a year and more ago. Confident. Sexy as Hell and fuck if she wasn’t finally all mine. I pulled a beer from the bucket and twisted off the top with a hiss and a click. Hayden moved across the giant tub and settled between my legs her back to my front with a contented little sigh and sipped her wine.
“Good surprise?” she asked.
“Best fucking surprise ever,” I said gravely.
“I missed you,” she confessed and I slid a hand down her arm, beneath the water and held her to me.
“I missed you too,” I murmured into her ear and kissed the edge. She gave a little shiver against me and I smiled.
“Cold?” I asked mock-innocently. She made a rude noise and laughed.
“You suck at being little Miss innocent,” she said and sipped her wine. I poked her in her ticklish spot and she jerked to the side with an indignant squeal. We laughed together and she settled down against me and turned on the jets. The water frothed and the bubbles grew and she shut them off.
“Why’d you do that?” I asked.
“The bubbles will overflow if you leave them on too long,” she murmured.
“What no foam party?” I mocked and took a pull off my beer.
“I just had this carpet installed,” she said and leaned her head back against my chest. We were quiet for a time.
“Do you think he liked me?” she asked. Her insecurities peeking out.
“Who Connor? I know he did,” I said.
“How?” she asked.
“He asked about a million questions about you on the way home. If he didn’t like you he wouldn’t care,” I said.
“Oh,” was her only reply.
“He wants to know if you can hang out with us weekend after next,” that made her perk up.
“Really?”
“Yep. I said I’d ask but to not get his hopes up,” she smacked my leg under the warm soapy water which I only now realized smelled like some kind of herb or flower.
“Of course I will!” she protested.
“Hey, I had to ask first,” I said in my defense. She let out a long breath and sipped her wine.
“Should have seen it when we got to his mom’s house. She opens the door and he marches up to her and says ‘dad’s got a girlfriend’ and walks right on past her. High fived Mark and went straight to his room and shut the door,” Hayden barked and incredulous laugh.
“Yeah I know right? Like father like son,” I said ruefully and took another sip of beer, the crisp hoppy flavor flooding my mouth and going down smooth.
“How did Aimee react?” she asked and I could feel her tense with nerves. I brought my hand up and kneaded her shoulder and neck with it.
“She looked at him then looked at me and said ‘Really?’ in the snottiest tone.”
“What did you do?”
“I told her about you. She wants to meet you. She doesn’t believe you’re not a club whore and wants to know who her son is hanging around. I told her I’d talk to you and see if you’d be willing to come with me the next time I picked Connor up. Really it’s up to you Babe,” she was quiet, mulling things over so I told her the rest. “I also told her that she didn’t run Mark by me first and that it was up to you, I told her she’d best keep her bitch mode to a minimum and that you weren’t going away.” She snuggled back into my chest.
“Can I think about it?” she asked.
“Shit yeah. I would be surprised if you agreed right away, this is kind of a big deal,” she trailed fingertips idly up and down the top of my thigh beneath the water, knee to hip, hip to knee, rinse and repeat, over and over again while she thought things through. I finally couldn’t take it anymore.
“What’re you thinking about so hard Doll?” I asked her.
“About what’s best for Connor, really. The picture you’ve painted of Aimee isn’t exactly an entirely stable one lately,” she murmured.
“True enough,” I felt bad about that. I really did, but nothing I’d said wasn’t untrue. I sighed.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked and it was the perfect opportunity for a change of subject.
“The red menace stopped its march yet?” I asked her and she laughed.
“I’ve never heard a woman’s period put that way but I suppose it fits!” she said. I smiled and bit my lower lip to keep from laughing.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she gave a long suffering sigh.
“Yes,” she giggled.
“You little shit!” I nipped her shoulder and she laughed.
“We should probably be a little more careful. Birth control isn’t one hundred percent,” she stretched a leg up out of the water, the candle light gleaming along her silky smooth wet skin, tantalizing.
“Yeah?” I was secretly disappointed but if she wanted to use more protection, then I could understand it. I’d be an asshole not to.
“Mmm, this is all
still so new and I’m just not ready for children,” she said softly.
“Do I need to run to the drugstore?” I asked.
“No. I bought some, they’re in the bedside table.” I smiled.
“Should I go get one?” I asked and she leaned her head way, way back and smiled at me, lifting one of the pillar candles within reach, a condom underneath. That was my girl, always overthinking things, which admittedly made her prepared for anything.
Chapter 20
Hayden…
Reaver set his beer down on the sandstone with a glass click. He took my wine glass from my hand and did the same. I turned and straddled his lean hips and brought my lips to his. His hands disappeared beneath the water and kneaded my ass and I couldn’t help but groan into his mouth. He leaned up and forward and I held onto him. He sat up on the edge of the tub out of the water and continued to kiss me like I might disappear any moment. I loved the wild desperation with which he held me and kissed me most often times. His hands roamed my body, slick with water and suds from our luxurious bubble bath and I couldn’t help but kiss him with a wild desperation of my own.
Over the last few nights we had just seemed to click, connecting on a fundamental level like I had never connected with anyone else before. Having Reaver live with me had been so much warmer and more comfortable than having Andy here had ever been and I know it was wrong to compare the two men, but I couldn’t help it, and the one thing I always ended up circling back on in my head was that Andy wasn’t even close to Reaver’s league. Reaver could go scary sometimes but those times seemed to be getting further and fewer between. It was like we balanced each other out somehow. Like I shared some of my warmth and humanity with him and he shared some of his killer’s practicality with me.
I lost myself in his hands on my body and tried very hard to touch every inch of him myself. I slipped off his lap and into the water on my knees between his thighs and gazed up at him with a smile.
“What are you doing Hayden?” he asked me but he already knew the answer. I’d been wanting to do this for a very long time but we either never seemed to have the time or Reaver was too much in the driver’s seat to let me have my way. Well damn it. I was going to whether he liked it or not! I stroked up and down his length a few times with my hand. He closed his eyes and tipped back his head letting out a pent up little gasp of a moan. I smiled and gently kissed the tip, flicking my tongue against the head to get his attention. He looked down at me with those cool blue eyes and I looked back and took him into my mouth, so very careful of my teeth.
“Oh!” he cried out and sucked in a breath between his teeth as I worked him into my mouth, the tip of him resting at the back of my throat. He gripped the edge of the tub and thrust forward a little with his hips. I held them with my hands, his skin warm and damp from the bath, my thumbs caressing the throwing knife tattoos as I worked my mouth over him, bobbing my head, tasting every last delicious inch.
I loved how responsive he was. His white knuckled grip on the edge of the tub, eyes closed, head bowed, lips pressed together, chest rising and falling with deep unsteady breaths. Everything about Reaver’s reactions said that he was enjoying what I was doing to him and that he wanted more and I was happy to oblige. I sucked him, rolling my tongue around him like he was a piece of candy and I loved that it caused him to gasp, his head thrown back as he tried so very hard to hold still, to not thrust like I knew he wanted to do.
“Baby! Baby! Baby stop!” He scooted back and I drew off of him letting him pop free of my mouth with a smile.
“What’s wrong?” I asked playfully and he looked down at me. That switch inside his head that controlled his humanity was still flipped to the ‘on’ position but I could see the struggle. He tore open the condom and I watched him roll it down his length.
“Come here,” he said and I knelt up, standing carefully. The water sloshed and he hit the drain plug with his heel. The water began to drain and he grabbed my ass, pulling me up against his ridged body, my thighs to either side of his, pressing us tight. We kissed as he searched blindly, moaning into my mouth triumphantly as he slid inside of me. A smooth and perfect fit. I ground against him, moving him inside my body and pleasure radiated out from my core. He was so perfect, so deeply seated, made for me and touching all the right places. I broke our kiss so I could throw back my head and give a throaty moan, quickly swept up in the euphoria that was making love with this man. With Reaver.
He held me close, his own breath coming in barely controlled pants as we moved against each other. While it felt so incredibly good, our position wasn’t going to get either of us to climax, but rather held us both maddeningly on the cusp, on the very edge of spilling over. It was beautiful and amazing sharing that headspace with him for so very long but eventually something had to give, for one of us, for the both of us and it was Reaver that broke first. His long fingered hands gripped my hips, stilling my movements.
“Off,” he growled and I complied, shivering with a mixture of cool air on heated skin and the anticipation of what he had planned for us next. I slipped off his lap and stood, shaky but carefully in the empty but still slick bathtub. Reaver stood too, keeping my hands in his. He stepped out of the bath and down the two steps onto the carpet and I followed suit.
“Bedroom,” he murmured and I turned and walked out of the humid master bath and into the cooler bedroom. I looked over my shoulder, his hands resting on my hips and he crooked a grin at me and gave me a little shove towards the step. I got up into the high fluffy cloud of my bed and he followed, covering my body with his.
We kissed, one of those long and slow and perfect ones that lingered in all the right ways, tongues performing that slow, erotic, dance. Taking the time to explore one another’s mouths while he nestled himself between my thighs and sought purchase once more. He found it and stroked into me, slowly and deliberately. There was nothing rushed about our joining this time. Nothing hurried, just a slow buildup of heat and love and longing between us.
The pleasure that mounted between us, oh God, how do I describe it? It was like pouring a slow trickle of water into a chalice. The rate unbelievably slow, a thin stream just enough to keep the flow steady, the stream from breaking. The cup growing fuller and fuller until for the longest most agonizing moment the only thing keeping it from spilling its edges was the surface tension of the water. Reaver was a master of my body like no one had ever been before, or likely, ever would be again.
He kept me in that agonizing state of between where my cup was over full but not quite spilling, not quite at the release I so craved from him, and he kept me there for what seemed like hours until finally with one of his beautiful beatific smiles, he twitched just so, riding over that spot and the waters carrying my orgasm spilled over the rim of the vessel that was my body and my muscles seized, my back bowing off the bed, my body pulled as if by strings, strings that Reaver was fully and undeniably the puppeteer of.
I came back to myself slowly, panting, warm and safe beneath him, supported on what felt like cloud nine. I smiled and laughed through my gasping breaths and heard him chuckle beside my ear. He withdrew from my body with a laugh that broke on a lilting moan and lifted himself over my leg to stretch out beside me, staying close so the long line of our bodies remained touching.
“That was…” I panted, “Wow.” He chuckled and pulled me tight against his warmth. We lay atop the covers and let the air conditioned air from the townhome swirl against our heated skins, the sweat damping us assisting in the effort.
“Wow is a good way to put it,” he agreed jovially. We lay together for a long time, basking in the afterglow and I rested my head on his shoulder.
“You’re stuck with me now,” I said smiling.
“Sounds good, but why do you say it that way?”
“Because you’ve thoroughly spoiled me and ruined me for any other man out there. I’m pretty sure no one can measure up to your talents,” I turned onto my stomach and laid an arm across his chest, r
esting my chin on my arm.
“Good,” he said, a hard glint in his eyes.
“You’re incorrigible,” I said, wrinkling my nose and grinning.
“Yeah Ashton had to explain that one to me, kind of a big word. I have to pretty much say that it was invented specifically to apply to me,” he grinned.
“Is that so!?” I exclaimed, laughing.
“I’m pretty sure, yep!” I laughed and we cuddled and I thought to myself just before he got up to clean up and get us tucked in that this, this is what happiness felt like. When it was you and someone you loved and everything felt right with the world no matter how topsy-turvy everything around you was.
If only it could be this way, stay this way, forever.
Chapter 21
Reaver…
We had about forty-five minutes left before we reached Lake Eversong for our annual summer lake run. It would be Hayden’s first one. We’d tried to get her to come on the spring lake run this year but she was too busy planning her wedding to Andy the pansy. Now we were stopped outside this little coffee place to let the women take a final pee before finishing the run and boy did I have plans for my Doll.
I’d been going easy on her when it came to some of the kinky stuff and I’d been feeling the right kind of ornery this morning so before leaving I’d stuffed a particular toy and some of those packets of lube into my jacket pockets in anticipation of this specific stop. I grinned as I pushed through the café and went for the back hall where the bathrooms were. Hayden had gone in with Irish and Sunshine a while ago and I figured they’d had enough time to do what needed doing.
I schooled my face into my scariest ‘don’t fuck with me’ look and pushed open the door to the women’s room. Hayden was at the sink washing her hands. Sunshine and Irish standing behind her laughing and chatting away.
“Out,” I ordered them. Ashton’s golden eyes widened and Irish’s steely blue ones narrowed but they complied. Hayden’s bright green gaze was wide in the mirror where she stared at my reflection and the bewilderment and edge of fear turned me right the fuck on. God I loved every subtle nuanced expression this woman made and she had a million and one little tells for her fear. Made things way more exciting. I shut the door behind Sunshine and Irish and locked it. I checked the bathroom stalls and grinned when I found them empty. Hayden watched me from the sink, eyes a little wide. I went to her and grabbed her by the front of the shoulders firm.