Chapter Nine
Penelope
“Thank you for going with her.” I moved towards my bedroom, my emotions conflicting in my belly. Madeline and I had never had anyone else in our lives. Not even my brothers had taken up as much space in my mind, my home, than Neal had in a month of being here. And while I took pleasure from seeing Madeline blossom under his paternal attention, it left me feeling antsy. Nervous. Especially tonight, since I typically attended all of Madeline’s events with her. But I had an immovable overseas meeting this evening.
While Madeline had initially planned to skip the event all together, she had suddenly changed her mind. She all but begged to go. And then, she’d asked Neal herself. Shocking both of us.
I’d kept her father away. Whether through my words or actions, I’d done that. There was no other explanation for the way that he had looked at me that day, the only time he’d ever met her. I’d held her up, joy so thick in my chest that I’d thought for sure he was going to change his mind, to tell me that he’d leave his wife and come be with me.
With us.
And then, his little boy, so darling and sweet, had wandered into the room, looking for his dad. And I’d known the truth.
I was the mistake. I’d yanked Madeline back, holding her tight against my chest and demanding that my nurses remove him from my room. I’d never seen him again. We’d been safer that way.
But now I’d exposed myself in a way that I’d never seen coming. Neal was supposed to be a good deed, a payment for the life he saved. But now, he was everywhere. His scent against my sofa, a brush of fingertips in the morning as I made coffee.
And I loved it. I soaked it up and craved more. I bit down on my bottom lip, worrying it frantically as I slipped into my bedroom. I loved him. Like an idiot—like the child I’d been when I threw my life away the first time. How was this different? Had I dreamed it all?
“Penny.’’ Neal’s voice stopped my thoughts.
I turned in the dark, watching his silhouette lean against my doorframe.
“Don’t run from me.”
I choked out a noise, something between a laugh and a cry as I stared at him. “I’m not running.”
He ducked his head, but I couldn’t see his expression. “You are. But that’s okay. Because I’m pretty good at chasing you down.”
I didn’t say anything, my heart thundering in my chest.
“She told me a secret, and I shared one of my own.”
“Oh.” I watched as he strolled into the darkness of the room with me, his now bare feet brushing along the carpet. I cleared my throat, my body already beginning that telltale hum that it had every time he was close.
Neal traced his hand up my arm, making me shiver, his fingertips hot even through the thin cotton of my robe. “I told her about how, when my wife died, I lost control and ran. That I had to get away, to be nothing, to go nowhere until I figured out what I wanted.”
My heart pounded. I nodded as Neal moved around behind me, his hand still teasing across the fabric.
“And did you figure it out?” I asked, breathless. “What you want?”
His body pressed into me, his front to my back, and I quivered, waiting for his response. I felt the gentle press of his lips on my neck before his hands settled on my hips. “I know exactly what I want.”
“And?” I dropped my head back, bumping against his collarbone. He’d filled in so much since he arrived that I briefly wondered what he must’ve gone through living on the streets like he did. The fear, the anxiety.
“I want to stay here.”
My heart rate flew off the charts. “You do?”
“Being there, with you, with Madeline, has shown me everything I was missing out on, even before I lost my wife. I was half a man living someone else’s dream.”
His hands grew firm, turning me until I was staring up at those deep-chocolate eyes. “You’re my dream, Penny. I want to be here for you. I want to love you, I want to support you, and I want to swat that pretty little ass every single time you doubt yourself.”
My nipples pulled tight at his words. “You really want that?”
“I want you, Pen, and everything that comes with you.”
I launched myself at him now, feeling his hands catch and hold as they lifted me up against his belly. My lips greedily searched for his, desperate to feel the taste of his tongue on mine. Neal groaned, his fingers tight on my ass as he stepped forward, tumbling both of us into my bed.
His bulk was weight on my body driving me back into the mattress and throwing every worry from my mind. Here, under him, against him, I was free. I was just me. And I fucking savored it. His palms were rough as he reached down, shoving my robe higher and higher on my body.
“Are we crazy?”
Neal laughed. “Maybe.”
My fingers were at his waistband, ripping the belt free and starting on the zipper.
“I want you to stay too. I want you here, every night.” I softened my voice, slowing my action so that I could lean in, pressing my nose along the line of his neck until it reached the stiff edge of his collar. His hands had found the laced edges of my panties and were yanking them down, his movements jerky with a desperation that my body echoed.
“Fuck, sorry,” Neal moaned, as if sensing what I was thinking. “I need to slow down.”
“No, no, no,” I chanted, pulling his shirt off his shoulders until they gathered at the cuffs. “Don’t stop. You can’t.”
Neal froze, his head falling back as my hand found the pulsing length of him and slipped him free of his suit pants. He was hard as steel, dripping onto my hand as I worked the length of him from base to tip. To be wanted like this, with such abandon, it drove me wild.
His hand darted around me, pressing my thighs wider as his fingers brushed across my pussy. My knees closed against my arms, and I released his cock as I fell back onto the bedding. I could come like this, with just his words in that deep, rough voice. But feeling his hands on me, so desperate to touch me too… I was coming undone.
“Don’t slow down. I need you now.”
Neal’s finger plunged deep, his hips arching against the edge of the bed as his fingers sank deep. He cursed. “So fucking hot, Penny. How long have you been waiting for me, baby? Did you stay up, hoping that I’d make this pretty pussy drip?”
I moaned, my hips rising and falling and trying to convince him to pump harder, to push me further. Even now I could feel my body clenching, drawing up tight. “I need you inside me.”
Neal pulled away. “I need to go get a condom.”
After the first time, we’d been so good. I’d wanted that at first, to feel the extra layer of security between us. But not anymore. I was done hiding.
“No, no condoms. I’m clean,” I whimpered. “Trust me.”
Neal’s hands were on me in a moment, one on my side, pressing my robe open wide, the other back to my face, where he tipped my chin up. In the dim lighting, I met those deep, haunting eyes. “Baby, you need to be serious about this, because once I feel you like this, the sweet grip of this pussy, I’m never going to be able to go back to a condom. I promise you that.”
Meeting his gaze boldly, I wrapped my legs around his waist, tightening them so he was forced closer and closer until he was leaning against me, his thick heat spearing across my pussy, The slide of flesh on flesh sent another spiral of desperate need through me as I squirmed under Neal’s hold.
“Neal…Daddy, I’m so empty.”
“Fuck,” he moaned, thrusting forward so that again his cock pushed through my folds, the thick head brushing across my clit as he continued to draw out this exquisite torture. The next time he reared back, I lifted my hips, my legs banded around his powerful body, and guided the head of his cock lower, to where it settled just inside my lips.
Breathing hard, Neal lowered his face until our foreheads were pressed together, our pants the only sounds between us.
“Stay,” I whispered.
“Always,” he responded, and just as one single tear of happiness slipped from my eye, he sank into me, his cock a heavy reminder of how large he really was. I whimpered a little at the girth, but as he worked himself in and out of me, letting my body stretch to accommodate him, I was instantly back on the edge.
When Neal’s thighs finally pressed against me, we both breathed a sigh of pure bliss. His hands swept over my skin until they reached my hips, and then with a soft grunt, he retreated until the thick head of him was the only thing still inside, before thrusting back into me.
My hands found my breasts, holding them against the onslaught as Neal rocked into me over and over again. My body was clenching, needy, so close to coming that when Neal leaned over, the angle deepening once more, I arched into him, legs tight, and let the orgasm wash over me.
“There you go, baby. :et me in deeper,” Neal crooned, his hips working me through the waves of pleasure. His clothes brushed against my bare legs as he began to work with me again. “Now again, let me feel that sweet grip. Let me in deeper now.”
I moaned my agreement, arching into him as his thrusts became more erratic. “Neal…” There was something I wanted to say—lots of things, really, but one more than anything else. The thing that reminded us of the unsaid.
The thing I wanted.
What he might want.
What I wanted to feel before I let him fill me up.
“Baby? What is it?” His hips slowed, his chest heaving as the cock deep inside me pulsed gently. Arousal and need warred in my mind as I tugged his mouth down to my level.
“Promise me you’ll come inside me.”
Neal groaned, nodding.
“Even if…” I paused when his hips jerked against me involuntarily. He was so deep. “Even if I told you that I’m not on birth control.”
This time, his body did jump, his cock thickening inside me as he rolled his hips as deep as they could go. I knew that he was butted up against my womb. “What are you saying?’
I licked across his lips, my hips moving against him now, pushing and pulling him against the overeager nub of my clit. “Daddy, I want you to come inside, to fill me up, to get me pregnant.”
Neal’s head snapped back, and his hips worked hard, thrusting twice more before he gripped my waist and pressed me as close as I could get. “You’ve done it now, darling. I’m not going to be able to stay out of this pussy. Not until you’re filled up, your belly big and round with our baby.”
“As many as you want,” I whispered, biting my lip as my orgasm threatened. I just needed one more thing, one more touch, one more…
“Here it is.” His hands were a vise, holding me off the bed, my body bowed up as his cock pressed into me, thick and jerking. “Take every drop.”
My pussy fluttered, another orgasm swallowing me as I felt his body pulse and fill me with thick, heavy waves deep inside. And when I could finally open my eyes again, Neal was leaning over me, his eyes wide and dark and a slow, soft smile on his lips.
“Hi,” I said, stretching my legs a little as the waves slowed and ebbed.
“Hello, beautiful.” His hand brushed over my body, pausing between my hip bones, where our baby would someday grow. A surprising rush of heat swept up my spine. “No regrets?”
“None.”
Neal sighed, leaning back with a disappointed face when his cock slipped free. I could feel the drip of his cum as it attempted to slip out. But a moment later, Neal presses a finger there, scooping up the thick cum and pushing it back into my still sensitive pussy. “Me neither.”
My eyes shut, relaxing back into the blankets. I could hear him moving around and then felt a warm, wet towel on my most intimate parts, followed by a kiss against my hip. Then I was curled up, strong hands moving me closer until I could hear his heartbeat under my cheek.
Safe, loved, and utterly content, I drifted off.
***
Neal
I was barely awake when I felt it, the vibration of the cell phone that had showed up for me courtesy of Church. Penny shifted against me, her silken skin brushing against my thigh as she rolled over in her sleep. It was the middle of the night, and she’d been out cold ever since I dragged her to the shower and pinned her against the tile until she left claw marks all over my shoulders. She was going to let me get her pregnant, and I was desperate to make sure she was only mine.
We’d fallen into an exhausted heap.
My lips curled down, though, as I stared down at the phone. Only a few people had this number, and I’d admit that I hadn’t had a call in a week that wasn’t Penny, Max, or Madeline. Which made this all the more unusual.
“Hello?” I moved into the walk-in closet, my shoulder hunched as I leaned over the device.
“Crowe?” a whispered voice answered me. “Thank God. I wasn’t sure if you changed your line after you moved in with the Doughertys.”
“It’s me,” I answered calmly. “What’s wrong?”
“She just called. It’s a whole mess over there. Can you please go check on her?”
Dread curled in my stomach, as it always did when anyone asked. But I nodded. Then, realizing no one could see me, I spoke into the phone, harsh and rough. “Yes, of course.”
The phone clicked off even as her words continued on, thanking me, telling me how much they appreciated my hard work. I didn’t want to hear that. Not tonight.
I pulled on my clothes from earlier, uncaring how overdressed I was as I crept back through the room where I’d so thoroughly claimed Penny just a few hours ago. I brushed a hand over the blankets, stopping over her flat belly, rising and falling quietly in the night.
I’d meant every word.
I wanted this life with her. But I needed to end my old one first. This was the first step in doing that.
Then I would come home to her, to the baby I wanted to create with her. I leaned over, speaking aloud. “I’ll always come back.”
And then, before I could stop myself, I stood up and made my way out of the apartment, down to the sharp cold Chicago streets, and let the city absorb me once more.
Only this time, I would remember how to get home again.