“You look beautiful,” I told her. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
She giggled and nuzzled into my neck.
“Look, Mama,” Willa said.
Kelly went over to her, and the little girl held out her flower.
“It’s so pretty,” Kelly told her. “We should put it in water.”
“I’ll do that for you,” Pam said. “You two go on and have fun. Willa and I have dinner and movie plans.”
I laughed, and we said good night before heading out.
“Where are we going?” Kelly asked when we got into the car.
“The bowling alley,” I told her. “Colby is getting us a lane.”
“That sounds like fun. I haven’t been bowling in years,” she told me.
We got to the bowling alley, and I immediately noticed Colby and a woman standing at the concession stand. He was staring at her with wide puppy dog eyes, completely engrossed with whatever she was saying to him. But the way he was looking at her told me she could be rattling off the names in a phone book and he would think she was enrapturing. Even though I’d never met her, I knew who the woman was. He’d been pining after her for months and hadn’t been able to build up the courage to ask her out until a couple of weeks ago. This was only their third date, but he wanted to introduce her to me and see how we got along. I had no doubt I’d like her if he did.
Colby smiled at us when he noticed us walking up to them. He nodded toward us, and the woman turned around.
“Hi, guys,” Colby said. “This is Caroline. She works with Jane at the clinic.”
“Hi,” she said, extending her hand to us.
We introduced ourselves, and I could tell Caroline and Kelly were going to get along famously. They hit it off immediately, and when Colby and I grabbed beers off the counter and suggested we go start a game, the girls looped arms.
“I think we should do guys against girls,” Kelly said. I laughed, and she narrowed her eyes at me. “Don’t think we can beat you?”
“Colby and I have been bowling together for years,” I told her. “Not to sound arrogant or anything, but we’re pretty good.”
“We’ll see about that,” Kelly said and headed for the lane with Caroline.
It turned out her competitiveness knew few bounds, but even more than that, she had the skill to back it up. The night was a blast, and it was great to see Colby so happy spending time with Caroline, even though the women totally kicked our asses. He’d gone down swearing he let them win, but I was perfectly happy letting them crow and take my defeat like a man. Especially considering the girls were already talking about coming bowling again sometime soon, and we weren’t going to be able to pull off pretending to let them win twice.
After three games, it was getting late and Kelly slipped her hand into mine.
“We should probably go,” she said.
“It’s so early,” Caroline argued. “I was hoping we could maybe go out dancing for a while.”
“That sounds like so much fun,” Kelly told her. “Another time, definitely. But we have a two-year-old at home, and we need to relieve her babysitter.”
I couldn’t help the huge grin that broke out over my face just hearing her talk about Willa as our daughter rather than just hers. It made me feel like a real family.
When we got back to the apartment, I grabbed her hand and yanked her up against me, gathering her up in my arms. She laughed and looped her arms around my neck.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I just want to steal a few extra minutes with you before we go inside,” I told her.
“I think I can be okay with that,” she said.
Our mouths met, and I eased her up against the wall to kiss her. It was slow and deep, and my body melted into hers. I wished we could just stop time and stay out there for hours, but I knew we needed to go inside. Kelly unlocked the door, and we stepped inside. She turned and gave me one more kiss before closing the door, officially bringing the date to an end. The living room was empty, so we headed for Willa’s bedroom. Pam sat in the corner in the rocking chair, reading a book by the light of a small lamp sitting on the dresser beside her. She looked up and smiled at us when we came in.
“How was your night out?” she asked softly.
“It was a lot of fun,” Kelly told her. “Thank you again for staying with Willa.”
“No thanks needed. You probably didn’t have anywhere near as much fun as we did. I had dinner with a fairy princess tonight.”
“Oh, did you?” Kelly asked with a quiet laugh.
“Yes. And then we built a castle in the living room and watched movies about all her princess friends while we ate yogurt parfaits,” Pam said.
“Yep. You win,” I said. “Can’t get better than that.”
I could see why Kelly loved Pam so much. The older woman screamed maternal and obviously adored both Kelly and Willa. The thought of her not ever getting to have grandchildren of her own must have made her really sad. I knew then I completely agreed with Kelly. There was no way we could just leave Pam behind. No matter how much time Willa spent with my family, Pam was still an important part of her life and they deserved to stay with each other. There was no such thing as too many people loving her.
Kelly thanked Pam again and walked her out of the bedroom to the door. I quietly called good night after her but stayed in the bedroom with Willa. Sitting down in the rocking chair, I watched my daughter sleep. She looked sweet and peaceful; her hair spread out around her head on the pillow. Just like me, she slept on her stomach with her arms bent under her pillow. As I watched her, she snuffled in her sleep and wrinkled her nose. It was unbelievably cute, and I couldn’t help but grin. I took out my phone and took a picture of her, hoping the sound and flash wouldn’t wake her. She wriggled slightly but didn’t wake all the way up.
It was late, but I knew my parents would still be awake. They went to bed early during the week, but Friday was their night to sit up most of the night and watch late-night TV together. They sat with a giant bowl of popcorn and ate their way through it in the dark, curled up like teenagers. It had been their tradition for as long as I could remember and one of the reasons they hated when there were Friday night races. I sent the picture to them and just as I expected to, got an instant response. It was just a long string of exclamation points, which made me laugh.
Bring her to dinner on Sunday, Mom texted me. With all the nesting going on over at Quentin’s, we’re going to do it at our place.
I’ll try, I told her.
I didn’t want to obligate Kelly to anything without talking to her. She did really well at Quentin’s house the Sunday before, but I could tell she felt tense and a little uncomfortable. Especially with the dinner being held at my parents’ house, I didn’t know how she was going to feel about going. Mom was still acting a bit cold toward her, and it might take some time for the two women to really get to know each other in this new way and be comfortable with each other again. But I wanted both of them to be happy, and I definitely wanted my mother to get to see Willa more often.
Taking one more look at Willa, I went looking for Kelly. I found her in the kitchen, leaning against the sink and sipping a cup of hot tea. She smiled at me.
“I had a really good night,” she said. “I like Colby and Caroline.”
“I hope things work out between them,” I told her. “He’s been wanting her for a long time, and they seem really good together.”
“She’s sweet. I think they’ll be happy,” she said.
“I know I am.”
I leaned in and gave her a quick kiss.
38
Kelly
I didn’t think I would ever get enough of those kisses. No matter how many Darren gave me, I would always want more. I leaned toward him to catch another before he stepped up beside me to stand against the counter. He took the teacup from my hand and stole a sip. He nodded as he looked down into the cup.
“That’s good,” he said.
“Peppermint,” I told him. “It’s my favorite.”
“You know, I’ve always thought peppermint was very specifically seasonal to Christmas, but I might rethink that,” he said.
I looked at him strangely. “Peppermint is only for Christmas?”
“Yes.”
“What about toothpaste?”
“Spearmint.”
“Ah. Well, there you go. Now, do you have a lot of these seasonal food rules that I need to get familiar with? I’d hate to offend you by serving you a Thanksgiving food in March or a Fourth of July dessert in December,” I teased.
“Well, I would hope you aren’t the type of woman who would ever do something like that,” Darren said.
He was teasing back now, and I took another sip of the tea before offering him the cup for the final sip.
“Let’s hope,” I said.
“I just talked to Mom. She wants us to bring Willa to dinner on Sunday,” he said.
“Sure,” she said. “Quentin’s house is beautiful, and I’ll probably be more comfortable this time.”
“Actually, it’s at their house this time. Merry is getting close to the baby being born, and nobody wants to get in her way,” Darren said.
I stopped to think about this for a second. It was definitely intimidating thinking about going to Minnie and Gus’s house for dinner. Gus and I were in a great place. He was kind to me and never made me feel like any less than he’d ever seen me. The same couldn’t be said about Minnie. Not that she was mean or judgmental in any way. In fact, she was polite and kind to me. But it was not the same type of kindness she’d shown before she found out about Willa. It was like there was a wall between us, something preventing us from getting closer. I didn’t want it to feel that way. I knew how close Darren’s family was, and I couldn’t stand the thought of creating any type of tension or putting a wedge between him and his parents.
I thought more about going over to their house. Maybe this was the perfect opportunity. I would like to see where he grew up and get some more insight into who he was and what his life was like before I met him. And maybe this would be a chance for me to clear the air a bit with Minnie. A little bit of time had passed, and we would be in her home environment, so maybe she would be more willing to warm up to me this time. It was possible. It was also possible she would never forgive me. I hated that thought and didn’t want to face the possibility, but I needed to do whatever I could to keep it from happening.
“Okay,” I told him. “That sounds like fun. Is there something I could bring?”
He shrugged. “Anything, I guess. Probably not anything baked, though. Mom has been in bakery mode recently, and there’s no telling what she’ll have made. Maybe some of that awesome pasta salad you have for lunch sometimes.”
“I’ll ask Pam for the recipe. I probably should be making it for myself, anyway. She doesn’t need to be making me lunch all the time,” I said.
“She likes taking care of you,” Darren pointed out. “I don’t think she’d want you to take that away from her.”
It made my heart feel warm to hear him talk about Pam like that. I worried he wouldn’t be able to get comfortable with the idea of her as an ongoing part of our lives. He’d agreed to have Pam watch Willa that night and said he appreciated her, but there was a part of me that still worried he would try to phase her out. Now I knew he saw how valuable she was and would want her to be a part of our daughter’s life as much as I did.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I told him. “Get this bowling alley smell off me.”
“I’ll come with you,” he said. I gave him a look, and he held up his hands in mock innocence. “Purely for the sake of water conservation.”
“Of course. I’ve always known how important the cause of water conservation is to you,” I told him.
“It all starts with one drop,” he said.
I laughed and we headed down the hallway. After a few steps, a thought jumped into my mind, and I turned around. The sharp movement made Darren step back a bit, and he looked at me questioningly.
“Something you said before, it’s bothering me,” I said.
“What is it?” he asked. “Something I said tonight?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Not tonight. You said it when we were talking about getting the DNA results about Willa. You said when you got the results if you found out I was telling the truth and wasn’t just after your money. I don’t really understand why you would say that.”
Darren looked at me incredulously.
“Are you serious?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said nodding. “I mean, I’m not rich. I don’t come from a lot of money or anything, but my family has always done fine. And now I work two jobs, the one at the garage and freelance working on mechanic manuals. So, I’m doing okay for myself. Willa and I always have what we need. So, it’s not that. Plus, I guess, I figured your parents were wealthy because they started the company, and Quentin obviously has money because he owns it now and has built it up. But I never really thought about you in those terms so much.”
Darren stared at me for a second before he started laughing. The sound burst out of him and kept coming until he had to reach out and hold himself up on the wall beside us. I was not amused by the reaction.
“What?” I asked. “What is possibly so funny about that?”
Darren got himself together and shook his head, taking me by the shoulders and giving me a quick kiss.
“You really don’t know?” he asked.
“I really don’t know what?”
“You seriously should have Googled me, sweetheart. I’m a millionaire.”
I felt like I was going to choke.
“You are?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes. And I’ve had women try to sleep with me for my money before. All of us have. That’s a big part of why we haven’t been so great with relationships.”
All I could do was stare at him with wide eyes as I tried to process what he just told me. But I didn’t have long to think about it. Darren was staring at me with heat in his eyes. I shook my head. The money wasn’t important. But getting my hands on him was.
Our lips crushed together, his tongue parting mine to explore my mouth with a hunger for the taste of my breath. I returned that hunger, running my hands across his chest, ever downward to the bulge already formed in his pants. My hand clasped over it and squeezed gently, eliciting a moan from the mouth that covered mine, echoing in my cheeks and reverberating down my spine, lighting up every sensitive nerve along the way. I craved his body and wanted him buried deep inside me as soon as I could. His rock-hard cock strained at the zipper of his pants, and I slipped my fingers to ease it down.
Darren broke the kiss, moving down my jaw to my neck, and I lifted my head to give him more access. The zipper slid down easily, and I worked with the button of his pants, letting them drop to the floor unceremoniously as I ripped at the waistband of his boxers. His cock sprung out at me, and I took in a breath as its warmth and thickness brushed against my leg. Stroking it, I felt him groan under my touch before he pushed me back toward the bed.
The edge of the bed surprised me, and I fell onto it, but his hands were already lifting my shirt. As soon as it came off, I reached behind me to unhook my bra, and the growl that filled his chest when my heavy breasts tumbled out sent a direct line of heat through my center. I collapsed into his stomach, trailing kisses down the center of him, letting my tongue leave a line to his cock. I took him into my mouth and moaned. He returned the sound and filled his hand with my hair.
Guiding me in my motion, he pulled me to him, and I let his thickness slide as far down my throat as I dared. I relished in the salty-sweet taste of him, and my fingers wrapped around the base to stroke him into me as I bobbed back and forth. I forced myself to open my eyes and looked up into Darren’s. Delight filled me as I watched his face contort in pleasure as my mouth worshipped his body. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes as I i
ncreased my speed. Suddenly, Darren looked down and gently pulled me away from him.
“Not yet,” he whispered, and a new wave of desire scorched through my core.
I wiggled back on the bed, pushing at the waistband of my pants as I did so they came down my legs, and he pulled them away before I got to the pillows. I rested my head on them, the cool air of the room making my nipples pert and perky. Darren let them be cold but for a moment as he climbed on top of me, taking one into his mouth and covering the other with his palm. I arched my back, thrusting my chest up and into him, and he gladly took the offer. His other hand slid between my thighs and pulled at the thin cotton panties. They slid off easily as he pulled, and I lifted my knees to make it faster. Anything to get him inside of me quicker.
His lips trailed back up my neck, and he rested his hands on either side of my head, lifting himself up above me. Our eyes locked as he positioned his cock at my opening, and I lifted my hips to beckon him. The head slid through my folds and found my clit, and for a moment the sensation was almost unbearable in its overwhelming pleasure. Then he rocked back and plunged forward into me. Stars filled my vision as he filled me, and a cry got lodged in my throat.
He thrust again, and my wet, waiting pussy opened for him, stretching to accommodate his girth. He stayed deep in me, letting me adjust before thrusting again. This time, the fullness subsided, and all that was left was the warm sensation of pleasure roiling through me, rolling up my core through my stomach and up my chest, filling my neck and cheeks with heat. The unstoppable crashing sensation of an orgasm surrounded me, drowning out the rest of the world but Darren and me. I focused on his lips as he pounded into me, and within moments, my body was jerking, straining as the climax took control and my toes curled under its power.
But Darren did not stop. His body was a machine, and the ripped muscles of his abdomen crunched as he thrust into me over and over, bringing the sensations that were threatening to overtake every sensor in my brain to critical mass. I felt like I couldn’t process anything other than his body inside mine and the feeling of euphoria it caused. My legs wrapped around his waist as I subconsciously begged him to push harder, faster, deeper inside me.
Millionaire Daddy: A Secret Baby Romance (Freeman Brothers Book 2) Page 21