CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Danica
“I’m fine, Mom,” Sam said Sunday night after all the dinner dishes were cleared and we were sitting around Gabrielle’s table with full bellies from such an amazing Easter dinner. “It’s the start of spring break anyway. No school tomorrow, remember?”
I snapped my fingers. “Right. I totally forgot.”
She rolled her eyes. “Go have your sleepover.”
My cheeks grew warm as eyes around the table fell on Tom and me, sitting next to each other, his arm draped casually around the back of my chair. He’d periodically play with my hair, and I loved it.
I had yet to get over the surrealness of the entire thing. Me with a boyfriend. And not just any boyfriend; a handsome, caring, compassionate, patient man who gave me orgasms like it was his sole purpose in life.
“I don’t have to,” I said again.
“Just go. But remember to come back and get me tomorrow. I promised Raven and Midnight I’d be back tomorrow.”
Damon, Gabrielle’s son, snorted. “I don’t think they’ll know.”
Sam faced her cousin, eyes serious. “Oh, they’ll know. And I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Most of the adults chuckled.
The kids excused themselves from the table, and the men all went into the kitchen to tidy up.
It was actually really great sitting at the table with my cousins while Tom, Maverick, and Jagger joked and chatted between themselves as they washed and dried.
It was male bonding in such a normally female-dominated environment, and we were all really happy just to sit back and spectate while drinking our wine.
“Guess you haven’t had much need for that package that arrived on your doorstep on Friday, huh?” Gabrielle asked, her amber eyes glittering with mirth. “Considering you’re over there every morning for his package.”
I gave her a look. “Keep your voice down.”
“They’re busy talking away in there.” She waved her hand to dismiss me.
“And we’re all adults,” Raina added. “Adults who were sexually repressed for way too many years, and are now making up for lost time.”
“Except me,” Naomi chimed in. “I’m not making up for lost time.”
“Because you have your friend with benefits and have for a few years,” Gabrielle replied.
Naomi shook her head. “Nope. Not anymore. He left in June last year and moved to the mainland. Remember?”
We all shook our heads.
She was, of course, referring to the eleventh grade science teacher at the high school, Killian McIntosh.
He and Naomi had a very casual affair for a couple of years.
It was all about scratching itches with none of the feels.
Or so Naomi said. And I was inclined to believe her, because if there’d been any feelings involved, she would have told us it had been over ten months since she last saw him.
She wasn’t one to normally keep that stuff to herself.
“Nobody new floating your boat?” Raina asked.
Naomi frowned. “Nope.”
“Well, now that Danica’s with Mr. Moneybags in there, we need to work on finding you a man.” Raina sipped her wine. “Slim pickings on the island, I’m afraid. Danica grabbed the last eligible bachelor, and Gabs had to go with an import model.”
“We can hear you, you know,” Maverick said with a smirk in the kitchen, a tea towel slung over his left shoulder. “Though, I’m fine being compared to a car. As long as it’s something sexy like an Audi or a sleek BMW.”
My cousins and I all rolled our eyes.
“I told you that you needed to keep your voices down,” I lectured.
More eye rolling.
The men finished in no time, then joined us in the dining room. Tom’s hand found my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. I glanced up at him. “Ready to go?”
“Only if you are, bella.”
“I am. I’ll just let Sam know I’m going.” I got up from the table and went to find my child in Laurel’s room. “Now, you’re sure you’re okay with my leaving?” I asked her again, my hands on her shoulder.
“I’m fine. Laurel, Honor, and I are having a sleepover. Aunt Gabrielle said that we could maybe bake cookies later tonight.”
“And if not, definitely tomorrow,” Laurel added.
“See,” Sam said. “All good. Go snuggle and kiss Tom, or whatever grown-ups do.”
“Maverick bit my mom’s neck one time when they were kissing,” Laurel said, making a disapproving face. “Left a bite mark. It’s so weird.”
“Grown-ups are weird,” Honor added. “If my husband, or boyfriend, or whatever bit me, I’d bite him back—harder. So he knew never to do it again.”
Sam and Laurel both nodded in agreement. Meanwhile, I’m sure my face was the color of a tomato. It was certainly warm.
“Anyway,” I said, leaning forward to press a kiss to Sam’s forehead, “I’ll message your aunt when I’m on my way back to pick you up.”
“Not too early,” Sam said with a pout.
I didn’t plan on leaving Tom’s bed at the crack of dawn, let alone at a reasonable hour. And I knew for a fact that he wouldn’t let me. But I simply nodded, kissed her again, and said my goodbyes.
“Ciao, piccola,” Tom said to Sam, since she had followed me out and to the door.
“Love you,” she said to him, a sassy grin on her face.
“Love you too.” He winked at her.
My cousins all exchanged bewildered expressions among themselves, but I chose to ignore them and instead, just waved goodbye and followed my handsome footballer out the door.
We stopped by my place to grab my overnight bag, but I didn’t even make it four steps into my foyer before he had the door closed and my body pressed up against the wall, his lips devouring mine.
“Bella, we have not consummated this relationship on your bed yet. Does it squeak terribly? Is that why?”
I snorted as his mouth traveled down my jaw, my neck, and back up to my mouth. “No, it doesn’t squeak. Your bed is just better.”
“Let us see this,” he said, grabbing my hand, toeing out of his shoes and carting me through the carriage house apartment toward my bedroom door.
It was easy enough to see which one was mine, which was the office, and which was Sam’s since all the doors were open.
When we reached my room, he picked me up at the hips, making me squeak, and plunked me on the bed.
Then he climbed over me, his forearms all sexy and veiny beside my shoulders as I reclined to my back.
“Let us see this not so good bed of yours.” Then he proceeded to bounce, mimicking a thrusting motion, his eyes narrowed in a serious, yet adorable way.
“No squeak. Good bounce. Your bed is good. Let us be here.”
My mouth twisted, and I glanced away. “I’m just … it feels weird being here. What if Sam walks in?”
“You are worried she will come home? She seemed pretty settled at Gabrielle’s.”
“But maybe she forgot something? It’s happened before.”
Still with a scrunched brow, he sat back on his heels, a noticeable bulge in his jeans. “Next day she is at school then? I will come here, and we will make this bouncy bed bounce?”
Chuckling, I reached for him, and he covered me again, resting a bit more of his weight on me this time. “Yes. After spring break is over and she’s back at school, the very first day, you can come over here and we’ll make the ‘bouncy bed bounce.’”
“Promise?” He held up his pinky finger.
This man was so full of surprises and green flags it was overwhelming and blinding in all the best ways. I linked my pinky through his and nodded. “Promise.”
Then he was back up, off the bed and on his feet, hauling me to mine as well. “Okay then. Andiamo. We shall go make my bed bounce then.”
I grabbed my overnight bag off the chair in the corner, our hands still linked together, then let him haul me toward the door.
But he paused when he passed the kitchen and the unopened package on the counter.
Why the hell hadn’t I put that away? Sam could have opened it.
Not that she would. She wasn’t that type of kid.
I’d just completely forgotten about it. I was too Zen from all the Tom-induced orgasms to worry about the self-induced.
“You have a package,” he said innocently. “Do you want to open it?”
“It’s fine,” I said, trying to push him toward the entryway. “I’ll open it later.”
“You sure?” His gaze narrowed again. “You are being strange.”
“I’m not being strange. You’re being strange.”
Releasing my hand, he reached for the package. “What is in here, bella?”
“Nothing. It’s a … it’s a …”
Oh shit.
I was an absolutely horrific liar. “It’s a toy!”
The knots in my stomach loosened a little, but not much. Not enough that I could pull in a full breath.
His brows shot toward his salt-and-pepper hairline. “An adult toy?”
“Yes. Okay? I told Gabrielle about my first orgasm, and she ordered me this. She doesn’t want me to get cramps in my wrist or fingers since I work on the computer so much.
But I’m going to send it back. I don’t need it.
I have you.” I flashed a big grin that was meant to convey how totally fine I was with this conversation, when in reality, I was anything but.
“There. You happy? Let’s go.” I tugged his hand, but like a damn redwood, he didn’t budge.
“Toys can be for two, bella,” he said plainly. “Grab it. Bring it with us.”
My jaw dropped. “What? No.”
With a weary sigh, as if I were behaving like some petulant toddler, he picked the package up off the island again and tugged me to the door. “Andiamo, bella. I’m sure this needs to charge.”
Even though inside I was mortified about this entire exchange, I’d be lying—which I was terrible at—if I didn’t say I was also kind of excited. And those excited giggles came on in full force by the time we reached his truck.