Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Emma
“ S he’s out,” I whisper as the credits roll.
I lean across Jeremy with an arm around his chest and look down at Maddy. She’s sprawled out in a nest of blankets and pillows, one arm around her beloved stuffed dog and the other hand clutching a magic wand that Jeremy brought over so she could “practice her spells” while we watched the movie. Apparently, he bought it weeks ago after the first night they read Harry Potter together and has been saving it for the movie. When he told me that, my heart jumped out of my body and landed right at his feet.
All the single mom romances I’ve read suddenly make so much sense to me. Not that I’m a single mom exactly, but there is something mind-bendingly hot and also deeply soul settling about a man who loves the child you love.
Jeremy covers my hand with his and smiles down at Maddy, brushing her hair off her forehead in a gesture that has emotion clogging my throat.
“The sugar crash got her,” he says, sheepishly, as he looks around at the movie night detritus. Scattered popcorn kernels, wrappers from four different M&M’s flavors, and the remnants of ice cream sundaes topped with different cereals litter the living room floor. I loved this night. Being with my favorite people, the fact that Jeremy remembered the story I told him about making blanket forts with my parents and recreated it for me, the care that he put into making this a special night for the three of us. The promise of more nights like this.
My mind replays his words from earlier over and over again.
Anything for you
Anything for both of you.
The two of you are my world.
He is my world too. Both of them. I want to love them and make them a home and keep them forever with a ferocity that I have never felt before—about anything.
Jeremy turns over on his side to face me, leaning on his elbow. Wrapping his other hand around my neck, he brings his mouth to mine, kissing me deeply, stroking his tongue against mine until my head spins from the taste of him and his scent surrounding me. When we break apart, he keeps our faces close, eyes locked, then brings his lips to my forehead, lingering there.
“I’ll carry her up to bed,” he whispers.
“Stay tonight?” I ask, my insides a tangle of emotion and need.
He leans in and kisses me again, smiling against my lips. “You couldn’t make me leave, Ems. I only want to be where you are. Both of you.”
I close my eyes for a second, letting Jeremy’s words wash over me, recognizing how far he has come now that he can give me his thoughts and trust me to treat them gently. With one final kiss, we break apart and he picks up Maddy, resting her head on his shoulder while he carries her up the stairs.
While he gets her settled, I clean up the worst of the mess. I’m at the sink washing out the ice cream bowls when Jeremy crowds up against my back, wrapping his arms around me and kissing my neck.
“Go relax,” he says against my skin. “Take a few quiet minutes. I’ll finish up here and make drinks.”
I turn in his arms, looking up at him, appreciative, as always, of the way he understands my need for quiet time at the end of the day.
“You going to bartend for me?”
“You know it, Ems. I know how you like your drinks.”
“You’re literally a bartender. You know how everyone likes their drinks.”
He smiles at me, his eyes crinkling at the corners in the way I love. “Yeah, but yours especially. Who do you think reminded Ben you like sugar on your margarita rims for all those years? I’ve always known you, Ems.”
Emotion clouds my vision. I feel the words in the deepest parts of me.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
I shove them down for now. I want to give the words to him, but I think he has to be the one to say them first.
Instead, I lean forward, resting my forehead on Jeremy’s chest, trying to pull myself together. He seems to understand, wrapping his arms around me and resting his cheek on top of my head. When we break apart, his smile is soft and sweet.
“Go lay down. Let me take care of you.”
Twenty minutes later, Jeremy comes back into the living room carrying two margarita glasses, his brow furrowed, eyes unfocused.
“What’s wrong?”
He sets the glasses on the coffee table and sits down next to me on the pile of blankets and pillows. He doesn’t speak, just hands me his phone.
From: [email protected]
Subject: Can we meet?
Dear Jeremy,
Thank you so much for getting back to me and for agreeing to meet. I know this must be super weird for you. It’s weird for me too, so I guess we can feel weird and awkward together.
I know this is kind of short notice, but any chance you want to meet this weekend? Maybe Sunday? I’ll be traveling a lot for work over the next month or so, so this is my last free weekend for a bit. Maybe you can drive down to Bethesda?
Looking forward to meeting you.
Brian
“I just emailed him back this morning and told him I thought we should meet,” Jeremy says, voice a little shaky. “I guess I didn’t expect him to respond so quickly.”
I study him, considering my response. I’m happy to see he’s not anxious. He’s definitely nervous, but behind the nerves I see hope so acute it makes my chest ache.
Taking his hands in mine, I wait until he’s looking at me to ask my question.
“What do you want to do?”
He doesn’t even breathe before he answers. “I want to meet him. Maybe it’s stupid, but I want to go.”
I squeeze his hands. “It’s not stupid. I think you should do it. Do you want me to come with you?”
He shakes his head. “I always want you with me, but Sunday is Halloween, and I know how much Maddy has been looking forward to it. Hopefully I’ll be back in time, but if I’m not, you should be here with her. I’ll be okay.”
I nod, knowing he’s right but hating that he’ll be there alone.
“Okay, but Jeremy, no matter what happens, we’ll be here waiting for you when you get home. Maddy and me, Rachel and Steven, all our friends. Go and meet Brian and then come back to us. We’re yours, always and no matter what.”
Jeremy’s eyes swirl with emotion. “I will. I’ll always come back to you,” he manages, and I know how much it costs him to say those words. It makes me love him even more that he can trust now, even a little, that we’ll still be here waiting for him when he gets back. I also know it’s time to change the subject.
“So, tell me about the drinks. I know I didn’t have those margarita glasses in my kitchen.”
Jeremy’s laugh is tinged with relief that I steered the conversation towards less emotional pastures.
“No, your kitchen is seriously lacking in glassware. And everything else required to make decent drinks, honestly. I brought all my own stuff.” He hands me one of the drinks and takes his own.
“And you brought the fancy sugar.” I study my drink and the colorful sugar that decorates the rim.
“Only the best for my girl.” Jeremy winks at me as he takes a sip of his own drink and my clit literally throbs. Jesus Christ, one my girl and a wink and I want to tear all my clothes off right here.
I lick a part of the rim and take a sip to wet my suddenly dry throat. Jeremy follows the move with his eyes, his hand tightening around the stem of his glass, and a muscle ticks in his jaw.
I meet his eyes, giving him a sly grin over the rim of my glass.
“So good.”
“I think I should be the judge of that,” Jeremy says, voice low.
He puts his own glass back on the coffee table and slides closer to me, taking my drink out of my hand. With his eyes locked on mine, he licks more sugar off the rim but doesn’t bother taking a sip of the alcohol. Instead, he sets the glass aside and cups my face, running a thumb over my bottom lip before sealing his mouth over mine. This kiss isn’t sweet. It’s deep and desperate and red-hot need.
He glides his tongue along my bottom lip, and I open for him. Licking into my mouth, his tongue slicks over mine with purpose, like he wants to taste every inch of me. He tastes like sugar and desire, and I urgently need to be closer to him.
Without breaking the kiss, I push up on my knees to straddle his lap. I grip his waist, pushing up under his shirt to run my hands over his abs and glide over all that warm, smooth skin. I wish I had ten more hands so I could touch all of him at once.
Jeremy lets out a needy rumble as he breaks the kiss, licking down my jaw, pushing my T-shirt off one shoulder so he can kiss along my collarbone. When he nips me with his teeth, my hips do an involuntary roll, my center meeting his hot, hard cock. I let out a shaky breath and do it again. And again.
“Fuck, Ems. You feel so good, rubbing that hot, needy pussy against me,” Jeremy rasps in my ear. His hands glide down my sides and back up, pushing up my T-shirt and bra and rubbing his thumbs over my nipples. I drop my head back, the twin sensations of Jeremy’s fingers rubbing and plucking my nipples and his mouth licking and sucking over my neck tearing a moan from my throat. When I go to roll my hips again, my clit dying for more friction, he grabs my hips to hold me steady.
“Not here, Pretty Girl. When you come for me for the first time tonight, I want you spread out on your bed so I can see every gorgeous inch of you.”
“But I need it now,” I gasp, trying to move my hips but getting nowhere with his iron grip.
Jeremy leans in and kisses me again, fast and deep and so fucking hot, before he tears his mouth away, eyes meeting mine.
“You’ll have it when I give it to you. Go upstairs and strip. Sit on the edge of the bed and wait for me there.”
While desire floods me at the thought of what he’ll do when he gets upstairs, the part of me that likes to take charge can’t help but sass him, just to see what happens.
“And if I don’t?”
Jeremy leans in and sucks lightly over the pulse fluttering in my throat, the sensation sending a bolt of electricity straight to my clit.
“Like I told you before, I like my girl a little bratty. So go right ahead and disobey me, Ems. It’ll just make me tear those clothes off you faster and fuck you harder. Now, up.”
Spicy Emma might be his favorite Emma, but commanding Jeremy is my favorite Jeremy, so I stand up and pull my shirt over my head, taking my bra with it. With my eyes locked on Jeremy, I slide my hands up my torso to cup my breasts, pinching my nipples and rolling them between my fingers, sinking my teeth into my lower lip and letting out a throaty moan.
Jeremy literally bites his fist, and nothing could possibly be hotter. Without another word, I turn towards the staircase, pushing my sweatpants down and stepping out of them as I walk.
I hear the second he realizes I wasn’t wearing underwear.
His muttered “fuck” has me grinning all the way up the stairs.