Chapter 34
thirty-four
IVY
“She’s pushing buttons right now is what she’s doing.” Ivy was ready to pull her hair out. She faced Greer, so happy that she’d opted to stay with Ivy and the boys until Penny showed up instead of heading back to Nathalie’s house. Something about tonight didn’t feel right, and the fact that Penny was now four hours late when picking up the boys was the red flag the evening was going to go like shit. “Shepherd’s already passed out.”
“Ivy…” Greer winced. “I’d say just call her and tell her to not come get them tonight, but I don’t think that’d be better for anyone.”
“It’s probably what she’s wanting.” Ivy clenched her fists at her sides, glancing out the front window of her living room to see if Penny had arrived yet. “If I try to cancel her night, then she can use it against me. If she tries to cancel it, then I won’t ever use it against her.”
“But you will now, right?” Greer furrowed her brow. “Didn’t you say you were going to take Abagail’s advice on that?”
“Yeah. I am.” Ivy glanced over at Shepherd as he lay sleeping on the large chair on the far end of the living room, completely passed out from exhaustion of the day. She hated that her boys were stuck in the middle of all this unnecessary drama. It was time to take back her life and make sure this ended. “I hired a new law firm last week. They’re going through all the files right now before they make a plan of action.”
“Well, that’s a good thing. It’s what you wanted, right?”
Ivy pressed her lips together hard. It wasn’t what she wanted. What she wanted was to be divorced and free from Penny. But that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.
“Ugh, finally.”
Penny’s car pulled up onto the street outside, and Ivy immediately started to wake up Leon. She could carry Shepherd to the car, but she couldn’t carry Leon. She hated doing this to them. She had no idea what went on at the house with Penny when they were with her, but she did know that it wasn’t all that great. She knew they were yelled at, screamed at, and put down, that there was no routine that was stuck to, and that Penny often just let them fend for themselves. But she couldn’t make the powers that be listen.
The knocks resounded through the living room, startling Ivy. She rubbed Leon’s back a little more vigorously. “Leon, I need you to get up. Mom’s here to take you to her house.”
He groaned but did as he was told. He was such a sweet kid, but Ivy could see the toll that this was taking on him, the stress from everything, the heartache from the ongoing conflicts. It brought tears to her eyes, but she pushed them back. She couldn’t go into any confrontation with Penny weak. Penny would smell it and hit her where it hurt in an instant.
Greer had Shepherd in her arms and was walking toward the front door. Ivy was about to yell out and tell her not to open it, but it was too late. Greer was already there. The sneer on Penny’s lips that was illuminated by the porch light was enough to set Ivy into immediate panic.
“Give me my son,” Penny snarled and ripped Shepherd from Greer’s arms.
“All right.” Greer stepped away from Penny, who had taken two steps inside the house.
Ivy squared her shoulders and walked directly to them with Leon in tow. “You can step out of my house.”
Penny sneered, glancing down at where she was standing.
“You’re not welcome here.” Ivy’s heart hammered. She’d never quite spoken to Penny like that before, not this confidently. She walked forward, taking up as much space in the doorway as possible so that she would force Penny to step back and then out of the house itself.
It was raining outside, and Ivy sent Leon straight to Penny’s SUV so that he could get himself into the back seat.
“You’re late,” Ivy said, pursing her lips.
“And you’re fucking the nanny. Happen to do that while you were waiting?” Penny looked down her nose at Ivy. “In front of the kids, perhaps?”
Ivy snorted. “Hardly.” She wasn’t going to ask how Penny had found out because that would only be confirming what she thought she already knew.
“Makes a pretty picture to watch you get fucked the way you should be.”
Ivy frowned, looking into Penny’s eyes. “To watch?”
Penny clenched her jaw and shifted Shepherd on her hip. She said nothing else to Ivy, but she looked over Ivy’s shoulder at Greer. “I don’t want you around my kids. You’re a sexual deviant.”
“Hey now.” Ivy put her hand up in front of Penny. “Get out before I call the cops for causing a disturbance. If I have to go back to paying for an officer to be here at exchanges, then I’ll do that.”
Penny leaned in close, lowering her voice so only Ivy could hear her. “She’s disgusting.”
So are you , Ivy thought but didn’t say. The last thing she needed was to stoop down to Penny’s level during this fight. She held her tongue, bit the inside of her cheek and raised her eyebrows up to meet Penny’s gaze. “Is that everything?”
Penny snorted. “I’m going to make it so she’s not allowed to be around the kids. You’ll have to choose—the nanny or your kids.”
Ivy’s heart trembled. She didn’t want to have to make that choice. She knew exactly which one she would make if it came down to that, and she knew that Greer wouldn’t fault her, but she didn’t want to have to. Not again. Because that was the exact decision she’d made when she’d chosen to divorce Penny.
“Get out,” Ivy said, her voice firm and commanding. “Get out now.”
Penny stayed two seconds longer, pushing her weight around before she stepped out into the rain with Shepherd on her hip. He immediately started crying, holding his hands out for Ivy as Penny went. Ivy stood in the doorway, watching with her arms wrapped around herself as Penny angrily shoved him into his car seat and buckled him in, slamming the door for good measure.
She hated this.
The courts, the police, the social workers, all the psychologists she’d hired—someone needed to do something that would end this. As Penny drove off, Greer put her arms around Ivy, standing behind her and wrapping her in a hug. Ivy leaned into her and breathed raggedly.
“I hate doing this,” Ivy whispered. “Every damn time, I hate it more and more.”
“Understandable.” Greer dropped a kiss into Ivy’s hair. “She truly is a hateful person.”
“She’s a menace.” Ivy turned around, hugged Greer, and then shut the front door and walked back inside. She ran her fingers through her hair. What she hated the most was that most times she really was alone when she had to see Penny. Greer was there this time, but it’d probably be better if she wasn’t the next time—not after the way Penny went after her. “This is only hurting them, and I know she realizes that, but she just doesn’t care. How can she not care about them?”
Greer sighed and plopped herself onto the couch. “My parents didn’t care about me, so I get it.”
“What?” Ivy turned toward her sharply.
“They don’t care. I haven’t talked to them in years, and they haven’t even bothered to try and reach out to me to find out why. They’ve tried to get hold of me to tell me I’m an idiot for it, that they deserve my respect, that I’m hurting them, and that kids don’t get to choose who their parents are. About every six months or so they try—though, now that I think about it, I think it’s been almost a year since they’ve attempted to get ahold of me.”
“Greer, I’m so sorry.” Ivy slid onto the couch next to Greer and touched her arm lightly. “That’s not the way it should be.”
“No, it’s not. But not all parents should be parents, and there are even some people out there who don’t have kids who probably should have kids.”
“Like you?” Ivy asked, smiling. She ran her fingers up and down Greer’s arm, just wanting to touch her and be as close to her as possible.
“Sure.” Greer grimaced. “But I have kids. Your kids are my kids. That’s the wonderful thing about being a nanny.”
Ivy hummed and then sighed. She leaned in about to kiss Greer when she stopped herself. “Penny said watch .”
“What?” Greer frowned.
“She said that it makes a pretty picture to watch you get fucked the way you should be. What did she mean by that?”
Greer shrugged. “No clue, you know her better than I do.”
“She used to always make comments about how she could fuck me hard enough to make me comply.” Ivy rubbed her lips together thinking. “But the watch part…” She glanced up toward the corner of the living room. “Oh my God, she’s watching on the nanny cam.”
“What?” Greer immediately looked toward the camera that Ivy had her eyes locked on.
“She must have figured out the password to get into it. Damn it!” Ivy stood up and immediately went for her phone. She changed the passwords for absolutely everything, again, and fisted her hand against her forehead. “How long has she been watching me?”
“Ivy.” Greer frowned and then touched Ivy’s waist.
“I feel so violated,” Ivy whispered, turning her face into Greer’s shoulder. “I need to get out of here.”
“Then come to Nathalie’s. You can stay with me tonight.”
Ivy nodded, wrapping her arms around Greer’s back and hugging her tightly. She didn’t want to let go. She wanted to stay in this safe and warm embrace for as long as she could. “I’ll call the lawyers and the officer handling the case tomorrow. I don’t…” Ivy breathed slowly and deeply. “I don’t have the capacity to deal with this tonight.”
“I don’t think a day is going to change anything.” Greer threaded her fingers through Ivy’s hair. “Come on.”
They left the house, Ivy locking up as they went, and walked hand in hand toward Nathalie’s. Most of the lights were already off since it was so late, and Ivy imagined Nathalie might even be asleep already. She was still trying to rest more than she used to so she didn’t end up in the same situation as before.
Greer put Ivy onto the couch and immediately went to make them tea. She came back while the water was heating up and laid her arm over Ivy’s shoulder, tugging her in. Ivy’s head was still reeling. Her heart was still hammering. She couldn’t believe that Penny had figured out her password to the video system. She’d watched her and Greer. Hell, she’d probably seen when Lachlan and Greer and she had started that night before they’d moved to the bedroom.
Frowning, Ivy rubbed her hands over her face and closed her eyes.
“You’ll figure it out,” Greer murmured, holding Ivy close.
“We’ll figure it out, you mean,” Ivy answered.
“I don’t know what I can do about any of this.” A deep line formed in the center of Greer’s forehead, and Ivy immediately raised her hand to smooth it out.
“You’re part of this family, Greer. So we’ll figure it out.” Ivy focused on that—the good things going on in her life. She had found the family that she wanted, and they were working on creating themselves as a family unit—stronger and better than they were before and with a great intentionality behind every decision they were making.
Ivy would talk to all of them about what had happened in the morning, when they could sit around the kitchen table and hash out all of the options.
“Ivy, I’m not…”
“Shhh.” Ivy bit her lip and closed her eyes. If she listened carefully, she could hear the water boiling in the electric kettle in the kitchen. It’d turn itself off, but she didn’t want tea right now. What she wanted was distraction. She wanted Greer to know that she was included in this whole saga of drama that Ivy couldn’t escape. She wanted Penny to not have power over her anymore.
Sitting up quickly, Ivy straddled Greer’s lap and sat down on top of her. Greer stared up at her confused, but her hands were on Ivy’s thighs and her lips were parted in surprise.
“What are you doing?” Greer asked.
“If someone’s going to watch us have sex, then let it be Nathalie. Let her masturbate to what you do to me.”
“W-what?” Greer laughed nervously. “You want her to watch us?”
“I think she’ll like it.” Ivy bent down and kissed Greer. “And I don’t want to think about the fact that Penny watched us. I don’t want her negativity, her insatiable need to make me hurt, taint what we had that night. Because fuck, Greer”—Ivy ground herself into the tops of Greer’s thighs, moving her hips in a circle —“that night was amazing. I was so turned on. I was so wet. You were perfect.”
Greer’s lips parted, and Ivy could see even in the dim light from the living room that her cheeks had tinged red.
“Don’t let Penny take that away from us.”
“You want to do this here? Now?” Greer asked, sliding her hands up under Ivy’s skirt and along the tops of her thighs and back down.
Ivy knew without a doubt that she wasn’t the only one who wanted this. Greer was working her way into it, not just physically but mentally. Ivy bent down and kissed her again. She nipped at Greer’s lips, she pressed their chests together, she brushed her fingers across Greer’s breast and pinched Greer’s nipple through her bra and shirt.
“Yes,” Ivy finally answered. “I want to do this here and now.”
Greer moaned, and she pushed Ivy’s skirt all the way up, over her ass and hips. She immediately scraped her dull nails down the outsides of Ivy’s thighs as they continued to kiss.
“Make me forget that she has power over me,” Ivy whispered.
“She doesn’t have power over you,” Greer answered. “She never has. She never will.”
Ivy held onto that thought. She closed her eyes and nibbled a line down Greer’s neck to her shoulder. She felt around for the buttons on Greer’s shirt, needing to have more skin to skin, needing to be able to touch and explore, knowing full well that Penny was nowhere nearby, and she couldn’t be watching them.
“Touch me,” Ivy whispered, undoing the buttons on Greer’s shirt. “Fuck me already.”
Greer met her gaze and then nodded. She pressed her hand between Ivy’s spread thighs, rubbing Ivy’s clit through her thong up and down, back and forth. Ivy groaned, nearly falling into Greer before she caught herself. She managed to get Greer’s shirt undone and raced to touch the skin of her breasts, pulling down the cups of her bra so she could touch and feel and slide her hands along Greer’s skin.
“Fuck me,” Ivy said, demanding this time. “Fuck me.”
Greer pulled the swatch of fabric away from Ivy’s pussy and pushed it to the side. She pressed two fingers deep inside, and Ivy sighed with content. This was what she’d wanted. She started to move, rocking her hips to whatever timing she wanted as she fucked Greer’s fingers. This would be so much better if they were naked and Greer had the strap on, but Ivy would take what she could get for right now.
Maybe they could go upstairs later and get the strap that Greer had in her room. Ivy palmed Greer’s breast, teasing her nipples and continuing to fuck herself on Greer’s fingers. She was going to have to work up to this orgasm unlike the first time they’d done it when she’d been so ready that just one simple touch made her explode.
This time, she had to sort through the events of the last thirty minutes, all that pent-up anger and violation, and she had to find that spot. Yes, that spot right there. Ivy groaned as Greer’s thumb hit her clit, her fingers touched her inside just right, and Ivy was ready to stay there forever. She didn’t want to move, she didn’t want to shift. She slowly found a pattern and a pace that was exactly what she needed, and she pulled every ounce of pleasure from her body that she could.
She cried out, calling for Greer to keep fucking her and not to stop. She dug her fingers into Greer’s shoulders and pushed herself away, arching her back as she came, her body tightly squeezing Greer’s fingers, her nipples hardening in her clothes, her breathing thickening before easing.
“Well, this wasn’t what I expected when I walked in.”
Ivy spun around, locking her eyes on Lachlan. “No?” Ivy breathed heavily, Greer’s fingers still deep inside of her, and she didn’t seem to be moving.
“No.” Lachlan walked a little closer to them. “I was going to talk to you about a work issue, but you weren’t at home, and you didn’t answer your phone, so I thought I’d try here.”
Ivy chuckled, facing Greer and wiggling down onto her fingers a little more. “I think I left my phone at home.”
“Ah.” Lachlan was standing right next to them, looking over them both curiously. “Because?”
“Because I didn’t want to deal with Penny.” Ivy pulled her lip between her teeth, raking her gaze over Lachlan. Her heart was racing. Lachlan was gorgeous in her own right, she really was. And Ivy just wished that she could see that. She had no embarrassment about being caught fucking Greer, not here. Not when everything was so warm and welcome and loving.
“That makes sense.” Lachlan hadn’t moved her gaze.
Ivy glanced down at Greer and nodded toward Lachlan. “What do you think?” she asked.
Greer immediately started to move her fingers, which were still buried deep inside Ivy’s body. “I think that double the distraction is better than what you’ve already got.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” Ivy bent down and kissed Greer, pulling her lip between her teeth and humming. “But I do think that I wouldn’t mind both of you in me again.”
Greer groaned. “Lachlan, want to join?”
“I…” Lachlan looked over them and toward the stairs to where Nathalie’s bedroom was. “I would love to.”