Chapter 28
“How long do we have?” he murmured into her hair.
Ethan lay on his back with his arm around Paisley. She had one leg thrown over his and she lay with her head on the pillow beside him, one arm slung across him, the other curled under her. She kissed his neck and shoulder, sighing.
“Emma said they’d bring her back around nine.”
He peered at his phone on the bedside table. “About forty minutes, then.”
She traced the heart tattoo. “She’ll fall asleep fast,” Paisley said. “So we’ll have more time together if we want it.”
“If? Not a question of if, babe. More like how much energy we have.”
She giggled. “That too. If I walk a little bowlegged tomorrow, do you think anybody will know?”
He skimmed his fingers along her spine, over her hip. Touching her was everything. “Mmm, maybe. Or maybe they’ll think you’ve got a backache.”
“I’ll tell them I did too much gardening.”
He chuckled. “That might work.”
She was quiet for a moment. “I’m scared of what could happen, Ethan. What he’ll do.”
He kissed her forehead and squeezed her to him.
“I know, Payz. I’m going to take care of you, though.
I’m staying with you and Violet every night.
We don’t have to tell her about us yet. I’ll sleep in the living room.
But I’m going to be right here. You won’t be alone.
I know Trey’s a scary motherfucker, but so am I.
He thinks to get to you, he’s gotta go through me. Promise you that’s not easy to do.”
“I know. B-but I worry about what he might do to you. If he knows we’re together. He might target you first.”
He heard the fear in her voice. He didn’t think anyone had ever been scared for him before. He gave her another squeeze. He didn’t want her to fear for him, but he wouldn’t lie to her about the risk.
“I expect he will. He’s not coming for you without reconnoitering the terrain, so he’ll know.
And I’d rather he targets me than you, if I’m honest. But don’t forget, babe—I’m not your only protection.
You’ve got six of us watching your back.
Six of us willing to do whatever we have to do to neutralize Trey McCann. ”
He wasn’t sure the others were as willing to kill Trey as he was, but so long as they incapacitated the fucker and made sure he didn’t get to Paisley and Violet, that was enough. Not that Ethan thought there was any real danger of Trey taking him out, but he didn’t dare assume the man wouldn’t try.
Just needed Seth to get a lock on Trey’s location. That would help. Trey could be in Destin again, or he could be the man in Paisley’s yard last night.
“I know, but you’re the one I want. The one I need. I can’t lose you again, Ethan. Not after everything.”
He growled and rolled her beneath him in one move, his hips between her legs, his cock hardening fast. “You aren’t losing me, babe. We’re never letting that asshole come between us again. I will fucking kill him before it happens.”
She shivered beneath him, but he didn’t know if it was desire or what he’d said. He wasn’t going to play it safe with her, though. Not like that. She needed to know that he wasn’t kidding when he said he would do whatever it took to protect her and Violet.
His gut clenched at the thought of the little blond girl. Mine. Mine, mine, mine.
It was a litany in his head as he pictured the three of them together.
A family.
Finally, a family.
Paisley reached up and caressed his cheek. He felt the moisture there as soon as she did it. All it took to make him cry was thinking of her and their daughter, of how lucky he was to have them in his life again. To get a second chance to make it right.
“Ethan,” she whispered. “I love you. So much.”
“You’re my world, Payz. You and Violet. That fucking fast. Or maybe not that fast. It’s always been this way. I just didn’t know about Violet until I met her.”
Her hands skimmed his sides, tickling and teasing at the same time. His dick grew painfully hard as she squeezed his ass in both hands. “Need you again. Please.”
He bent to suck her tight nipple into his mouth. “Still no finesse, babe. Just raw, animal lust.”
“I’m counting on it.”
He surged forward, filling her. He held still a moment, taking mental stock of what he needed to do not to come in the next minute, before he started to move.
Fast, hard strokes that bounced her tits and slapped their bodies together with grunts and groans and whispered words that escalated to loud ones.
Dirty words, sweet words. The kind of words you said in the heat of the moment and the kind you only said to the person you loved most in the world.
They were connected, not just with his cock buried deep in her pussy, but they were connected deep in their souls as well. Connected by love, shared bliss, and a child.
Connected.
That thing he’d been missing his entire life until her. Even without Violet, he was anchored to this woman for all eternity. Part of him had known it from the first moment she’d smiled at him. Mine.
He dropped his mouth to hers, tasted her lips, her tongue, the perfection between them as they moved together. Him pounding relentlessly, her opening and giving him more.
“Fuck,” he growled as the sensation started gathering at the base of his spine, tingling into his balls. “Gonna come, baby. Need you with me.”
He no sooner spoke than her body tightened like a bowstring and snapped free as she choked out a cry. Her pussy gloved him tight. That was all he needed to let go and plant himself deep. He came with a roar that ended only when his body was drained.
He rolled to his back and took her with him until she was sprawled across his damp body. The heat between them was an inferno, but they needed each other too much to separate.
“You’ve destroyed me,” she mumbled. “My pussy will never recover.”
He chuckled. “I was thinking you’d destroyed me. My dick’s gonna be sore from all the friction.”
“Mmm, delicious friction.”
“Yeah, it is.” He smacked her ass playfully. It was a soft smack, nothing hard. He would never do that to her unless she specifically asked for it. “We need to shower and get presentable, don’t you think?”
“Prolly.”
“Don’t go to sleep on me, Payz. No time for that.”
If things were normal, he’d ask Blaze and Emma to keep Violet overnight, give him and Paisley more time alone.
But things weren’t normal—and he wanted to see his kid.
He was scared to see her now that he knew, but he needed it too.
He just had to keep it together and not bawl like a fucking baby when she walked in.
“You’re right,” she sighed. “I just don’t want to move.”
“Neither do I.”
The ceiling fan whirled above them and soft music played from the speaker she had on the beside table. The room smelled like sex and sweat and her perfume. Intoxicating. Comforting.
She eventually pushed herself up and slid to his side so she could look at him, propping herself on an elbow. “We need to talk about Violet.”
“I’m listening.”
She frowned. “I don’t want to confuse her, Ethan.
She’s not fond of Trey, but she thinks he’s her father.
I-I need to know you’re okay with that right now.
If you want to know the truth, we’ll get the test. Regardless, we need to take it slow going forward.
She likes you, but she doesn’t really know you and she’s used to Trey being nice to her and then ignoring her.
I know you won’t do that, but it has to happen slowly. ”
Anger simmered low in his belly. Not for what she was saying, but the fact Trey treated an innocent little girl that way in the first place. Kids were filled with hope and joy. Why the fuck would anyone want to destroy that?
As if he didn’t know. It wasn’t always on purpose. Some people were just colossal dicks.
Ethan blew out a breath. Then he pushed himself up against the headboard until he was sitting. Paisley joined him, sitting cross-legged beside him. He took her hand and held it.
“I need to tell you something. I said I grew up in Brooklyn, and I did. But it wasn’t a happy existence in a house with a picket fence.
Or even an apartment building. I remember an apartment, or a series of them, all shitty, none lasting for long.
My sperm donor was an alcoholic who drank all our rent money away until we ended up on the streets. ”
Paisley squeezed his hand.
“I lived on the streets for years, in and out of shelters, constantly moving around. The sperm donor—” He couldn’t call him a father, not aloud anyway. “—left us, and my mom did her best. She, uh, didn’t end up in a good place. Drugs, pimps, the whole thing.”
“Oh, Ethan. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. It happened and it’s long over. I survived and I’m here. I lost my mom and my little brother to drugs years ago. I joined the Army because I was determined to be somebody. To do something important with my life.”
He forced down the knot in his throat. “I’m telling you this not so you feel sorry for me, but so you understand I’m capable of waiting for things to happen.
I was always making plans when I was a kid.
How to find Mom a job, how to get her off heroin, how to make the first and last month’s rent, how we’d live.
They were unrealistic plans, I know that now, but it kept me going.
I’d even plan which shelter to hit, which bridge to sleep under if the shelter wouldn’t take us.
I planned everything down to the second.
It’s what I excelled at in the military, too.
Making the plan. So when I tell you I can wait, that I can work on building a relationship with Violet and having her see me as her dad, I’m not telling you what you want to hear.
I can do it, Payz, because I love you and I love her and you’re both worth that wait to me. ”
“Ethan.” Her voice shook with tears. One slid down her cheek and he caught it, wiped aways the ones that trailed.
“Hush, baby. It’s okay. I see everything I want within reach. I’m not going to do a damned thing to ruin it.”
“I’m so sorry those things happened to you. No child should live that way.”
He lifted her hand and kissed it. “It’s in the past, and it made me who I am.
Do I wish I’d had a home and parents who were present and involved?
Yeah, I do. But I didn’t. If anything, it makes me more determined to be a good father to Violet.
I want to marry you, Payz. One day, when your divorce is final and you’re ready.
I’ll settle for living together if you don’t want to make that commitment again, though.
All I need is you and Violet in my life and I’m good. It’s enough.”
She was crying. “I want that too.”
“Don’t cry, baby. It’s gonna be alright. You and me and Violet. We’re gonna be a great team.”
“I know that. I just—” She sniffed and wiped her face, then tried to smile. It wavered. “I never expected this. When I saw you again at the Dawg, and the look on your face before you walked out, I was sure you would never speak to me again.” She waved a hand around. “And now look at us.”
“Yeah, look at us.” He waggled his eyebrows to get her to smile. “Naked, sated, but still horny as fuck.”
She shook her head and laughed. “Probably. I mean, okay, yes. I’m a little sore, but I’d do it again if I get to feel that way every time.”
He hooked a hand behind her head and went in for a kiss. It sparked, because of course it did, but they couldn’t indulge it and get ready to greet their daughter soon, too.
“Hold that thought, honey. Once Violet’s in bed and we’re sure she’s sound asleep, I’m planning to eat you until you can’t manage even one more orgasm tonight. Then tomorrow, I’m gonna do it all again.”