Solid

by Jettie Woodruff

  “I like him. I hope he buys it,” Gabriella expressed, and I lied.

  “Yeah, he seems like an okay guy.” I didn’t think he was an okay guy at all. He was a ditz, some young punk that would never fit into this neighborhood. Of course that was all gone. I thought we had a good thing going there for a while. Gabriella seemed to fit in fine with the other girls. Then again, I didn’t really give her a choice, and for whatever reason, she fought that one, tooth and nail. She didn’t like our neighbors anymore, post-accident, and there was absolutely nothing I could do to change that. Nothing. Not that I wanted to. Not anymore.

  “That was very inconsiderate of you, Pax, and when are you going to learn that these kids all have really big mouths. You can’t tell them secrets.”

  “That’s the thing. I didn’t tell them anything, I mean, I did, just not that. The only thing I said was, I just got some great news and we needed to celebrate with ice cream, that’s it.”

  “That was enough. I don’t know what I will do without Mi. I love her.”

  I took her hand in mine and kissed her knuckles, feeling like an ass. Of course, this was hard for her. I was such an idiot. “When is she leaving?” I questioned as we watched the young teacher and the agent walk through the front door.

  “Nick wants to be there before Christmas.”

  The expression was hidden, along with the unnoticed snort. Christmas was nearly four months away. Why would you worry about something before you had to? This woman…

  Ophelia’s scream kept me from saying something else that would offend her. “Dad, something broke on the toilet. Hurry. It’s going on the floor.”

  Phi wasn’t lying. Toilet water flowed out around the ring with a big glob of paper right in the middle. “What did I tell you about using that much toilet paper? Your butt’s not even that big. Stop it,” I scolded while more water sloshed out with the plunger. What a mess.

  I turned to tell Phi to go grab the mop, but she was gone and Gabriella stood in her place. Mop in hand.

  “She left. You made her cry.”

  “Jesus Christ. I’m never going to survive girls.”

  “Well, you yelled at her. What do you expect?” Gabriella asked in an accusing manner while she mopped, cleaning up the mess Phi left behind. If this was the first time, I might not have been so mad. It wasn’t. It was the fifth time.

  “I’m going to work for a little while. You put them to bed,” I said as I sidestepped her, needing the hell away from females for a minute. Christ almighty. That worked for as long as it took me to see Ophelia, face down on the cold tile, right in front of my office door. I’d say she was more than likely, begging for attention. Girls…

  I scooped her from the floor and carried her across the threshold, placing her on my lap as I sat in my chair, waking up my computer. She heaved in my chest like she was nearly dead, crying out like I had beaten her within inches of her life.

  “Stop it. You don’t have to cry, just stop using so much toilet paper,” I coaxed while stroking her hair and rubbing her back.

  She finally stopped when I let her help with a 3D design of an outside kitchen I was about to build. Thank God. Twenty minutes later, she was bored, off to get her bath. I watched them from my office, listening to the banter between them, shaking my head. Never a dull moment in the Pierce house.

  Not even once they were in bed. I could tell Gabriella still had a stick up her ass when she went up to shower herself.

  “They’re all waiting for you. I’m going upstairs,” she said from the door, and not from my side like she normally did.

  “I’ll be up as soon as I say goodnight to the hellions.”

  “They’re not hellions, and you don’t have to hurry. I’m tired.”

  I tried to gaze at her through squinted eyes like I did before, intimidate her into my way of thinking, but it didn’t work. She tapped the doorframe with the tips of her fingers and walked away from me. The instant anger filled my chest like it had every other time in our marriage. I hated when she defied me, walked away like that. Who the fuck did she think she was? But then…I remembered, she didn’t know who she was, and it was this strong, unfamiliar Gabriella that I fell in love with, not the week one who stood before me and looked at the floor.

  “They are too hellions,” I quietly said to myself, letting the anger relax, and turning back to the screen on my computer. Fine, she wanted me to work and not be with her, I’d show her I could do just that. She wasn’t hurting me, only herself.

  That lasted for as long as it took me to say goodnight to the kids, and settle back into my work. The work that I no longer could get into. My wife was upset with me, and for the first time in our marriage, I gave a fuck.

  My brain worked on overload, trying to come up with something nice to do for her, something to carry upstairs with me as a piece offering. The only thing I could think of was the one yellow rose that had bloomed for some odd reason and a drink. I did my best to mix the drink like she would, and walked out the backdoor, snipping the stem of the one lonely rose.

  I walked upstairs, thinking about making her happy, maybe with my mouth. Three or four orgasms should get me out of the doghouse and back on speaking terms with her. I held the long stem between my teeth and quietly opened the door, expecting her to be covered in lavender bubbles. She was covered in bubbles, but not in the tub. She stood in front of the mirror, sideways, with her hand covering her belly. That confused the hell out of me, and an instant surge of adrenaline surged my body.

  “Gabriella?”

  She jumped, at least, a foot and grabbed a towel. “Jesus, stop doing that.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Nothing, going to bed with a book. What are you doing?”

  “Why were you doing that? Why were you standing sideways with your hand on your stomach like that? Why, Gabriella?”

  She wrapped herself in the towel and tried to step around me. Fuck no. I wasn’t about to let her walk away. The last time I watched her do that was through the screen on my computer, in her bathroom downstairs, pregnant with Rowan. Could she? No, that wasn’t possible.

  “Will you stop? Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage for one day?”

  I still didn’t let her past me. I handed her the drink instead. She wouldn’t dare touch alcohol if she thought she was pregnant, but she took it, and squeezed past me. Of course, I followed her. Gabriella sat the untouched drink on the stand and slid into her robe, eyeing me without a word. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t read her. Something was up and she was no doubt, hiding it from me. I didn’t like it one bit.

  The yellow rose fell to the bed and I followed her to the balcony and the dark night. I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there, watching her place her hands on the railing and look down, shaking her head like she was about to tell me something crazy. Surely not.

  “I took a test in Mi’s office today.”

  “What kind of test?” I asked, idiot heard in my tone.

  Gabriella blew out a puff of air and turned to me, arms crossed and one ankle folded over the other. “A pregnancy test.”

  “Why? You can’t get pregnant.”

  “I’m pregnant, Paxton. I’m very pregnant. Mi thinks I’m close to four months.”

  It just didn’t sink in. Four months? We were going to have a baby in five more months? No way, that couldn’t be right. “But I thought you couldn’t get pregnant. You told me that. The doctor that delivered Ophelia. He told you that. I remember.”

  “Well, it happened, Paxton. I’m as shocked as you.”

  Anger hit me once again when I realized what she said. “Four months. You’ve been hiding this from me for four months?”

  “God no. I just found out today. I wasn’t even thinking like that, not at all.”

  “Then why did you take a test? Don’t you think you should have told me? That this is something we should have done together? Not with your weird ass friend.”

  “Paxton, I had no inte
ntions of taking a test. Mi made me. She was the one who insisted. I did it to shut her up, not thinking for one second that I was pregnant. Jesus, Paxton. I’m pregnant.”

  Chapter four

  Gabriella

  I didn’t want to tell him yet. That was the last thing I wanted to do. Paxton turned almost gray as he sat at the end of the chase lounge, fingers gliding through his hair. If only I could hear what went through his mind.

  “I don’t understand? You told me that you couldn’t get pregnant. You told me the doctor said it would never be possible, something about Ophelia causing too much damage. You said that.”

  My own fingers ran through my wet, uncombed hair. I had no idea what to say. I knew that I told him that from the video, but I didn’t remember it. That made it unfair for me. It was always unfair to me.

  “Yeah, so that’s what you say. I don’t remember that Paxton. I can’t tell you what the doctor told me.”

  Paxton stood with that and walked toward me. “We have to go see him, get your records and make sure this is okay. What if you can’t carry it?”

  “Mi, is taking care of that. She’ll be able to tell me anything we need to know, and when she leaves her partner will take over. I’m not going to that doctor.”

  “Fine, but we’re getting your records.”

  No we’re not… “It’s already taken care of, Paxton. Mi has already sent for them.” I lied. I had to lie. I didn’t know what the truth was anymore. If I was pregnant, then that meant that Rowan and Phi could very well be Paxton’s. I prayed to God that it was so. That our family wasn’t based on lies and misfortunes. It could happen, right?

  “You’re serious. You’re pregnant. We’re going to have another baby?”

  Paxton trapped me with his hands on the railing and once again, I tried to understand the expression on his face. “Are you happy about that? I mean, didn’t you want another baby?”

  “Yeah, when the girls were babies. I wanted a boy. I’ve got one now. A baby? Starting all over? A newborn?”

  Those were the same things that went through my own mind. I had my hands full with the three I had. What the hell was I supposed to do with a new baby? I didn’t respond to Paxton’s rant, only because I was too focused on my own. Jesus, this couldn’t be real.

  My eyes dropped to Paxton’s hands, slowly pulling on the strap to my robe. I held air into my lungs as he opened the cloth to the exposed swell, barely even there while he dropped to his knees. One hand covered my lower stomach and then his lips, lightly kissed my skin, sending a shiver down my spine. “I am happy, just shocked. Hey little guy, you better not be two.”

  I did chuckle a little at that one. Two? No way. I’d never be able to handle it. Five kids? I’d be in a nut house for sure. My fingers slid through his hair as one of his slid through my slit. “That’s not where the baby is,” I teased as I stepped out, giving him more access. The distraction was more than welcoming at the time.

  Paxton lifted my ass to the cold stone wall and opened my legs. “Do you trust me?”

  I looked behind me, and down to the tile where my body would be splattered into a pile of broken bones. “No,” I admitted, fingers grasping hard to the railing.

  My eyes closed when his only answer was his tongue, sliding up to my suddenly alive nub, throbbing like mad from out of the blue. I just told the man he was about to be a dad again, and this was his reaction. His way of dealing with the cold hard truth. Not that I minded. I needed the distraction as much as he did. I just wasn’t expecting it to be like this. My fingers tightened in his hair with a firm grasp. If I was going over, so was he, and the chances of that happening raised with every stroke of his tongue, every suck from his lips, and every step closer he pulled me to orgasm.

  “Aahh, yes, baby. Right there,” I moaned, my back arching as I felt the first flow, deep in the pit of my stomach. Paxton sucked hard on my aching nub, releasing it with a loud pop, and an incoherent, don’t stop, from me. I barely understood what I said. Nonetheless, Paxton came to his feet, releasing his fury into me. His tongue dove into my mouth at the same time he slid inside me, the scent of me saturating his lips. The smell, the taste, the way his hands held my back, the way he felt, moving in and out of me, the news of the baby, the full moon, this sky full of stars, the cool breeze, all of it felt like it pierced my skin. Like my nerves were on the outside of my body.

  “Don’t lie to me, Gabriella. Don’t you ever think you need to lie to me about anything.”

  A deep, hard thrust kept me from replying. I moaned instead, bringing my fingers between our bodies, and to my swollen clit. Paxton moved his body away from mine enough to watch my fingers please myself in one way, as he pleased me in another. In and out, slowly.

  “Tell me you will come to me, Gabriella. I need to hear you say it. Tell me we’re not hiding anymore secrets.”

  I circled harder with two fingers, wishing he’d move me from the cold wall. Somewhere safer, where I could move without falling to my death. I couldn’t promise that. “We’re still hiding things, Paxton. You know it and I know it.”

  “Then let’s stop. I’ll tell you everything, and you tell me. Let’s put it all out there, Gabriella.”

  The light from the patio below caught my attention, and I derailed the conversation that I didn’t want to have. Not yet. “Vander is up.”

  “He can wait.”

  A deep thrust into me almost caused me to agree. “Paxton, his mommy died. You have to let me go to him. What if something’s wrong? What if he’s crying?”

  “Seriously, Gabriella? Right now?”

  “Please.”

  Paxton let out a groan and pulled out of me while placing my feet safely on the floor. I sidestepped him, tying the string around my robe and heading to Vander. My feet glided over the steps, two at a time as my mind whirled with crazy thoughts. One to the other.

  I have no idea what he was doing, but he was out. Sleepwalking maybe? The overhead light was on, but not Vander. He was curled into a little ball, sound asleep at the foot of his bed. I dragged him to his pillow by an arm and a leg, and covered him, unsure of what that was all about. “I want to see my mommy,” he mumbled from a comatose slumber as I reached to turn on the lamp.

  My eyes shifted from the lamp to him, sadness filling my heart. He was asleep. Sound asleep. I brushed his hair back with my hand as my lips touched his warm forehead. “I’m sorry, little guy.” I whispered, tears burning both my eyes. Nothing. Not a sound.

  I went back to my husband with a heavy heart, taking the steps once again, two at a time. Only I was too late, Paxton stroked himself hard, fisting his cock fast in his hand. I walked closer to his sexy body, perched against the same banister I’d been sitting on five minutes prior. Our eyes met as I neared him, stopping at the doorway, not wanting him to stop. Holy Fuck, that was sexy.

  “Keep going,” I rasped as my robe fell to the side and my fingers glided through my slippery folds. One good minute of that would be all it took, but I knew the look in Paxton’s eyes. I was okay with that. He would be lucky to make it a whole minute. Every time his hand reached the base of his shaft, my clit throbbed, even more, and just like I had presumed, it didn’t take long at all. My lips parted right before I sucked in my bottom one, biting hard with the first sign, a tingling sensation, deep in my groin.

  Paxton closed the distance between us with three quick steps. My left hand held the doorjamb and my right one worked frantically, pulling the expected orgasm from my body.

  “Fuck yeah, baby. Move your fingers, Hmm fuck, baby,” he moaned just in front of me, still jerking himself in his hand, the head of his cock, taking over for my fingers.

  I stepped out with both feet as my arms wrapped around his neck. We kissed an erotic, moaning kiss, but then he pushed me away again.

  “Are you ready?” he questioned with his head, rubbing hard over my pulsating nub.

  I didn’t answer because I was ready. I couldn’t talk anymore. Not only were the words gone f
rom my mouth, but the thoughts in my mind had disappeared as well.

  Paxton gave me a dirty look when I stepped backwards, however, he followed me to the edge of the bed. I wrapped my legs around his waist while he used the head of his cock to assault my clitoris, beating it hard against my too sensitive button. I came first, moving his dick inside me on my own with my fingers keeping perfect rhythm around my overzealous sex. I came hard, feeling the tremors, thump around his cock. Paxton dove into me one last time, holding my hips tight with both hands.

  I loved that look on his face. Erotic, sexy lust saturated his entire existence as we came together, releasing tension with our bodies.

  We stayed that way for a good minute, relaxing back into reality. “I don’t understand how you can all of a sudden be pregnant,” Paxton questioned, still deep inside me.

  “Probably from this,” I countered while reminding him where he’d just deposited his sperm.

  “You, know. Now that you say that, it sort of makes sense.”

  I frowned, pondering what he meant while his thumbs brushed over my stomach. “What makes sense? None of this makes sense to me.”

  “After you told me that the doctor said you couldn’t have any more kids, I didn’t go inside you much.”

  “Why not?”

  Paxton shrugged one shoulder, and told the truth. “I guess because I wanted to shoot it in your mouth, or all over your face, your chest, your stomach, anywhere that—“

  “That degraded me?” I snapped unable to stop the thought from forming into words.

  His hips moved into me a couple times as he replied. “Things were different then, Gabriella. That’s not fair.”

  That was the worst thing he could say. I hated it when he told me something wasn’t fair. He had no idea what that even meant. His entire life hadn’t been taken from him in a flash, and it pissed me off every time he played that card. “Let me up,” I said while pushing up on both elbows.