22. Stella
TWENTY-TWO
stella
In whatever parallel universe shower sex exists, it definitely isn’t the same one Max and I are living in.
We rushed back to the big house to get cleaned up before I had to go pick Charlie up at Ray’s. We stripped each other naked with the same quickness and urgency we’d felt in the barn, and stumbled blindly with our lips locked into the shower, but that’s where the magic ended.
One of us was consistently standing in the cold while the other was lathering up their body or attempting to execute something resembling sexy.
Max’s attempt to eat me out was interrupted by a stream of water hitting him in the face, causing me to burst into laughter and lose my focus.
I suggested he take me from behind, but a six foot two man trying to sink into a five foot seven woman against a shower wall involved way more acrobatic finesse than we ever dreamed of possessing.
We settled for a steamy make-out session with some heavy petting while we got cleaned up. I washed every square inch of his body, taking immense glee in the way his breath caught as I skimmed my hands across his cock and his glorious piercing.
I’d obviously never been with a man who had a cock piercing before, but the way it had coasted over the sensitive inner walls of my pussy had me seeing stars.
After thoroughly edging each other for the fifteen minute shower, we managed a down and dirty round two quickie before I headed out to the Cortez house to get Charlie.
Being with Max was exhilarating. The passion between us was an all-consuming fire, leaving us breathless and wanting more. I don’t think either of us was ever going to be fully sated.
Heat flushed my cheeks as I replayed our afternoon. Cranking the AC to full blast while pulling down the driveway of Ray’s dad’s house, the cool air was a welcome relief against the memories causing fire to erupt along my skin.
After sufficiently cooling my face, and satisfied that I wasn’t sporting a post-sex glow, I walked up the front porch steps and into the house’s foyer.
As many times as I’d been here, I had earned enough chastisement from Emmanuel that I knew he wanted me to treat his house like a second home and not knock every time I came over.
Walking into the living room of the modest one-story home, I found my daughter giggling on the floor as Ray tickled her feet.
Over the course of the last couple months, they’d become exceptionally close. Ray treated her with the same care and love that I would expect from a sister or an aunt. She made Charlie feel like family, and that warmed my heart .
Wade was seated on the floor, his back against the couch, a huge smile playing upon his lips as he watched Ray and Charlie play.
We had carved out a little slice of home here in Firefly Cove, and I was feeling more and more settled by the thought of staying.
Finally noticing me, Charlie squealed with delight, her chubby legs pumping furiously as she toddled towards me, Ray and Wade a distant memory as a giggle escaped her lips.
“Mama!” she shouted and raised her arms for me to pick her up.
I’d carry my girl as long as I could. There would come a time when I would pick her up for the last time and the thought of her growing up filled me with dread.
I looked at my life, at my current family and my capacity for more, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted any more children, unless it was with the right person.
Unexpectedly, a sense of giddiness came over me.
I found myself drawn to thoughts of Max holding a tiny baby in his arms. He had already proven that he was an excellent partner.
He made an excellent addition to the duo that Charlie and I had forged over the last year.
I shook away the thoughts. It was too early in our budding relationship to think about things like kids and a permanent future together.
“You okay, girl? You’re looking a little flushed.” Ray narrowed her eyes in scrutiny and ticked her head to the side. It didn’t take longer than a second for a knowing smirk to find its way to her face. She squealed almost as loud as Charlie had and stood in front of me, hopping.
“SPILL!” she screamed with a giddiness I’d only seen from her upon finding the perfect thrifted dresser in an online auction for less than a hundred dollars .
“And with that, I’m out.” Wade said, pushing to stand and giving us a mock salute. He walked over to Charlie, popped a wet kiss on her cheek, gave me a side hug, and headed for the door.
“See ya later, Waddle!” Ray called loudly as Wade opened the front door.
“I told you, Sunshine, stop calling me that.” He grumped as he unceremoniously left.
“Okay, now that he’s gone, SPILL.”
I covered Charlie’s ears in makeshift earmuffs as I found the words to explain what had transpired between Max and me in the last couple of hours.
“Long story short… I think Max and I are… together ?” I said with a slight hesitancy.
“Think? Did you not talk about it?” she asked in confusion.
“Umm… It’s a little hard to talk when you either have his tongue or cock in your mouth.” I joked.
Her laughter, a joyous sound that seemed to fill the entire room, startled me, and her hand, firm on my arm, steered me toward the kitchen.
“I’m going to need to know details, but first, we have more pressing matters.” She grabbed a small notebook off the counter and brought it over to the table where she’d deposited me.
I plopped Charlie on my lap and waited on bated breath as Ray flipped to the page she was looking for. After everything I had been through the last ten years, surprises were pretty high on the list of things I despised most.
Ray flipped to one of the inner pages, and my anxiety ebbed.
Written at the top of the page was ‘Charlie’s Fairy First Birthday’.
The sudden heat of unshed tears burned behind my eyes, blurring my vision.
With everything going on, I had somehow forgotten that Charlie and the twins’ birthdays were coming up.
“I hope I didn’t overstep…” Ray mumbled, obviously sensing a change in my demeanor.
I rarely saw Rayna Cortez demure, but the thought of her taking the time to plan a birthday party for my daughter brought such a lightness to my heart.
“Ray…” I fought to find the words to express my gratitude.
I wanted to tell her thank you for loving my daughter.
She deserved to hear how much it meant to me that she had done all of this, especially for all the time she spent watching her while I worked, taking an enormous burden off my shoulders.
“It’s fine. It was just a thought..” I stopped her with a hand on her arm as she motioned to close the notebook. I flipped it back open and pulled it towards me, getting a look at all the planning she had done.
“This is… everything.”
“Are you sure? I just figured, with everything going on, that planning a one-year-old’s birthday party would be the last thing on your mind.”
She shyly flipped through the pages, showing me all the ideas she’d written down. She had even sketched out a cake idea. A two-tiered monstrosity covered in flowers, mushrooms, and woodland creatures.
I watched with rapt attention as I saw how much love and enjoyment she had put into planning and designing.
Her artistic talent went far beyond that of interior design.
She was a talented designer and planner as a whole.
I wondered if she had ever given any thought to expanding her business into the party planning sector .
“Ray, this is amazing,” I said, thumbing through the pages. “I was just planning on getting a cupcake and singing happy birthday over breakfast.”
I leaned down to rest my cheek on top of Charlie’s head as she pointed at things in the notebook and babbled words only she could understand.
“Faiwee!! Chawee faiwee!” she shouted as she wiggled to the floor. She ran around the kitchen flapping her arms and twirling in circles until she plopped on the floor in a dizzy daze.
“But what about the guys?” I asked. I didn’t want to take the spotlight away from Wade and Max’s birthday. They deserved to be celebrated just as much as Charlie did.
“Pshh,” Ray said with a flick of her wrist. “They have had twenty-nine years of birthdays. You only turn one once.” She smiled down at Charlie, still attempting her best fairy impression, with a tenderness of someone filled with love.
Ignoring the familiar ache in my chest—a dull throb that always surfaced when witnessing their familial love—I chuckled at her nonchalant attitude towards celebrating her best friend and his brother’s birthdays.
“Fine, but please, let’s make sure to do something special for the guys as well. I’d really like to make them feel included.”
“I’m sure they’ll be perfectly happy to spoil little miss fairy princess over there.” She tapped her chin with her pointer finger. “I wonder if I can get them all matching tutus and wings.”
Before I had a chance to object, she was pulling out her phone and searching the internet for adult sized fairy costumes .
I’m not sure how Wade had put up with Ray’s antics over the years, but she sure did keep things interesting.
When we got back to the house, Charlie had already fallen asleep in her car seat. Ray had warned me that she’d been fighting her naps and cutting down from three shorter naps to one long one mid-afternoon. Just another way that my little girl was growing up before my eyes.
As soon as I pulled into the driveway, Max emerged from behind the house, likely from the barn. He was outfit in his signature Wrangler jeans, boots, a plain tee shirt, and that sexy as hell Stetson he always wore when working out on the ranch.
I fought to control my raging hormones, yet Max’s sex appeal was undeniable. He emanated an air of authority everywhere he went and I was happy letting him take charge in and out of the bedroom.
He met me at my door just as I’d swung it open, the furrow between his brows appearing at the fact that I hadn’t let him open my door. I got out of the car and softly closed the door behind me, hoping to keep Charlie asleep and avoid a meltdown.
Max bracketed my hips with his hands, and I slid mine up the broad expanse of his chest. I massaged the scowl between his eyes with a single finger and an innocent smile. He huffed in annoyance before gently pressing his lips to mine.
We didn’t need words to express our feelings. We could read one another as if we had been learning each other’s nuances for years .
Max snuck a glance over my shoulder into the back seat of the car, and a soft smile appeared on his lips. It never ceased to amaze me how he had folded himself seamlessly into our family unit.
“So, we never got to talk earlier,” he said as he took my hands in his, rubbing his thumb over my knuckles. “I just wanted to check in with where your head’s at.”
He seemed almost nervous as he looked down at our entwined hands. I took a page from his own play book and used my pointer finger to lift his chin and look into his eyes.
“Are you having the ‘what are we’ talk right now, Maxwell?” I chuckled.
With a nervous rub of the back of his neck, he started, “I mean...”
I stood on my tiptoes and coasted my lips across his in a whisper of a kiss.
“Ask me.” I commanded.
“Fuck, Stell. You make me nervous,” he chuckled.
“How about this?” I said as I stood on my tip toes, draping my arms around his neck, our lips still a breath away from touching. “I’m yours. As long as you’ll have me.”
He didn’t hesitate as his lips crashed down on mine in a punishing kiss and he pressed me back into the door of my car. He consumed me with an intensity that gave me more than butterflies. It set me ablaze.
Knowing things were about to get more intense, I pulled back from our kiss, only to lightly brush my lips against his one last time.
“My bed…or yours?” he asked with a wicked grin, and I slapped his chest playfully.
“You get the sleeping baby, Cowboy. I’ll prep a bath.” Sauntering towards the front door with an extra swing in my hips, I heard his exasperated groan as he popped open the rear door to grab Charlie, who was starting to wake up.
“Your momma is gonna be the death of me, little one,” he mumbled just loud enough that I heard.
I chuckled as I retreated into the house to start our new nightly routine. This felt good. I could get used to it.