21. Blake
21
BLAKE
I shouldn’t have caved.
I shouldn’t have let his growled questions get to me. His heated looks. Under no circumstances was I supposed to lose common sense and end up naked on my dining room table with my crush eating me out.
We’d just fucked last night. All night. It wasn’t right to expect more. To need more. I should’ve been sated and content with the orgasms we'd shared.
But I wasn’t.
As he put pressure on my clit, sucking it then rubbing it with his tongue, I came. Splintering apart and crying out loud, I came so hard on Zach’s face. He moaned, lapping up my cream as my pussy reacted to his expert tongue and mouth. I was putty in his hands, lowering mine as I lay back on the table. The cool surface chilled my shoulder blades as I reclined, but that wasn’t why I trembled. That wasn’t why I struggled to come down from the high of exploding for this man.
“Is that what you were wishing for?” he asked, not moving from his seat. His voice was ragged and gruff, and hearing the low need in it teased me to want it again.
“Yeah.” I stared at the ceiling, stunned by how forcefully he’d made me come.
I felt shaky and torn up in the best way, but as he continued to stroke his fingers up and down on the outside of my pussy, I moaned at the comfort and thrill of his touch. His fingers dipped lower, though, near my rear hole, and I sat up.
He watched me, seeming intrigued by my reaction. As he lifted one hand to drag the back of it over his mouth and chin, clearing away my juices, he slid his finger further to circle me there. “Anything else on that wish list?”
I opened and closed my mouth, too shocked and shy to say.
“Blake?” he asked, low and firm as he circled the spot where my nerves lit up all over again.
“I… I just came.”
He shrugged, unzipping his pants and lowering them. His dick stood up, hard and thick. While he wrapped his fingers around the shaft and stroked himself, he continued to finger my ass and stared at me. “You came for the first time tonight, Blake. What else do you want?”
“I…” I couldn’t. I could not say.
“Tell me,” he begged. “Do you want me”—he nudged around my hole, causing me to gasp—“here?”
Shame warred with need. “I’ve never…”
He groaned as he pumped his dick slowly. “We can go slow, sweetheart.”
I tried to swallow, my mouth suddenly dry as he moved his finger up to gather some of my cum. Then when he used it to play at stretching my rear entrance, I panted.
“I’ve always wondered. And… and…”
“Tell me what you want, sweetheart.”
That was twice he’d used that endearment. Both times got to me. I leaned back, pushing my ass toward him and sucking in another inch of his finger. The burn seared me, but after the sting passed, I reveled in the pleasure. “I want…”
He stood, letting the chair fall to the floor.
“This?” he guessed, fingering my ass.
“Yes,” I whispered. Propping my feet on the edge of the table, I lay back again and kept my legs apart. “I want it,” I replied.
It looked like I was doing this, living out my dirtiest desires and going for my secret fantasies with my crush.
“And I want that,” I said as the tip of his dick nudged at my pussy.
He leaned down to gather me in his arms. “Then hold on and take it.”
He sat again, with me locked in his embrace. I clung to him, my hands on his shoulders, my thighs draped over his. His thick dick slid into me, stretching me and pushing against the pressure of his finger in my ass. The second he closed his mouth on my nipple, I screamed.
“Fuck! Zach. Oh, my God. Oh, my?—”
He thrust into me. First, he kept his finger in my ass steady, just wedged in that taboo hole as he pounded into my pussy, his lips and teeth tugging on one nipple and then the other. Next, he had me impaled on his cock as he pistoned his finger into my ass.
Between the two, I was desperate to come. So was he. He growled, wrenching his mouth off my breast to stare at where we were joined. I held on to his shoulders for leverage as he thrust into me harder.
“I’m going to come. Fuck. Blake! I’m going to come.”
I nodded, so lost to this wild need. “Then come. Fuck me, Zach. Fill my pussy.”
He slammed into me and roared as he came. That big, long dick twitched within me, and at the same time, with a couple more strokes of his finger in and out of my ass, I burst apart for him again, milking him dry.
“Fuck. Fuck , Blake. That was…” He exhaled a long, spent breath as he hugged me close. “ Fuck .”
I laughed lightly, too weak to react in any other way than this lazy, clumsy, relieved state of catching my breath. I was drunk on him, dizzy from coming twice, so hard. “Ditto,” I replied.
He chuckled, rubbing my back as I sat on his lap until we were both steady enough to get up and shower before falling into my bed.
In the morning, I wondered if he would be interested in one last talk about wishes. As awesome as it felt to come with him and experience the hottest moments of my life, I couldn’t be a glutton and expect it to continue.
I had to talk to him. I had to tell him about George.
It was shitty of me not to speak up before I had sex with him again, but in the heat of the moment, it just hadn’t happened.
Wanting a ride on his cock one last time, I hesitated at spilling the truth.
No. I have to. It’s the right thing to do…
I winced as I sat up, noticing that he wasn’t in bed with me. Huh. Maybe he’d left, and I could use that as another excuse for why I couldn’t tell him that he was my baby daddy.
You see, I wanted to tell him, but when the moment came for truth, he just wasn’t there. Whoops.
I rolled my eyes at my thoughts and put my robe on.
He hadn’t gone far, though. After I stepped out of my room, I heard a woman talking from the dining room.
“Then,” the small, distant voice said in a lecturing yet peppy tone, “you simply pull the bottom left corner up and secure it.”
“Simply?” Zach scoffed. “There’s no simple way to make paper elastic…”
I smiled, coming up behind the tall, rugged soldier as he stood at the dining room table where he’d fulfilled at least two of my fantasies. He hadn’t left. He just got up before me to watch YouTube tutorials on how to wrap strange-shaped packages. A short pile of gifts was stacked on one chair. Another taller pile waited on a different chair, more items to be wrapped.
“I see you chose the easier ones,” I teased as I came close.
He didn’t flinch or react with shock. With his senses and training to always be on alert, he likely heard me exit the bedroom. “None of them are easy.”
I walked closer, still smiling. “You didn’t have to do this.”
He turned to kiss me quickly, then resumed furrowing his brow as he focused on covering up the package of a small desk-top easel. “I sort of did. You said you didn’t have a lot of free time and wanted to scratch wrapping presents off your list. Then I convinced you to be derailed with some dirty but fucking perfect kind of fun.”
Is that all it is, though? Just a fun pastime to you? I shoved aside those thoughts. I had no right to yearn for more from him. I sniffed, smelling the coffee and deigning not to remark on what he said. “You made coffee?”
“Can’t function without it. Hand me that tape, please.”
I did, then got a mug of coffee to join him.
“You’re terrible at this,” I teased a little while later.
“Only as terrible at this as you are,” he replied in kind. He stood and arched his back, then rubbed his shoulder.
“Is it bothering you?”
“What?” His deep blue eyes pierced me.
“Your shoulder?”
“Nah.” He got back to the wrapping effort. “Sometimes, but I’m learning how to adjust.”
“You’re learning how to adjust to your shoulder’s strength? Nothing else?”
“No. It’s all a work in progress. I don’t think I’ve been adjusting well.”
“Why should you? You’ve been in the military for so long. It’s what you know.”
He nodded. “But it’s no longer an option. I need to learn something else now.” Going a little further in depth, he explained that it was harder because this was what his dad had wanted. For Zach to be a military man like him. He wouldn’t admit that it felt like he was letting him down, if he were still alive, but like he’d failed to finish the mission.
“Where will you go after the holidays?” I asked, daring to pose such a direct question. His answer would help me know how to tell him he had a son. Whether he’d stay far from or close to Vernford.
“I have no clue. None.”
Then why go?
“George said he’d like to go to the North Pole,” he said, smiling. “We got to talking about where in the world Santa went, and he said he wanted to see Santa’s home.”
I couldn’t hide a smile as I finished my last gift and set it in the big black bag to hide back in the basement. “He’s so imaginative.”
“He is.” Zach wrapped the last thing from his pile and set it in another bag. As we carried them downstairs together, he kept talking. “It’s a strength, not a weakness. I was never the most creative or artistic kid, but I know its worth.”
“I agree. I let him choose his interests, and I’m happy that he’s always gravitated toward artsy things.”
“Unlike Brent,” he said with a wry smirk.
“That boy…” I growled as we walked back up after putting the bags back into the crawl space. “He’s been a bully from the moment he met George. I can’t wait for George to move up a grade or test out and be in a higher, elevated class.”
“They do that?”
I nodded as I started to tidy the wrapping things. “For gifted kids, yes. George is creative and artsy, but he’s book smart too.”
“Like you?” he asked with a smile.
“Well, I’m not sure about the creative or artsy part.”
“You are smart, though.”
I sighed, watching him help clean up. It was no longer weird to look up and see him pitching in. The more used I got to his being here, domestic like this in my house, the more I wanted to see him stay here.
“What happened to your plans to start your own restaurant?” he asked.
“George happened,” I answered bluntly. “But also, I can’t bring myself to make the move. I can’t open another restaurant in town and have a catering service that would compete with Jenny.”
“Is it just the small town market sense that’s holding you back?” he asked, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets. Without a shirt on, he was a constant tease. Instead of melting and falling into another lust spell, I tried to keep my mind on our conversation too. It wasn’t just sex. I liked this easy companionship as well—or the easier parts when I didn’t let the guilt creep in about how I’d kept his son from him.
“Yes. Jenny can’t pay me any more than she does now. She treats me like a partner, but she can’t make money grow on trees. It’s a limited revenue that suits the demand of Vernford. If I wanted to make more, I’d need to move to where there is a more competitive job market. I can’t compete against Jenny here in Vernford.”
“Have you told her this?” he asked.
“No. But I’ll need to prepare her for when I’d need to leave. I wouldn’t even consider it if it weren’t to provide for George and handle debt better. This is home. I don’t want to leave. But then again, if and when I did move us, George wouldn’t have to deal with Brent anymore. I wouldn’t have to deal with Reagan anymore.”
He joined me in the kitchen as we topped off our coffee. “Does she bother you much?”
“No. Yes.” I shrugged. “She bothers me in the sense that she doesn’t see an issue with her son bullying mine.”
“She’s not mean to you, though?”
I sighed, watching him as he sipped his coffee. “I don’t care what she says to me.”
“You shouldn’t. She’s a mean, spiteful person.” He set his coffee on the counter then put his hands on the edge. With his arms straight, he caged me in. “In high school, she kept chasing me and bugging me.”
Licking my lip and trying to resist the urge to kiss him this close, I nodded. “Yeah. I remember. Then she broke your heart.”
He rolled his eyes, stepping into my space. Gazing into my eyes, he cupped the back of my head and stroked his thumb over my cheek. “No, she didn’t. She might think she did, but as soon as I heard that she’d cheated on me, I was done. She was nothing to me.”
“I think she’s the only one who hasn’t gotten that message.” I shivered under his rough but gentle touch.
“Hmm.” He sighed, staring at my lips for a second. “She approached me at Kevin’s funeral,” he said. “That was why I went outside. Where I happened to find you.”
And the rest is history. “I guess I should thank her for pushing you to escape, then.”
He smiled slowly.
I was thankful in ways he couldn’t know. Because we hooked up that night, George was born. I would never regret my son. He was the light of my life. Just like his daddy was the bane of my existence and forever a temptation I didn’t want to steer clear of.
He leaned down, kissing me soundly until I sighed at the separation of our lips, wet and hot from the sweet and tender action.
“And I?—”
Impatient knocks banged on the front door, cutting him off. I flinched, and he tightened his hold on my head. We both turned toward the sound. Through the windows to the screened-in wraparound porch, I saw the angry scowl Rory wore.
“What the fuck?” He moved back toward the door and banged his fist.
“Dammit,” I muttered.
Zach frowned down at me. “What’s he doing here?”
“Probably popping over as he sees fit to harass me and ask why I won’t give him a second chance. To bug me to date him again even though I’ve told him no.”
Taking his delicious body heat with him, Zach stepped away to open the door. Over his shoulder, he asked, “Has he done this before?”
I followed him, tying my robe tighter around me. “Once or twice. I really just wish he’d give up.”
Because the longer I soaked up Zach’s presence and wanted him to stay, the less I wanted to even think about any other man ever being in my life. It was stupid. Foolhardy. Zach hadn’t stuttered when he said he’d be gone after the holidays. Yet, the heart wanted what it wanted. And mine beat for him.
“He’s going to give up now,” Zach growled as he strode toward the door and opened it.
Rory burst in, or tried to. Zach stayed between me and this cocky idiot.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He sneered at Zach, but he wasn’t brave enough to do more than look tough, puffing out his chest. “I saw you kissing her. You think you can just come home and move in on my woman?”
I cringed, hating that label.
If any man were to claim me, it’d be Zach. Not as my baby’s father, but also as my sweet, wicked lover.
I wanted to be his sweetheart like he’d said in the heat of the moment.
I wanted to be his wish come true.