Chapter Twenty-Two
ADRIAN
Boston
Isobel was waiting outside my building, two duffel bags at her feet, completely absorbed in her phone when I turned the corner from where I’d parked my car.
“Hey there, sexy,” I whispered, pitching my voice low and letting my full accent bleed in while I snuck up behind her. “Howse about we take this upstairs? I’m sure yah boyfriend wouldn’t mind if I took yah for a spin.”
She jumped forward and spun with her arm cocked back, ready to smack her assailant across the face. But she settled for swatting my bicep and fixing me with an adorably terrifying glare.
“Ad, come on, seriously?”
“And that’s why you should always pay attention to your surroundings. You never know what kind of creep could sneak up on you.”
“Oh, I know exactly what kind of creep snuck up on me,” she chuckled, and then her face suddenly sobered. “And now I don’t feel guilty about what I’m going to do to you tonight.”
“I know you meant for that to sound threatening, but if you’ve been reading what I’ve been reading, I’m fully supportive of you channeling your inner Domme.”
“Oh, how the tables have turned,” she laughed, watching me swipe my key card before leading her toward the elevator. “A few months ago, reading something like this would have been beneath you. Now you want me to tie you up and…”
“Hold that thought,” I whispered while the doors slipped closed. Wrapping one hand around her, the other supporting her head, I dipped her slightly, my mouth descending on hers with a ferocity that even surprised me.
“What was that for?” she whispered when I leaned back, her hands falling to my chest. “Not that I’m complaining, but…”
“I know I’ve not always been the easiest person to work with.” The smirk that formed on her kiss-swollen lips made me want to shut her up again with my mouth. “Yeah, point made. But thank you for giving this a chance between us. I’ve never been so simultaneously frustrated and charmed by a woman before.”
“The feeling is mutual,” she murmured, stroking her fingers along the side of my face.
“Getting put in my place by you is a million times more exhilarating than doing just about anything with anyone else. And I’d like to keep doing it indefinitely.” I paused, swallowing hard. “If that’s alright with you.”
Her eyes searched mine, emotions changing with each flutter of her lashes. Hopeful, worried, vulnerable…
“I know I haven’t given you a lot of reasons to trust I can behave myself, but I’m trying.”
Before she could respond, the elevator stopped, the doors opening to one of my elderly neighbors impatiently waiting in the doorway.
We pulled apart and awkwardly shuffled past her into the hallway, Isobel smiling up at me as we heard a raspy voice call out behind us. “At least it doesn’t smell like a brothel in here this time.”
By the time we made it to my door, we were both shaking with laughter. “Wow, called out by the elderly,” Isobel laughed, smiling up at me. Every time she genuinely smiled at me, it made my insides light up with hope she felt the same way. Hutch would tell me I needed to turn in my man card, but I hadn’t been lying when I said I was enchanted by her. Reality was so much better than the fantasy.
“I would tell you it was the first time I got my balls busted by an old person, but you’ve met Pops.”
“Pops is one of my favorite people. You’re really lucky to have him in your life.” Knowing that and hearing it confirmed made me feel guilty. I’d been so wrapped up in Isobel that I’d not been able to stop by the house as much as I used to. Pops would be thrilled I hadn’t fucked things up with Isobel, but his lucid days wouldn’t last forever.
“You should come by the house for dinner next weekend. I know Ma would like to meet you.” She’d told me as much on the phone last week, but part of me was still worried that Isobel would tire of me. I didn’t want my family to get attached to her and then have her dump me. Especially Pen. She’d love her, and with her tenuous relationship with her mother, I knew it’d be easy to get attached to a woman who was strong, sarcastic and loving.
“That sounds like something you’d ask a girlfriend to do,” she replied, her eyes guarded.
Unlocking the door, I ushered her inside, dropping my bag by the door. Quickly taking her bag and tossing it with mine, I turned her around and grasped her by the hips, lifting her and carrying her the short distance to my desk.
Once I had her settled on the edge, I leaned down and kissed her softly, loving that she didn’t hesitate to return my kisses.
“Is that something you’d be up for, being someone’s girlfriend?”
She paused, searching my face, her eyes tracing over me. “You’re going to stick around, aren’t you?”
Smiling, I leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Gettin’ rid of me isn’t an option, Is. You’re definitely stuck with me.”
“I hope you mean that,” she whispered back, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes .
“Hey.” Cupping her cheeks, I leaned in to kiss her forehead. It wasn’t like her to seem this overwhelmed by something. While I could still tap into my inner asshole when I wasn’t consciously trying to unmask it, I hoped I hadn’t done something to question my utter devotion to her. Being a boyfriend wasn’t something I’d done in a long ass time, but I thought I was doing a decent job of it, just without the official title. “What’s goin’ on in that head? We alright?”
Nodding slowly, she leaned back, bracing her hands behind her on the desk, putting space between us I didn’t like. But I wanted her to know I could listen to her, so I took a step back, ready to talk about whatever was bothering her. Distracting her with kinky sex would be fun, but it wouldn’t erase that look from her face either.
“I don’t want to sound needy,” she sighed, “But I need to know I can rely on you before I ask you this.”
“Of course, babe. You know I’ve got your back. Lay it on me.”
“Would you...” she trailed off. Whatever this was, it was making her hesitate.
I had a feeling this had something to do with the conversation Sloane had with the other department heads earlier in the week. The management structure would be changing after the copy-editing intern promotions were decided. We hadn’t really talked about it, but one of us, or both, would lose our interns, and even I recognized her viper had the potential to be a great genre head. It’d be weird to think of her as a peer, but I could keep my tongue if I had to.
“If this is about Sam and Kristine,” I started.
“No.” She shook her head, breaking eye contact to stare at my chest. “This is about me.”
“I’m not worried about anything happening at the office, Is. Sloane told us about her plans for the department.”
“It’s not that either,” she murmured. “Although she told me to keep quiet about the details of my future there until they have the contracts drawn up. ”
Tilting her head back, I waited until she made eye contact with me. “I’m fuckin’ proud of you. You deserve whatever she offers you. Don’t be worried about me.”
She smiled, some of the hesitation draining out of the way she looked at me. “Thank you.”
“Now tell me what’s really bothering you.”
“I want to have a baby.” Her voice was quiet, but she didn’t avert her gaze this time, watching my reaction with guarded hope in her eyes.
If any other woman had uttered those words, I would have been formulating an excuse to get her out of my apartment, but not with Is. As I contemplated her confession, images of the future ran through my mind. I could see it—us going for it and starting a family together. I couldn’t imagine doing it with anyone else. It was a little sudden, but it’s not like we were twenty-five. We could do this.
“What are you waiting for?” I asked, knowing this was clearly something she wasn’t just saying on a whim.
“I don’t know. At this point, I’m probably too old to even try. And I don’t know how easily I’ll get pregnant. Two miscarriages and a year’s worth of negative tests make it hard to believe being a mom is something that will ever be in the cards for me. The last time I tried, it ended in divorce.”
A little line formed between her eyebrows, but I already knew that she’d been married before. The rumor mill in the office was thriving, and when I’d started, there were whispered conversations about her reverting to her maiden name.
“What do you need from me? I still don’t see this changing things between us. You don’t need to worry about me not wanting you.” The frown deepened, her head tilting back, but I grasped the sides of her face, forcing her to look at me. “I’m not gonna deny you something you want this much, Is.”
“With the changes that might be coming and an increase in travel and learning a new dynamic in the office, I don’t know if I’ll have time. ”
“Those sound like excuses from someone who is scared.” Her eyes flared with annoyance, but she wasn’t going to use this to push me away.
“I’m not…”
“Don’t lie to me, Isobel. What do you want?” I could see the raw hunger in her eyes. And the more the idea of it sunk in, the more I wanted it too.
“I want what my parents have. I want a family.” She rarely talked about her family. I knew she’d felt isolated from them being halfway across the country, but I could tell she still loved them, even if they didn’t understand her need to follow her dreams professionally.
“Then what do we need to get there?”
Her chest heaved, clearly catching my intentional use of the word we . I wasn’t kidding when I told her she wasn’t getting rid of me.
“I already had some tests done. They didn’t see any reason why I wouldn’t be able to get pregnant or stay pregnant. I don’t know for sure, but I think my problems previously were with my ex, not me. He, uh... He adopted a baby recently, and...”
And she realized she might not be what was keeping her from having a child when she was married to him.
It was weird, thinking of her with someone else. There wasn’t any question now that she was mine. And the thought that she could still be married and have kids with another man gutted me in a way that confirmed what I wanted to do to make this happen for her. For us.
“So, what are the next steps then? Time for a turkey baster?” I joked, trying to get a smile out of her.
“Not exactly.” She rolled her eyes, but she looked more relaxed as she talked to me. “I’d need to investigate donor options and IVF and probably taking hormones… I don’t know if I… I don’t know if you...”
“Stop trying to talk yourself out of it. And you don’t need any of that. You’ve got me.” I was volunteering as tribute. There wasn’t any way I would let her do this without me. If Isobel had a child, it was going to be mine. And if it didn’t happen the conventional way, I’d still want to be there for her—for them.
“Be serious for once. You don’t want to have a baby with me.”
“You don’t know what I want,” I replied, grasping her waist and pulling her toward me. She was tense at first, but then melted into my touch as my thumbs traced the sides of her stomach. “You forget I’ve been there. I’ve been that kid without a dad and a single mom who worked her ass off to give me a good future.”
“That doesn’t mean we should have a baby together, Adrian.”
“Then maybe the way I feel about you might need to be factored in.” We hadn’t talked about feelings or where this was going yet, but I tried to show her constantly that this wasn’t some fleeting interest in her.
“And how do you feel about me?”
That answer was easy. “I feel like you’re one of the strongest women I know, and you don’t put up with my shit. And even though you hate half the things that come out of my mouth, I’m enchanted by most of the things that come out of yours.”
“We barely know each other. You don’t want to have a baby with a woman you barely know.” She was trying to use this to push me away, likely protecting herself, but she didn’t need to. Barely knowing her wasn’t an excuse I was willing to take. We both knew that was a lie, anyway.
“Men with faulty condoms all over the country do the same damn thing every day.” As her jaw set, her usual annoyance with me flaring, I smiled, knowing she was about to lay into me.
“That is… I don’t… do you even try to filter the comments that come out of your mouth?”
With how guarded she was being, I knew making her angry would finally get her to talk to me, even if it was to yell at me for being a dick again. “All I heard of that sentence was come and mouth. ”
“See. This is exactly what I’m talking about. You’re a man child. You take nothing seriously. Why would I want to procreate with you?”
“Because despite my lack of filter, you somehow still like me.”
“Do I?” she taunted, but I could see she was onto me.
“Well, you at least like my mouth for more than its talking ability. But that’s not the part of me you need to knock you up.”
“Whatever.” Isobel blushed. “I’d still need to get my IUD removed. That would be the first step.”
“Then make an appointment and find out what we need to do to make this happen.” I’d even go with her if she wanted me to, hold her hand while they did whatever they needed to do. “If having a baby is what you want, then it’s what I want too.”
“It’s that simple?” She still looked a little skeptical, but there was relief there, too. While she didn’t outright ask, I knew she wasn’t bringing this up because she wanted to kick me to the curb. She wanted to include me in this. And I wasn’t hesitating, which I knew freaked her out a little, but too fuckin’ bad.
“Yes, it’s that simple. You know you don’t want to do this with anyone else. You wouldn’t have brought it up if you did. But you’re more than welcome to kick the tires before you buy the car.”
“All that comment needed was a smarmy wink and an elbow nudge,” she laughed.
Obnoxiously, I turned and lightly pressed my elbow into her stomach, making an exaggerated wink. She tried to hold in the laughter, wanting to be annoyed with me, but she knew I was a charming fucker.
“That better?” I asked, leaning in to kiss her forehead, peppering tiny kisses down her cheek, loudly smacking one on her lips before I wrapped her in a hug.
“You’re incorrigible,” she mumbled into my shoulder, but I wasn’t letting her go .
“I’ve been told it’s one of my more endearing qualities.”
“Whoever told you that is a bigger idiot than you are,” she whispered.
Leaning back, I kept my arms around her waist, looking into her eyes as I teased her again. “I’ll let my Ma know that the next time she calls.”
Her eyes flashed with panic, but I soothed her with another quick kiss, reaching up to play with a strand of her hair. “Don’t you dare—”
“I won’t. But she’s gonna love you, babe. And once I tell her you want to have my babies, she’ll love you even more. She keeps telling Pops she wants more grandbabies.”
She shook her head, leaning away from me. “Can we keep this between us until I’m actually…? I don’t want to tell anyone and then have it not work out.”
“Whatever you need, but I have a good feeling about this.” Bringing my hand to her flat stomach, I affectionately tapped my palm against her. “But once you start showing, I’m tellin’ everyone I knocked you up with my baby.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t tell people at the office. They’ll think I trapped you with the rumors about us sleeping together, and I don’t...” she whispered, but I wasn’t letting her finish that thought.
“Isobel, stop. People who work together have relationships all the time. I’m not sneaking around anymore. Hell, I’d move you in here tomorrow if I thought you’d agree to it. If we’re going to do this, I’m all in. And I need to know you are, too.”
If I thought she’d agree to it, I’d have a ring on her finger too. But I’d give her some time to get there. We were doing things completely out of order, but that seemed to be what we did.
“Are you in this with me?”
“I don’t want you to be doing this for the wrong reasons.” She really had no idea how into her I was. She wasn’t ready for me to tell her I loved her, but I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t already a goner .
“Nothing about this feels wrong. I want you in my life, Is. And I want this too. The thought of you having my baby feels like it was always meant to happen. Maybe that’s why you finally succumbed to my irresistible charm.”
“Not going to dignify that with a response, but I want this. And while I want to gag you half the time, I know you’d be a good dad.”
“Would I be a good boyfriend, too?” Circling back to earlier, I was ready to put a label on this. She needed to know for sure this wasn’t a fling.
“I guess. You’re not entirely terrible at this relationship thing.” If she wasn’t smiling when she said it, I’d be worried, but she couldn’t mask her affection as well as she thought she could. “And it helps that you seem to enjoy giving me orgasms.”
“Fuckin’ love it,” I confirmed, leaning in to kiss her. It started out slow and affectionate, but quickly morphed into something else, her hands frantically working to unbutton my shirt as I held her face to mine.
Deftly, her fingers pushed the buttons through the holes, making quick work of my belt afterward, then letting her soft hands roam all the skin she’d just exposed.
“Want to give you one right now. Hope someone is watching this window, because I’m gonna fuck you on this desk and have you coming on my cock.”
Her head arched back, a gasp escaping her mouth as I reached under the skirt she was wearing, ripping her panties down her legs. My fingers found her clit, and it didn’t take much to have her moaning while I supported her weight so she didn’t fall backward.
“I was supposed to be tying you up,” she panted, holding my head to her neck as I bit down, sucking on her collarbone hard enough to leave a mark.
“We’ve got all night.” Pushing my pants and boxers down far enough to free myself, I stroked my cock, lining it up with her drenched pussy. She was so wet I slipped right in, bottoming out and groaning at how good it felt. “Right now, we’re practicing something else.”
“Oh God,” she moaned, clinging to my shoulders as I thrust hard, the desk banging against the window frame.
“If you thought I was obsessed with your pussy before, just wait. I’m gonna fuck you all the time now. Fill you up.”
“Yes,” she hissed, reaching down to grab my ass and pulling me into her harder.
“Have you begging for it. The only thing swallowing my cum from now on is this pussy. You’re going to beg for it. I’m gonna have you so cock hungry you’ll finally let me fuck you on your desk. Every time you sit down, you’re going to be sore and thinking about when you’re going to have me next.”
“Oh fuck,” she wailed, her muscles clamping down. Her neck arched with her head thrown back as she released, coming all over my cock.
“Are you ready for it?” I whispered, thrusting faster, chasing my own release.
“Yes,” she panted, staring at my face, her eyes still dilated in pleasure.
“Tell me,” I commanded, cupping the back of her head.
“Oh God, do it.”
“Use the words, Isobel. What do you want from me?” Something primal in me needed her to say it.
“I want your come inside me,” she gasped, trying to fight my hold on the back of her head, but I held her still.
“Why? What do you want me to give you? What do you need from me?” Bringing the thumb to where we were joined, I thrummed her clit, holding back a groan as I felt her clench with every deep thrust.
“I need...” she panted, her eyes unfocused. She was so close. “I need you to...”
Deciding to take pity on the fact that forming a coherent thought wasn’t possible this close to an orgasm, I leaned in, biting her earlobe before I whispered what we both knew she wanted. “You want me to fill this cunt with my cum. You’re so desperate for me to put a baby in you that you need it. Admit it, Is. You think about having my cum inside you constantly. You crave it like I do. I need it like I need my next breath. Need you coming on my cock and taking everything I have to give you. Your greedy pussy making me explode inside you.”
“Fuck, yes,” she groaned in my ear, her back bowing while she shook in my arms.
That was all I needed to let go, thrusting in deep, listening to the way my desk slammed against the window frame. Part of me wanted this to leave a dent so I could look at it every time I worked from home and know that I’d claimed her on this desk.
“Holy shit,” I panted, tucking my face into her sweaty neck—her blouse sticking to my chest as I pulled her close. The urge to tell her I loved her was strong, but now wasn’t the time. I’d wait until I thought she was ready to hear it. Ready to accept that I didn’t want to get her pregnant because the thought of her doing it without me made me irrationally angry. I wanted it because I wanted it all with her.
“Well... this didn’t go how I thought it would.” Her quiet voice made me laugh, and I leaned back, smiling as she cupped my cheek.
“I’m still down with you tying me up. Just give me twenty minutes to get us fed first.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, her hands stroking the side of my head and sinking into my hair.
“You know I’d do anything you want,” I responded, meaning every word.
“I know.”
“Now let’s get you in bed while I make you dinner.”
She shook her head, but she didn’t argue.
Watching as my cock slipped out, I nodded at it, her eyes following mine. My fingers instinctively reached down, gathering up the cum leaking out of her and pushing it back inside, grinning as she laughed and then moaned when I rubbed my thumb against her clit.
“IUD isn’t out yet,” she teased, but I didn’t care.
“You never know. Never hurts to start practicing now.”
Hiking my pants back into place, I grinned, earning an eye roll. Isobel giggled as I swept her up into my arms, one arm behind her back and the other underneath her knees.
“I can walk, you know.”
“Be quiet and let me take care of you.”
“You’re getting bossy,” she huffed. But I could tell from her tone she was amused. As we passed the front door, she reached back. “Don’t forget my bag. I need to keep reading to get some ideas for later.”
“As long as it involves me coming inside you bare, I’ll let you pick.”
“Such a generous offer,” she laughed as I crossed the threshold and walked to the side of the bed to gently lay her down. I grabbed a pillow and put it under her hips. Might as well give this practicing my all.
“I’m thoughtful like that.” Shedding my open shirt and pants, I winked before I walked back toward my kitchen in my boxers. I wanted to throw something together quickly, suddenly anticipating reading through the manuscript that had the potential to amplify our already spectacular sex life.
If I was going to have to up my game over the next few months, I was going to need some source material.
Maybe there was something to this spicy romance I’d missed before.
Who needed Viagra when you had a hot as fuck girlfriend willing to reenact scenes of a Dominatrix tying up her subs to have her way with them?