FIRST LOVE_A Single Dad Second Chance Romance

by Scarlet Wilder

  He kicked off his pants and held me by the waist, lifting me up so that I was above him now, as though I weighed nothing at all. I lifted one leg over his waist and knelt over him, and he looked up at me, holding my face. Strands of my hair fell away from the clip and dangled down, and he tucked them behind my ear.

  “I’ve always loved your hair,” he said. Then he pulled me down on top of him, and I could feel his hard cock between my legs, both of us frustratingly hindered by our underwear.

  With a flick of his wrist at my back, the clasp of my bra was opened, and he tossed it to the side as he rid me of it. He grabbed my breasts and kissed me deeply and I moved my hips on top of him, grinding him into me. With no warning, he flipped me over again, so I was on my back once more, and now he was working his way down my body, kissing my belly, stroking my thighs, before resting between my legs and tugging at my panties.

  Lifting my hips off the bed meant he could pull my underwear off, and I was completely naked. He groaned as he flung my panties away, discarding them as redundant, and lowered his head into the hot cavern between my legs.

  “God,” he groaned, and he kissed the inside of my thighs, first one and then the other, before parting his lips and bringing his tongue into contact with my clit.

  Whatever skills he’d picked up in the last decade were put to good use now, trust me. He was an expert with his tongue as he sucked at my hardened nub, licking up every drop of desire that I gave him. I craved him so much, desperately wanting him close to me. I couldn’t quite believe that I was, once more, in bed with him after years of resigning myself to living my life without him.

  He brought me close to climax so many times, teasing me when he knew I was close, before pulling away and bringing me back down from the brink. I wanted to kill him, but it was such delicious torture at the same time that I submitted to every tempting stroke of his tongue.

  I knew what he was making me wait for, but I couldn’t wait any longer. He came up from between my legs and kissed me again so that I could taste my own desire in his mouth. I ran my hands under the waistband of his underwear and grabbed his ass. “Give it to me,” I begged. “God, I need you inside me.”

  His ass was so perfectly round and rock hard, as though he’d done squats for a thousand years. I felt like my fingers were getting a workout just from squeezing it but at that moment, there were other things I needed more. I pulled down his underwear to his thighs and within seconds, his cock was pressing against me. I opened my legs and guided him in, and he plunged into the depths of me with a groan that engulfed us both.

  Nothing could come close to describing the utter joy of having Liam fill me once more. I thought this day would never come, and I clung to him desperately as he moved in and out of me, slowly at first, before speeding up. He held my hands over my head and he fucked me hard, pistoning in and out of me with loud grunts. I’ve never been one to make much noise during sex, but now I realized that it was simply because I’d never been fucked properly before. Boy, was I getting the good stuff now.

  I grabbed his ass again, forcing him into me as deeply as I could, and he sucked on my nipples as he moved in and out, hitting the perfect spot enough times to have me scream his name and leave my teeth marks in his shoulder. I came with all the frustration of the last ten years exploding and then evaporating in an instant, and he followed behind me, seconds later, filling me up with his lust for me and pinning me to the bed until he stopped jerking.

  We lay still and silent in the low light of his bedroom, our bodies covered in a sheen of sweat, catching our breath before looking at each other. I gazed up at him, tracing his lips with my fingers, and then I smiled. He smiled back. “What is it?” he asked. “What’s making you grin?”

  “Colin said a guy with good lips must have a beautiful dick,” I replied.

  “And do I have good lips?”

  “The best I’ve ever had,” I said, and he kissed me as I melted into the rainbow, the pot of gold still inside me.

  22

  ________

  LIAM

  “I have no idea what on earth possessed you to make an offer like that,” Larry said. He sat in his chair, hands over his head, and I could see the patches of sweat under his arms. His face was a picture of confusion.

  “I don’t expect you to understand it. I simply expect you to accept that it’s happening, and to deal with it accordingly.”

  He leaned forward and clasped his hands together now. I was glad to be rid of the sight of his perspiring armpits. “Just let me check that I’ve got this right,” he said, and he pushed his glasses up onto his nose. “You have her move in and we tell everybody that not only are you dating, but that you’re engaged. She’s not the mother of the child, but you’re madly in love anyway and she’s the one for you, forever and ever, amen?”

  “Pretty much,” I said. “Look, I’ve known her for most of my life. I trust her implicitly, and she’s agreed to help me. We run with the engagement and this way the Grassington project doesn’t derail. Upstanding businessman in an upstanding relationship. Raising the guy’s daughter together. The modern, All-American family.”

  He grinned. “Come on,” he said and even winked at me. “There’s got to be more to this than meets the eye, right? What, you’re getting a little extra action on the side? From what I can see from the accountant, this deal’s costing you a pretty penny, so I hope you’re a getting a titty suck out of it, at least.”

  To hear him speak so disgustingly about Elle made me want to grab him by the collar of his sweat-drenched shirt and punch him across his jowly face. I settled for slamming my hand on the table and he jumped back.

  “Don’t you ever let me hear you speak of her like that again,” I said, through gritted teeth. “Remember you’re a fucking lawyer. That’s it. Do your job. Handle the legal shit, do what’s in your contract, and keep your foul mouth shut about everything else.”

  I stood up and left his office. My cell was ringing. It had been going all day. There had been a dip in the market thanks to a Middle-Eastern oil embargo, and now investors all over the country were beginning to sweat, including myself. If I wasn’t careful, the whole deal could fall through at the last second, and the board was trying to reach me.

  “I’ve been with Larry just now,” I said, as Christian needed an update on the latest Grassington numbers. “Can’t I leave you with the valuation team for five minutes? Goddamnit, this thing will not turn into an arm’s length farce, so help me God.”

  The anger that had been brewing before stepping into the lawyer’s office was only exacerbated by his sleazy demeanor once I was in there. He put me in a foul mood for the rest of the day, and I called home to tell Joanna not to expect me for dinner. She listened and said she’d keep something warm for me. I asked her how Lizzie was doing.

  “She’s perfectly fine,” Joanna said, and her calm voice worked wonders to calm me, as it always did. “She’s with Miss Elle for now, and she’s being given her bath.”

  “What about the nanny?”

  “Helena’s there too, I believe. It looks like Elle’s enjoying looking after the little one so much, I wonder why you pay the nanny at all.”

  Since Elle had moved in a few days earlier, it had been clear that she doted on Lizzie. I enjoyed seeing the two of them together, and no matter how much stress my job was causing, I was placated by the knowledge that my daughter was in good hands. I’d hired Helena at just the right time; having her take over the night feeds had been a godsend.

  I knew that for the foreseeable future, I was going to be spending plenty of time at the office. Wilde’s M&A had hit a rocky patch with the stock market’s unexpected wobble, and it was taking up all my time and demanded my focus. On top of that, three separate Wildebeest clients were looking to spin out and float their stock while we were in the middle of a takeover. I had guns firing at me from all sides and I could hardly blink, let alone fend off each bullet.

  That night, I not only missed dinner,
but I slept at the office, working through the night until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. It’s one thing to be kept awake by a sleeping baby, and quite another to be forced to keep your eyes open to stare at pages and pages of data. I kept a spare suit in the small room down the corridor along with a camp bed, and I barely made it in there before passing out, only to have my alarm wake me four hours later.

  This trend continued for the next two weeks. I hardly saw anyone and missed Lizzie so much that I had Joanna send me videos of her constantly, just so I could watch them all whenever I got a spare second, to feel even slightly closer to her. She was growing so fast, and it broke my heart to see that her first smile hadn’t been for me, but for Elle.

  One thing was for sure: Elle had slipped into the role so perfectly, and I was grateful to her. When she went out into the city, she ensured she looked so fabulous that she immediately drew the attention of the press, whom my publicist, Stephen, had tipped off at just the right time. She smiled demurely, her beautiful auburn hair cascading over her face as she avoided the media, ensuring, though, that she flashed the five-carat diamond she’d agreed to wear. It was gaudy and flashy, but it did the trick. The photographers caught the sparkle it gave off, and the rock seemed to sell more papers than Elle herself.

  Things began to stabilize, and the phone calls became less frantic as the team resumed their regular duties and I wasn’t forced to spend quite so many hours away from home. On a rare night off, I was scheduled to open the new wing of the cancer research center. My corporation had donated millions of dollars toward the project, and it was finally time to cut the ribbon.

  It was Elle’s first official date as my ‘fiancée.’ For the occasion, I’d arranged for a personal hair stylist and makeup artist to come out to the house. Elle had designed and made her own dress, and as we met each other in the lobby of the hotel in the center of the city for the function, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

  The slim-fitting red dress hugged her beautiful frame all the way down to the floor. The cut was perfect, slashing across her neck and covering just her left arm in a long sleeve. Her right arm was bare, the freckles on her shoulder giving her a golden sheen. Her auburn hair was up high, perfectly braided and held up by a myriad of diamond-tipped pins. On her right arm, she wore a diamond bracelet, and on her left hand, the ring spoke for itself.

  I slid an arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. “God, you take my breath away,” I whispered in her ear, and immediately the photographers caught the shy smile and the blush of pleasure that spread across her cheeks. Cameras flashed as we stepped into the limousine, and Costas closed the door, shutting out the world. I kissed Elle’s cheek and told her I meant what I said.

  She was positively glowing, and I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful date. “The press might be going crazy for you, but I’m the one who’s enjoying the view,” I told her.

  “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” she said. “I was beginning to think you were going to call off the whole thing.”

  “No, it’s being taken care of,” I said. “And knowing you’ve been there, looking after Lizzie with Helena, has been such a weight off my mind.”

  She smiled at me, but I was sure that it wasn’t the same, easygoing smile of earlier. If anything, this one seemed tighter, more forced. I put it down to the stress of having to deal with such terrible press intrusion. They photographed her everywhere she went, thanks to the modern obsession with celebrity. While I was sure it could only be a good thing tonight, especially as she was rocking a dress she’d designed herself, I knew that it wasn’t easy to live a life in the public eye.

  That night at the party she was exquisite, linking her hand through my arm and holding on to me for much of the night. I enjoyed feeling her beside me as we posed for more photographs, and as I gave my speech and raised a toast to the opening of the new research center, she was in the chair next to mine, looking up at me with her beautiful green eyes. When the band played, I took her onto the dance floor and held onto her as we spun around the room.

  If it weren’t for the fact that I knew it wasn’t real, I could have believed quite easily that Elle really was my fiancée and that we really were planning a life together. I held her close to me as we danced. She had one arm around my shoulders and I held her other hand in mine.

  “What are you thinking?” I murmured to her, and she looked at me.

  “I’m not sure,” she said. “I feel like I’m in some kind of strange fairytale, and I know that at midnight, when the clock strikes twelve, I’m going to have to leave here before I go back to wearing my rags again.”

  “What makes you think I’d let you leave me to go back to wearing rags?” I asked her, and she looked to be about to answer me, but the music came to an end and we broke apart to applaud the band.

  On the way home, she was quiet, and although she didn’t move away when I reached for her hand, she didn’t curl her fingers around mine, either, the way she had earlier. When we got home and climbed the stairs to go to bed, I watched her go into her bedroom, and I wanted to go after her, to close the door behind us, and take her in my arms, into her bed. But I stopped myself, careful to respect her privacy. Larry’s words came back to haunt me. I didn’t want Elle thinking that her whole life was being lived simply for me to take advantage of it.

  I was so exhausted that I passed out that night, flopping onto the bed in my suit and not waking up until the following morning. I thought back to the days of being a kid, when my parents had wanted to sleep in and I’d bound into their bedroom, jumping up and down on their bed, full of energy. Life was so much simpler back then, and I was a fool for taking sleep for granted.

  Before I stepped into the shower to get ready for work, I held the shirt I’d worn the night before and inhaled. The collar smelled of Elle’s perfume, where she’d lain her head against me during one of our dances. I stood there for a few moments, and just the thought of her made me hard. It took a very cold shower to snap me out of it that morning. I had far too much to think about and I couldn’t let my feelings for Elle complicate things further.

  23

  ________

  ELLE

  Sitting at the vanity table while I took off my jewelry, I stared at myself in the mirror. I wanted to reach into the woman in the reflection and give her a good shake, but instead, I settled for putting my face into my hands and letting the tears fall.

  I couldn’t understand what was going on. When I saw Liam’s face that evening, the way it lit up as he saw me, I was thrilled beyond words. When he put his arm around my waist and told me how beautiful I looked, I even believed him.

  As he held me close to him while we danced, I felt safe somehow. In his arms, it was as if the rest of the room disappeared, as if we were the only two people alive. It felt like the best possible dream someone could ever have and here I was, living it.

  I dared to hope that he wouldn’t let me go for the rest of the night and that he’d take me up the stairs and into his bedroom, where we’d make love until the sun came up. But he hadn’t. He’d simply said goodnight to me and watched me walk to my room. I sat on the bed for twenty minutes, waiting for him to knock, until I realized that he wasn’t coming.

  Until that night, I hadn’t realized just how much I’d missed him. I’d been an idiot to think that living in his house with him would mean eating meals together, and talking, and even sleeping in the same bed at times. Not every night of course. After all, this wasn’t a relationship, was it? It wasn’t a romance. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.

  I couldn’t deny that the arrangement had greatly benefited me. I felt as if I was slowly being suffocated by the weight of the responsibilities I’d taken on, trying to clear my parent’s debt. Some days, I didn’t know how I was ever going to get back to some semblance of a normal life again.

  At first, I didn’t want to tell my parents exactly how I’d managed to repay their debts and get my dad in a place where he could st
art working again but, in the end, I confessed. After all, how else could I have explained such a large amount of money suddenly falling into my lap? They were eternally grateful to Liam, but he wouldn’t hear anything of it. He simply said he was thrilled to help and that he was sorry he hadn’t been there sooner.

  It aggravated me that he was so wonderful. That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But he was. Generous to a fault, attentive to every single detail, giving me everything I needed and so much more besides. I ate the most beautiful food, swam in the pool, worked out in the gym, and even had a credit card in my name put into my hand for anything I might want, whether that was a new pair of shoes or a brand new car.

  But the longer I went without seeing him, the more I knew that this arrangement had been so alluring to me because of him and that the only thing I wanted now was the one thing I couldn’t have. Because he was never around.

  I knew that he was busy. We were all glued to the television the morning of the embargo in the Middle East, wondering how it was going to affect simple things like the price of gas, or whether the US was going to have to deploy troops. But the financial world was on tenterhooks, too, and it was a stressful time, especially for Liam. I tried to understand that, but it wasn’t easy.

  To have been given such a gift, though, meant that I couldn’t be too upset with him. It wouldn’t have been fair. I flitted between being frustrated at Liam to being frustrated with myself for acting like such a spoiled child. I needed to put his gift to good use, so I got my head down and did the very thing he wanted most for me: to discover my love of design once more.

  It goes without saying that he ensured I had everything I needed, from the right design software, to the latest digital equipment. I was given my own studio at the bottom of the garden where I had my sewing machines, and dressmaker dummies, and endless rolls of fabric. It was impossible not to be inspired by all the beauty around me, especially now the weight of my parents’ debt had been lifted from my shoulders.