Chapter 6 #2
He smiled back, and it was nice to see the happiness reaching his eyes. “I’ll be back soon enough, regardless. I want you to meet everyone.”
It was a plan.
Nate walked off, and I turned to Reese and Colt.
“I feel like I was just dropped off at kindergarten.”
“Well, you’re safe with us,” Reese chuckled and took a step to the side. He gestured at his twin brother. “You can steal his lunch money if you want.”
Colt and I laughed.
The twin brother did not. He sat there with a scowl on his face, nursing a beer. “Piss off, bro. I coulda been at home, watchin’ the game.”
Reese lifted his brows and blocked my view of the brother again. “What he means to say is, hey, my name is River—nice to meet you.”
I grinned. “Can’t blame the guy. Home is comfortable.”
Sometimes too comfortable.
The next day, Nate and I were about thirty miles and a whole world away from kink.
Underneath the string lights in a semi-affordable ballroom, we danced to the Lion King soundtrack as husbands.
Properly, this time. We’d gotten married because we’d wanted to, not because it would increase our chances of adopting or claiming spousal benefits at work.
“It feels real, doesn’t it?” I murmured.
He rested his forehead to mine and smiled. “Incredibly. I worried for a moment it would feel like we’ve already done this, but it really doesn’t.”
“Yeah.” I smiled and kissed him chastely.
Eighty-two guests were in town, with most of them staying at this very hotel, and some of them soon joined us on the dance floor, both grown-ups and children.
The latter was something we’d both wanted—for the wedding to be kid-friendly.
The adults had dined on steak or halibut, and the children had had their own pizza buffet.
I couldn’t lie, I’d envied Dylan’s pizza a bit.
“What’re you thinking about?” Nate asked.
I chuckled under my breath and pressed my lips to his cheek. “Pizza.”
He shook with silent laughter and buried his face against my neck. “Figures. Meanwhile, I’m thinking about how sexy you are wearing a wedding ring, and I can’t wait until that’s the only thing you have on.”
Fuck me. “Damn, boy. Let’s not make these pants tighter before we’ve even cut the cake.”
And there we had the perfect trifecta. Nate’s tight ass, pizza, and cake.
We didn’t need a fancy hotel suite or a honeymoon. The kids went to Nate’s folks’, my own parents headed back to Haverford, and we had twenty-four hours on our own at home.
I spent much of that time balls deep in my husband’s ass.
“Fuck…do we really have time?”
“Yup.” I stroked the oil onto my cock and nudged his legs farther apart, and then I pushed inside in a single thrust.
“Fffuck,” he gritted out.
I exhaled and planted my forehead in the dip between his shoulder blades as the pleasure washed over me.
We had five minutes before we had to be downstairs, and I needed two. Nate wasn’t the only one who went apeshit at seeing a wedding band on his husband’s finger.
He groaned into the pillow as I pulled out and pushed in again.
“Keep it down, baby,” I whispered.
His parents had arrived already. I could hear them downstairs. Rather, I could hear the kids, and I could smell coffee.
Our twenty-four hours were almost up.
Nate cursed and pushed back at me. “Why do you have to feel so fucking good?”
I grinned and latched on to his shoulder, sinking my teeth into his flesh.
“I need more,” he breathed. “Lemme up.”
I eased back and pulled him with me, until he was on all fours and I could rail him like we both preferred. Plus, he could take care of himself.
Motherfucker, he was something else in the morning light filtering through the blinds. We both wore bruises from yesterday. We’d lived off reception leftovers and each other.
I set a fast pace, the sound of skin on skin filling the room. No teasing today. We had a lot to do. A long drive.
I sucked in a breath and stared at where my cock disappeared inside him. His back arched perfectly, and he met every thrust.
He’d been mine for fifteen years, but this was different. He was mine. He was a Riley. He belonged to me.
“I’m close, baby,” he moaned. “Fuck me harder.”
My heart started pounding, and I slammed into him and grabbed a fistful of his hair. “I need to hear it again. Tell me who owns you.”
He clenched down on me and threw me a heated look over his shoulder. “You know it’s you, Ash. You own me.”
Those are the magic words.
The pressure built up too quickly, and I was fucking gone.
Ownership.
A heady fucking thing.
The orgasm crashed down on me, and Nate shifted back to fuck himself on my cock.
I pressed my face against his neck and reached around him, stroking him off as he came too.
Fucking hell, fucking hell, fucking hell.
I lost control in the middle of getting off, when I squeezed his cock with one hand and applied pressure to his carotid arteries with the other.
Nate let out a moan that was a little too loud, and before I could think twice, I slapped a come-soaked hand over his mouth.
We loved a good mess, though. He groaned through a breathless chuckle, and I stifled my own sounds by burying my face against his neck.
It wasn’t until my lungs were burning that I realized I’d held my breath for too long, and it set off a round of panting. I grabbed his jaw at the same time as he tilted his head back, and we met in a wild kiss where I tasted him everywhere.
“Do you…” He was panting too. “Do you think they heard?”
I grinned, out of breath. “If they did, you can’t go with you stubbing your toe again.”
He laughed, and a big breath gusted out of him.
Luckily for us, the kids were oblivious. But yeah, Nate’s stepmom had sent us a couple sly looks.
We’d showered and gotten dressed before we’d appeared downstairs, so there wasn’t a whole lot for us to do but exchange some pleasantries, eat breakfast, and then pile the kids into my truck. Nate had been smart enough to pack our bags yesterday.
“Road trip!” Hallie exclaimed from the back.
I smiled and eyed her in the rearview before backing out.
One hell of a road trip, yeah. To bring Micah and little Lily home.
“Did you bring the presents, sweetheart?” Nate asked, peering back.
“Yes, Nana helped me,” Hallie confirmed. “We wrapped everything yesterday.”
They were a godsend, our folks. Throughout this whole process, they’d been there for us.
Whether we needed help watching the kids or we had questions, mainly for Ma.
This was happening thanks to her—again. An old colleague of hers in Ohio had a case with no foster parents willing to take in two children.
Micah was a shy boy at almost four, who’d once been abandoned at his aunt’s house.
But said aunt was battling her own demons, all while being pregnant.
She’d shown up for her last ultrasound high and screaming that she hadn’t asked for any of this.
The story had hit me hard since I’d been born with a drug addiction.
According to our caseworker, this adoption process was going to be much quicker because all biological parents involved had given up their rights as fast as they could.
But all Nate and I cared about was giving these two angels a safe home.
Micah was withdrawn and anxious but loved comfort and affection.
He lit up like the sun every time Nate and I flew out to visit, which we’d done as frequently as we’d been able the past two months.
Hell, we would’ve brought him home sooner if we hadn’t determined it was best he stayed close to Lily while she recovered.
She no longer needed hospital care, so that was a relief.
Imagine that. Three months old and already having gone through so much.
It broke my fucking heart.
A couple of days later
Columbus
Nathan Riley
I hoped it would be a long time before I saw another waiting room’s pale-yellow walls after this. Lily’s new doctor at home—I already knew they had light-purple walls. A slight improvement.
I smiled at Hallie as she inspected the lackluster kiddie corner, eventually settling for one of the children’s books.
Knowing her, she’d return it in a minute—and not because she happened to be a fast reader for her age, but because she was about as impatient as Ash.
But at least Ash was in there with Lily, for her final exam.
The room was too small for all of us, so I’d offered to wait with the others outside.
“Dylan,” I whispered.
He glanced up from his comic.
“Is he asleep?” I gestured at Micah in my arms. His forehead had dropped to my shoulder a minute or so ago, and I couldn’t see him properly.
Dylan quirked a little smirk and nodded.
I exhaled, relieved and happy. Micah had been surprisingly quick to get comfortable around Ash and me, and now we were preparing ourselves for an adjustment period of worries, fretting, and clinginess.
Hallie had been similar at Micah’s age, refusing to let go of us, sometimes even if we’d only left the room.
Something told me Micah was going to struggle a skosh more to trust that we were always coming back.
That had been the worst part about leaving after every visit, seeing his worry. How his little chin had trembled, how his big eyes had welled up—
I cleared my throat and felt my eyes burn at the mere memory.
I rubbed his back gently.
No more visits. He was coming home with us soon.
I pressed a kiss to the dark locks that covered his head.
Fucking hell, it had been an emotional couple of months.
“Daddy, how long is it gonna take?” Hallie tossed her book on the chair next to her and huffed.
I checked the clock that ticked annoyingly every full minute. “It shouldn’t be much long—” I cut myself off when I heard Ash down the hall. “There we go. Do you hear Daddy?”
“Yes!” Hallie bolted out of the room and down the hall.
My heart started beating a little faster, and it wasn’t long before everyone returned. Ash, holding our little miracle, the doctor, and our caseworker. And Hallie, of course. She was itching to hold Lily again.
“All good news, I hope?” I carefully rose to my feet, not wanting Micah to wake up.
“Yeah,” Ash murmured. His gaze was firmly fixed on the baby girl in his arms, so the doctor took over and confirmed that Lily’s recovery was almost complete. A whole other brand of special care waited for us now, which was why we had a pediatrician picked out already.
Because we simply didn’t know if Lily would suffer any long-term effects. Throughout her childhood, she was going to need checkups so the doctors could keep close watch on every developmental curve.
I shook the doctor’s hand before he wished us a safe trip back to Virginia, and he excused himself.
So did our caseworker. “You take all the time you need, and we’ll see each other back at the group home after lunch.” She gently touched Lily’s cheek and smiled. “Precious little fighter.”
Hallie pounced as soon as we were alone. “Can I hold her now, Daddy? Please?”
“In a moment, baby girl,” Ash chuckled. “Let’s get her out to the truck. You’ll be right next to her car seat.”
I leaned in and kissed his cheek, then peered down at Lily, who was superfocused on grabbing at Ash’s thumb.
Fucking adorable.
“Did youse settle on a place for lunch?” Ash asked.
“Dylan requested McDonald’s,” I said.
“All right, sounds good. I could go for seventeen cheeseburgers and a good cry.”
Fuck, him and me both. But we were in the homestretch now. In a few days, we’d be back in our house, full of life, four kids—four freaking kids! It was indescribably daunting, but my heart had never been so full.
You’re the one who taught me you can say a lot with very few words.
That night at the hotel, for instance. You and I stepped outside to the parking lot once the kids were asleep.
We were both shaken. We hugged the hell out of each other and just processed.
Everything was official, and we could start to relax.
We had our big family.
When you sniffled and cleared your throat, I kissed your scruffy cheek and brushed my thumb under your eyes. You did the same thing for me. Then we smiled, and we shook our heads, and we let out a chuckle, because…holy fuck, we were parents again, and could we believe it?
Forehead to forehead.
Exhale.
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too, baby.”