Chapter Forty
I glance to Lily as I shake her bottle, ready for her feed, and stop dead.
“Oh my god!” I gasp as she attempts to push up on her elbows, head wobbling a little, but she’s doing it! She’s doing the whole thing. “Wait! Wait! Stay there!”
I frantically look around for my cell so I can record it or take a picture, or something for Dean. He isn’t here, and there’s so many milestones he needs to be able to see!
I locate my cell on the couch cushion and swipe open the camera just as Lily plops back down onto her stomach and lets out a loud wail.
“It’s okay, sweet girl,” I throw the cell back down, “Daddy will be home soon.”
I pick her up and settle on the chair with her, offering her the tip of the bottle, which she takes easily, her eyes still watery.
“You’re getting so big and strong,” I coo down at her, “Look at you.”
Her wide eyes stare up at me as she drinks, chubby fingers wrapping around one of mine. I’ve fallen in love with her as much as I’ve fallen in love with Dean.
Behind me, I hear the key turn in the lock and the door open. “Sloane?” His deep, comforting voice sounds from the front of the house.
“In here,” I call back. With every step that sounds with him getting closer, a weight shifts and loosens. I hadn’t realized how much comfort I’d found in his presence, how much it is tied to my inner peace.
Leaning down, he brushes his lips across my forehead before he does the same to his daughter, who doesn’t pause for a second with her bottle.
“How are my girls?” He asks.
I take a minute to look at him, the light way his shoulders are resting, the stress lines that were present this morning before he left now gone.
“We’re okay, are you?”
His eyes bounce around my face. “I am.”
But there’s something else there. Something he isn’t telling me.
“What happened?” I press.
He lets out a long sigh, “We dealt with Richard. He is no longer a threat to you, or anyone else, for that matter.”
“Well, that’s good news, is it not?” I frown, “I’m confused.”
“It is,” He agrees, “We handled his organization. The girls he took are being found and get to go home. There’s no threat anymore.”
“So, what’s wrong?”
His eyes flick to Lily who is now half asleep, still taking her bottle in the cradle of my arms. “I want you to stay.”
“Oh.”
Just while I’m here.
That’s what I said.
I was only meant to stay for as long as the threat still stood, and since it’s gone…
“You belong here,” Dean swallows as he brings his eyes back, “With me. With her.”
My voice is lost somewhere beneath the lump lodged in my throat.
“You don’t need to decide now, Sloane, but that’s where I stand. You know how I feel, that won’t change. But you do belong here with us. You always have.”
“I don’t want to leave,” I manage to get out.
“Then don’t,” He grins down at me.
“And what, we just play happy family?”
“There’s no reason to play when it isn’t a game.”
“Okay,” I breathe.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” His mouth is on mine in the next second, startling Lily in my arms enough that she snatches away from the bottle to let out a cry. But Dean plucks her up, bouncing her. “You hear that, Lily Flower. We get to keep her.”
“Uh, Dean,” I cringe, “Maybe don’t bounce her, she hasn’t been–”
Lily spits up all down the front of his shirt, the likely still warm milk soaking it through.
“Burped.” I finish my sentence and get up to take her, cleaning her up with the muslin cloth I had on the arm of the couch.
“I’m going to go shower,” He grumbles, taking himself and his vomit soaked shirt out of the room.
I can’t help but giggle after him, but once Lily is clean and settled again, she falls asleep, so I head up.
The sound of the shower traveling out of the crack of the door to Dean’s bedroom.
Once I have Lily down for her nap, I sneak into his bedroom, crossing over to the bathroom where he’s left that door wide open.
Water sluices down his toned body, running in rivers through the valleys of his muscles. Not sure I’ll ever tire of looking at him.
“Don’t just look, Sloane,” His voice is barely loud enough to sound over the running water, but I hear him, “Get in.”
“Is this what it’ll be like?” I laugh as I pull my shirt over my head and move to the button of my pants.
“What?”
Once I’m undressed, I climb into the shower, the water hot as it cascades over us both.
I run my hands up his hard abdominals, reveling in the way they jump and twitch under my touch. “Needy.”
His hand slips between my legs to cup me. “With you, it’s never enough.”
“Promises, promises,” My eyes roll back as he teases his middle finger at my entrance, not penetrating, but the pressure he applies is enough to make my knees shake.
“If we’re in the business of promises, Butterfly,” Dean purrs against my ear, using his body to shield me from the water, “If I promise to make you scream until you cry my name and beg for more, will you promise to move all your things into my room?”
“What?” I gasp as he slides that finger inside.
“Did you not hear me, baby?” His teeth graze the lobe of my ear.
“I—your room?”
“I have more space; you’ll be more comfortable.” He slowly pumps his finger, adding a grind to my clit with the heel of his palm.
“This is coercion,” I scold weakly.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” He drags his finger away, “Would you like me to stop?”
“What?” I gasp, “No!”
He laughs and stops his retreat, “What’ll it be?”
“Yes, fine, yes,” I grip his wrist, “Just don’t stop.”
“So greedy,” He praises, adding a second finger.
“More,” I beg.
He slips his hand away from my pussy, but before I can object, he grips my hips and spins me, forcing my hands out to steady myself against the tile, and he doesn’t wait to notch his cock at my entrance and thrust forward.
“Like this?” He growls as he returns his hand to my clit, tightly circling the sensitive bud as he fucks me from behind.
“Yes, God.”
“I’m sorry, who?” He stops all movement. “When it’s my cock inside you and my fingers on your cunt, it’s my name you’ll scream.”
“Dean,” I whine.
“That’s better,” He praises before he thrusts so hard, my whole body moves, only saved by his arm banded around me, tugging me back onto him, “Now scream it.”
There’s a shift, and on the next thrust, he goes deeper, harder, the water slapping against us both as he fucks me against the wall. He takes, demands, working my body and my pleasure like it’s his and always has been.
And he gets what he wants. His name is a plea and a prayer, the sound of it echoes off the tiles, and with it, I earn a deep, guttural groan from him. My knees shake, threatening to give out, but he holds me up, keeping me stable.
“You’re doing so good, baby,” He rasps against my ear, “You take me so well.”
Pleasure courses through me, tightening every muscle, lighting every nerve ending on fire. I whimper, breaths coming hard and fast as he fucks me through it.
“Come on,” He coaxes, “I feel it, I know you want to give it to me. Your greedy pussy sucking me in, the way it’s fluttering, so damn close.”
My fingers curl into my palm, nails biting, but the pain does nothing to bring me down. I’m about to crash and burn, and they’ll be nothing left.
“Dean,” I cry his name, so far gone it’s the only thing I can remember.
“That’s it, pretty girl, come for me. It’s mine.”
He applies a touch more pressure, pinching my clit between his skilled fingers, and that’s all it takes.
I come so hard, stars burst behind my eyes, muscles tensing before loosening, and he fucks me through it, keeping it going until I’m nothing but jelly in his arms. He finds his own release, his breaths pushing on my neck as his teeth graze, and then we end up on the floor of the shower, me in his lap, his arms around me as the water continues to come down.
“At least you can keep your promises,” I laugh breathlessly, earning me a heart-stopping grin.
I am so gone for this man.
I’m ready to stop living in the past and only look to the future. And now that I am here, the only one I see is him and his daughter.