Chapter Seventeen #2
She pushed my jacket off slowly, exploring me again for a moment before she went for my tie.
Then, hindered by our positions, she threw her weight and rolled me under her. She broke the kiss to sit up as she straddled me, her hazel eyes molten as her hands went to my buttons, working them free one by one.
With each new inch of skin exposed, her fingers drifted, making my muscles tense as the desire went from a comfortable sizzle to a burn.
She spread the material wide and looked over me, the hunger in her gaze ratcheting my own up.
Then she folded forward, her lips meeting my neck before sliding downward. Over my clavicle, my chest, down the center of my stomach.
My breath hitched as her tongue traced my waistband.
Her hands worked my belt loose, then my button and zip. She took her time pulling the material down, then off once I kicked out of my shoes.
“Hey!” she grumbled when I took the chance to roll her under me again.
“You’re not supposed to be sitting on your foot like that,” I reminded her.
It was my turn to take my time pulling off her clothes—shirt, pants, bra, panties—before running my lips and tongue over every inch of her. Until she was trembling. Until she was whimpering and writhing.
“Please, Christopher,” she pleaded, her hips rocking restlessly.
I lowered down, sliding her legs over my shoulder, then sliding my tongue up her pussy as her thighs shook and a long, ragged moan escaped her.
I worked her with just my tongue for a long moment before slipping my hand between us, then gliding two fingers inside her.
Alara’s hand slapped down on the back of my head as she arched up into me.
I thrust for a moment, loving the way her walls tightened around me, imagining that feeling around my cock. But then I turned my fingers, crooking them, and running them across her top wall.
The sensation had her whole body tightening.
Her legs clamped around my head, squeezing, as she got closer and closer.
“No!” she cried as I pulled suddenly away, having felt her tightening as she got close.
“If you want to come, you can come around my cock,” I told her as I moved over her, settling between her thighs to rock my cock against her wet heat.
A pathetic little whimper escaped her as she rocked her hips in time with mine as I reached toward the nightstand and grabbed a condom.
She fought me as I pulled back, sitting on my heels to look down at her.
She was flushed and heavy-lidded, her breath rising and falling quickly.
I waited for her gaze to slide down over me, then fisted my cock and stroked a few times, loving the way she whimpered and pressed her thighs together.
“Chris…”
Fuck, she sounded good when she called my name.
I slid on the protection before coming over her again.
Her hips lifted.
Mine pressed down.
Then I slid inside her with one long, slow thrust.
The sound that escaped her was almost a cry as her arms tightened around me when I settled deep.
“You feel so good,” I murmured, taking a deep breath, trying to keep a grip on my control.
“Chris, move,” she whimpered, hips wiggling.
That, I could do.
But it was slow and deep, a slow drive upward, as I soaked up the feel of her, as I heard her moans grow more throaty as she got closer and closer.
“I… I’m…” she gasped as her walls tightened hard around me.
“It’s okay,” I murmured, my own voice getting tight, “I’ve got you.” A soft cry escaped her. “Come for me.”
Then she did, a slow, deep throbbing sensation that pulled me along with her, my vision sparking with the intensity as I pressed deep as I came.
I couldn’t tell you how long afterward we stayed just like that—my body pressing hers into the mattress, her arms and legs wrapped around me.
But the sweat felt cool as I rolled off to her side, curling her onto my chest, my hands drifting lazily over her.
My fingers drifted up into her hair.
“Alara?”
“Mm?”
My lips curled up at the come-drunk sound.
“This is the part where we talk about this.”
“Talking is overrated.”
“Yeah, but it’s what adults do in this kind of situation.”
“Boo,” she grumbled, but sucked in a deep breath and sighed it out. “Fine. But you start.”
I guess, between the two of us, I was the one more equipped for hard conversations. I mean, when you had to tell your little niece that her mom was dead, you could just about talk to anyone about anything. Even something as uncomfortable and intimate as feelings.
And Alara, well, Alara was someone you sometimes had to pry information out of. She’d learned as an observant and empathetic little girl to tamp down all her own feelings to try to ease the tension in their household.
Then, as an adult, she closed her personal world off to everyone. So much so that Brio told me that Ezzy worried about her because she rarely expressed her feelings if they weren’t the anger or frustration she was comfortable sharing. Because they cost nothing. Not like the softer emotions did.
And asking about her feelings regarding a relationship, that shit was all soft.
“Where’s your head at about all this?” I asked.
“That’s not you starting.”
A small laugh escaped me.
“Okay, you pain in the ass. I’ll go first. I wasn’t sure at first.”
“No way! You hid that so well,” she said, and I could hear the eye roll in her voice.
I swatted her ass in retribution, getting a little giggle out of her.
“And, yeah, the Brio thing and the age thing were most of the hangups.”
“Most?” she prompted, her fingers drawing lazy shapes on my chest.
“There was also the kids.”
“What about the kids?”
“Decisions I make, they aren’t just about me.”
“I get that.”
“The three of us are a package deal.”
“Really? I thought guardians ship the kids off to boarding school when there’s a new woman in his life. Or maybe that’s just what the movies I grew up on said.”
“Be serious.”
“You’re being serious enough for the both of us. I know that Charlotte and Liam are a package deal with you.”
“But have you considered what that means long-term?”
“A lot of trips to the bookstore,” she said, nodding solemnly as she pushed up to look down at me.
I reached out to tuck her hair behind her ears as it fell forward to curtain her face.
“I mean it, Alara. Liam’s older. And way too fucking smart for his own good. But Char is still young. She’s going to start… seeing you as less of a friend figure and eventually like…”
“Like a mom,” Alara concluded.
“Yeah.”
“I won’t lie to you. I’ve been pretty open about not wanting to have kids. But I mostly mean like… the having part. After conception and through the whole first year, it sounds like a complete horror movie to me.”
A chuckle escaped me at that.
“Couldn’t imagine handling babies at this age,” I admitted.
“But Charlotte isn’t a baby. She’s a whole person. With thoughts and feelings. With great taste in books and questionable pizza topping choices. She did manage to get me sticky after she ate that jelly donut, but I’m choosing not to hold that against her.”
“I love how you are with her. With how you are with both of them, but especially Charlotte. But I know that being her friend and being something more is a big ask.”
“Is it?” she asked, her face screwing up. “I don’t think it should ever be a ‘big ask’ to love your kids. That seems like the bare minimum.”
“I like that,” I said, my fingers drifting down her jaw.
“And what else could there really be involved? I mean, I’m not doing the cooking. That’s all on you. But I do a mean load of laundry. There’s a day off at school… she can hang at the shop and talk books with me...”
“There might be some talks she’d be more comfortable having with you. The, uh, period talk had been painful for both of us.”
Alara fought the lip twitch for a moment before the smile broke free. “Hold on. Just trying to imagine the horror-struck look on your face during that.”
“Thankfully, she did manage to fight her embarrassment enough to inform me that she already had the period talk with her mom and at school. Was it a waste of all the time I spent studying how to use pads and tampons? Yep. But she is well aware she can let me know when she needs them.”
“Yeah, this is where being a woman comes in handy,” she said with a head shake. “Just buy the damn things and put them in the bathroom. She’s not going to want to ask. Kind of how you handle condoms with Liam.”
“Shit. I didn’t even consider condoms,” I admitted, rubbing my forehead.
“To be fair, I think he’s working too much to spend much time chasing girls. But I’m sure it’s on his mind. I mean, did you make it past eighteen with your virginity?”
“I did not. Alright. Trip to the drugstore ahead of me.”
“I can do the sex talk with Charlotte when it seems necessary. Lord knows she’s not going to want to ask her uncle some of the questions she’s sure to have.” She shrugged a shoulder. “What else is there? To, like, being a parent? Isn’t it mostly just… being there? Listening? Caring?”
“That is the majority of it, yeah.”
“Well, I’ve already been here. I listen. I definitely care. And we’re totally planning on going to that book convention next year, even if you and I didn’t do this.”
My lips curved.
“Maybe I was worried about nothing.”
“Like I said, if diapers or snot suckers were involved, this would be a very different conversation.”
“Noted.”
“But loving those kids is already done.”
“Is that you saying you’re in this?”
“Well, I do have one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“We can’t live here forever. I mean, if I’m living here,” she rushed to add.
“You’re already living here.”
“Yes, but not with my stuff.”
“We can grab your stuff tomorrow.”
“And put it where, exactly?” she asked, glancing around the room.
“Fair point. I never planned on staying here long either. It was just a place to be while I got my career going again. Though, the smaller bed has its perks,” I said, my fingers drifting over her hip.
“Yes, but think how nice a small bed would be in a big room. With a closet big enough for two.”
“I’m with you there.”
“So, that’s it, then? We’re doing this?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“What about the kids?”
“What about them?”
“Do we have to… sit them down and tell them?”
“Liam already has his suspicions. But, yeah, eventually.”
“Not looking forward to it, huh?” she asked.
“This was enough serious conversing for one day,” I told her.
“So, we sneak around for a day or two until you recover.”
“I like the way your mind thinks.”
“If you want to stick with that plan, though, you might want to get some clothes on. They should be home soon.”
I turned my wrist to glance at my watch.
“Shit.”
I nearly dropped her off the bed, I knifed up so fast.
She flopped back with a laugh as I scrambled to gather my clothes and jump into them.
I was still pulling on my jacket as I walked out of her room when the front door opened.
And there was Liam.
I reached back to slam the door.
But the guilt must have been all over my face because Liam let out a soundless laugh and shook his head at me.
“I think maybe you’re gonna need to wait a little bit before you show Alara that art project,” Liam said, his voice exaggeratedly loud so it carried through the closed door.
I heard the bedsprings creaking as, I imagined, Alara got up to get herself dressed again.
“Why?” Charlotte, perfectly ignorant of the adult thoughts going on around her, asked.
“She’s, uh, just… getting up from a nap,” I said.
Liam walked past me toward his room. “That’s what we’re calling it, huh?” he said under his breath.
“Shut it,” I replied in the same tone.
“Did I hear something about art I need to see?” Alara asked as she emerged from the bedroom.
I looked around the apartment, watching Char enthusiastically showing off her project to a rapt Alara, then Liam crossing the apartment with an eager Tuna.
And something about it all just felt… right.
Alara glanced over, almost as if hearing, and shot me a small smile. Like she felt it too.