Chapter Six
After the day we’d had, the quiet and near dark of the master bedroom was exactly what Samantha and I needed.
My babygirl didn’t bother turning anything on; the single strip of light beneath the bathroom door was enough to navigate by as her eyes adjusted.
She peeled off the bodysuit Mona had picked out for the interview, her belly puffing slightly now that it was no longer restrained, then kicked off her shoes and reached into a dresser for one of my oversized t-shirts.
In no time at all she was down to that and her panties.
By the time I stripped down to my undershirt and boxers she was already in bed, shimmying beneath the covers.
I joined her.
Neither of us said anything at first. I cut on the white noise machine, muffling the faint sounds of conversation from downstairs, and silenced my phone before hooking into the charge cable on the bedside table.
I pulled her to me, putting as much of my skin against hers as I could, letting the warmth of our bodies mingle.
My hand rested on the small of her back beneath the t-shirt.
It was peaceful. So peaceful.
Samantha’s nails worked slow spirals across my chest. “They’re all still down there,” she whispered after a minute, her eyes sparkling in the darkness.
“They are.”
“Making plans. For me.”
I held her a little tighter. “That’s right, babygirl.”
“That feels so wrong,” she admitted. “I do that for other people, Daddy. We did it for Marcie when Trevor tried to hurt her. We did it for you when you were in the hospital.” She shook her head.
“I don’t like being someone the rest of the group has to go to the mat for.
” Her voice got even quieter. “I don’t want to be a burden. ”
My hand slid from her lower back to the firm flesh of her ass. “I didn’t correct you downstairs, because you were being so brave,” I told her, cupping her chin with my other hand. “But if you ever think you could actually be a burden to me, babygirl, then you’re being silly.”
She blinked back tears, even as she relaxed into my touch in a way that reminded me of every time we’d gone from cuddling to sex. “It’s not a joke,” she said. “I can’t fuck my way out of every problem in my life. Even if it’s fun. What’s happening to me—”
“We don’t know what’s happening to you yet,” I told her, as calm and soothing as the dark, quiet room. “And whatever’s happening, it will never change how I feel about you.”
Samantha didn’t say anything. Maybe there was nothing to say.
“Talk to me, babygirl,” I said, moving against her in the darkness. “Tell me what’s on your heart. You can let it out.”
“I’m fine,” she said automatically.
“Babygirl—”
“Okay, I’m not,” she admitted, wiping an eye with the side of her hand.
“I’m really not. It’s like… I keep doing this thing where I’m fine for a little while.
Like I forget what happened. And then I remember, and it’s like being told all over again, and my heart feels like it’s going to jump right out of my freaking chest.” She made a little gesture with her hand in the dark.
“It’s like the world’s worst roller coaster. ”
“You would know,” I murmured.
She chuckled, which I think surprised her. Then it hit her.
“Oh Christ,” she said, her voice hitching. “I won’t be able to ride roller coasters. Not even the ones for little kids!”
“You know,” I said, “this is bringing me back.”
“To roller coasters?” She blinked, momentarily confused. “To Tivoli?”
I shook my head. “The panic,” I told her.
“That’s exactly how it operates. You get a few minutes off, then it slaps you in the face all over again.
” I paused, hesitating on the next part.
“That’s how it was when I lost my first wife.
I’d be alright for a while, then something would happen and I’d think, ‘I’ve got to tell Lauren about that,’ and it’d just hit me in the gut. ”
Samantha watched me. “How long does it last?”
“A while,” I said. “It still hits me every now and then, but it doesn’t sting the way it used to.” I found her hand under the blanket. “But I was doing it alone, as a junior engineer, and I used work instead of therapy. Which Yui tells me is a common response, but not exactly a helpful one.”
Samantha swallowed hard.
“You’ve got a professional therapist downstairs,” I reminded her. “And you are very much not alone, babygirl.”
Samantha laughed. Barely.
She was quiet for a few moments. I could tell there was something else she wanted to say, but she needed to work herself up to the point of saying it. I didn’t push—I just lay there, basking in our closeness, giving her all the time she needed.
When she spoke next, it was barely audible. “I’m less worried about me than I am about…”
And she took my hand and guided it to her stomach.
Ah, I thought. There it is.
“If I gave this to her, I’m never going to forgive myself,” she said, sniffing hugely.
“I’m not a super-heavy praying person, though I’ve been thinking about it a lot more since that call Marcie and I had in the backseat with Reverend Kate.
But I keep doing it. I keep saying ‘God, it’s okay if I have it, but please don’t let it be in her.
’” She paused. “Do those count as prayers, Daddy?”
God almighty, now I was going to cry. “I think Kate would say those are the realest prayers there are, babygirl,” I said, pulling her to me. “Also, I can’t help but notice you’re referring to the baby as her.”
I felt her lips twist in a stifled laugh as she pressed them against my chest. “Maria’s got me on that shit,” she said. “I don’t know, I’ve got a feeling she’s right on the money. It would serve me right to have a little wild child to raise after the way I lorded it over Delta Rho…”
Someone knocked on the bedroom door.
Two quick raps, so soft as to be almost silent. Samantha’s smile grew a touch more genuine, like she already knew who’d come upstairs. I figured I did, too.
“Can I come in?”
It was Yukiko.
Samantha lifted her face from my chest. “Please do,” she said.
The door opened, letting in a sliver of light from the hallway, then closed again just as quickly.
I saw a shadowy silhouette cross the carpet, shedding clothes along the way, then the mattress dipped on my other side as my head wife slid into bed and pressed herself against Samantha from behind.
She was sandwiched between us now, Kiki’s hands massaging the blonde’s shoulders as she lay with her breasts against my chest.
“Mona told me to get lost,” she said after a minute. “When I left, she was threatening a hospital administrator, so I think she’s got things well in hand.”
Samantha blinked. “Oh dear.”
“She’s a big softie at heart,” Yukiko murmured. “Just wait until you see her after her date with Jack.”
“That is not a priority right now,” I said.
“I know. Mona knows, too. It’s on the back burner.” Her hands strayed a little lower on Samantha, sliding beneath her shirt. “But the back burner is still a burner. Right, boo?”
“Sounds about right,” Samantha said, slipping into the old pattern.
Yukiko nuzzled my babygirl’s neck. “Mom is really happy you’re going to let her do some sessions with you,” she said, switching to a more serious mode for a second. “You know, I actually told her I was going upstairs to my own room to go to bed?”
“Did she believe you?” I asked.
Yukiko smirked. “Not even a little bit.”
Samantha laughed. “Yukiko Avery, I…”
The first two words crackled with lust.
By the third, my babygirl was sobbing anew.
“Oh Sam,” Yukiko said, having clearly expected this. “We’re right here, boo.”
“I know,” the blonde said, trying to get a hold on herself. “Kiki, there’s nowhere else I want to be right now. I don’t want to have to deal with any of this!” She pressed her face into the Asian girl’s bosom. “I want my husband. My Daddy. And my wives. That’s it. That’s the whole freaking list.”
“Good list,” I said.
Samantha sniffed. “Marcie’s on it.”
Yukiko stiffened. “I know, boo.”
“I know I said tomorrow, and there’s no way in hell I want her learning about this from a phone call. But I wish she were here. I wish she were here so much—”
“She will be.” Yukiko’s hand slid into Samantha’s hair.
“Tomorrow. She’ll be right here when you tell her.
” A small smile lit up my princess’s face.
“And I’ll tell you a secret—she’s going to be better at this than all the rest of us, and I’m going to be so jealous of her but it doesn’t even matter. ”
Samantha let out a shocked laugh. “Kiki, you are the least jealous woman I’ve ever met.”
She shrugged. “Hey. I never got to be Samantha Lowry’s little.”
My babygirl let out a broken little whimper. Then she leaned over and kissed Yukiko, deep and long.
Good lord, I thought, stiffening in my boxers.
I don’t think either of them had decided to do it. They just couldn’t contain the way they were feeling any longer.
Samantha kissed her desperately, like the world was going to end in the next ten minutes and she needed to spend it showing us how crazy the two of us drove her in as explicit terms as possible.
I watched her tongue slide into Kiki’s mouth, my head wife’s hands caressing the blonde’s curves beneath her shirt, then they broke the kiss with a mutual gasp.
Yukiko took Samantha’s shoulders and rolled her to face me. “Kiss your Daddy,” she purred into my babygirl’s ear. “Your Daddy’s been waiting all day to spoil you and show you what you mean to him…”
I had. I’d wanted to comfort Samantha from pretty much the moment we got home. To show her that she was still mine. That she was an object of desire in my eyes—and always would be.
“Come here, babygirl,” I grunted.
She came to me. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her, rougher than Kiki had, one hand squeezing her ass and the other gripping her long blonde locks by the roots.