by Parker, Ali
“God, I want to be inside you so bad,” he groaned in my ear.
I reached down to grab his ass and pull him close to me. I didn’t have the words to reflect what he said back to him, but I hoped I could make them obvious from the way I was touching him right now.
He seemed to take the hint, sliding his hands down my body and quickly undoing the jeans I had thrown on when I had left the office. I wriggled out of them, lifting my hips up so that he could undress me, and kissed his neck and his throat eagerly. I could feel a little of his stubble against my skin. It was rough. I liked it. I liked it a whole heck of a lot.
He tossed my pants to the floor and got down on his knees to ease my panties off my hips. I groaned as I felt his hot breath on my thigh. He knew just what he was doing to me. He knew just how I liked him. I pulled him back to his feet once he had taken off my underwear, and I pulled him toward me. I needed to feel him fill me up.
“Fuck me,” I murmured in his ear, and he didn’t need telling again. He pulled down his pants, positioned himself at my entrance, and then thrust his full length into me in one smooth stroke.
I moaned softly, and he turned his head to mine and kissed me once more. His tongue was deep in my mouth, tasting me, just as hungry for me as he had been the first time that we had done this together. I wondered if that lust was ever going to fade between us. I hoped not. It had lasted this long.
Soon, all those thoughts had slipped from my head as he just fucked me, fucked me hard, thrust so deep into me he drew a gasp from my lips with every movement. I could hear his growls in my ear, that low, lusty noise that told me that he was enjoying this as much as I was. God, I loved him. I loved him with every fiber of my being, with every part of me, with every aching inch, I loved him.
I tipped my head back, tightened my legs around him, and pulled him into me, deep, hard. I felt like I was going crazy. I couldn’t get enough of him, couldn’t imagine ever having enough of him. I kissed him again, my teeth catching on his lip.
He took me hard and fast, like we didn’t have the time to spare, and I knew we didn’t. I knew that if someone caught wind of what we were doing, we would be in serious trouble, but I was finding it hard to care. How could I, when all that mattered was the feeling of him filling me up like this?
So much had happened, so much that had shaken me to my core, but he had been there through all of it. He had shown that he still wanted me despite it all and that he loved me no matter what. And I needed to show him, any way I could, that I loved him, too.
I groaned as he slowed his roll a little, letting me savor the feeling of him spreading me wide open and making me his once more. Fuck, he felt so good. It was almost ridiculous how amazing he felt. I wished I could have found some way to tell him the way it made me feel when he was inside me, but words had escaped me, seemed useless anyway in the face of everything that we shared together.
I clenched myself around him and moved my hips as best I could to take him in deep, trying to tell him with my body that I wanted him, wanted him so badly it hurt, wanted him so badly that the thought of being apart from him for even a moment had been enough to shake me to my core.
“You feel so fucking good,” he groaned in my ear, and the desperation in his voice was almost enough to tip me over the edge right there. I loved knowing how much he wanted me, was sure that I would never grow tired of hearing it from him. I wanted more, and I kissed him again, feeling myself swelling and growing, feeling the pleasure taking control.
When I came, I had to bury my face in his neck to keep from making a noise. I didn’t want anyone else to know what the hell we were up to up here, and I figured my orgasmic shrieking might be enough to attract more attention than we were ready for. I knew that he could tell I had found my release because moments later he got there himself. It took him a moment before he came, and I felt him fill me up with his seed, and it took all that I had in me not to freeze time in that moment and make sure that I could live and linger in it for as long as I wanted.
He thrust shallowly a few more times and then slowly slipped himself out of me. I gathered myself quickly, going to fix my clothes, but I almost tipped straight off the desk in the process. Turned out that my limbs were more than a little shaky after what we had just done. I supposed I should have guessed it.
He caught hold of me, laughing. “One of these days, you’re going to learn that you just don’t take well to standing up right after you’ve come,” he teased, and he kissed my forehead.
I shook my head. “Seems like you make me stupid,” I replied.
He grinned. “I can live with that.”
We both hurried to get our clothes back on, dressing as fast as we could and then sneaking back to the elevator to head back down to his office. He held my hand as we headed down, and I squeezed it back, unable to keep the smile off my face. I was going to have a very good rest of the day. That was for sure. Though I knew I couldn’t spend it with him, and I knew there was nothing more that I would have liked than that.
We snuck back into his office, and as soon as the door was shut behind us, he caught my face in his hands and kissed me again. I could have swooned right there and then. The way he was with me was just too damn much sometimes. The effect he had on me was dangerous. He really only had himself to blame that I had fallen so utterly and completely in love with him so soon after we had first met. He was just so damn loveable.
“I should get back to work,” he murmured, but he sounded like he was open to other suggestions.
I smiled and nodded. “You should,” I agreed. “Don’t want anyone to think that I’m getting in the way of you doing your job.”
“Even though you totally are.”
“Even though I totally am,” I agreed. “But we could see each other on Saturday. Maybe do something with Winnie, if she’s feeling up to it?”
“I think that sounds perfect,” he agreed. “I could use some more time with her. I know she’s been through a lot recently. I want her to know that she’s still number one in my life.”
“Hmm, should I be jealous?” I laughed.
He kissed me again. “Not at all,” he replied, and he pressed his forehead to mine for a moment. “Now get the hell out of here before I get distracted and we have to do that all over again.”
“Hmm, tempting,” I teased.
He turned me around and guided me to the door. I didn’t protest. I was exhausted from the day’s escapades, and I knew that I had to get a little rest to make sure I was on my game for when we met up next.
“Can’t risk it,” he replied, and he hugged me quickly and kissed me again before he sent me on my way.
As I made it back down to the street level, I realized something. I hadn’t stopped smiling since the moment he’d kissed me in the restaurant. That was just the effect he had on me, it seemed.
And well, a girl could get used to smiling this much.
Chapter 55
Harry
As soon as I got the call from Michael, everything that had been so sweet about this weekend seemed to slip away at once. I knew that was all over. Everything was going to change.
Maybe I had known that, though, when I had done everything over the last couple of days. I supposed I had accepted that everything was about to take a monumental shift, and I had made the most of what time I had left in the normalcy that I had created.
Raina and I took Winnie to the zoo, and Raina had shown her around, telling her everything she could about the animals and even buying her a stuff toucan in the gift shop. We’d eaten fries from the overpriced café on a picnic bench, and Winnie had watched the birds in the aviary next to us while Raina and I held hands under the table.
On the Sunday, it had just been Winnie and me, and we had hung out and caught up on homework and housework and just done our normal family stuff together. I liked that the most, I was pretty sure. I would have liked it even better if Raina had been there to share it with us, but I was happy to have the time with my n
iece, too.
She had taken everything so well, but it was hard to know how much of it she truly wrapped her head around and how much she was just trying to go along with because she knew it was what I wanted from her.
But when Michael called just before I left for work, I knew that everything that I had put into place was about to change for good. It reminded me of the call that I had gotten when my sister... well, when everything had changed before. When my whole life had shifted out from under me. When I had become a parent, like it or not. And I was pretty sure that it was going to happen again.
I went to Michael’s office, put a leash on Tink, and took him straight inside with me. I was going to need the support. That was for sure.
When I got in, Michael was waiting there for me, a slightly grim expression on his face. “All right, so we have the DNA test results back,” he explained. “And you’re—”
“I know,” I told him. “I’m the father, right?”
“You’re the father,” he agreed.
I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to take in the bombshell. I wanted to say that I could hardly believe it, but I totally could. As soon as I had laid eyes on him, I had known. Well, now it was for certain.
“What happens now?” I asked.
He gestured for me to take a seat on the other side of his desk. I did as I was told, and Tink sat upright beside me, clearly sensing that I needed his support in that moment. I ran my fingers over his head and thanked God that I had someone here on my side.
Michael filled me in on everything that this would mean for me. Allison had made it pretty clear that she wanted me to take Nico if she couldn’t beat the cancer, and that meant that I would have to move to a bigger house with more space to make room for him if the time came, God forbid. In the meantime, I was going to make sure that I could support Allison as much as I could through her treatment, as well as helping out with Nico wherever I could.
“Make sure to get the ball rolling on the stuff with her medical bills, all right?” I ordered Michael.
“She hasn’t asked for any help there,” he replied.
I shook my head. “I don’t care,” I replied bluntly. “I want her to get all the help she can. Best treatment in the state. Make sure that happens, all right?”
“Of course,” Michael agreed.
I rubbed my hand over my face. There was so much to think about.
“And set up a trust for Nico,” I told him. “Something that’ll mature well. I don’t want him to have to go without, even if he doesn’t end up living with me.”
“Are you sure about all of this?”
“I’m certain,” I shot back. I knew it would be hard for Michael to understand, since he wasn’t a father and never had been, but I had to do everything I could for my kid now that I knew he belonged to me. It was the least I could do after being out of his life for so long. I was going to make sure that any impact I had while I was here was a good one.
By the time I left Michael’s office, I still felt like I was in a state of shock. But at least I had a slightly better handle on that state of shock than I had when I had first heard the news. There was someone I needed to talk to about this, first and foremost, though, and I wasn’t going to hide it from her any longer.
Winnie had to know everything.
It was just what she deserved. I pretty much just drove around the rest of the day, walking Tink in the park and skipping out on work to kill time until I could see my niece again.
I went to pick her up after school, and she hopped in the back of the car to greet Tink and gave him a big hug. I looked at her in the mirror. God, she was so happy. So full of life. After everything that had happened to her, she still buzzed with such a joyous energy. I didn’t know if what I was about to tell her would strip all that away. I prayed to God that it wouldn’t.
“Winnie?” I spoke her name.
She looked up and smiled at me. “What is it?”
I couldn’t do it here. It just didn’t feel right. I had to go somewhere else, somewhere that I knew she would feel a little more comfortable. Somewhere we could sit and talk out every part of this, to make sure she understood it and that she was ready to take it on.
“Let’s go get an ice cream,” I replied, and she clapped her hands together as I pulled away from the school and headed over to the kitschy little saloon place that served up the best scoops in the city.
We all got out of the car—it was dog-friendly, thank goodness—and found a table inside.
We ordered up our scoops—coffee for me, mint-choc-chip for her, and the special peanut butter dog-safe ice cream for Tink—and took a seat at one of the booths. She tucked in happily, and I felt a surge of guilt knowing that I was about to shake up what was a good day for her.
“Winnie, there’s something I have to speak to you about,” I blurted out finally.
She looked up at me, curious. “What is it?”
I launched into everything that I had been holding back from her. She might have known about Nico in theory, but in practice, this was a lot more serious. I had to let her know every detail of what was to come. I didn’t want any of it to shock her if I could help it.
So I told her about the fact that we were going to have to move to a bigger house to make space for him. Even if he never came to live with us, I wanted there to be room for him to visit so we could get to know each other. I told her that she was going to be a big sister. I knew that she would be a great one, too. I knew that any kid would be lucky to have someone like her around to take care of them, and I knew that she would jump at the chance to prove that she could do it.
“But there’s one thing I wanted to make sure you understood,” I explained to her. Tink was at my feet, already half asleep from the ice cream that he had eaten, his head resting on Winnie’s feet.
“What is it?” she asked. She had taken everything else as well as I could have hoped so far, but there was something that I had to make totally clear, above anything all else.
“He might call me his dad,” I explained. “And I know that you’ve never called me that, and that’s totally fine. You have to go with what works for you.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, but she looked a little sad at the thought.
I reached out and squeezed her hand tightly, feeling this rush of protective love for her that came when I saw that she was suffering in any way.
“But you should know that it doesn’t change anything between us,” I assured her. “I still love you just as much as I ever did. I’m not going to be splitting up my love between the two of you, okay? I’m just adding more on for Nico.”
She smiled at me. Her whole face lit up. I felt a rush of relief run down my spine. She was handling this—more than handling it. She was doing a damn better job with it than I was. I had no idea how I had managed to help raise a girl with such resilience, with such optimism about life as a whole, but I was lucky that I had. Life had tossed a lot in her direction, but she had never let it get in the way of her living the life that she wanted to live. I loved her so much for that. Even when things seemed too much for even me to handle, she was right there to remind me that we could take anything on together. As a family. As a unit.
“So, where are we going to move to?” she asked with excitement. “I want to make sure there’s a big yard for Tink to run around in.”
“I think as long as we keep giving him these ice creams, he’s not going to be that bothered about running around.” I laughed and pointed under the table. “See? He’s already asleep.”
She ducked her head down to say hello to him, and he snuffled slightly and then went back to snoring. When she lifted her head once more, I could see that glimmer in her eye, the one that told me she was on the brink of twisting my arm for something that she knew I wasn’t going to be able to say no to.
“Could we have another scoop?” she asked.
I grinned and shook my head. “I think I’m all done,” I replied. “But you choose another flavor.�
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She bounced up to the counter, and the woman in the kitschy little outfit behind it smiled at her as she started asking questions about the flavors. She was going to be just fine in all of this. We had a lot of change coming our way, but we had already made it through so much already, I couldn’t imagine that this was going to be enough to throw us off our game.
I was proud of her, so proud of her, for being able to take this on. And more than anything, I was grateful that my amazing sister had laid the groundwork for such a sweet, caring, accepting little girl. Without her, I wouldn’t have had any of this.
I closed my eyes and thanked her silently. And I promised her, as I did every day, that I was going to do everything I could to look after this girl to the very best of my ability.
Chapter 56
Raina
Ever since I’d heard the strain in his voice on Monday evening, I had known that I had to do something to try and take the edge off the worst of what he was feeling.
I couldn’t even imagine how damn stressful it must have been to take on all of this at once. He was already raising a kid that he had never expected to have, and then the universe tossed another one in his direction? It wasn’t fair.
The best I could do was turn up and offer what little help that I could, even though it felt pretty small in the face of all that he was taking on.
Swinging by the store to pick up the ingredients, I filled my basket with cooking stuff and then drove over to the house to visit them. I had texted ahead, but I wasn’t sure if he had gotten it. Well, I hoped he didn’t mind me stopping by with a surprise for them.
As soon as I pulled my car to a halt in the driveway, the door burst open, and Winnie came running out to greet me.