19. Beck
CHAPTER 19
Beck
The rest of the evening was pure torture. We didn't have any alone time. Not when Faith insisted on having us all cook dinner together and then called Sebastian so she could show him that she was just fine.
Alice kept giving me a strange look, probably because both me and Luna were unusually quiet.
Luckily, Faith used her socialite sparkle to smooth over any weirdness.
Still, I sat there dumbfounded as I took a bite of bruschetta. I’d fucked up the numbers. Luna had wanted me to call her. I’d been holding onto this ridiculous grudge for years wondering how things might have been different had we…
“We’re going to have dessert after this, right?” Alice asked.
Alice .
I wouldn't have Alice if I had gotten the phone number right all those years ago. As much as I had envisioned a future with Luna after less than twenty-four hours of knowing her, if she had answered I wouldn't have my precious girl.
I wouldn't have been stupid enough to go out and drink, seeking solace in someone else. Not when I'd just met who I thought was my person. My end game.
Now I just had to sit here eating dinner like I hadn't just had the biggest revelation of my life. I couldn't even taste anything, my mind and body were too busy thinking and replaying the interaction from earlier.
I glanced at the clock across the room. Alice would go to bed in a few short hours and then I'd corner Luna and make her tell me her side of the story.
I'd been such an asshole to her. Egging her on because I thought she’d tossed me away like yesterday’s trash.
When all this time she’d been thinking the exact same thing about me.
How had we fucked this up so bad?
Probably pride. At least on my end.
Then Jasmine got pregnant with Alice, and I had no time to pine over what could have been with a woman I thought didn't want me.
Hypotheticals and what ifs swirled around in my brain.
“What do you think, Daddy?”
Alice had asked me a question, and I had no idea what it was.
“Sorry, sweetheart. What was that?” I narrowed my focus on her, tuning out everything else around me. The exact opposite of the rigorous training from my time in the Marines and frankly the antithesis of what I should be doing as someone actively on guard watch despite there being little to no threats to Faith and her safety.
Alice had her hands on her thighs as she bounced in her chair, the food half eaten on her plate. “Can I have a slumber party with Faith and Sebastian's mom?”
Constance had joined us for dinner. Sebastian's mom lived in a cottage located southwest of the main house. I had an unobstructed view of the front door which was painted a bright barn red. Because it was on Sebastian's property, the house came fully equipped with the latest and greatest Steele Cyber Security had to offer.
I shook my head. “You want to do what?”
Constance wiped the corner of her mouth with a linen napkin. “I made a chocolate silk pie earlier today, and I thought the girls might like some. Then I figured we would turn it into a girls' night...”
Faith nodded along, picking up where Constance left off. “We want to set up in the living room, play some board games, maybe decorate cookies, and braid hair. You know, girly things.”
“I'm all for a girl's night but I'd rather sleep in a real bed,” Luna said.
“Oh, you're not invited,” Faith said with a smile.
Luna reared her head back. “What do you mean I'm not invited?”
Faith held her ground. “You need your beauty rest, and you can't manage that if you're sleeping on an air mattress. Nope, I won't hear of it. You need to spend time in the main house where it's quiet and you can be near a bed.”
Faith's eyes volleyed between Luna and myself.
What is she planning?
“Pie and cookies!” My daughter's eyes were as wide as saucers. Her hands immediately folded into prayer. “Please let me go to this sleepover. Faith promised to braid my hair like a princess, Daddy. A princess!”
Alice suffered enough of my fumbling with her hair after watching hours of YouTube videos to no avail. Having someone who could actually braid her hair had her buzzing with excitement.
I looked at Constance and Faith. I'd met Constance a dozen times over the years and while I didn't know her that well, I'd heard plenty from Sebastian. And Faith, for that matter.
I trusted them both implicitly. After I ran a thorough background check the first time I met each of them.
“We will take good care of her,” Faith promised.
“I'll be good, Daddy.” Her sweet face filled with excitement and anticipation. Then she climbed out of her chair and came over to mine, crawling into my lap. “Pleeease. I've never had a girl's night before.”
What a gut punch. My baby girl didn't have a lot of strong women role models and now there were three in this very room. She wanted to spend time with two of them. To be silly and have sweets and stay up way past her bedtime.
I hugged her tightly. “Sure. Just make sure you listen. And if you need to find me at the main house, make sure someone walks you over okay?”
Faith waved her phone. “And we’re just a phone call away.”
Alice flung her arms around me. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Then she ran from the room, probably to get her bag.
Luna crossed her arms. “I'm really not invited to girl's night? That's fucked up.”
“Language,” Constance scolded despite the fact I've heard the woman swear like a sailor. The woman grabbed our plates.
“I can take care of the dishes.” I stopped her, pushing back my chair and lifting the plates from her hands.
Constance patted me on the cheeks. “Thanks, sweetheart. I'm going to set up the house. I never had a daughter; this will be fun.”
She left with a wave and there were only three of us left in the room.
“I should go pack too and then I'll take Alice over when we are both ready,” Faith said with a little finger wave.
Finally, it was just the two of us.
Me and the woman who’d had me buzzing all afternoon.
I didn't even care that Faith had clearly cooked up this girl's night to give me and Luna privacy. I was damn well happy she had.
“This will give us plenty of time to catch up,” I said, breaking the silence.
Luna lifted a brow. “You stuck in the past, Beck Bennet?”
“I'm stuck in the what could have been and making up for lost time.”
Luna shot from her chair, and walked toward me, then leaned against the large marble countertop near where I stood at the farmhouse sink. “You found your solace in Alice's mom. You didn't waste much time.”
I shut off the water so she could hear me clearly. “I will never regret that because it gave me Alice, but trust me when I say she didn't compare to you. No one could even come close to comparing to you and our night together.”
I watched, mesmerized as she swallowed hard.
“Is that so?” she asked
Planting two hands on either side of her, I got up close, the smell of her citrus shampoo marrying with the scent of basil from the bruschetta. “It’s the truth. Maybe if we stopped this stupid bickering long enough, we could actually tell more of the truth.”
Luna pulled her shoulders back, her lips twitched. “What's the fun in that?”
I nipped at those wicked lips, relishing in the sharp inhale of her breath. “Don't test me, Luna. It's been way too long since I've been inside you.”
Luna lifted herself onto the counter, nearly knocking me in the chin in the process. We were nearly the same height, although she still had to tilt her head up to get a good look at me.
Her legs widened, and I stepped in between them. “Don't tease me, woman. I don't have the patience for it. Not tonight. Not with you.”
Somewhere in the house Faith told Alice they'd go out the front door.
Smart woman.
I held my breath, staring at Luna and feeling the heat of her core near my stomach as the security system beeped, letting me know we were now officially alone.
My patience snapped like a ripcord. My hands dove into her hair, tilting her face up so our lips could collide.
She responded immediately, her legs wrapping around my waist, squeezing me tight as her hips rocked closer. Our teeth thrashed together, both of us eager to be closer before I slowed it down, my tongue dragging across her bottom lip before meeting hers. The small mewl she emitted from the back of her throat had me instantly hard.
My cock pulsed with need, as I slowly began to kiss a trail down the slender column of her neck. My fingers found the barely there strap that kept her top in place, and I slid it off her shoulder with a mere flick of the wrist.
The exposed shoulder did little to quell my thirst for her. It felt like that first night all over again. Like I’d never have my fill of her.
My palm unthreaded from her hair to palm her full breast, her nipple pebbling beneath my touch. The silky grazes across the fabric were nothing compared to the feeling of shedding her from the top altogether. The hiss that left her mouth when I exposed her and put my mouth on the perfectly pink nip was heaven.
How many times had I imagined doing this again? Gently, I dragged my teeth across the bud and Luna's fingers dug into my shoulders.
“We can't forget about this one,” I said, releasing her and dragging my attention to her other perfect breast.
Luna tossed her head back as she held me to her chest, the possessiveness in her grip damn near making me explode in my pants like a horny teenager. I hadn't even gotten a chance to venture below the belt and she already had me bucking against her, seeking as much friction as I could through the thick denim that separated us.
“More, Beck. I need more.” The plea dripped from her lips.
She was begging for it.
And I had to stop.
I halted my ministrations, gently bringing her shirt up to cover her.
She whined. “What are you doing? Why are you stopping?”
“Hold on.” I carried her down the hall toward the guest room she'd claimed earlier. The woman continued to gyrate against me and her mouth found that spot behind my ear that drove me wild. “Behave, Marks.”
“What happens if I don't want to behave?” she whispered, voice heady.
“Then this is going to be quite embarrassing for me.”
Her arms straightened so she could get a better look at me. “I didn't take you for a premature ejaculator.”
“Jesus—”
“I don't think he's going to help with this,” she quipped before grinding against me like we were at a middle-school dance.
“Woman—” I hissed, kicking open the door and dropping her on the bed. She sat up on her forearms, licking her lips. Pure possession in her glance. Her heavy, lust-filled eyelids narrowing as her gaze trailed down my body.
I wanted to stop. I should've stopped. It had only been a couple of hours since my world had been tipped on its axis.
And yet…
I didn't want it to stop. Not when I'd gone this long without her. It had been years between our first encounter and the next. When I saw her again my immediate reaction was defense mode leaving us bickering like a couple who had spent decades together.
You wouldn't know it now. With Luna licking her lips as I placed my hands on either side of her body.
When I hovered on top of her, our bodies aligned…
And she flinched .