Chapter Ten
Mark
While I wait for Trish to take Cora to bed, I chug a bottle of water. I didn’t expect for this night to end up being so physically demanding. Cora knows how to dance, and she expects her partners to keep up with her. I’m sweating, and head outside to the backyard to cool off.
There’s a couple of chaise lounges, sitting next to a fountain. I drop down into one and ease my head back, listening to the sound of the running water.
This is one of the most peaceful settings I’ve ever been in. Sometimes my brain runs a million miles a minute, but right here? It’s silent, and I’m thankful for it. I must doze off slightly, because the next thing I know, I feel the chaise dip, and a body straddling my thighs.
“You were great with her,” a soft voice says as it leans down and places a soft kiss on my lips.
Groaning in the back of my throat, I grip Trish’s hips in my hands before moving them around to cup the globes of her ass. “She’s a good kid. I was nervous, but she put my mind to ease.”
“She was nervous too. She was afraid you wouldn’t like her.”
Our faces are mere centimeters apart. “I do like her, but right now I like her mom a whole lot more.”
She makes a noise that goes straight to my cock. “Good, because seeing you with her was a big turn on. There’s something about a guy who can make my daughter smile that really does it for me.”
“Oh yeah?” I move one of my hands up her body and curl it around her jaw, tilting her mouth so that I can take her lips with mine.
It starts soft, but goes deeper fast. The sweetness of the cake is on both of our tongues.
I growl as it explodes. Exploratory. I bring my free hand up to curve around the back of her neck, angling into her, giving her everything she's asking for and a little more.
She makes a sound low in her throat and shifts closer, and then she spreads her legs wider, her knees on the chaise and my hand is moving into her hair and we're not asking questions anymore.
The excitement of the moment pulls at something deep in my chest at the same time it pulls at every other part of me. I cup her jaw in my palm and tilt her head back slightly and she lets me, her hands finding the front of my shirt and curling into the fabric.
With my free hand, I reach down to the hem of her shirt and sneak my fingers up underneath, until I encounter the edge of her bra. Once there, I palm her flesh and squeeze, my cock reacting when it feels her nipple pushing against my palm.
It gets heated between us, my mouth pulls away from hers and then smears down her neck, sucking at the soft skin. Her hips undulate against my middle, and her heat is as hot as I am hard.
We make out for a long time. Me playing her body, her reacting to the point where I’m leaking against the fabric of my boxer briefs.
But I know this isn’t going to go any further tonight.
She knows it too, but she still sighs when I slow the kiss down.
The way she follows when I start to pull back, chasing my mouth like she's not ready to stop.
I'm not ready to stop either. That's the problem. But if we keep going, we’ll more than likely regret it.
I rest my forehead against hers, both of us breathing slightly unevenly, and I make myself stay right there instead of doing what every instinct I have is pushing me toward.
"We should probably pump the brakes," I say.
She laughs, a quiet, breathless sound. "Probably."
"I mean it." My voice is rough and full of gravel.
"I know you do." She pulls back just enough to look at me, and her eyes are dark and her mouth is soft and I am genuinely exercising every ounce of restraint I possess. "I appreciate that, actually."
"Don't appreciate it too much. It's costing me."
She laughs again, and this time it reaches her eyes, and I decide that sound is one I want to keep collecting. I press one more kiss to her mouth, brief and with great personal sacrifice, and then sit back.
"Are you working tomorrow?" she asks, and her voice is almost back to normal.
"No." I shake my head. "I've got two days off."
She tucks her hair back behind one ear, and there's something deliberate in the way she says the next part. "I'm off too. And school's out tomorrow. The Ice Cream Social is happening tomorrow." She pauses, a question in her voice as she says the next words. "Cora loves it."
I look at her, blinking away the arousal so I can pay attention to her. "Are you asking me to come?"
She meets my eyes, hers full of fear. Maybe it’s the fear I’ll say no. "Do you want to come with us?"
"Yes," I say, without hesitation. "What time?"
"Eleven? We’ll be downtown by the pavilion."
"Then I'll be there."
She walks me to the front door a few minutes later, and I take one last look at her standing in the warm light of her doorway before I make myself turn and walk to my truck. I wait until I'm down the street before I let out a long, slow breath.
The drive home is quiet. The town is mostly settled down for the night, just the occasional porch light and the yellow glow of the gas station on the corner. I've driven this route a hundred times without thinking about it.
Tonight I'm thinking about her.
By the time I get home and lock the door behind me, I already know I'm not going to sleep for a while.
I drop my keys on the counter and press both hands against it, staring at the surface, replaying the evening in pieces.
Cora's face when she saw the flowers. The way Trish looked at me through the kitchen pass-through while her daughter spun me around the living room.
The weight of Trish in my hands in the dark, the sound she made when I pulled her close.
I push off the counter and head down the hall before taking a right into my bathroom.
I crank on the water, and take off my clothes before stepping in and gripping my still hard cock.
With a groan, I pump the length, and pull my bottom lip in between my teeth as I jack off to the memory of what she felt like on top of me.