Chapter 15
IF YOU'LL HAVE US
Declan
What happens now indeed? Did I want to leave for the Hamptons now and give Isla the time and space to move out?
No. I had zero desire to leave this room right now, which was a brand-new feeling for me.
I had never had any problem leaving a hotel suite or a woman’s bedroom before.
Why couldn’t I do it now? I had spent the last hour watching Isla sleep and trying to come up with a suitable answer.
Even Joey had decided he’d much rather stay.
When I went in to check on him and change him, he dozed off again.
Sure, that could be because growing made him tired, but maybe he also sensed that after today, he’d never see Isla again.
Not like this anyway. Not at home in her skimpy pajamas while she bounced him playfully.
Who the hell was I kidding? That was all me. I wanted Isla to stay with me.
“I feel alive when I’m with you.” I rose to my feet and ambled toward the bed. “I feel calmed. Before I met you, I didn’t care about where home was. But now, I can’t stop thinking about what the word really means.”
“You have a home.” She gestured toward the rest of the apartment. In the process, she let go of the sheet covering her naked body.
I hissed at the sight of her luscious breasts and pretty nipples.
For a split second, an image of an empty bed flashed in my mind.
A recollection of what things were before I met Isla, before she jumped in my car thinking I was her Uber driver, before I brought her home and she made this place feel less lonely, less empty.
And then it hit me, the answer was so obvious. Isla made me feel grounded and happy. This relentless desire I felt for her went deeper. I craved her. I yearned for her. I needed her with me. She’d gotten under my skin, but in a good way. She filled every empty space in my life and…I loved it.
“It became exactly that when you moved in.”
“Declan.” She swallowed and looked down at her hands. “What are you saying?”
What would the tabloid headlines be if they found out Declan Noble was afraid—fucking scared of a gorgeous woman and a small baby. “I want to be with you.” I cleared my throat. “If you wanted. Of course. If you’ll have us.”
Her eyes watered as she stared at me with her mouth slightly open. “Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?”
“Jesus.” I braced a knee on top of the covers and leaned in. “Yes, I am. I’ve never done it before. But, yes, that’s what I’m asking. Stay with me. Let’s see if this thing between us is more than lust and extremely hot sex.”
“More? I can’t imagine there being more than how I feel when I’m with you.” She got up on all fours and crawled to the edge of the mattress, gloriously nude, looking incredibly sexy.
“Is that a yes?” I cradled her cheek. “I need to hear you say it.”
“Yes.” She nodded, licking her lips as her gaze dropped to my boxer briefs and the bulge there.
She had that effect on me. All she had to do was look at me with stars in her eyes, and my body reacted.
Her lips parted, and fuck me, I knew exactly what she meant to do.
My chest rose and fell with anticipation.
I kept my hand on the side of her face as she pulled herself closer to me until she was up close and personal with my throbbing cock.
My eyebrows shot up in surprise because part of me didn’t believe Isla was about to suck me off at six in the morning. Without skipping a beat, she pulled down my boxers and wrapped her full lips around my shaft.
“Good girl,” I mumbled and let my head fall back while she worked me with her tongue and one hand.
So many times I had laid in bed fantasizing about fucking her mouth like this.
I took a handful of her hair and guided her to take me all in, or as much as she could anyway.
Most women couldn’t handle all of me. But Isla didn’t seem to mind.
If her little moans were any indication, she was enjoying herself.
“Fuck, Isla, you feel so good.”
She glanced up at me, doing a swallowing motion that sucked me in another half-inch.
A rush of pure desire and adrenaline shot to my balls and just below my navel.
I was about to come. My mind immediately conjured a series of images of me unloading on her ample tits and that long neck of hers.
Somehow, I found the will to reel it in and hold on longer.
I tugged and rolled her nipples where they hung close to my thighs.
When she slowed down, I leaned forward and rubbed her clit with rough strokes.
That was all it took for her. She released my cock and braced her hand on my abs for support while she rode my hand. “Omigod, Declan. Don’t stop that. Right there.”
Her plead was my undoing. I pulled on my cock a few times with quick and short tugs and shot off all over her breasts.
“What was that?” She fell back on the pillows.
She was a sight, and she was mine.
“The best blowjob, I’d say.” I chuckled and bent down to grab the pair of pajama pants I had left at the foot of the bed last night. “Sorry about the mess.” I wiped her chest before I lay down next to her.
“That was hot.” Blushing, she buried her face in the nook of my neck and shoulder.
“No need to be embarrassed. That was quite brilliant.” I cupped her cheek and kissed her.
“You’ve had so many women; I can’t even begin to compete with their skills.”
“Okay, did you just call me a manwhore?”
“No.” She laughed.
A bubble rose up into my chest. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this happy. “It sounded like it.”
“I’m just saying. I’m sure you’ve had better.”
“Hmmm.” I buried my nose in her hair. “I can honestly say this was better than anything I’d experienced. What is that scent? Strawberries?”
“What?”
“Your hair. Before I thought it was your perfume. But I was wrong. It’s in your hair, like fresh lilacs.” I took another lungful of her sweet scent.
“You like my shampoo?” She brought her fingers to my cheek. “It’s spearmint and watermelon.”
“I love it.”
“Are we really doing this?” She pointed at me and then her. “Are we together, together?”
“Yes, we are. You already said yes and sealed the deal with a mind-blowing blowjob. So yeah. We’re doing this.”
“I like that.” She traced her finger over my jawline.
She tensed as she listened intently. I wasn’t as in tune with Joey’s whimpers as she was. But after a few seconds, when he got louder, I heard it, too. He was hungry. Again.
“I’ll get him.” I rolled off the bed.
“I’ll make his bottle.” She headed for the door, then stopped mid-stride. “Feels like we fast-forwarded a few years there.”
I barked out a laugh. Very few women would’ve said yes to a single dad with a baby. But that was the thing I loved about Isla. She wasn’t afraid of anything. She said yes to us without a moment of hesitation.
“We kind of started on the opposite end, didn’t we?”
“When you ask the universe for something, be ready to receive what it sends you. It won’t always come in the way you’d expect.” She shrugged.
“In my defense, I never asked for a baby.”
“What did you ask for, Declan?” She stepped closer to me. When she did, Joey decided crying was the best way to get our attention. “Oh, bottle. Be right back.” She scurried out of the suite.
I crossed the threshold and picked up Joey from his crib. What did I ask for? Why would the law of synchronicity decide to send me a baby? Isla was off-base on this one. Sometimes shit happened. One broken condom and an ovulating woman didn’t mean anything.
When I returned to the bedroom, I found a bottle on the side table, but no Isla.
I climbed in the bed with my son and sat him on my belly with his back resting on my thighs.
Happy as can be, he wrapped his chubby fingers around the container and pretty much chugged the whole thing in under a minute.
I remembered pulling off a similar stunt when I was in college—with beer instead of formula.
“It’s getting harder and harder to deny you’re mine.”
“You still want to do the paternity test.” Isla strolled in wearing fresh clothes and makeup.
She climbed into bed and curled up next to me. Damn if this didn’t feel like home. Joey curled onto my belly then rolled off toward Isla. I laughed. “Well, that’s one way to get off my lap.”
“He’s going to be walking soon.” She scooted over to make room for him. “If you wanted, we could do the test today. I can go with you.”
“God, I’m never this big of a baby. I want to know for sure, but also, I don’t want to know. It doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s okay to be scared.” She squeezed my shoulder. “Let’s do it right now. Joey needs his morning stroll anyway. Two birds, one stone. Do they take walk-ins?”
“Sort of. A mate of mine is doing the test. Well, he’s Nicolas’s mate.” I let out a breath. “I can’t let the tabloids get a hold of this juicy news until I know for sure.”
“That’s smart. I would hate to be blindsided like that if I were Harper.”
“The media can be brutal. Are you going to be okay with that?” I stroked her cheek.
“Right. I’m dating a celebrity.” She beamed at me.
“I’m not a celebrity. More like clickbait.”
“You’re not clickbait. The tabloids love you. Everyone loves a good mystery.”
“No mystery here. And you know that.” I shook my head, knowing it was only a matter of time before Joey became clickbait, too.
The UK tabloids liked to keep their followers guessing as to what I would do next, where I would travel, who I was fucking, or what was my next crazy purchase.
There was nothing interesting in how I lived my life.
They simply liked to make it look that way, so they could make a few quid on the side. Did Isla understand that?
“We should get going.” She reached for Joey, who had grown tired of the confined space we had him in.
Isla’s enthusiasm was exactly what I needed to get my bum into gear.
Inside of an hour, I had showered, packed up a stroller and a diaper bag, and we’d managed to make our way to the fertility clinic.
On a Saturday morning, I had to call Nicolas’s assistant to make sure the doctor could see me earlier then the appointment she had scheduled for me.
The test was so anti-climactic. The doctor had a nurse take Joey’s blood and mine. I filled out a single sheet with my personal information, and we were done. “Why did I think this would be more involved?”
“We do this test quite a bit. We have our process down.” Doctor Condren patted me on the back. “I should have an answer for you early next week.”
“Thank you. Now that the worst is over, I’m dying to know either way.”
As soon as we stepped out of the building, I received a text from Tommy letting me know he had to drive around the block one more time.
Parking in the city could be a nightmare sometimes, which was why I rarely drove my own car.
I smiled thinking of what’d happened the last time I got behind the wheel.
“Where did he go?” Isla parked the stroller between us and kicked the brake on.
“He’ll be here in a minute.” I reached for her waist and drew her to me.
“Would Joey be terribly cross if we cut his park stroll short?” I pressed my lips to hers.
I meant for it to be a sweet gesture, but desire unfurled fast and furious at my navel.
Before I knew it, I was kissing her hard and desperately.
“Sorry.” I pulled away before I embarrassed myself.
Public displays of affection wasn’t my thing. And for a reason.
“Don’t be.” She wrapped her arms around my waist. “I like this side of you.”
“What side is that?”
“Less grumpy, more hands-on.” She laughed.
“I’m glad I amuse you. Maybe later, I can show you how hands-on I can be.” I glanced up over her head and spotted Tommy making his way to us in the Escalade. “He’s here.”
Isla turned to face him and brace her hand on the stroller. Then I heard a familiar and most annoying sound—clicks, like a camera taking a burst of shots. What the hell? This sort of thing only happened in the UK on a Saturday night. Not in Manhattan in the middle of the day.
“Fuck me.” I swung the stroller around so Joey would be shielded from the lens, then gestured for Tommy to come help us.
He jumped the curb right in front of us, climbed out, and chased after the photographer. Good man. I used the time we had to help Isla and Joey into the SUV.
“Who was that?” Isla climbed over the baby carrier strapped to the backseat and buckled Joey in. “Did he take a picture of us?”
“Several. So much for keeping this whole thing under wraps.” I shifted my body to look behind us. Tommy met my gaze and shook his head once. He didn’t get the film.
“It can’t be that bad.”
I glanced up and glared at the huge clinic sign, thinking about all the shots that asshole got of us.
Isla and I making out in front of a clinic with a baby in a stroller.
Isla was new at this and had no idea how bad this story could get.
The tabloids needed big scandalous headlines.
They were not going to report on the fact that I looked happy or that I was out and about with my family.
They were going to go for the jugular. I was used to this.
But Isla wasn’t. Worst of all, now they also had a picture of my son.
Wherever Harper was, she wasn’t going to be happy about seeing her son’s face all over social media. Fuck my life.