I took a shaky breath and rolled my hips. Mav nipped at my lips and nudged my head back with his chin so he could kiss my throat and chest.
Then suddenly, he threw me down on the bed.
I giggled as he climbed on top of me, and I fell silent when he closed a hand over my mouth. His eyes glittered playfully, and a sexy little smirk lingered on his lips. “Hush,” he cooed. “We have to be quiet.”
I nodded, unable to speak from beneath his hand.
He didn’t remove his hand. Instead, he kept it sealed over my mouth as his other hand wandered between my thighs, spread my legs, and began rubbing my pussy. I moaned. He growled. The room tilted and spun as the pleasure mounted and formed that familiar tight knot below my belly.
This was what bliss felt like. Right. Whole. Tight. Powerful.
Needy, I lifted my hips, daring him to push me further. To take more from me.
Mav responded by easing a finger inside me. And then another. I breathed sharply through my nose as he filled me up, and he held me under his dark gaze.
“Not yet,” he grated out. “Hold it.”
I couldn’t. It was too intense. Too glorious.
I rolled my hips and reached for him. I clawed at his shirt, desperate to get it off him and feel the heat of his skin against mine, but he held me in place, his hand still over my mouth, his eyes still burning into my soul.
My eyes rolled back in my head as he fucked me harder.
“Not yet,” he said again, his voice thick with need.
I whimpered and writhed beneath him. This was too much. I tried to tell him I couldn’t wait any longer, but his hand on my mouth stopped me.
His fingers pressed deep inside me. My back arched, and my toes curled. Still, I obeyed, holding on to my orgasm by a hair. Every muscle strained, and I held my breath.
Then he leaned in close and whispered in my ear. “Let it go.”
I came instantly. My breathing was jagged and desperate, and I gripped the sheets beneath me as my body thrummed with pleasure. As I wound down from my climax, Mav’s hand slipped from my mouth.
I drew deep breaths of air into my lungs and smiled at the ceiling. “That is never going to get old.”
He chuckled as he lay down on his side beside me, propping his head up in one hand while tracing figure eights on my belly. “No, it won’t. I love making you come.”
I licked my lips and rolled onto my side to face him. I ran a finger down the middle of his chest. “I think I’m ready for the next step.”
His eyes widened a little. “Really?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the steamy moments Mav and I shared. And despite how new this still was, I knew I wanted to have sex with him. I wanted to know what it was like. And I wanted him.
Mav frowned and stroked my cheek. “I think we should wait. Just a little longer.”
“You do?”
He nodded. “Yes. This is a big step. It’s something you’ve been waiting for for a long time. And I don’t want it to be a heat of the moment decision. I don’t want you to regret it.”
“I would never regret sleeping with you,” I whispered.
“There’s no way to know that for sure.”
He was right, of course. There was no telling how I would feel when the deed was done. I’d been guarding this part of myself for so long.
I laid my head down on his pillow. “Okay. Thank you.”
He gathered me up in his arms. “Please don’t ever feel pressured. I will wait for as long as you want. We won’t take the next step until you’re ready. However long that takes. The best things are worth waiting for.”
I snuggled into him. “I should go.”
“Stay.”
“But Olivette—”
“Loves you,” he said firmly. I leaned into his hand as he cupped my cheek. “She adores you, Allie. And I don’t have any intention of letting this go. I’m ready to look forward. Together. And as long as we’re on the same page, I know Olivette can handle it. Are we? On the same page?”
I kissed him. “Same page. Same paragraph. Same sentence.”
He laughed. “You’re such a nerd. A sexy nerd.”
I bit my bottom lip and pushed myself up onto my knees. “Well, this nerd is about to show you a very good time. So buckle up. Just because we can’t have sex doesn’t mean we can’t have fun.”
“What did I ever do right to deserve this?”
I leaned over him and kissed him as I worked his shirt up his stomach. “You helped me pick up my papers on the first day of school.”
“That’s all it took?”
I nodded. “Yep. That’s all it took. Now shut up and let me take care of you.”
Grinning like a fool, he crossed his arms behind his head and watched as I undid the fly of his jeans. “Do your worst.”
29
Mav
I woke up with Allie’s hair in my mouth on Sunday morning.
It tasted like hairspray and smelled like strawberries, and I didn’t mind one bit as I picked strands off it off my tongue and carefully smoothed her hair out so I could move in close and rest my chin in the groove of her shoulder.
She sighed softly and wiggled backward, her bare ass pressing into my crotch and teasing my morning wood. I could tell by her deep breathing that she was still asleep.
We’d had a late night. Despite her being a virgin, Allie was a bit of a freak in the sheets, and she had a hell of a good time trying out a bunch of new things she’d never done before. We pretty much did everything but have sex, and by the time two in the morning rolled around, we were both spent and tired and useless, and we lay down on our sides, cuddled up, and drifted off to sleep.
I squinted at the alarm clock on Allie’s side of the bed. It was eight o’clock, which meant my grandmother was likely already up having her morning cup of tea. Olivette would be up within the hour, and I wanted to make sure Allie and I were already up and in the kitchen when that happened.
But that meant I had to disturb the beautiful woman sleeping beside me.
No part of me wanted to wake her from her slumber. I would have been content lying with her like that for hours more, even though my arm was falling asleep and even though my tongue still tasted like chemicals from her hairspray. It didn’t matter.
This was paradise and a sweet reprieve from the last four years of nights spent alone in this bed.
For a while there, I didn’t think this would be in my future. I’d resigned myself to the next fourteen or so years, living in solitary. But Allie had changed all of that. It had all happened so quickly, and I still couldn’t quite comprehend how much had changed in such a short time, but I knew I was grateful for every second I had with her.
And I knew I cared for her. Really cared. This was more than a simple case of attraction and a little crush. This was real.
This was the feeling people wrote songs about.
I smiled as I buried my face in her hair and breathed in the smell of her. “Allie.”
She moaned softly and pressed firmly against me.
“Allie,” I whispered again, pressing my lips to her bare shoulder in a sweet kiss. “It’s time to get up. It’s eight o’clock. Can I make you coffee?”
“Coffee?” she mumbled sleepily.
I chuckled. “Why am I not surprised the word coffee is all it takes to wake you?” I gave her one last kiss before rolling out of bed and getting dressed. “I’ll put the pot on. Come meet me in the kitchen when you’re dressed. Feel free to shower first if you like. Olivette will probably be up soon, and my grandmother is probably already awake.”
Allie rolled onto her back and rubbed at her eyes. The way the sunlight fell across the bed made her look like she was glowing. Like an angel. “I’m up,” she said thickly. “I’ll join you shortly.”
“Okay,” I said before slipping out of the room. I closed the door to give her some privacy before making my way down the hall to the kitchen, whe
re I found my grandmother sitting at the table reading the newspaper.
She looked at me out of the corner of her eyes and smiled slyly. “Good morning.”
“Morning,” I said, going straight to the coffee pot and hoping she would leave things alone.
She didn’t. “How was your night?”
“Good.”
“Is Allie going to be joining us?”
“How did you know she was here?” I asked, horrified.
My grandmother shrugged. “Well, I assumed the cute pair of ballet flats at the front door weren’t yours.”
Oh. Right. Shoes. Thank God.
“She’ll be right out. She’s just getting changed. Coffee?”
“No thank you.” My grandmother smiled sweetly. “So you two have decided to be open about things with Olivette?”
“We’re going to see how things go,” I said, leaning against the kitchen counter. “I don’t think there’s any harm in Allie being here this morning. Do you?”
“No, not at all. Olivette is a sweet girl, and she loves her teacher. She’s too young to realize there are romantic feelings happening between the two of you. But that’s temporary. She’ll put two and two together soon, and it would be better, for her sake, that the two of you have a conversation with her so she knows what this means.”
I nodded. “Right. And uh… what exactly does it mean?”
My grandmother laughed and shook her head at me. “That’s for you and Allie to figure out. I’m going to give you guys some space and clear out for the morning. I have some errands to run. I’ll be home around noon. Is that all right?”
“Of course.”
She got up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I’m happy for you, Mav. You deserve this.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Shortly after my grandmother left, Allie joined me in the kitchen. She’d changed back into the summer dress she wore to the fair yesterday, and she looked just as beautiful in it now as she had yesterday. Her hair was drawn up in a messy bun, and she was fresh-faced.
I poured each of us a cup of coffee and rummaged through my fridge, looking for inspiration for something for breakfast. “How do you feel about omelets?”
Allie nodded from where she sat at the kitchen table. Then she pushed herself to her feet and came to stand beside me at the counter as I pulled out a cutting board and some peppers, onions, spinach, as well as some sliced ham and cheddar cheese.
“Can I help?”
“Of course, you can,” I said.
We prepped the omelets together like we’d done it a hundred times. She chopped veggies while I heated and greased the pan and cracked the eggs. Then she sliced the cheese and slid everything toward me to put in the open omelets. She giggled as I rolled them, nearly destroying all three, and sipped her coffee.
Sharing a morning with her like this was a peek into the future and what might be.
And I liked what I saw.
And what I felt.
“Can you watch these?” I asked, nodding at the omelets. “I’m going to go wake Olivette up so she can eat when it’s hot.”
“Sure thing. I’ve got it under control.”
I gave Allie a kiss before going to wake my daughter. When I went in her room, it was bright with morning sun, and she was a tangled-up mess in her blankets as always. I sank slowly down on the edge of the bed, put my hand on her back, and rubbed slowly. “Morning, kiddo. It’s time to get up.”
Olivette burrowed deeper into her blankets.
I chuckled. “Come on, kiddo. Breakfast is ready. And there’s a surprise in the kitchen for you.”
She pulled her blankets down and rolled over to face me. The brightness in her eyes told me she hadn’t really been sleeping. Little faker. “A surprise? What is it?”
“You’ll have to get up and come see for yourself.”
Olivette sprang out of bed in the pajamas I’d changed her into when I put her to bed last night. She raced to the door and turned back toward me, calling for me to hurry up as I stood and cracked my back.
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” I laughed, falling into step behind her as she took off down the hall to the kitchen.
My daughter cried Allie’s name when she burst into the kitchen.
Allie dropped to a crouch and greeted her with a hug, and Olivette bounced up and down in her arms like a child who’d survived on nothing but sugar for three days straight. I smiled and leaned against the doorframe as I watched the spectacle unfold.
When all of Olivette’s excitement was out of her system, I plated our omelets, and Allie and Olivette set the table. We all sat down together, and Olivette sipped her orange juice as Allie and I moved on to our second cups of coffee.
“Are you staying all day?” Olivette asked.
Allie shook her head. “I can’t, unfortunately. I have to go home and get ready for the week. Clean my house. Do my laundry. You know. Boring adult stuff.”
“Boring adult stuff,” Olivette echoed.
“But I’ll see you first thing in the morning, right?”
Olivette nodded. “Right.”
“What are your plans for the day?” Allie asked, looking back and forth between Olivette and me.
Olivette gazed up at me and waited for my answer. “Well,” I said, “I have to do some laundry as well. And we need to go grocery shopping. But after that, it should be a pretty relaxing day. It’s back to work tomorrow, so maybe we can make the most of it and have a game night or something. What do you think, kiddo?”
“Game night! Game night!” Olivette clapped her hands together excitedly.
Allie’s smile was radiant. “It sounds like the two of you have a good day in front of you.”
“You’re more than welcome to join us,” I said.
Allie nodded. “Maybe I will. As long as I can get everything done that I need to today.”
“Please come,” Olivette said.
“I’ll do my best,” Allie promised.
Once we finished eating breakfast, I collected the dishes and rinsed them off in the sink. Allie and Olivette stayed at the kitchen table chatting amongst themselves, and I shamelessly eavesdropped as they talked about school and the other kids in class.
Then Olivette went quiet.
“Is something wrong?” Allie asked, putting her hand on Olivette’s.
Olivette shook her head. “No.”
“Are you sure?”
I turned off the kitchen sink and joined them, going to Olivette’s side to rub her back. “What’s going on, kiddo? Are you feeling okay?”
She nodded but wouldn’t look at either me or Allie.
I crouched down beside her. “What’s bothering you? You can tell us.”
My daughter licked her lips. “Daddy?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
Olivette glanced at Allie and then looked back to me. “Is Allie my mommy?”
The question slammed into me like a runaway freight train. I gaped at her, my brain struggling to figure out the right thing to say, and Olivette stared calmly back at me, unaware of the weight of her question.
Finally, my mouth started working. “What makes you think Allie is your mom, kiddo?”
Olivette shrugged. “She’s pretty. And she’s nice. And she’s always there. And you like her a lot. And I like her a lot. And it would be nice to have a mommy.”
My stomach rolled with guilt.
“I—” I started to speak but broke off when Allie got to her feet. She moved around me and Olivette and went down the hall to the front door. I rubbed Olivette’s shoulders. “One minute, kiddo. We’ll talk more about this.”
Olivette stayed where she was, and I followed Allie down the hall. By the time I caught up to her, she’d already opened the door and stepped outside. I followed and closed the door behind us.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t know where that came from.”
“I have to go.”
“Let me drive you.”
“No, I need to
walk. Clear my head. I’ll call a friend and—”
“Allie, please, let’s talk about this. It’s normal for a child to be confused. We just need to talk to her and explain things.”
Allie shook her head and wouldn’t look at me. “I can’t, Mav. Not right now. I need some space. Let me go.”
I fell back a step. “Okay.”
Then, without looking back, the woman I was falling for walked to the end of my driveway and turned right, disappearing around the bend and down the street, leaving me staring after her wondering what the hell went wrong.
30
Allie
Oh God.
My hands shook as I fished my phone out of my purse and struggled to call Candice.
This wasn’t how things were supposed to happen. Mav and I had been reckless. We’d miscalculated what this would all mean to his daughter, and we’d shamelessly paraded our relationship around like a couple of high schoolers with no care in the world.
And now she was confused.
And so was I.
“Please pick up,” I muttered, already out of breath from speed-walking away from Mav’s house. Candice didn’t answer so I tried her again, knowing full well she didn’t work on Sundays and that the boutique was closed until noon. “Pick up.”
“What the hell?” Candice’s voice filled the line. It was heavy with sleep, and I heard her yawn obnoxiously on the other end. “Why are you calling me so early?”
“It’s almost ten,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s early. I only get to sleep in one day a week, and now you’ve gone and spoiled it. What do you want? It had better be good, or I’m going to—”
“I need you to come pick me up.”
“From where?”
“I don’t know,” I said, picking up my speed to get to the nearest cross street half a block ahead. I squinted at the sign. “Mavis and one twenty-third.”
“Why are you all the way out there?”
I licked my lips and slowed my pace as I came to the corner. There was a patch of grass shaded by an overhanging maple tree, and I sat down on it and stretched my legs out in front of me. “I spent the night at Mav’s house.”
Ignite The Spark Between Us: Searing Saviors #4 Page 18