36. Rosie
36
ROSIE
I crawl into bed beside Daire, emotionally exhausted after my father’s unexpected visit and our awkward dinner. It’s wild how quickly a person I love so much became a stranger. The part that hurts the most is that even if we can repair our relationship, it will never be the same. What he said to me all those months ago was extremely hurtful, but the radio silence was worse.
Despite his claims, I can’t help but think my mom convinced him to come apologize. She’s probably been driving him insane about walking me down the aisle. I didn’t mention anything about the wedding over dinner. Frankly, I’m not sure I want him to walk me down the aisle. It’s what I always envisioned, but right now, it doesn’t feel right.
“Hey, baby,” Daire says, pulling me in close.
His voice is gruff. Like maybe he dozed off while I was in the bathroom.
I throw my arm across him and lay my cheek against his bare chest. His heart thunders beneath my ear. I close my eyes, just listening to the sound of it.
He twines his fingers in my hair, and soon, he’s massaging my scalp.
“Ugh,” I groan. “If you keep doing that, I’m going to fall asleep.”
He laughs, the sound a low rumble against my ear. “Isn’t that the point? Aren’t we going to bed?”
I sit up and regard him. My hair brushes against his chest as I do, and he shivers.
I arch a brow. “Are we?”
He grins, his eyes more alert than they were only a moment ago.
My body is aching for his touch more acutely than I’ve ever experienced before.
Sure, I’ve always enjoyed sex, but until Daire, I didn’t know what it was like to want one person so desperately.
He sits up, cupping my cheek. His warm lips mold to mine, sending warmth and desire through me. Will the craving I have for him ever go away? Or will it only get stronger?
His tongue pushes past the seam of my lips, and I open for him.
Hands on my thighs, he pulls me onto his lap. I moan at the feel of him already half-hard beneath me. He still sleeps naked, and it’s pure torture. Especially on the nights where I want him so badly but I’m too tired to do anything about it.
I’m exhausted tonight too, but I need to feel him.
The warm press of his body.
The comfort of his arms.
The tenderness in the way he makes love to me.
He kisses a path down the column of my neck, and I drop my head back to give him more access.
“These fucking gigantic shirts you wear shouldn’t be such a turn-on, but fuck, they do something to me.”
He pulls the fabric up and over my head, leaving me bare except for my panties, then kisses over my collarbone and down between my breasts. I grab ahold of the chain around his neck and tug, bringing his mouth back up to mine.
His eyes flash, and a grin splits his face. “Does my girl want me to kiss her?”
“Yes,” I breathe, wrapping my arms around his neck.
My hips rock against him with a mind of their own. I’m cursing myself now for putting on panties before getting into bed. I’m desperate to have that thin barrier gone from between us.
“What else do you want?” he asks between kisses. “You want my mouth anywhere else?”
I moan at his words, and visions of exactly where I want his mouth swarm me.
“Use your words, Rosie. Tell me what you want.”
He rolls us so I’m beneath him, the move so swift that it knocks the breath out of me.
Kissing his way down my body, he groans like he can’t get enough of me. Licking and nipping at my flesh, he works his way lower until, finally, he stops with his mouth hovering just beneath my belly button.
“Rosie,” he taunts. “You haven’t given me instructions.”
I inhale an unsteady breath. “You know what I want.”
He shakes his head, teasing me with a stupid grin. “Not good enough.”
I grip the sheets and arch my back. “Daire.”
“Rosie.”
I take a deep breath. “I want… your mouth… on… my pussy.”
“See?” His grin broadens. “Was that so hard?”
He pulls my panties down and takes his sweet time to drive me crazy. I wiggle in annoyance, which only makes him chuckle against my flesh.
Once he’s removed them, he balls them up in one hand. Then he moves his way up my body and holds them against my lips.
“Open up.”
Heart stuttering, I gape at him. “Wha?—”
He shoves them in my mouth. “You don’t want to risk waking up Sammy, do you?” With a kiss to my neck, he groans. “I don’t think you realize how loud you get when I’m inside you.”
It’s not like my hands are tied. I could easily pull my panties out of my mouth. But it’s so unexpected, I find myself frozen as he slips back down my body.
With the first swipe of his tongue, all logical thought leaves me.
Daire has single-handedly made me a huge fan of oral sex. I always thought it wasn’t for me. He proved that all I need is an enthusiastic partner. Though I can’t help but think that, even then, I would have been destined to only enjoy this with him.
I rock my hips against his face, and in response, he moans. Fuck. The sounds he makes while going down on me should be illegal. I’m pretty sure that if I recorded his moans and played them back, I could orgasm without ever touching myself.
He slips his right hand down and strokes his erection without losing focus on the task at hand—or mouth. The sight of him getting off on this is so unexpectedly hot, it nearly sends me over the edge.
I rake my fingers through his hair and tug, and he moans, digging his fingers into my thighs as he spreads me open wider.
I’m so close it won’t take much to get me off.
An inferno ignites in my core, burning me from the inside out.
He reaches up, yanking the panties from my mouth. “I want to hear the sounds you make when you come,” he says, his breath warm against my aching pussy. “I want to hear what I do to you.”
Dropping his mouth back to my core, he adds two fingers and hooks them slightly. That simple move is all it takes to send me hurtling toward release. I scream his name, begging for him to have mercy on me in one breath and begging for more in the next.
As I come back down, my chest heaving and my body trembling, he moves up my body, hair mussed, and grins, clearly pleased with himself.
He kisses me, long and slow, making sure I can taste myself on his mouth.
With a whimper, I reach between us, wrapping a hand around his cock, desperate for more of him.
He bucks against my hand. “Rosie,” he groans, lowering his head so his hair brushes my forehead.
I guide him to my pussy, and he sinks in an inch, closing his eyes.
“Daire?”
“Mhm?” He nods, eyes still firmly shut.
“Are you going to fuck me or not?”
“In a minute,” he croaks. “I want this to last.”
Hand on his jaw, I coax him to open his eyes. He does so, slowly, his pupils blown so wide the blue of his irises is almost entirely gone.
I trace the shape of his lips with my thumb. “I love you.”
I loved him as a girl.
Hated him as a teen.
And now I get to love him again as a woman.
He rocks against me, sliding in all the way and pulling a gasp from my lungs.
Wrapping my legs around his hips, I pull him close. Being fused to him like this, skin to skin, heart to heart, is the most intimate experience I’ve ever had.
He brushes the hair back from my eyes. “I love you too, Rosie. More than a lifetime will ever allow me to show you.”
But he tries, at least, to show me, and man, do I feel it.
Spring has flown by, and we’re only a week from graduation when the call comes from Nina.
“Everything is settled,” she says over speakerphone. “I called in a favor, and we have a court date two weeks from now. This will make it official.”
“I’ll have full parental rights?” he asks, his leg jostling beneath the table.
I reach over, putting a hand on his knee, hoping to imbue him with at least a little comfort.
“Yes. You have nothing to worry about.”
“I know you keep saying that, but I can’t help it. I don’t want anything to go wrong.”
“Everything is set, Mr. Hendricks. The law is on your side. I’ll email over some more details and what to expect the day of. Take a breath. This is almost over.”
“Okay.” Daire scrubs a hand over his jaw. “Okay,” he says again. “Thank you.”
“If I have any more information for you, I will call,” she assures him. “But everything should be set. Congratulations.”
He clears his throat and says, “Thank you,” his voice thick with emotion.
In the grand scheme of things, Daire’s journey to getting custody of Sammy has been relatively short, but it feels like it’s taken forever to get to this point. Soon, Sammy will officially be ours. No more questioning the possibility of him being taken away. For as much as it eases my fears, I can only imagine how relieved Daire is at the news.
He hangs up the phone and turns to me, his eyes filling with tears.
Angling closer, I take his cheeks in my hands. “It’s almost over.”
He sniffs back his tears. “Almost,” he agrees, his voice cracking.
“You’re going to be all mine soon,” Daire says to his son. It means the world to him that Sammy will be officially his.
Have you heard from your dad lately?” he asks me, roughing a hand down his face.
“Every day.”
His eyes widen at my response, but he presses his lips together, quietly waiting for an explanation.
I lean my back against the couch. “I know. I’m surprised too. It’s usually nothing important, just asking how my day is.” With a shrug, I swallow past the lump in my throat. “I appreciate him coming to apologize, and I want to forgive him and move on from this, but I’m more hurt than I thought I would be. I’ve always been a daddy’s girl, and I’ve always done everything in my power to make him proud. I understand why he was upset with us. With me. But his words cut me like a knife.” I play with a loose thread on my shorts in a poor effort to distract myself from the emotion rising up inside me. “The worst part of it all is how that one moment forever changed our relationship. Words have power, you know?”
“I know,” he says carefully, squeezing my thigh. “My words hurt you once too. But you forgave me. So maybe, one day, you can forgive him too.”
It’s a valid point. I bite my lip, thinking over what he said.
“Maybe. It’s just going to take time.” I tuck a piece of hair behind my ear. “I think it’s hard because he’s my dad. I never expected him to hurt me like this.”
With an arm around me, Daire pulls me in close and kisses the top of my head. “I know, baby.”