CHAPTER 21
Bailey
I wake up early the next morning with Palmer’s naked body curled against my chest, her head on my bicep and leg thrown over mine.
The soft blanket I had pulled from the back of the couch covers us easily.
My hand is completely asleep, but I don’t dare move, so I take the opportunity to study her in the early morning light.
Her blond hair is wild and sticks up in different directions.
Her face is dusted with the same freckles that coat her chest and shoulders.
I think about her beautiful gray eyes as she looked up at me from the couch, and I smile, then plant a soft kiss on her forehead.
She is so fucking beautiful.
Gently, I run my hand through her hair, brushing it back from her face. She grumbles, scooting in closer to nuzzle against my chest. Palmer’s mouth hangs slightly open, and a small snore escapes.
The fact that I would be more than content to lay here forever makes me sad. It all feels so perfect and… normal. But my job and I are not compatible with normal. Nothing about it is perfect or normal, which means my life isn’t either.
Thankfully, right now, Palmer doesn’t want normal or perfect or forever. For the past five years, she’s had that. She specifically said she didn’t want a relationship; that this is all for fun.
She said that she wants a ho phase, and that’s all this is.
There’s no reason for me to be unrealistic about what this—what she—makes me want, because this isn’t about me. I can do this for her, because even if I can’t give her what my heart tells me that it wants, I can give her what she wants, which is good sex and orgasms.
I’ve already proven I’m good for that.
Then, one day, when Palmer decides she doesn’t want to have a ho phase anymore, she’ll find a nice, uncomplicated guy who can come home to her at the end of the day and talk to her about work over a home-cooked meal they made together.
Their three kids will play in the backyard with Mouse, and they will settle down to read a bedtime story together after dinner and baths.
Once the kids are all asleep, Palmer and Mr. Uncomplicated will then retreat to their bedroom to have perfectly normal sex with the lights off because they don’t want the kids to see it under the door if they go to the bathroom.
Then, they’ll fall asleep next to each other and get up the next day to do it all over again.
As for me, I’ll be doing what I love: my job, where I get to see the world, learn new things, and work with my team.
I’ll be fucking the flavor of the month (if I really need to get off) because she likes a man in uniform.
I won’t ask her about work, because there’s a chance that she’s a stripper or a college student, and I don’t really want to know.
And every night, I’ll lay down my head, satisfied with the decisions I made, as I close my eyes to dream about the beautiful woman lying in front of me now and the feeling of her soft skin under my lips.
And when it’s all said and done, on the nights where she’s thinking about how much she loves or appreciates her perfect, normal forever with her perfectly normal husband or contemplating if everything she went through was worth it, I hope that maybe she’ll look back at this phase in her life, and I’ll be the fond memory of a good lay, because that’s all I am for her.
Just a phase.
Ignoring the deep ache in my chest, I pull her in tighter and nestle my face into her hair, just breathing her in.
“Bailey?” Palmer asks groggily against my chest.
“Hm?”
Her breath is hot against my skin, and her hand skims over my ribs. “You okay?”
I loosen my hold on her, and she pulls her head back to look at me. I force myself to smile reassuringly. “Yeah, I’m good. Just woke up actually.” The yawn is not convincing, but I never said I was an actor. “You? How’d you sleep?”
Palmer rubs her hand across her eyes, and a dazed smile crosses her face before she buries it back against my neck. “Really good actually.”
“Really…” She plants a kiss on my shoulder.
“Really…” Two on my neck.
“Good.” Palmer’s lips land on mine, and she kisses me slowly, as if she’s got nowhere else to be.
My body responds to her without any conscious thought on my end. I pull her tighter against me, and my tongue wraps around hers, already drunk on my little taste of her, as all the blood in my body rushes to my cock.
Palmer reaches between our bodies and slides her hand down to stroke my shaft, never taking her lips from mine.
“Fuck, Palmer,” I moan against her mouth.
Her lips tug into a self-satisfied grin against my own. “You sound so sexy when you moan my name.” My cock twitches in her hand, and she chuckles seductively as she kisses her ways back down my neck.
My entire body stiffens in response. Now I understand why women respond the way they do. Not sure when I developed a praise kink, but we’ll file that away under Other Things I Have Recently Come to Discover About Myself and come back to it later.
I sit up, pulling Palmer with me and onto my lap.
My hand weaves into the hair at the base of her neck, holding her mouth against mine as if her kiss holds the very oxygen I breathe.
The whole time, her hand never leaves my cock.
I pull away from her lips and capture one of her breasts in my mouth.
She moans, her head thrown back, and continues stroking.
I move to her other breast, sucking on the sensitive bud.
The slick wetness of her arousal collects on my legs as her hips move.
Releasing her nipple, I caress both her breasts with my hands and lift my eyes to hers, pleading. Palmer looks down at me, a satisfied look on her face.
“Baby,” I start. “This feels so fucking good, but if you don’t stop, I’m going to come in your hand.”
Her smile widens. “I know.”
My voice turns pleading. “Let me fuck you. I want to feel your pussy tighten around me.”
“No.”
“No?” I should have known I was at the disadvantage here, and as much as I hate to lose, getting to watch Palmer enjoy making me feel good makes it worth it.
“No,” she repeats matter-of-factly. “Because you made me come over and over and over…” She switches hands, bringing the right one up to her mouth and licking her palm before reaching back down to grip my cock.
Holy fucking shit.
“And over and over again last night.” Palmer slides off my lap, landing on her knees on the floor between my legs. “And now, it’s my turn.” She leans down and spits on the head of my cock then continues to stroke.
My attempt at changing her mind is feeble. Even as I beg, my hips slide forward, giving her full access to my body. “Please let me fuck you, baby.”
A contemplative look crosses Palmer’s face. “Let me think about it.” Her hands pick up speed, and my legs stiffen, toes curling in response. She leans forward and takes my cock all the way back in her throat, her tongue lapping against the base, before withdrawing to suck on the tip.
I moan loudly.
Holy shit, I’m not sure how long I can hold off if she keeps that up. I open my mouth to tell her as much, and she slides back down to the base, her tongue taking in every bit of me that she can reach. My hips buck in response, and she moans her appreciation as her hand cups my balls.
I lied. I’m not sure how long I can hold off if she keeps that up.
Palmer continues her pattern of deepthroating my cock and sucking on the sensitive skin of the head. My hand wanders to her hair, but instead of tangling in it, I sweep it back to hold it out of her way; it’s the least I can do.
In response, she sucks a little harder, alternating speed and suction until my hips are squirming under her mouth.
“Baby,” I rasp. “If you don’t stop, I’m going to come.”
She doesn’t say anything, just keeps sucking and licking the same way she has been. My breath becomes shorter and my moans more frequent.
“Fuck,” I pant. My balls tighten in her hand. “Palmer, please.”
Palmer moans appreciatively, eyes fixed on my face, and takes all of me into her mouth as I reach my climax, spilling it down the back of her throat. She swallows enthusiastically without taking her eyes off me and sucks my cock clean before moving back to straddle my lap.
“How was that?” she asks, wiping her face on the back of her hand.
I take her face in my hands and kiss her deeply. “Heavenly.”
She giggles then stands up and begins walking toward her room, her plump ass jiggling with each step. “Want to shower with me?”
“You couldn’t pay me to say no.”
* * *
An hour and a half later, we’re standing around the kitchen island eating the scrambled eggs and toast that I threw together.
Mouse is in the backyard chewing on a squeaky toy loudly enough to wake the dead, but she likes to lay in the shade of the patio.
The thought of Palmer’s body lying as she came in my mouth on the countertop where we’re eating, paired with the cries from her most recent orgasms in the shower, has my cock hard again, but I force myself to stop thinking about burying myself in her tight, wet pussy.
Even though I would really like to.
Focus, Bailey.
I finish chewing then clear my throat. “So, uh, I’m not going to be around for a little while.”
Palmer glances up at me, still chewing.
“I have a, uh, a work thing starting tomorrow, and I’ve got to go pack for that.”
I swear I see a flash of panic behind her eyes. Whatever I see, she quickly pushes it away, replacing it with a hardened expression, then responds nonchalantly. “Okay, yeah, no, that’s totally fine.”
My stomach sinks, but I keep talking. “Yeah, but, I mean, I’ll definitely still see you around.”
She looks back down at her plate and shrugs. “Maybe.” I watch as she just pushes the food around on her plate, but she doesn’t take another bite. After a few minutes, she shakes her head then breaks the silence, suddenly perturbed. “You know what, no. Don’t do that.”
Confused, I tilt my head. “Don’t do what?’