28. Hunter
28
HUNTER
Now
P uddles.
The first time I took Rae in my bed, she left puddles in my sheets. Big, wet, mattress-ruining puddles that made it necessary for me to invest in a waterproof mattress topper. Those damn puddles are the only thing on my mind as I make breakfast, burning pancake after pancake as her words about making a mess in my bed play over and over again on a loop.
We don’t want to make a mess in Daddy’s bed.
Fucking hell.
I want her to make a mess in my bed. I was going to make a mess of her in my bed last night, but I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t want a conversation about her shitty-ass boyfriend to be the catalyst for our first moment together in years. When I take her—and I am going to take her because I don’t give a fuck about the floundering commitment she’s made to Aaron, it’ll be about us and only us.
Not him.
“It’s burning again, Daddy.”
I curse under my breath, scooping another charred-to-a-crisp pancake out of the pan and onto the plate I’ve designated for myself while Riley looks on, swinging her legs from her perch on the countertop by the stove. She’s as adorable as she can be in her unicorn PJs and matching bedroom slippers. When she came down the stairs early this morning, I’d just gotten back from my run, which I’d intentionally pushed up just so I could get back before she or Rae knew I was gone.
Turns out, I’d timed it perfectly because my sleepy girl came down rubbing her eyes and looking for her mom mere minutes after I walked through the door. Since it was our first time spending a morning together, I didn’t know what to expect from her mood. Didn’t know if she was a crier or a grump like me. Turns out, she’s neither. Well, at least with me. I remember Rae mentioning something about Riley not being a morning person, but that wasn’t my experience at all. I guess it’s true what people say about some kids saving the drama for their mama because Riley and I had the chillest morning in history. She talked me into taking her to see the treehouse, and I caved, giving her a ride on the Daddy Express so the morning dew didn’t make her slippers wet.
We chatted all the way down to the edge of my property, with Riley telling me all about her dreams and asking me about mine. I had to lie because none of the images my brain conjured during the few hours of sleep I got were appropriate to share with my kid. Riley is still talking, and my attention is split into thirds, trying to focus on Riley’s voice as she talks about the birthday party she’s now apparently having at my house, not burning the last of the pancake batter, and Rae moving around upstairs all at the same time.
She’s on the phone. Her voice is a low and concentrated whisper that makes it impossible for me to make out anything she’s saying or decipher who she’s saying it to. I don’t think it’s Aaron. He’s probably still mad about her being here with me this weekend, and while I know the decision has caused her some distress, I can’t help but feel grateful that she made it. I would have been happy just having Riley here, but something about Rae being here too, invading my space with her scent and making herself at home between my sheets, just makes everything so much better.
“All the bubbles have popped. Mommy says that means it’s time to flip it,” Riley is telling me now, prompting me to flip the pancake before it’s resigned to the same fate as the others.
“Thank you, Nugget.” I smile at her, letting my appreciation show on my face. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Who’s going to eat those?” She asks, eyeing the burnt stack with a mildly horrified expression.
I can’t help but laugh. “Those are for me. The pretty, golden ones are for you and Mommy.”
“Oh, good,” she says, relief rushing over her features. “I don’t like burnt ones.”
“What’s burnt?”
The sound of Rae’s voice makes me turn around just in time to see her striding into the kitchen on bare feet. She’s got a lightweight sundress with flowers all over the skirt and bodice, which hugs her breasts and makes it clear that she’s not wearing a bra.
“Daddy’s pancakes.”
“But not yours or hers,” I assure Rae as I lift Riley off the counter and set her on her feet. She doesn’t waste any time rushing over to the table, taking a seat next to Rae who’s laughing at me with her eyes. “What?” I ask, smiling despite myself. She’s so damn beautiful like this. Well-rested and relaxed, with the light from the window over the sink spilling onto her features.
“Nothing, just waiting for you to demonstrate those cooking skills you were bragging about the other day.”
“You won’t have to wait much longer.”
To prove my point, I set about fixing our plates in record time, adding a serving of bacon and eggs to each of them before bringing them over to the table that Riley set after we came back downstairs to let Rae get dressed. Riley digs in first, dousing her stack of perfectly golden cakes in syrup before passing the bottle over to her mom.
“This looks good,” Rae admits, adding butter and syrup to her stack.
“Told you I could cook.”
“Don’t get too cocky. I haven’t even tasted them yet.”
“I have,” Riley chimes through a mouth full of food. “They’re really good!”
I arch a brow at Rae, and she rolls her eyes before taking a dainty bite meant to convey her skepticism. I watch her chew, all of my attention on the way her lips move and then how her throat works as she swallows.
“Well?” I ask, my voice unnecessarily husky.
She picks up her glass of orange juice, taking a slow sip just to keep me on the edge of my seat. Then she smirks. “They’re all right.”
“All right?” I rear back, placing a hand on my chest to feign offense. “You hear that Riley? I think your mom just challenged me to a pancake war.”
Riley’s eyes get big, ignoring Rae as she shakes her head, trying to reel us back in. “Yes! I want to have a pancake war! Can I be on my own team?”
Clearly exasperated but also a little amused, Rae places a calming hand on our daughter’s shoulder. “How about you be the judge?”
“Oh, yeah, I like that idea,” Riley says, her face turning serious. “I’m a good judge.”
I nod, already devising a plan to bribe her. “You’re the best judge.”
Rae sees right through me, and I catch her rolling her eyes. “But most of all, Ri, you have to be a fair judge, and that means not taking any bribes.”
“I won’t take bribes,” Ri swears, placing her hand over her heart like she’s taking an oath. It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. “I promise.”
“So when are we doing this?” I ask, finally taking a bite of my pancakes and trying to hide the grimace on my face when the acrid flavor of burnt butter hits my taste buds. Rae snickers under her breath and stands, placing her hands on her hips.
“Now.”
I look up at her, my gaze slow and studious as I drag it up her body. “Now?”
“Yep. Right now.” She tosses the words over her shoulder, hips swaying as she moves over to the fridge. “Unless you’re scared?”
I glance at Riley who is already looking at me with wide eyes that ask if I’m going to pick up the gauntlet her mom has just thrown down. They grow even wider when I set my palms on the table and push to my feet, and stay glued to me as I move over to the counter across from Rae and smile.
“Remember, Sunshine, you wanted this.”
Rae beats my ass in the pancake war.
I maintain that I let her win while she and Riley insist that her victory means I have to call her Queen Pancake for the rest of the day.
I oblige because there’s really not much I won’t do for the two of them.
We spend the afternoon and early evening in the pool because that’s what Riley wants to do, and she wears me out with round after round of Marco Polo while Rae alternates between playing with us and reading a book she said she’s been trying to finish since the beginning of the year.
It’s a good day. The best day, and I’m sad when the sun goes down and we have to come inside because I know that it puts me one step closer to saying goodbye to them. After showers and post-pool snacks, Riley and I stretch out on the couch in the living room, watching a movie while Rae cooks dinner and sings along to the music playing on her phone.
“Does she take the bus all the way back to Minnesota?” I ask Riley, needing to know how things turn out for the little girl with my daughter’s name that’s currently on my TV screen. When my inquiry is met with silence, I glance down at my real-life Riley and smile when I see that she’s fallen asleep curled up in a ball next to me with her feet in my lap.
Pulling out my phone, I snap a picture of her, wanting to preserve the moment forever. Then I slip out from underneath her and head into the kitchen to show Rae. She’s slicing up chicken for the burrito bowls she insisted on making for us, but she pauses when she hears me approaching.
“Let me guess, she’s asleep?”
I nod. “Passed out. She didn’t even make it through the movie.”
“She’s seen it a million times,” Rae says, beginning to run the blade through the meat again. “It’s one of her favorites.”
“Figures. She knew every line.” I inch closer to the counter where she’s standing, every cell in my body begging to be closer to her. “It smells good in here, Queen Pancake.”
Her lips curve into that smile she always gives me when she’s not trying to pretend like I don’t make her happy. I’m glad to see it. I want to see it every day, to make her give it to me so often it becomes instinct when I’m around.
“Thank you. I was going to make a cheese quesadilla for Ri, but I guess that’s not necessary now.”
“Will she sleep for the rest of the night?”
I don’t mean for it to sound the way it does, like I’m angling for one-on-one time with her, but I can’t take it back, so it just sits in between us. Rae glances at me, her eyes filled with the memories of last night when my fingers were inching up her thighs, and licks her lips.
“Probably.”
The silence that follows is pregnant with all the things that could mean for us, with all the things we could do to each other, with all the things we could share. Rae’s eyes don’t stray from my face, but I can’t seem to keep my eyes on hers. I’m too busy devouring her body language, reading every relaxed muscle and strained breath while the beginning notes of a love song I once said reminded me of her echo in the room around us. The sound suddenly loud and jarring. Rae lifts her hand, her intention to stop the music and interrupt this moment clear.
“Don’t,” I murmur, stepping forward and holding out my hand to her. “Dance with me.”
Rae knows what this moment is. She knows exactly where it’s going to lead, and while I’m thinking about how fitting it is that we’ll find our beginning in this same room for the second time, she’s trying to talk herself out of wanting it. I watch her bite her lip, shuffling her weight between her feet while the wheels in her mind turn and turn and turn, trying to come up with a way to get out of this.
But there is no way out.
That’s the beauty and the curse of us.
She sighs and sets the knife down, stepping out from around the counter and placing her hand in mine. Sparks that feel like finally fly out from the small point of connection, and I pull her into me, moving slowly, so she has time to retreat if she wants.
She doesn’t. She wants this . She wants me. That much is clear by the contented sigh that passes through her lips when her body is pressed to mine, my hands on her hips, and my mouth at her ear, murmuring the lyrics of a song I haven’t played since she left me.
Rae’s hands are up around my back, her fingers clutching me like a lifeline as we sway back and forth. Desire is a slow, hot brew that burns our veins and soaks the room with the scent of possibility.
“We can’t,” she whispers, asking me to stop her as she lifts up on her tiptoes and lays her lips on my neck. “Hunter. We can’t.”
My hands slip down her body further, gripping her ass in my palms and lifting her up off of the ground because if she’s going to kiss me, she doesn’t need to struggle for it. Despite her verbal expression of wanting to stop, Rae keeps going, wrapping her legs around my waist and trailing kisses up my neck and over my jaw until her mouth is hovering over mine. She’s got her eyes squeezed shut, blocking out everything that’s not this, that’s not me, but I’ve been dreaming of this moment for months now, and I want those eyes on me.
“Look at me.” Rae’s always been a good girl. She’s always been responsive and eager to please me, so her eyes pop open when I order them to. “I love you,” I tell her, unable to hold the words back any longer. Her eyes turn into puddles of heat and emotion.
“I love you too,” she whispers the words back, resting her forehead against mine as her body sags with a mixture of defeat and relief that tells me she’s been fighting those words back for as long as I have.
My grip on her tightens, and she gasps her delight as I pull the hem of her dress up to caress her skin. “You’re still the best thing I’ve ever held in my hands, Sunshine. Tell me I can hold you tonight. Tell me I can have you tonight.”
We both know I want more than tonight, but it’s all I have the courage to ask for. Rae’s answer comes in the form of a searing kiss that steals my breath and causes me to stumble forward so I can sit her on the counter. The moment she’s on solid ground, my hands go to either side of her face, holding her mouth to mine so I can explore her thoroughly.
It’s been years since I’ve tasted her, but she’s still that perfect mixture of sweet and forbidden, of danger and destruction. When she moans into me, sweeping her tongue into my mouth to relearn the flavor of my desire, I can’t help but moan back, giving her more and more until the kiss is as filthy as the images that crowded my mind last night.
I pull back, which makes Rae whimper, and then sigh when I kiss my way down her neck, over her chest, and then go further still until I’m kneeling on the floor before her, her legs over my shoulders and my lips on the inside of her thigh, making their way to the soft heat of her core.
Rae has the kind of pussy you dream about eating for days. Puffy brown lips with a perfect pink center that you could get lost in. And my favorite thing about her is that she knows how good it is, too; she’s not shy or hesitant about offering it to you. As soon as I make my intentions known, she’s shimming down on the counter to get closer, putting that shit right in my face, forcing me to acknowledge that she doesn’t have any panties on.
“You’ve been waiting for this all day, haven’t you?” I ask, my lips grazing hers as they move. She rolls her hips but remains quiet, so I nip at her clit and repeat myself. “Haven’t you, Sunshine?”
“Yes,” she hisses, using one of those long legs to force my face closer. “So give me what I want, Hunter.”
Unwilling and unable to deny her, I dive in, using my tongue to part her folds and groaning when the sweetness of her essence explodes in my mouth. “Fuck , Rae, has this pussy gotten even sweeter?”
She doesn’t answer, just moans and writhes under my touch and the relentless thrashing of my tongue until she comes apart around me so quickly and quietly that I almost don’t realize that it’s happened. I might have missed it if it wasn’t for the quivering of her thighs and the fucking rainstorm of an orgasm that has her release dripping down my chin and onto my neck.
Puddles , I think, laughing to myself as I wonder how my girl can be sunshine and rain all at the same time.
Not one to waste a drop of the euphoria I worked so hard to wrench from her body, I lap at Rae until she’s squirming and reaching down to push me away.
“Enough,” she pants, chest heaving.
I shake her off, going in for more, desperate to make the moment last. “It’s not enough, Sunshine. It’ll never be enough.”
She pushes up on her elbows, looking down the long line of her body at me. “I can’t come again.”
I frown, knowing for a fact that she’s capable of more than one orgasm in a night. Once, on a really good day, I gave her five. I know because I made her count them.
“Yes, you can,” I assure her, standing up so I can curve my body over hers. She shudders out a breath when I rub my erection against her, and I consume the sound in a quiet kiss.
Rae breaks it, shaking her head as she glances toward the living room where the ending credits of the movie are now playing. “Riley could wake up, we should?—”
“Riley is sound asleep, Sunshine.”
“But she could hear?—”
I cut her sentence short by looping her legs around my waist and picking her up. Her eyes are wide as I carry her the short distance to the laundry room and kick the door closed. The dryer is going again, and the gentle hum creates a noise barrier that will make it impossible for any sound to escape. I pin Rae against the door and kiss her again.
“There. Now, you can be as loud as you want when you come again.”
She lets her head rest against the door. “I already told you I can’t.”
“With him,” I say, my voice a lethal whisper. “That might be true with him, but that’s never been true with me, and you know it.”
To demonstrate my intent to show her, I let my hands move from her hips to the band of my shorts and push them down just enough to free my dick. Rae gasps when she feels the tip brush her ass, and she moans when I drag it through her folds and up to her entrance.
Her hands go to my shoulders, nails digging into my skin. “Hunter.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
She bites her lips, her body already betraying her act of hesitance as she rocks against me. “No,” she says finally, the heat of her breath fanning over my lips. “I don’t want you to stop.”
I push forward, giving her just the tip first and loving the way her eyes flare with determination as she adjusts to the feel of me. Widening my stance, I stroke up, giving her a few inches more before pulling back and starting the maddening process all over again.
Rae’s teeth dig into her bottom lip as one set of fingers leaves my shoulder to trail up my neck, gripping the back of my head to pull me down for a kiss. I love kissing Rae. I always have, but tonight, when I’m trying to be patient and careful, it’s the kind of distraction I don’t need. Still, I indulge her, worshiping her with reverent kisses while I feed my length into her inch by inch.
When I’m fully seated, she breaks the kiss with a hiss.
“You haven’t gotten bigger, right?” She asks, panic in her eyes. “That’s not a thing, is it?”
“No, Sunshine,” I laugh. “That’s not a thing.” I pull back and stroke up into her again, watching her eyes roll back into her head. “You’re just not used to taking a dick this big anymore.”
“Oh my God,” she cries, her face scrunching up in a mix of pleasurable pain as I start up a smooth rhythm that causes the flared head of my dick to hit that spot deep inside her I suspect hasn’t been touched in years. She starts to move with me, meeting me thrust for thrust as we chase that feeling that’s uniquely ours. That drugging brand of ecstasy that only exists when I’m inside of her, and she’s wrapped around me, her walls rippling around me while my dick drives through her soaked channel until she succumbs to the inevitable.
Not just the pleasure of another orgasm, which I give her two more times before I let myself spill into her with long, hot spurts of cum that coat her walls, but the love that makes it possible. That makes it more powerful than anything we’ll ever share with anyone else.