Chapter 24 #2
“Diminuendo,” I say, and the woman nods.
She leaves us alone in a small room with a table and a bag so we can remove anything we want from the box.
Tommy unlocks it and eases off the lid.
Inside, we find Dad’s old passport. His wedding ring, which makes me sad because of the way our mother abandoned our family. I don’t think Dad ever completely got over that. I shuffle things around and find something sparkly—a woman’s ring.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“Granny’s wedding ring,” Tommy says. “I used to play with it, spinning it around on her knobby finger.”
I barely remember our dad’s mother, because she died when I was five. Tommy was eight at the time.
There are a couple of other pieces of jewelry in the box—a diamond tennis bracelet, and a pair of earrings with blue stones that might be sapphires.
“Those were also Granny’s,” Tommy explains. “I wonder if Dad was saving them to give you someday.”
“If he was, it seems weird he’d just leave them here.”
Tommy shrugs. “He was probably worried we’d sell them.”
“I totally would’ve sold some of this to pay off the debts,” I admit.
Tommy’s expression is grim. “You know I would’ve lost it all in Ruberetta’s games.”
“What do we do with it now?” I ask. “We’re no longer desperate for money. It’s…sentimental, right? Just like you guessed.”
“You can have everything in here,” he says. “I just want one thing.”
I look into his beautiful blue eyes, which are just like our dad’s. “You want Granny’s ring.”
He nods. “I want to propose to Gianna. I love her, Ella. I love her and Owen so goddamn much.”
I hand him the ring with a happy heart. “She’s going to say yes. I’m so thrilled for you, Tommy.”
* * *
Kingston
I’m sitting in my home office, reading through some non-urgent emails from Kristin and Grant, when an excited squeal reaches my ears.
Shit, she got home before I expected her to.
“Bash!” I call as I rush into the living room.
Ella’s standing next to the baby grand that Bash and I had delivered this morning. The piano delivery people just left, in fact, after bringing up the instrument in pieces, re-assembling it, and tuning it.
Tears stream down Ella’s cheeks, and she’s absolutely radiant .
“There’s a fucking piano in here,” she says, pointing.
Bash rushes in from the studio, where he’d been tinkering. “We thought you’d take longer on your errand,” he says.
“Why is there a piano?” she asks, pointing to it again.
I chuckle. “Why do you think?”
“You guys just bought me a car.” She shakes her head in disbelief. The daytime collar around her neck catches the light streaming through the windows. “Now there’s a piano. What are you going to get me next, a pony?”
“Do you want a pony?” Sebastian asks, fingers twitching like he might get his phone out and start researching.
“No, I don’t want a pony.” Ella runs her fingers over the lid covering the keyboard. Carefully, she eases up the lid and stares misty-eyed at the black and white keys beneath it. “I love it,” she whispers.
“Good, because I think the delivery guys would cry if we made them take it away again,” I say, laughing.
She laughs, too, even though she’s still crying a little.
“Are you okay, little girl?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “I want to hug you, but I don’t want to stop touching the piano.”
“Easily solved.” Chuckling, I stride forward until I stand directly in front of her. She’s wearing shorts and a flimsy, flowered tank top. She looks so wholesome and beautiful. And of course, she looks sinful and fuckable, too.
She wraps an arm around me, and I pull her tight. Sebastian comes over and hugs her from behind, tucking his head against her shoulder before planting a kiss on her neck.
Ella’s quick intake of breath is all I need to guess that he used some teeth in that kiss.
“I think we’re going to fuck against this piano,” I say, squeezing Ella’s hip.
We haven’t had an intense lovemaking session since before everything went down—I’ve been recovering, and while the three of us have messed around, we haven’t really indulged in each other.
“Those are some very naughty words, Daddy,” she says.
“You’re right,” I say. “I shouldn’t say such things in front of my proper, decent little girl.”
She blinks up at me through her eyelashes. “I want to be a good girl, Daddy.”
My dick gets even harder. I grab her chin in my hand and tilt her head back so she faces me fully. “A good girl wants to make her daddies happy, however they want.”
“But sometimes…” She worries her bottom lip between her teeth and closes her eyes as if she’s completely embarrassed. “Sometimes you want to do things that are dirty, Daddy.”
“Fuck yes, we do,” Bash says, biting her ear.
Ella gasps and grinds back against him.
“Oh, Ella,” I whisper. “You’re a good girl. And a good girl is going to please her daddies. Even if it makes her feel a little dirty, even if she thinks it might be oh, so wrong. Trust me, baby girl. It’s going to feel oh, so good.”
Bash wraps his hand in her hair and yanks her head back so I can more easily plunder her mouth with mine. I kiss and kiss, sweeping my tongue through her mouth, tasting her. She tries to keep me close, tries to thread her fingers through my hair, but I grab her hands and hold them still.
“No, little one. Let your daddies take care of everything.”
Her deep brown eyes are pleading as I spin her around and place her hands on the piano bench, forcing her to bend over. I unfasten her jeans and yank them down. Her panties come off next. They’re soaked—our poor little girl’s desperate for this.
Well, that makes three of us, then.
Bash and I take a moment to feast our eyes on our girl. Her bare ass is just so plump and gorgeous and spankable. She’s still wearing her tank top with the tiny flowers printed over it, which makes the view even more lewd.
She turns her head to look over her shoulder at us. “What, are you going to play rock, paper, scissors to see who takes me first?”
“Sassy little brat,” Bash says, giving her a lazy swat. “I think you need a good spanking before we take this any further.”