30
Christian
I woke before anyone else in the house as the morning light filtered into my room. Maeve was sprawled out over me, her arms wrapped around my forearm as if she was somehow holding on to me for dear life. I looked over at her and watched the way her beautiful blond hair lay along the pillow. I loved seeing her in my bed. It was as if she belonged there all along. The way her chest moved up and down as the morning light slowly filtered in.
Something happened last night, and I couldn’t quite explain it. I’d had sex with quite a few women in my days and tasted a lot of pussy, but the way Maeve felt against my lips was like I took a bite of the sweetest fruit. She tasted like heaven and matched me in every single way. Most women were usually surprised or turned off by dirty talk, but she leaned into it. She was the puzzle piece that I was missing sexually, and now I think I would obsess over the way she felt.
“Mommy?” I heard softly as Kelsie opened her mom’s door. I quietly let Maeve sleep in and closed the door behind me slowly.
“Is my mommy in your room?” the little girl asked me as she grabbed her blanket and lifted it up to her nose to sniff it. Maeve had already warned me that both girls smelled their blankets as a comfort thing.
“Yup. She…couldn’t sleep last night so she slept with me. I hope that’s okay with you?” I was winging it when talking with these girls, but I think I was doing a decent job in situations like this.
“That’s fine with me. Can I have pancakes?”
I picked the little girl up, grabbed her sister, and went downstairs, where I started to pull out the ingredients I remember Maeve using yesterday, along with the help of a recipe I googled for basic pancakes. God, just the way the batter dripped off her lips almost made me crazed for her again, but I focused on the task at hand here.
“Girls, does Mommy let you put extra chocolate chips in your pancakes?” They both looked at each other in a clear “no” but then looked up at me with the same innocent, sweet eyes that Maeve had and said yes in unison.
I laughed and poured a few chips into the batter. I flipped a few pancakes over and had to give myself credit for how these looked. They weren’t too burnt. I threw a few on a plate with syrup and all the other fixin’s. I turned off the stove and was about to call the girls to the table.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang. Shit. It was Sunday. This meant that…
“Daddy!” Tyler was coming over to pick the girls up this morning. I looked down at the gray joggers and the sleeveless shirt I threw on. I looked like most people did on Sunday mornings, but I bet the fucker would look like he was going to a board meeting. Tyler and I, looks-wise, were two very different people. He was clean cut, and I had long hair, a man bun, and was covered in tattoos.
I walked over to the door with the two girls as I heard Maeve upstairs walking down the spiral staircase. She had a hoodie on and a pair of black leggings. Her hair was in a wildly messy bun, and she had that freshly fucked look plastered all over her face. When she looked down and saw me, she smiled and shook her head.
Phew, I thought. I was still on her good side. I was amiss to know that I had a lot more to make up for, including a conversation I very much owed her.
But right now, we needed to face the obstacle before us. I slowly opened the door as Maeve walked down the last few steps.
Right before his face came into view, Maeve darted her eyes over to me.
“Please,” she practically begged in a low whisper. I knew what she was asking for immediately. She needed to make this look real for Tyler to keep her family.
I slid one hand on her waist as I plastered a smile on my face.
“Hey, Tyler. We were just having breakfast. Would you like to join us?” I asked in the nicest voice I could conjure.
“That would be great.” He was dressed in a full suit on one of the hottest days of the year, but hey, at least he was predictable.
We walked into the house as he grabbed the girls and lifted them into the air. I stayed in the kitchen while Maeve poured us some orange juice from the fridge. She kept darting her eyes back and forth between Tyler and me.
I walked over to her and leaned down, giving her the smallest kiss on her cheek while the girls were entertained by their dad.
“He’s not looking now. You don’t have to pretend now,” she hissed at me, and something was off with her. Nerves?
Instead of reacting right away like the therapist at the house in the foothills told me to do, I tried to acknowledge that this was very difficult for her, so I kissed her once more on the back of her head.
“It’s going to be okay. I’m so proud of you,” I praised her, and her cheeks immediately flushed. I chuckled softly, then went on to where Tyler was sitting.
“Daddy, did you know that Mommy and Christian were sleeping in the same room because Mommy couldn’t sleep and had some nightmares like I have sometimes?”
Tyler looked at us as Maeve attempted to laugh.
“I work late nights sometimes, so I sometimes sleep in the guest room. It was the first time the girls noticed.”
Tyler looked at Maeve, and I walked over to her and pulled her away from his gaze.
“Look at me,” I encouraged her, so Tyler was out of earshot.
“He’s on to us.”
“He isn’t. We have this story already figured out. Stick with it.” Since I travel for work with Julian, we had already come up with an excuse for why there were two primary bedrooms. It was part of the reason I added a door to my bathroom that connected to her room, but she didn’t know that.
“Hey, Tyler?” He looked over toward me as I grabbed Maeve’s hand. “Do you want to head outside while the girls finish their breakfast?”
Maeve walked over and turned on a show for them, and I immediately reached out to grab her hand again. I didn’t know if I was pretending anymore because I craved her touch. I wanted her to hold my hand. I wanted to smell her. I wanted to touch her. I wanted to taste her. This was real. It had to be.
We all walked outside, where we could still see the living room, and sat at the small picnic table out by the pool.
“I’m sorry about the introduction yesterday. I was surprised to see you here together without me present.” Tyler nodded. Arrogant bastard had nothing to say. “This has really been hard on Maeve. I want to do everything I possibly can to show you that we’re capable of caring for the girls.” I knew Maeve would kill me for what I was about to say, so I grabbed her hand under the table and squeezed it before the last few sentences came out.
“With that said, I have already discussed with the school that we will be contributing to the girls’ schooling. Since there are two of them, it seems fair that you can pay for half, and we will pay the other half. The school has already agreed, and I have added our account to the balance.”
Maeve quickly interjected. “Christian, I don’t…” I squeezed her hands again as she trailed off. She stared right into my eyes. Her blue orbs sent me daggers that I could feel, but I had already called the school when I drove home yesterday and established everything with them.
“That seems completely unnecessary. I’ve been paying for the schooling for years. I’m perfectly capable—” That was where I needed to interrupt him.
“You are capable, and now we are in a place where we can contribute,” I added for effect. “This is why you took her to court, isn’t it? Because you felt like her lifestyle wasn’t stable enough?”
Tyler practically coughed into his hand. How Maeve could even stand to be in the same room as him after what he dragged her through was beyond me.
“No. Well, yes, I suppose it was.” The big shot lawyer didn’t have the right words.
“Then it’s settled. I’m glad I was able to talk to you.” I leaned back in my chair, offering a small squeeze to Maeve’s thigh as her eyes remained on me.
“I have to admit that I was quite surprised when Maeve announced in court that she had a serious boyfriend. I didn’t realize it was as serious as moving into this nice neighborhood and then paying for half the girls’ schooling.”
“We wanted to keep it quiet for the sake of my job. I like to keep a low profile.”
“And what exactly is it that you do again?” Tyler’s lips furled into a tight smile. He was being facetious because he was some big shot lawyer, and I was simply a bodyguard. This time, Maeve ran her thumb along the sides of my hand before she spoke.
“Christian does private security and works with our governor and his brother, Julian.”
“And can afford a house like this?” Now I was pissed.
“While our finances are none of your business, I am a Marine Corps veteran, and along with my current position, I do quite well.”
“My husband is a vet, too.”
Tyler looked back and forth between us. Small beads of sweat started to form on his forehead, likely because he was fucking sweating in a full suit in the sun, but I hoped it was because this conversation wasn’t going the way he had intended it to.
He looked over at Maeve. “You’re serious about him? You don’t even know what he does.” His voice lowered on the second half of his statement as if I couldn’t hear or wasn’t sitting right next to him.
I didn’t want to speak for Maeve, so I waited to let her talk, but I could see her thoughts start scrambling, and then I remembered what she had told me when we were getting ice cream a couple of weeks ago. I knew the feeling well when your thoughts swirled around you, and you had to visualize which one you wanted to say first.
“Speechless?" Tyler taunted, pushing Maeve further. I couldn't tolerate his disrespect any longer. I had to speak up and defend our relationship.
"She is very serious about me, as far as I know," I said with a wink, earning a grateful breath from Maeve as she closed her eyes. "In fact, we have plans to get married soon." Her eyes widened in shock as if she had just heard the most outrageous thing I had ever said. Perhaps it was wild, but deep down, a part of me wished it was true. After last night, I could envision spending the rest of my life with her.
"Wow, marriage, that's a big deal," Tyler finally responded. His phone rang, providing him with a convenient escape. He picked it up, excusing himself from the chair and walking away toward the house.
“Hey, honey.” I could hear him talking, and I looked over at Maeve, whose eyes had fixated on a plant next to us. “I’m coming home with the girls soon. Are you going to the hospital to volunteer?”
“Are you okay?” I asked her in a hushed voice.
“Why did you say that?” she asked.
“I just thought it was the right thing to say. He was—”
“Marriage, Christian? Really?” Ouch.
“Is it that hard to imagine being married to me?” She paused for a second after my statement.
“No, but we aren’t even really together.” She was furious, but I couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at the ends of my lips.
“Last night says differently, firecracker.” She playfully punched me in the arm.
“Stephen, I get it. I’m coming home now.” Huh. That had to be a wild coincidence.
“Who is Stephen?” I asked Maeve curiously.
“Tyler’s husband.” It had to be a coincidence that Tyler’s brand-new husband was named Stephen and was a Marine Corps vet who volunteered at a hospital. It couldn’t be…
Tyler walked over to us, apologized, and said he had to run.
“I hope we can continue talking and working together for the sake of the family.” I reached my hand out as an olive branch, and he shook it firmly.
“Yes, me too.” Maeve walked inside to help the girls pack, leaving just the two of us standing in the living room.
“Thank you for offering to pay for the school,” Tyler offered as I grabbed the dirty plates on the table to put them in the sink.
I stopped. “It was a decision we both made.” It was a small lie, but I didn’t want this guy to think that Maeve didn’t have a choice in our relationship. She did, and while we would discuss this, I wanted him to know I valued her as an equal partner.
The girls were packed up, and we all said our goodbyes as Tyler left. Once the door closed, an eerie silence penetrated through the walls.
“Don’t get me wrong, last night was fun, but I’m still really fucking pissed at you,” Maeve said as she tightened her ponytail and practically stomped into the living room. I quickly chased her and grabbed her elbow, whipping her around to face me.
“Let me take you out.”
“Where?” She shook her head like I had just asked her to go grocery shopping with me.
“On a date.” More silence. All of a sudden, laughter filled the air, but this wasn’t the same as her normal joyful sounds.
“Christian. We can stop pretending now. Tyler left. The fake dating charade can stop.”
I grabbed her wrists and pulled her tight to my chest. I leaned down so my mouth hovered over hers. I took two deep breaths in before I said anything.
“Firecracker, does this feel like fake dating to you?” I leaned down closer. “Did last night feel fake to you?”