Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Autumn
The heavy arm banded across my chest falls away when I sit straight up in bed before I’ve even left my dream.
It’s been a while since I’ve woken to the sound of a baby crying in the night, back when Shayla and Lainey still lived with us, but one never forgets it or the urgent need to get out of bed to tend to that child.
The only difference is that there is a man in bed with me.
“Benny,” I say with a croak, stumbling out of bed in the unfamiliar room, my hips aching and my sticky inner thighs rubbed raw. I’m impatient as I wait for my eyes to adjust to the dark so I can find my pajamas and pull them on.
As if it’s news to me, Forest says with hunger in his voice, “You’re naked.”
I eye him, all sexy and scruffy and way too pleased with himself.
“So are you.” I want to take a picture so it’ll last longer, and he must know it, grinning all smug-like.
“Get up and get dressed,” I snap, then yank open the door as soon as I’m decent, and cross the living room to the kids’ room as Benjamin grows louder.
“Wait!” Forest rushes out, hopping on one foot as he yanks the right leg of his jeans up, and he catches my wrist. “You can’t go in there.”
“Why not?” I ask, my urgency spiking when Benjamin grows louder. He needs me. Who does Forest think he is, telling me what I can do outside of work?
“If Josephine wakes up and sees you spent the night…” He doesn’t have to finish his sentence.
Their father, that’s who he is. And I am very much not their mother.
“Crap. What time is it?” I suck in a breath and hold it, my eyes bulging when I see the sun just breaking the horizon through the living room window. It’s very much not the middle of the night. “My Dad!” Oh god, oh god, oh god. “He might already be awake.”
“Go,” Forest says, pulling me in for a rushed and unexpected kiss, then pushing me quickly to the front door, as panicked as I am.
My heart tugs me toward the kids’ room, but my mind is screaming at me to get the hell out of here.
My stomach churns as I race up the stairwell at the end of the hallway instead of taking the elevator, in case any of the other guests—my colleagues—are already awake and moving around.
My heart is pounding from the exertion, my hands trembling with anxiety, when I crack open the door to my shared suite.
I crouch and listen for any movement. Hearing none, I duck walk into the suite and peek around the kitchenette peninsula.
With overwhelming relief, I see Dad’s door is closed, and I sprint toward my bedroom.
In my attached bathroom, I eye the disheveled woman in the mirror as I strip.
I don’t know what I would have done—what lie I could have come up with—to explain the haggard state I’m in to Dad.
My hair is tangled in a rat’s nest that’s going to take ages to comb out, and my skin is decorated with numerous hickies Forest left all over my neck, torso, and thighs after he woke me at some point in the night with his hard dick pressed against my ass.
He sleepily asked if I wanted to go another round.
The answer was, of course, yes, and I eagerly welcomed him into my body.
With my cheeks flush from climbing the stairs, and my lips swollen, I’ve never seen this version of myself before, and it steals my breath…
as does the eye-watering sting when I wash between my legs.
At the time, I had only a spark of awareness of Forest’s hip bones pounding against my inner thighs, the slight twinge of pain overshadowed by the intensity of our passion and the mind-altering orgasms he worked out of me.
Now, I’m all too aware and would not be surprised to find bruises forming.
“Autumn?” Dad knocks against the bathroom door as I’m finishing blow-drying my hair.
I turn it off and shakily ask, “Yes?”
“I’m going to head down to save us a table for breakfast.”
I drop my chin, bracing a hand on the counter with relief that he’s not asking me about last night. I’m in the clear. “Okay. See you in a few minutes.”
“Oh, and Autumn?”
“Yes?”
“Next time you fall asleep babysitting, try to be quieter when you get back. Your old man needs his sleep,” he says with a chuckle.
“Okay,” I squeak, then listen to his heavy footsteps leave my bedroom.
At breakfast, I catch myself constantly checking on Dad, wondering if he suspects the real reason I spent the night in Forest’s suite was because of the man himself and not the kids.
Forest does the same when he’s not busy smiling at Josephine, who is like a whole different child this morning, chatting with everyone and finishing her plate.
“So,” Dad says with the clap of his hands, rubbing his palms together, after we finish breakfast. “I was thinking we could take shifts watching the kids.” He pulls out his phone with the schedule of the various speaking engagements.
“I don’t mind skipping Ted Foster’s talk, if you two want to attend that one.
Then one of you can relieve me so I can go to Dr. Liu’s. How does that sound?”
“You don’t mind?” Forest asks Dad as I straighten one of Josephine’s space buns, which she’d asked me to style when the family joined us at our table.
“‘Course not.” He hefts Sebastian up into his arms as he smiles down at the toddler, who doesn’t seem to mind being held by my dad. He even hooks his little arm around Dad’s neck to hang on tighter. “I’ve spent countless hours watching my grandbabies, so I’m a pro at this. Don’t you worry.”
Forest and I cut our eyes to each other. “All right. Thank you,” Forest says. After Dad leaves and we take our seats in one of the conference halls, Forest says, “Never thought my boss would suggest babysitting my kids so I don’t have to take time off from work.”
“That’s the benefit of working for a small firm,” I say, tugging my skirt down when I catch Forest eyeing my legs since the hem has ridden up my thighs after crossing my legs. Getting an erection now would be terribly unprofessional. “We treat everyone like family.”
Forest rests his left elbow on our shared armrest and lightly brushes my knee with the back of his knuckles. “Family, huh?”
The lights dim when Ted Foster walks to the center of the stage and introduces himself, pointing his clicker toward the large screen behind him.
As engrossed as I am in the presentation about how the current interest rate will affect the long-term retirement investment goals of our clients, I’m keenly aware of Forest’s hand, now splayed higher across my thigh as if he has every right to touch me there…
as well as the fact that I haven’t swatted him away or opted to move to a different seat.
I’m the first one to stand, though, as soon as the lights turn back up.
“My turn,” I say, then rush out of the convention center and across the street, booking it up to the hotel’s fourth floor.
“Are you okay?” Dad asks when he opens the door, cradling Benjamin in one arm as he feeds the baby a bottle. “You look a little flush.”
“Fine, fine,” I say, smoothing back my hair and taking a deep breath before I step inside. “How’d it go with the kids?”
“Ah, they were little angels, ain’t that right, Benny?” Dad asks.
Just then, Benjamin grunts several times as he grows increasingly red in the face, then bears down, filling his diaper, and finishing with an adorable smile.
Dad booms with laughter, especially when he hands the stinky baby to me. “Tag, you’re it.” His laugh follows him down the hallway.
I sigh and carry Benjamin into the bathroom, his onesie and my blouse damp and disgusting with his blowout.
Filling the tub with a few inches of warm, soapy water, I leave the door open so I can listen out for Sebastian and Josephine, who are lying on the carpet with her art supplies while watching a cartoon.
“Your daddy is going to owe me a new outfit for this,” I coo to Benjamin, making silly faces to get him to laugh as he splashes water all over the place.
“Maybe even some jewelry. Throw in a pedicure too, while we’re at it, and we’ll call it even, huh?
” I won’t tell him that I’d do it for free, anyway.
“Sherman!” Josephine yells with glee.
I jerk awake, nearly pushing Sebastian off the couch when I roll over, startling him awake from our late nap.
“We gotta stop meeting like this,” Forest jokes, gathering Sebastian in his arms, smiling when the toddler doesn’t fight him off.
“What can I say? A lady needs her beauty sleep.” I follow it up with a small smirk and tease, “Someone kept me up all night.”
Forest clears his throat loudly and cuts his eyes to the side.
I sit straight up with horror, meeting my dad’s sharp gaze as he watches us, his hands pushed into his pockets. “All packed up,” Dad says, standing with our rolling luggage.
I clutch the comforter I’d pulled from Forest’s bed to my chest. No, I’m not scantily clad.
It’s so much worse—I’m wearing a pair of Forest’s boxers and one of his college alum T-shirts, both of which are as tight on me and my curves as they are on him.
Guess I won’t be stealing his sweatshirts any time soon, like Mom always steals Dad’s.
Ugh. Why am I thinking such things? Forest is simply my boss and nothing else, let alone my husband. It’s the planets in retrograde or something like that. It’s getting to me, my brain spinning all sorts of foolish ideas.
“I need to get the kids packed up,” Forest says, stepping through the kids’ open bedroom door, where Benjamin is just waking up from his nap.
I probably should have kept them up so they’d be more likely to fall asleep on the plane, but I was—and still am—absolutely wiped. It’s why I texted Forest earlier that he didn’t need to relieve me to take the third shift. I’d no doubt have fallen asleep during the next engagement.
Forest steps back into the living room a second later. “You already packed their suitcases?”