23. Stella
TWENTY-THREE
stella
Max and I being together felt easy. We meshed in a way that felt like we’d been friends for years and co-parenting for all of Charlie’s life.
The ease of falling into a ‘family-like’ routine was unsettling but so welcome.
For so long, I’d done everything myself, and it felt good to lean on someone else for a change.
Max took almost every morning shift, waking up before me and getting Charlie ready for the day. With my permission, he changed, dressed, and fed her before I got up. I often found them out collecting eggs from the chicken coop or visiting the horses in the barn.
Charlie was very quickly becoming a horse enthusiast, even at just one year old.
She loved giving them treats, and no longer needed Max’s help when doing so.
She confidently held her tiny hand out flat in offering, letting their whiskered lips nuzzle up the apple slices or carrots Max dutifully kept in his pockets.
Seeing her joy in something so simple as feeding farm animals breathed new life into my heart.
I felt at peace with my decision to make Firefly Cove our new home .
Max and I’s relationship had blossomed into something I was terrified to define.
He had wormed his way into the facets of my heart, yet I still felt that niggling thread that everything was going to go to shit.
I don’t know that I would survive if something happened to him.
He had taken my broken pieces and fit them together again.
We were currently cuddled up on the living room sofa, recounting our day as we did each night.
It was nice to have someone to decompress with.
Max’s fingers traced idle circles on my knee as I filled him in on the comings and goings of the boutique business.
I had asked Tracy, the owner of the shop, if I could help with more of the inner workings of the day-to-day operations. She had happily agreed.
I had blossomed into a little fashionista, often spending a portion of my paycheck on new outfits.
It proved worth it to see Max’s eyes light with desire when I sported a new outfit for our now weekly date nights.
Tracy had offered to let me take a stab at inventory and ordering for the upcoming fall collection.
I was nervous, but excited, that I was going to be curating the entire store’s collection.
I pored over magazines and fashion blogs, checking for the latest trends.
Since our clientele catered to the late twenties through the early thirties crowd, I wanted to find pieces that could transfer from office wear to nightlife.
I’m sure Max was tired of listening to me prattle on and on about the latest fashion trends, what influencer was wearing what, or who was coming out with new lines.
Like the good partner he is, he took everything in stride. He nodded and remarked at the appropriate times, adding commentary when the situation called for input.
“I’m sorry, I’m probably boring you,” I sighed, putting my phone face down in my lap. I’d been showing him the latest runway looks suitable for the shop’s clothing line when I realized I had talked for nearly a full hour.
“Trouble, you’re not boring me. I enjoy listening to you talk about the boutique. I can tell that you’re passionate about it and it’s nice to see you happy,” he said, taking my hand in his and rubbing his thumb across my knuckles.
“I know the last couple of weeks have been busy, but it’s all going to be worth it when we’re celebrating tomorrow,” he promised.
I’d been burning the candle at both ends for the last couple of weeks between taking on more responsibilities at work and planning Charlie’s and the twins’ birthday party with Ray.
Honestly, the more stressful of the two was planning a one-year-old’s birthday party, knowing that she wouldn’t remember it.
Ray and I had spent hours nailing down the details, from whimsical forest decor for the backyard at the big house, to cake flavors and snacks. When Ray had shown me the plans she had started for Charlie, I jumped in to help anywhere I could.
It was proving to be a much bigger soiree than initially planned, and the guest list was damn near all of Firefly Cove. I guess that’s what happens when you wind up dating one of the town’s golden boys.
I hadn’t ever thrown a party of this scale, but Ray seemed in her element.
She took everything in stride and I barely had to lift a finger in planning.
I had made mention of the idea of spreading her design business into the party planning sector.
Her eyes lit with a fire and a gleam only found in those with the entrepreneurial spirit.
She began immediately jotting down notes on how to make it happen, thanking me profusely for the idea .
I still struggled daily with letting others help. Being that it was such an ingrained part of my psyche, I constantly questioned everyone’s motives or intentions.
I knew deep down that no one in the Daniels or Cortez families would do anything they didn’t want to, but I still felt like a tad bit of a burden.
After all, I’d shown up in the town with a baby in tow, on the run from a drug-dealing murderer, and with nowhere to go.
Nothing screams ‘burden’ like the damsel in distress.
My phone buzzed from my knee, and I turned it over to check the messages.
Seeing the unknown number, I flipped the phone back over, concealing it from Max’s view.
There was no reason to get him worked up over the one or two messages I had received over the last week.
They had all been vague and cryptic, with no discernible information that led me to believe that Charlie and I were in any further danger.
I reminded myself that tomorrow, I needed to mention the messages to Sheriff Cortez.
I knew that if I mentioned the messages to Max, he’d have the house locked down tighter than Fort Knox.
He’d insist on following me to and from work each day, and he wouldn’t ever let Charlie out of his sight.
I didn’t want to go from living a life of freedom to being stuck in a cage created from fear again.
I wouldn’t let them win. Charlie and I were safe here in Firefly Cove.
They wouldn’t find us here.
Max had insisted on installing a camera doorbell at the big house after the first message had come through.
He said it gave him a slight peace of mind, knowing that if Charlie and I were here by ourselves and he was out on the ranch, he could see everything from his phone.
That man was so protective of us, it made me fall deeper for him each day .
We had been skirting around saying the big three words.
Both of us showed it in our actions, and I knew in my heart that we were both feeling them.
I think Max was afraid of scaring me off, and I was afraid of getting my heart broken.
My self-doubt was overwhelming, though Max gave me no reason to think his feelings weren’t genuine.
What I felt for him was foreign and scary, but it also brought me so much joy and security.
I wish I had fallen in love with him first, instead of getting tangled up with Dean.
I wished more than anything that he was Charlie’s biological father.
Regardless of paternity, he constantly showed my daughter what it would like to have a consistent and stable male role model in her life.
Max and I had discussed what we saw our future looking like as we curled up in bed one evening.
Max wanted the standard nuclear family. He saw himself having at least one or two kids of his own.
I hadn’t ever given much thought to having another baby, but now that I was with a man who treated me with such respect and tenderness, I found it hard not to call the local OBGYN and have my IUD removed immediately.
Max’s hand caressing my thigh brought me out of my lust induced day dream. I’d never had a daddy kink, but the thought of Max holding a newborn had me nearly panting.
“You okay?” he asked with a quirk of his brow. My cheeks flushed, and his sexy smirk revealed he knew where my head was at.
“Mhmm.,” I mumbled, rubbing my thighs together to ease some of the tension that had gathered there.
“You sure?” He asked as he coasted his fingers with torturous slowness along my inner thighs. My breathing quickened, and I avoided looking at him to give him the satisfaction of knowing just how turned on I was.
We had such an early morning, and both needed to get to bed. Thoughts of all the party details that still needed to be nailed down in the morning swam through my head. Max’s fingers continued their ascent as he crested the hem of my cotton sleep shorts.
“I can hear you thinking all the way over here, Trouble. Need me to help quiet that pretty little mind of yours?” he taunted as he teased the edge of my panties with his pinky finger. I was nearly panting with want at such a simple touch, but Max consistently had that effect on me.
I leaned over to the side to check the baby monitor I had placed beside me, making sure that Charlie was fast asleep. Wade and Ray had gone out for the evening to gather the last of the party supplies. He was staying at the Cortez house to put together balloon arches and flower garlands.
What I wouldn’t give to see Wade attempt to style a flower garland, but I knew he was in the best hands, with Ray at the helm. With the baby asleep, and the house to ourselves, the world was our oyster.
I felt Max’s fingers breach the lace edge of my panties and I damn near tossed the monitor onto the other couch cushion in frustration as I tipped my head back to rest on the back of the sofa.
He chuckled softly at my increasing desire and I spread my legs wider in blatant invitation.
“Such a greedy fucking girl,” he tsked as he removed his hand. I groaned in annoyance and that infuriating chuckled rumbled from his throat.
“It seems to me like you need a little relaxing,” he purred while fingering the waistband of his gym shorts and boxers.
He palmed his thickening cock through his pants before sliding them off.
His rigid length bobbed against his stomach as he removed them, one leg at a time, with a slowness that would make a turtle cry.
He sure wasn’t in any hurry as he slowly stroked himself from root to tip. His arousal was clear in the bead of pre-cum that was leaking from the tip. I moistened my lips in anticipation of leaning down to gather a taste.
“Cat got your tongue?” He asked with the confidence of a man who knew what he wanted.
I cleared my throat before answering. “Nope, just thinking about how fast I can have your cock down my throat.”
The lust from hearing those words was evident in the way his cock twitched in his hand.
“As much as I love watching you gag on my cock, Trouble, I want to help you relax.” He stroked the silky crown, using his pre-cum as lube as he coasted his hand up and down. I whimpered with desire and scooted to the edge of the couch to get on my knees.
“No.” he commanded. I stopped and lifted my eyes to his. His dilated pupils made it impossible for me to distinguish where they ended and his irises began. His eyes seemed almost black with desire.
I quirked a brow in question.
“I wanna watch,” he said with a wicked grin.
Oh, fuck.