Chapter 5 – Cody
Chapter Five
Cody
Idon’t have the strength to stop myself from pursuing what I want.
Oske leaves and Shay wakes Caleb up, reminding me it’s necessary to keep him sleeping through the night.
I don’t mind the opportunity to get to know the little guy.
He’s tiny, easy to pick up like a little bag of flour, and quite cute.
I never thought of myself as having fatherly instincts, but when I watched Shay holding him earlier, the strangest notion that they were both mine to protect forever crossed over me and filled me with a sense of purpose like none other.
I always thought it was too late for me to find a woman and build enough with her to start a family.
This gives me a chance to do things differently.
According to our contract, all Shay owes me is our first night together.
I won’t take anything else from her or ask anything more without permission – not that I think I’ll want it.
Tonight, my only plan is to breed this woman and get the part of the contract that means the most to me.
A child will keep Shay here forever. I can’t expect tonight to go well.
For my entire life, I have suffered from…
this. When Shay finds out, I expect she will meet me with all the reasonable and anticipated disgust. My chest shudders at the thought of seeing her look at me with pain and disinterest on her face.
I signed up for this just as much as she did.
For all my outward kindness towards Shay, her experience tonight will be nothing short of brutality.
I suffer to think about it and take my time with the rest of the afternoon.
She seems skittish around me, most likely because of whatever traumatic past brought her to my doorstep.
Shay and her son play together in the living room for most of the afternoon.
I bring them cut up cheese cubes and fruit for snacks and spend my time on the couch, answering emails pertaining to ranch business.
The entire scene is domestic in a strange way.
I don’t know her, but something along the lines of what’s happening this afternoon is just how we’ll spend the next few months getting to know each other.
Closer to dinner time, Shay asks if I can watch Caleb so that she can cook.
I agree and offer to help with the cooking too, but she insists that she can handle it on her own.
Normally, I don’t make much for dinner, but I signed up to get a wife and according to our deal, Shay handles the cooking.
I don’t bother to ask what she’s making – I’ll eat anything, and anything has to be better than boiling or baking whatever slab of meat I drag out of the freezer.
Caleb is far more comfortable with me than his mother is.
Kids take to you quite easily if you offer to pick them up and swing them around.
It’s a matter of ten minutes before I have the little man shrieking his head off with delight and begging me for more horse rides and plane rides.
I hear sizzling from the kitchen and the smell coming out of there is something like a restaurant.
Garlic. Butter. I swear I can smell potatoes too.
My mouth waters. I expected the basics, but I didn’t realize Shay would be able to throw down in the kitchen like that.
I can already tell I’ll be eating some damned good food tonight, and I want to make sure this little man is all tuckered out so I can spend my first night as a married man with his mama.
Shay feeds Caleb and insists that I can eat without her, but I refuse.
Once Caleb is done eating and has some juice and soundless cartoons playing on the television just out of sight, she digs in, giving me silent permission to satiate my growing hunger.
The first bite of venison steak and roasted potatoes nearly makes me cum in my pants. How the fuck did she do this?
I look up at Shay, who glances over her cute brown nose at me nervously with round, incredibly dark eyes that bore straight through me. Curious. Maybe she’s a little scared.
“Is this how you like it?” Shay ventures, holding my gaze as she silently chews her first bite. I wonder if I’m falling in love at this exact moment and proving the stereotype about men and their stomachs to be true.
“This is the best damned steak I ever had. Where did you learn to cook like this?”
She shrugs. “I’ve never cooked venison before.”
And she’s so humble about it.
“You could be a chef.”
Shay cracks a smile. It’s the first one I’ve seen and makes me feel like I’ll be less of a creep coming onto her tonight.
I don’t want to seduce her in front of her son or make her feel pressured, but…
I definitely want this woman in my arms tonight.
I knew that the second I laid eyes on Shay and those feelings have only grown as the day sharpens and then descends into this moody darkness.
“Thanks,” she says. “It’s a basic life skill.”
“Scrambling an egg is a basic life skill. This is talent.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
She looks down at her plate all shy again. I wonder if she’s thinking about tonight. Or if it’s all in my head and she’s secretly dreading my body against hers.
Shay clears up dinner and gives me a precise timeline of her evening.
Putting Caleb to bed, loading up the dishwasher, and then joining me to talk in the living room.
I doubt we’ll do very much talking before I take Shay up to bed.
I can’t stop marveling at her as she takes the dishes to the sink and then wraps her son up in her arms. Oske couldn’t have possibly known how this woman would speak to my soul, but there’s something about her full-figure that instantly throws me into a slew of inappropriate thoughts.
I’ve always liked my women very plus-sized – on the heavier end of plus-sized rather than the lighter end – and Shay has a figure that I couldn’t have conjured out of my hottest fantasies.
It’s not just her hips and thighs that flare outwards and curve along her fluffy frame, but her breasts and round cheeks.
The way her figure accentuates her lips and eyes drives me wild.
The self-control I need to practice around this woman takes every ounce of my will.
At around eight-thirty, she emerges from her son’s bedroom, meek and sheepish. I lean back on the couch, halfway through my glass of whiskey, watching her enter the room. She sighs, wiping her hands nervously on the front of her thighs. My cock twitches at the mere thought of Shay’s thighs.
“Is Caleb asleep?” I sound more drunk than I intended. I feel like I have to be drunk for this.
“Yes,” Shay nods. She can’t meet my eyes and there’s a part of me that feels deeply ashamed. But after tonight, she’ll understand. This can only happen once. This needs to only happen once. I can resume my life of celibacy and isolation after that.
I just can’t spend anymore time alone. I can’t bear it.
“Are you ready and willing to fulfill the terms of the contract?” I venture slowly, punctuating my question with another full-throated sip of whiskey. Shay’s eyes flicker up towards mine. Gorgeous. Dark. Perhaps terrified.
My cock stiffens.
“Yes,” she says. “I can do that, Mr. Hollingsworth.”
Fuck. Mr. Hollingsworth. That does something to me too. I want to tell her to call me Cody, but perhaps tonight it’s best if we stick to the terms of the contract. I don’t want to muddy the waters here. She’s my wife, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to fall in love.