Chapter 13
She avoided me the rest of the night. And then the next day and the day after that and then one more day for a bonus. My house was so huge, we didn’t have to ever even spend time in the same wing.
I’d left her a credit card she could use for her needs without dipping into her personal money. I assumed from my AMEX notations about charges coming in that she’d bought herself some clothes.
She hadn’t gone home yet to the best of my knowledge, since she’d ended up here without planning ahead. I wasn’t sure what she was doing about her job at the florist, since Dare hadn’t yet confirmed that her car was finished, due to an influx of customers ahead of the holiday. But now the 4 th was coming up and she’d mentioned fireworks in passing to Owen the other day.
Did she still intend to take him? Was I even allowed to attend?
I didn’t know what the score was on a number of levels. I supposed that turnabout was fair play.
But from the cartoon jingles I often heard coming out of the sitting room, I knew she was watching them with my son.
Every now and then one of them would laugh or tease each other while I worked on FHK paperwork at the kitchen counter, keeping my distance not because I wanted to, but I thought if I stayed away until she indicated she wanted to talk, maybe she was more likely to stay.
Who could blame her for maintaining her distance?
And the frozen dinners she’d gotten worked for me, other than the occasional takeout meal or bowl of cereal. I made do just fine. The container of berries she’d gotten was soon emptied, so on one of my trips out, I’d stopped to pick up some fresh local ones from a roadside stand.
Maybe at some point she’d share them with me. A guy could hope.
But my hope was fading with the passing days. Between the two sexual contact near misses and the agreement I’d demanded before truly spelling out every part of whatever this was, then the leaving Maddie and Owen in the store without a full explanation and sending Caro out to get pans and dishware, the entire day we’d spent together had been a clusterfuck.
Caro had returned a few hours after she’d left, a blue Care Bear with a rainy cloud on his belly stuffed in the top of one of the paper bags she toted in. I’d tucked it in a cabinet to give Owen at a later time when he was in a better frame of mind. Or when I was.
On the evening of the day we’d spent together, more or less, she put Owen to bed in his room and laid out some clothes for him for the morning. I didn’t lay out clothes for him since he’d indicated he could handle it himself, minor issues aside, but she’d clearly wanted to try, so why not?
I had no way of knowing how that had gone, since I’d left her to her own devices for the few days since.
That first night, she’d also plugged in his carousel light and the spin of the colors on the ceiling was soothing when I checked on him before bed, only to find she’d tucked him in with both his new giraffe toy and his new fish. And in sleep, he clutched one on each side.
Every night after, she’d turned on his carousel light before he slept. I knew because I always looked in on him, even if I didn’t dare push Maddie in any way.
At least she was still in my home.
I had no clue how to handle any of the rest of it. I didn’t want to scare her off, yet I also didn’t want her to think I was bailing on her again. So, I tried to stay nearby if she had any questions, but I was giving her plenty of space to think or…whatever else.
Resolutely, I forced myself not to think of what else she might be doing.
I was unnaturally relieved that she’d asked that first night which guest room she should use, or even if I wanted her in my room. Of course, I fucking did since I’d been walking around with a semi since that afternoon when I’d made the mistake of touching her when I couldn’t finish what I’d started.
When my toddler son was sitting right there in the backseat. What the hell was wrong with me?
Too many things to calculate.
My sleep every night since had been restless. But yet again, the ball was in her court.
The day before the fourth, I woke early. I rolled out of bed and forced myself into the shower. Normally, I rose even earlier than this, but after the lackluster better part of a week without much sleep to speak of, I was dragging.
And she’d made no attempt to speak to me since her bomb that my son had likely been verbally abused, at the very least.
But I couldn’t claim to be surprised.
You’ve given her no direction, just a bunch of half-baked demands that anyone would freak out about.
I was trying something new for me—following her cues. I didn’t like not taking control one bit, but if it meant she wouldn’t run from me and never speak to me again, well, I could deal with it.
Not like I had a ton of choice in the matter. She was the one in the driver’s seat right now.
I was in the shower, shampooing my hair, when the cracked door opened wider. My breath stumbled and I clutched the soap, almost certain I had to be imagining this.
Had she finally decided to make a move? Thank God.
Maddie padded in barefoot, wearing one of my T-shirts. I had no clue when she’d come in to get one out of the drawers. But the sight of her through the shower glass dressed in very little and the main thing she wore was mine—yeah, there was no stopping my cock from immediately hardening.
It had been a difficult week in a number of ways.
She eased open the shower door and shed the shirt without a blink, saying nothing as she stepped inside with me. Then she slid her hands up my dripping chest and offered me her mouth, easing up on her tiptoes so I didn’t have to bend much to kiss her. She was relatively tall for a woman and we lined up in a way that felt all too natural as my lips met hers.
As she released a soft moan as I cupped her firm ass in my palms and brought her against me, not making any attempt to disguise my need.
Hell, she’d come to me in my freaking shower. I’d say that was a pretty plain invitation.
She moaned again and rubbed her breasts against my chest, her hard nipples skewering my skin. I lowered my mouth to her neck, to her shoulder, as the shampoo I’d immediately forgotten trailed down into my eyes, momentarily blinding me.
Right away, she lifted her hands to take over the task I’d abandoned, shampooing and working the water through my hair while I kissed my way down her cleavage, finally capturing one of her shell pink nipples to suck and tease.
With my other hand, I brought her against me even harder, pressing my hard length into her soft belly as I parted her slick thighs to find her as warm and wet as she’d been in the car. Her clit was so swollen while I flicked her again and again then rolled into a gentle rhythm as I gave plenty of attention to her breasts.
“You’re fucking beautiful,” I growled, slipping a finger downward, then two, using both to enter her and build the intensity. “Did you come without me?”
“No, I couldn’t. I even tried.”
“Not even once?”
“I couldn’t get there.” She dipped back her head, exposing her throat until I was helpless not to lick and bite her there too while I worked her pussy. “Please,” she whimpered.
God, the noises she was making were driving me crazy. As if I could deny her anything.
Ever.
“But you tried?” I pressed.
“It didn’t work. All I did was build myself up more. I needed this. You. To finish what you’d started. Why I came in here and basically…threw myself at you.” She looked up at me under her lashes, parting her thighs wider in case I required more encouragement. I did not.
Just the sounds her body made was encouragement enough as I went faster, arching my hand against her, grinding against her clit as my fingers drove in and out.
“Anytime you need me, tell me. You hear me?” I scissored my fingers as I latched my mouth on the side of her neck, sucking hard enough to mark her while I pushed her up to the edge. She nodded, panting hard, and then my thumb brushed her clit and she went flying, convulsing around me as she whimpered again.
She was still coming, still lost in her orgasm when I lined us up and plunged inside her, so consumed with having her as she came that I didn’t think of anything else.
Nothing else existed.
Her eyes widened, that dizzy blue locking on mine but then she was climbing up my hips, wrapping herself around me so fully that turning her into the tile wall so I could fuck her the way I needed to was the most natural thing in the world. My still soapy hair continued to drip into my eyes and my stinging eyes contributed to the surreality of this moment.
Was this really happening? Or would I wake in my tangled sheets and realize I’d dreamed every bit of it?
Every bit of her.
“Maddie,” I managed brokenly, dropping my head to her breasts as my strokes became increasingly frenetic. I couldn’t control them or myself. It was a damn miracle I was able to reach between us to circle her clit, trying desperately to make her come once more before I did. It wouldn’t be long. Couldn’t be. Her pussy was so tight and hot and the way she clenched at me had me on the verge of begging.
I didn’t even know for what. She’d already given me everything.
But I couldn’t get deep enough as I lifted her higher, driving her into the wall as I burrowed into her body. She was so flexible and giving, just opening to me and allowing me to do whatever I wanted.
“Come in me,” she panted, her full lips parting as I rubbed her clit and tried to hold on.
Making this good for her was all I cared about. Because this damn well had to happen again. Already I knew my craving for her would be like a burn in the blood.
An endless need I probably wouldn’t ever manage to sate.
Her demand had me anchoring her hips higher, changing the angle just enough that her eyes popped wide again and her lips parted as she reached her peak, saturating me with her release while I slammed my fist against the wall and fought to maintain my hold on her at the same time. My hips rocked against her as I let out a shout I tried to muffle against her shoulder. Her gasps filled my head while I emptied myself into her, lost to the helpless wrenching pleasure at coming so deep inside her.
It was only when the wildness inside me began to recede that I realized what I’d done.
“I came inside you,” I said between crazed kisses. “I didn’t even think. Didn’t care. You’re mine,” I repeated, almost daring her to deny me. To even suggest it could not be true.
She swallowed over and over while she watched me with her innocent blue eyes, lashes starred with water, as she processed what I was saying. Then she was kissing me back frantically, her hands moving all over me from my shoulders down my back. Finally, she gripped my ass, pulling me into her again even though I’d never left.
I didn’t want to. Wasn’t even sure I could.
“You’re still hard,” she said through dizzying kisses, the kind that I gave her without conscious thought. Conscious anything.
Making love to her was something I could do as easily as breathing. That strawberry scent of hers blossomed around us, growing more intense from the heat of the shower though I’d thought I’d had the water on just barely warm. Had I hit the dial without realizing?
Her nails scraped down my back, creating sharp little stings that somehow only made me harder. I’d barely even come down from my orgasm yet now I was on the way up again just from her rhythmic squeezes around me and the way she was twining her tongue so sensually around me.
And scrabbling the sharp edge of her nails over my skin. My balls drew up, warning me I could go again. I would go again, and I hadn’t even made sense of the first time.
It had been so long since I’d touched myself and even longer since I’d been with a woman. Not since Owen’s mom, and holy shit, that had been a while.
And nothing at all like this.
Nothing had ever been like this for me.
I kept expecting her to freak out and pull away from me, but she was doing the exact opposite. Bouncing on me with such abandon that her small, perfect tits took all my attention until not sucking on them seemed impossible. I’d marked her neck, and now I would mark these too.
I drew the edge of my teeth over first one then the other while she pulled on my hair and made those fucking mewling sounds that made my balls throb. Literally throb.
“I’m coming,” she panted, as if I somehow didn’t know. She was clenching me so wildly, drenching me once more as her body unraveled around mine.
Then I was following her again, draining myself into her until I couldn’t do more than drop my head to her chest and try to breathe.
She stroked my hair, soothing me without words as the water turned cold, then icy.
Finally, she lowered her legs and hopped down off me, wincing. “You broke me. If I can’t walk today, you’ll know why.”
I didn’t laugh. I couldn’t. Instead, I grabbed her wrist. “Are you on birth control?”
She pressed her lips together until they were white. “No. I haven’t needed to be.”
“Good.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean, good?”
“That you haven’t needed to be.” I nearly added the rest of what popped into my head but stifled myself at the last second.
You don’t need to be now, either.