28. Zach
28
ZACH
W itnessing Blake so overwhelmed broke my heart. I didn’t want her to struggle. I didn’t like the idea of her having a rough time. I couldn’t offer her much. I was nothing more than a discharged soldier, mostly jobless but with a savings. She wouldn’t take charity. I knew that well enough not to even think of offering. I was determined to support her and help her however I could, though.
Because as I carried her and welcomed her lazy but deep kisses, as though she wanted to savor every second of kissing me for as long as she could, I knew I’d never find another woman like her. I’d never come to the understanding that this was what love was supposed to be about. That this sensation of my heart beating so fast when she was near meant I cared about her far past the lines of “just sex”.
“I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you,” I told her after I closed and locked her bedroom door. George was home, and I didn’t need him to see what I wanted to do to his mother to show her that she was all I could ever dream of.
“Zach, no. That’s not true. I?—”
I cut her off with a kiss, not giving her a chance to argue what I felt to be so real and honest.
Leaning down to the bed with her, I began a slow, unhurried journey of getting her naked. I was eager to see her bare, all those soft, sweet curves exposed just for me. Her dusky nipples peaked for my attention. That succulent pussy dripping wet for me. Even though she was tired, she wasn’t slacking in getting my clothes off either. I tugged her clothes off, following with my mouth to kiss and taste every inch. Only pausing to kiss her or give her access to remove my clothes, I admired how sensual she was lying with me.
“Sweetheart,” I said as I stroked my hand down her side and settled my hand on her ass. “Look what you do to me.” Leaning up to stare down at her, breathing hard from making out, I thrust my dick against her to show her how hard she made me.
She grinned but reached up for the nightstand, slanting away from me. “Wait, let me shut off the light.”
“No, no, no.” I pulled her close to spoon her, rubbing my cock along her ass cheeks. “I want it on so I can see you.”
She rolled, facing me and kissing me. Instant desire took over, and I knew I wouldn’t last. I didn’t know how I'd lasted years with only a memory of her, but these last ten days felt like hell without her.
Without this. I pulled her leg up until it draped over my hips. Then I slid my fingers along her wet entrance, swiping her cream back to her rear hole. I hadn’t forgotten how wild she was for anal play, and as I rubbed that sweet rosette, she arched into me again.
“Oh, Zach…”
I smiled against her lips as I played with her. Circling that naughty hole, then with a little more cream, slipping my digit into her tight opening.
“Fuck me, sweetheart. Stuff your needy cunt with my dick and fuck me.”
She shivered, trembling as she crawled closer to get on top of me. After she lined up my dick, she sank down and sucked me in. The push against my finger deep into her ass proved how tight she was, and as I pistoned into her ass, I added another finger.
“Oh!” She faltered in lifting up, too distracted by the increased stretch. Instead of rocking on me, rolling her hips over me as I lay back for her to use my erection to ride on, I shifted her until she was on her back.
“I said I’d take care of you,” I corrected. I wasn’t going to let her do all the work.
She moaned as I pulled out my wet shaft from her tight pussy. Keeping my fingers in her ass, I guided her to get on her hands and knees. As I knelt behind her, I spun my fingers, earning a low moan of pleasure. “Shh,” I warned her.
Tilting forward, she rested her head on the bed and thrust that sweet ass in the air. I didn’t wait, sticking my dick right back in. As I pounded into her, I watched it all. My penis soaked with her juices as it disappeared into her. My fingers thrusting into her ass and stretching her. Between both holes being full, she was pushed to come hard, too soon. Muffling her cries in the pillow, she exploded for me. Her release snapped, and I didn’t stall to find my own. Keeping my fingers in her rosette, I slammed into her tight grip one more time and flooded her with my cum.
It was over too quickly. Every time I was deep inside her felt like it wasn’t long enough, but in the back of my mind, I resolved to correct that.
If I can count on doing this for the rest of my life… it’ll even out.
Because after we showered then cuddled in bed, I came to terms with the stark fact that I loved her. That I could see myself being here, content and at home.
If she wasn’t already asleep, it would’ve been a perfect time to tell her, but I wasn’t so greedy as to keep her up. She said she wanted to talk to me, and while I had a teeny suspicion that it might be about the possibility that I was George’s father, I knew that no conversations would be held while she slept.
In the morning. I vowed to score a few minutes to speak to her before she got too busy again.
When her alarms went off, though, she didn’t stir. She was that spent, perhaps from her busy life and the hot, if quick, sex last night.
“Hey, sweetheart,” I said quietly, rousing her a bit so she’d hear me. I didn’t have it in me to make her get up or have a difficult discussion. She clearly needed to sleep in still.
“Hmm?” She didn’t fully open both eyes, snuggling into the pillow and sighing against me.
Damn. I didn’t want to get up now either. I’d much prefer to cuddle with her all morning.
“I’m going to take George to school soon, okay?”
She nodded, sleepy but sort of cognizant.
“I’m heading there anyway to do some stuff for Cole, so I can take him.” I kissed her brow.
“Really? Thank you. I just want to sleep in for a few more minutes.”
I smiled, loving this sated, relaxed version of her. “I’ll set an alarm so you can get up to come see his class project.”
“Hmm-mmm.” She sighed, her eyes closing again.
Even though I’d come over after he was already asleep last night, George adapted to the change of plans. He was surprised to see me waking him up, but not unhappy about it. We got breakfast and readied to go, and on the drive to the school, he chatted about what he was most looking forward to over break. Today was the last day before they’d be off for three weeks.
“Will you build a snow fort with me?” he asked as I parked.
“Yeah. Sure will, kiddo.”
“Mama’s good at making snowmen, but her forts always collapse.”
I smiled, envisioning all three of us playing in the snow. Projecting myself into an image of familial and domestic bliss should’ve startled me, but it just felt so right. To be with Blake. With George. To stay in Vernford and be with them both for as long as I could.
As soon as I see her again. I had to talk to her about what seemed so obvious in my eyes.
After I saw George to his class’s line, I got inside to handle the list of tasks that needed to be done before all the class parties and the programs that would happen. I got into the roll of it all, working on autopilot as I cleaned and moved things. Blake was on my mind the whole time, and I used this chance to rehearse how I’d like to talk to her.
I love you was simple enough, but that was only part of what she had to hear from my lips.
Parents began to get in my way as I finalized more of the things I had to check off my list. Volunteers usually came through for a variety of things, but today, many of them were gathering in the library to set up for the program George would present in.
Pausing in moving one row of tables to the other side of the room, I listened in to what Reagan was saying now. She hadn’t glanced in my direction, perhaps not realizing I was there around an aisle of bookcases.
“I think they should make George go last,” she complained to another parent.
“Why?” the other woman said, her tone full of eagerness for juicy gossip.
“Because,” Reagan said. “He’s just the product of a mistake.”
“Wait, you know who his dad is?” the other parent asked after a gasp.
“It’s not like it isn’t obvious when you see them together,” Reagan said, “but yeah, I know.”
“Who?” The other woman would beg with enthusiasm. I peeked through a crack in the bookshelves to spot them setting out cupcakes and napkins on a table.
“Duh. Zach. I can’t believe he’d be such an idiot to fall for her a second time.” She huffed. “Ever since he came back into town, she’s been rabid for him.”
My heart raced. I’d wondered. I suspected. But to hear her say this with such finality pissed me off. To hear her gossiping about the woman I loved infuriated me. I turned, striding down the aisle to face her.
To her credit, she flinched a bit, likely surprised, but her usual bitchy mask of disdain settled right back in place.
“Speak of the devil,” she drawled.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked. I wasn’t denying her. All those little things had added up to make me wonder if George was the product of when Blake and I had slept together the night of her brother’s funeral. “How the hell can you say that?”
“That you’re George’s baby daddy?” She huffed again and rolled her eyes. “Rory was curious about who Blake slept with to have George. I told him not to focus on her if she used to be a slut and whored around. Once a slut, always a—” She opened her eyes wide and retreated a step as I glared at her and approached.
“Watch what you say about her.”
“Jeez.” She held her hands up. “Rory was curious about who her baby daddy is. Because if he was going to marry her, he wanted to know whose kid he’d have to pretend was his.”
Over my dead fucking body will he marry her. Or be in her life at all.
“So he did a DNA test and it matched with you.”
I narrowed my eyes, on edge. “Blake would never agree to a paternity test to appease him.”
“I didn’t say he did a paternity test, just a DNA one.”
I shook my head. “She wouldn’t agree to that for him.”
“She didn’t.” She crossed her arms, smug. “I asked Brent to take George’s water bottle, and he got enough spit off the cap.”
“You stole from him to do a DNA test without his knowledge?” I didn’t give a fuck if this was the library. I didn’t care who else was in here. No kids were yet. Just parents.
“Shut up. You’re making it sound like a bigger deal than it is.”
I ground my molars, so enraged that I vibrated with the force of the emotion. “You…”
“What, you didn’t know?” she taunted. “Then surprise, Baby Daddy. You’re welcome.”
“There couldn’t be anything to match to.” I’d never done one of those DNA tests. Everyone thought they were so popular, all the rave a few years ago, though.
She shrugged, glowering at me. “All I know is that George’s DNA matched whatever was in the database for the West family around here.” With one more scathing look, she added, “So, congrats, Daddy .”
I watched her turn and walk away, unseeing but stuck on zoning out. Others around us in the library moved, but I was too stuck in place to react.
George is my son.
I wasn’t shocked, not completely. I had wondered and suspected, and the thought was in my mind already. Hearing a confirmation of it was something else altogether. But surprise filtered through me, nonetheless, leaving me feeling raw and exposed. Vulnerable, even, as I grappled with how this news would change my life and my identity. It would twist and modify all that I could even imagine as a purpose to fulfill in my life.
I’m a father.