32. Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Hudson
“Head upstairs and get into your pajamas, Paige. I’ll be up to tuck you in soon.”
“But it’s the weekend,” my daughter whines. “Why do I have to go to bed so early?”
I almost groan. I shoot Finn a look and she laughs. All through the ride home, she kept biting that goddamn lip and stealing glances my way. I wanted to reach over and pull it free from her teeth so many times, but I love the way it gets me hard. Just thinking about it now has me needing to adjust myself. I want to get her alone.
I glance at my watch. It’s barely seven. “All right, you can stay up until…” I trail off, looking to Finn for direction. She mouths, eight-thirty . “Eight-thirty, but no later, ok? And I still want you to get into your pajamas.”
“Yes!” Paige runs off like I just told her she can stay up until midnight, even though it’s only an hour past her regular bedtime.
Once she’s safely up the stairs and out of earshot, I step up behind Finn and brush the braid off her shoulder. She inhales sharply when I run my lips up the side of her neck. Wrapping an arm around her waist and one around her shoulders, I pull her back against my chest, and capture her mouth. She opens in surprise when I push my hips forward, pressing my hard length against her ass. I don’t miss the opportunity to slide my tongue against hers.
I kiss her until she’s breathless. When I lift my head and break the kiss, she stutters out, “Is it eight-thirty yet?”
A chuckle rumbles from my chest, and I plant another kiss on her lips. “I’m gonna go shower if you want to set up the board? Might as well do something to pass the time.”
“Ok.” She nods, eyeing my mouth before pressing up on her toes and kissing me again. Then, she mumbles against my mouth, “Don’t you dare touch my cock while you’re in there.”
I chuckle, keeping my voice low. “ Your cock?”
“Yeah, for the foreseeable future, anyway.” She nods and runs her hand over my abs and down the front of my shorts. She gasps and her eyes go wide when she feels how hard I am. “Huddy,” she whispers, glancing down at my crotch. Then, she brings those big, brown eyes back up to mine, all mock innocence that makes me even harder. “You’re gonna break my vagina with this thing.”
That really pulls a laugh out of me. I drop my head and run my nose along her jaw, pulling a breathy moan from her lips. “You act like you didn’t already see it the other day in the shower.”
She raises her eyebrows dramatically and pulls back, her eyes going comically wide. “Listen, I couldn’t get a clear view, what with all the other parts of you to look at.” She glances back down again, running her hand over me, and I hiss out a breath. “That thing is a weapon of mass destruction,” she teases. “I mean, Jesus . You’re talking about putting it in my mouth? Where? How?”
I realize she’s fucking with me the second the corner of her mouth twitches up ever so slightly.
I lean in and run my fingers over the front of her neck. “I imagine most if it will be down this pretty throat.”
She narrows her eyes at me and blushes that perfect pink. “So clever.”
I laugh and palm her ass before whispering in her ear, “I’ll only touch your cock a little while I’m in the shower.”
She gives my chest a playful shove and I head upstairs to shower, grinning all the way.
When I come downstairs fifteen minutes later, the chessboard is set up and Paige is on one end of the couch watching Moana , while Finn sits crisscross on the other end, her Kindle on her knee. She’s got an elbow propped on the arm of the couch, and she’s pulled all that long hair up into a messy bun. She absently twirls a lock of chocolate hair near her temple around her finger, her eyes locked on whatever alien smut she’s reading. She’s got her thick-framed black glasses on, making her look like a tiny, hot as fuck librarian. My cock instantly takes notice. How does this woman make reading look sexy?
”Daddy, Finnley made popcorn,” Paige says, shaking the bowl, but not looking up from the movie.
I plop down on the couch next to my daughter, reaching for a handful. Paige pulls her nightgown down over her bent knees, eyes fixed on the TV, then lifts my arm and snuggles against me.
I drop a kiss on her head and pull her in close. Craning my neck, I try to see the clock on the stove from here, but it’s too far. Drumming my fingers on the cushions next to me, I’m itching to get Paige into bed. And I’m nervous as hell. What do we do, just go at it the second she’s in bed? We should at least make sure she’s asleep before we do anything. This is torture.
I glance over at Finn, who looks to be engrossed in her book, but I can tell by the flush of her skin and the little smile on her face as she stares at her Kindle that she’s probably as anxious to get the ball rolling as I am. How long has she wanted me like this? Surely, it isn’t as long as I’ve wanted her, right? I would have known.
My mind floats back to that night at Christmas, then forward to that kiss on our wedding day. It bounces to every heated moment we’ve shared the last few weeks. The way she kisses me, the way she moans into my mouth, the way she moved against my thigh in the hotel until she came. The memory of it all has me thickening in my pants.
“Daddy, sing ,” Paige says, nudging me out of the sexual daze, when Maui starts singing about sprouting a tree of coconuts or some shit. I’m only half-listening because I’m trying to keep my mind off the fact that all I want right now is to get my best friend— my wife —naked.
I mumble along with the words as Paige sings every single line next to me. She grins up at me and I ruffle her hair. Picking up my phone, I check the time. Could time go any slower?
A text message lights up my phone in my lap. Tristen. Before I can tip the screen away from Paige, her eyes lock on the screen. “Mommy’s texting,” she exclaims, her face lighting up. “What is she saying, Daddy?”
I hate how eager she is for the smallest nugget of news from her mom. The woman doesn’t deserve our daughter’s devotion. Texts or phone calls from Tristen tend to either put Paige on edge or disappoint her.
I can see Finn watching me in my periphery. Quickly scanning the message, my shoulders simultaneously slump away from my ears as my gut tightens in a weird mix of relief and anxiety. She isn’t canceling. She’s coming in September and plans to stay a week. It irritates me that she’s planned a trip for when Paige will already be in school. What the fuck? If she thinks I’ll be pulling Paige out of school so they can spend time together, she’s delusional. I consider not telling Paige, but she’s looking at me with wide, expectant eyes, and I can’t lie to her.
“She’ll be here in September.” I show Paige the text message with the dates listed out.
She gasps and jumps up, running around the couch into the kitchen. Finn and I share a look, mine subdued and hers skeptical. Neither of us wants Tristen to wreck Paige’s world, and the chances that she will are high, whether because she cancels last minute or comes only to leave her again. Both will break her six-year-old heart. But I can’t keep her from her daughter. I’m not that guy.
Paige comes tearing back into the living room a couple of seconds later, the calendar from the kitchen wall flapping as she does. “She’ll be here for the Mommy and Me Day, Daddy!”
Realization hits me and I glance over at Finn just in time to see her gaze falter and drop to her Kindle. A blaze of warmth rushes up her chest, the skin there and on her neck turning splotchy. My heart squeezes.
Reaching out, I take Paige’s hands in mine. “Paige, you already invited—”
Paige deflates. “But she’s not Mommy,” she says, cutting me off, matter-of-factly.
Her words punch me in the gut. Paige has no way of knowing that, as of a week ago, Finn is very much her stepmom. And after everything, I hate that she’d choose Tristen over Finnley. There is no comparison as to who the bigger part of Paige’s life is. When I glance over, the pain is evident on Finn’s face, but she manages to swallow down whatever emotion she’s feeling.
“It’s ok, Paige. I’m sure your mom would love to go with you,” she says, but her voice is shaky and laced with emotion .
Annoyance surges in my chest and I shake my head. I don’t know if it’s the right decision, but I make it instantly. “No,” I say firmly. “You can spend as much time with your mom as you want while she’s here, but you’re not taking back your invitation.”
“Huddy, it’s really ok—” Finn starts, but I cut her off with a glance.
Paige’s gaze bounces back and forth between us, her chin quivering. “You’re mean,” she whispers, before throwing the calendar down and stomping up the stairs.
I hear her little feet pound across the upstairs hallway before her bedroom door slams. Dropping my head back on the couch and closing my eyes, I let out a long sigh.
Finn stands and sets her Kindle down. “I’ll talk to her,” she says, giving my arm a gentle squeeze as she passes.