Off the Cuff

by K. I. Lynn

  I hated at the end of the day when Roe left without me. I often had to stay late, sometimes only half an hour, but other times it was a few hours. I was trying to keep down the longer nights because I wanted to spend my evenings with Roe. Have dinner together.

  We’d fallen right into a routine of sorts, and I was fairly certain it had to do with our proximity. Being two blocks away, there weren’t really any barriers to spending even an hour together.

  “Are you sure you want to come over every night?” she asked with a scowl as she answered the door.

  I froze mid-step, and my stomach clenched. Was I overdoing it? I’d admitted to myself earlier in the week that I was acting like a lovesick puppy, but I didn’t give a fuck because I’d never felt this way before. “Do you not want me to come over so much?”

  She rolled her eyes before grabbing my hand and pulling me in for a kiss. “It’s not that. I just thought you’d want some you time.”

  I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight to my chest. “I’d much rather have us time.”

  “You’re going to get sick of me.”

  I’d sensed for a while, especially after our run-in with Pete, that Roe’s trust issues were deeply ingrained. Only time would earn her trust, and I’d have to show her that I wanted her.

  A grunt followed by “Mamama” drew our attention to the toddler crawling toward us. Seemed she wanted to be part of the action. I scooped her up and held her high in the air, a drooly smile filling her face.

  “Better put her down before that drool ends up in your mouth,” Roe said with a laugh as she looked up.

  “You wouldn’t do that to me, would you, Kins?” I asked, and she answered with a long thread of drool slipping from her chubby cheeks. I quickly righted her, the line becoming a wet spot on her clothes. “Or you would.”

  I breathed in a strong garlic smell and looked to the kitchen wall.

  “See, I mentioned pasta yesterday and what is Mommy making? Spaghetti.” I growled the last word while playing that I was eating her belly. A peal of laughter left her, and she patted her hands against my face.

  When I looked back to Roe, I was stunned by the soft, sweet smile on her face. It was completely unguarded and took my breath away.

  The sudden need to know what caused such an expression took over so that I could get her to replicate it.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I like this.”

  “Me too, but you have this sweet smile that is in contradiction to the woman I know.”

  She threw her hand into my stomach. It was a common move I’d come to expect when I said something I knew would embarrass her.

  “You were saying?”

  “I like this.”

  “And what is this?”

  She stepped up and wrapped her arms around my waist. “I like that I can be a balance of myself with you. Old Roe and Mommy Roe. It feels good.”

  “I like it too. Seeing you free, unafraid to show your devotion to Kinsey, because if you didn’t get it already, I’m not going anywhere. Kinda stuck with me.”

  “Like a bad tattoo. No regerts.”

  I tilted my head back in laughter. It was the quintessential reminder to check the spelling before it was forever etched into your skin—misspelling no regrets to read no regerts. “Did you just say I was a bad tattoo?”

  “I may have likened you to one.”

  “So sassy. I feel like tonight I really am going to have to show you who’s boss in this relationship.”

  She poked Kinsey in the belly, tickling her. “Kinsey will, right when you’re mid-stoke. She’ll let you know who the boss is. She has impeccable timing.”

  “Challenge accepted.”

  After eating, we put Kinsey down for the night. She’d become more accustomed to my presence, making bedtime a little easier each night.

  “How does your guardianship work?” I asked as we cuddled on the couch together.

  “It’s called Kinship Care. Kind of like fostering. I was awarded guardianship by a judge, but after what happened, I’ve decided I’m going to petition for adoption. I’ll lose some of the financial aid I receive and her Medicaid, but I don’t think Ryn is ever going to get clean and if she does, who knows how old Kinsey will be. I couldn’t bear raising her until she’s ten or twelve and then handing her over to someone who is essentially a stranger.”

  I looked down at her, stunned. The court wouldn’t do that, would they? “Could that happen?”

  She shrugged. “It’s possible. But there are a lot of what-ifs and possibilities I don’t even want to think about. I want to adopt her. I want to be her mom always.”

  “I’ll help you in any way I can.”

  She tilted her head back to look up at me. “Why?”

  “Because you are her mother. Your love and devotion…growing up, I wished I had a quarter of the love from my mother that you give Kinsey.”

  She stretched up and pressed her lips to mine. A moan left me when she straddled my hips and deepened the kiss.

  From the moment her lips touched mine, the passion we shared exploded.

  It was no longer gentle, but frenzied movements that had us peeling off clothing. I barely had my pants to my thighs when she straddled me again and sank down on my cock.

  “Fuck,” I hissed. My eyes rolled back at the feel of flesh on flesh for the first time all week, thanks to her period.

  Her hips rolled, and I groaned out. I pulled her to me, smashing her breast right into my mouth. She drew in a sharp breath, her arms wrapping around my shoulders and into my hair. With each flex of my hips up, a stunted cry fell from her lips as she tried not to wake the baby.

  We moved as one, tightly wrapped up in each other as she rode me. I tugged on her piercing, groaning as she squeezed around me. I wanted her to come, but the slow, sensual pace with no barrier had my cum threatening to burst out before she got there.

  Reaching between us, I ran my hand down and strummed my fingers against her clit. The roll of her hips increased, and she bit down on her bottom lip as our eyes locked. Her pussy tightened, and I needed her to come before I lost it.

  “Come on, baby. Come around my cock. Show me how good I make you feel.”

  Her forehead fell against mine, a sign she was close. I took control, gripping her hips and changing the angle so that I could thrust up faster, drilling her. She slid down and hid her face in my neck to muffle her cries. A growl left me as I pushed and pulled her along my length in time with my thrusts at a maddening speed.

  When her teeth sank into my neck, I lost all control. She was shaking in my arms as she came, and I pushed into her as deep as I could as wave after wave of cum exploded.

  As we came down, I relaxed back into the cushion. She was boneless on me, and I stroked her back.

  “I won the challenge,” I said as I turned to kiss her cheek. A small giggle left her, but a moment later, my exhausted girlfriend was asleep with my dick still buried inside her.

  I hoped I was proving to her that her insecurities about me were unfounded, because now that I had her, I wasn’t going to let her go.

  I loved spending time with Thane at home, but I also found I loved spending time with him at the office. All the tension aside, I found we worked quite well together. Two weeks of relative ease had passed, making the first few weeks seem like a bad dream.

  “I have your coffee, Mr. Carthwright.”

  A groan left him and he licked his lips, his hand reaching out to squeeze my ass.

  “You really need to not do that.”

  “Do what?” I asked.

  “Cut the innocent act. You know you’re a tease.”

  I leaned down and pressed my lips to his, then again. The phone rang and he pulled away, but I grabbed onto his tie and pulled him back.

  “Roe,” he chuckled against my lips.

  I stood and picked up the receiver. “Thane Carthwright’s office, how may I help you?”

  It was one of the Worthington people, a
nd I handed the phone over before walking out of the office.

  I couldn’t keep the smile from my face. I was so happy. Happier than I’d even been before. I’d never been more thrilled to be proven wrong, because every day with him was better than the one before.

  After looking over Thane’s schedule and his assistant’s email, I found the rare time where I could work on my real work.

  Donte had been doing a fantastic job on his own, but I hated that I wasn’t there to help as much as I should have been. He’d come over a few times and we hashed some things out, but it wasn’t the same.

  The idea did come to me to talk to Thane about releasing me back to Marketing, but every time I thought about bringing it up, I couldn’t get the words out. As much as I missed my work, I couldn’t bring myself to leave him before Crystal returned.

  The past few weeks had been unbelievable. It was incredibly difficult not to fall for him. Smart, charismatic, kind, sweet, protective, sexy, and he could cook—the complete package.

  When we ate lunch together, another common occurrence, I was always stunned that the man I once thought of as an asshole was all mine.

  “What should we do for dinner tonight?” he asked as he forked a piece of chicken from my container.

  “Hey!” I cried in protest.

  He just gave me a cheeky smile and licked his lips.

  It was Friday, a normal day normal couples would go and spend the evening out. We’d only had one of those, and it was weeks ago.

  “I’m sorry.”

  His brow scrunched, confused since he was the one who’d stolen from my plate. “For what?”

  “That we can’t go out more just the two of us.”

  He placed his hand on mine and rubbed his thumb across my fingers. “While I would like that, just being with you is all I need.”

  “But Kinsey—”

  He cut me off. “Is adorable and—”

  “And always with me,” I finished for him.

  He scrunched his brow and leaned back. “Why are you trying to fight me on this?”

  I picked at the edge of my napkin, unable to meet his gaze. “Because dating me isn’t normal.”

  “Who defines normal? So we spend more nights in than out—who cares?” He cupped my face and leaned in closer. “As long as I’m with you. Kinsey is just a bonus.”

  “Don’t you want to go out on a date?” I asked. Old insecurities were rearing their ugly heads and I began to doubt.

  “Of course I do. You’ve just seemed reluctant and I didn’t want to push it. My goal is to make your life better, not give you more stress.”

  It seemed like a legitimate argument, but still that doubt nagged at me. “Getting a babysitter is hard, and my mom’s schedule is all over the place.”

  “You know we don’t need all that, right? We can take her with us.”

  “A toddler at a restaurant?”

  He shrugged. “Why not?”

  “The screaming. The crying. They tend to do what they want at whatever volume they want.”

  He nodded. “True, but why should that stop us? Why should a baby stop us from doing anything we want?”

  It was instinct. One moment I was in my chair and the next I was in his lap, my lips smashed against his.

  A groan left him and his arms wrapped around me. “Keep throwing yourself at me like that, and you’re going to be the lunch I’m eating off this table.”

  “Then what will I eat?” I asked innocently.

  His eyes widened and he swallowed hard. “Fuck, Roe, don’t tease me like that.”

  I let my hand trail down between us and cupped his cock, which was hardening in my hand. In all the weeks we’d been together, I still hadn’t given him a blow job and his reaction was tempting me to do it right now.

  I removed my hand and sighed. “I’m sorry. You have a meeting in fifteen minutes and I’m getting you all worked up.”

  “Put your lips around me for the first time and I guarantee it’ll be five minutes max.”

  “Only five minutes?”

  “After weeks of anticipation, hell, yes.”

  “Challenge accepted,” I said as I pulled his belt through the loops. With each movement his breath sped up, lips parted. When I slid down to my knees and pulled him free, he began cursing up a storm.

  He watched in rapt attention as my lips wrapped around the head. A deep groan left him when I took more of him in my mouth.

  “Fuck, that’s a beautiful sight,” he said as he stared down at me.

  I took more of him in, opening my throat to get as much as I could before pulling back. I bobbed up and down, moaning at all the grunts and groans leaving him. When his hips started pulsing up into my mouth, I knew he was close.

  I pulled back and swirled my tongue around the tip, earning a few pleas before I took all of him in my mouth again. He grabbed hold of my head and held me in place as he cried out. I felt each twitch as he came.

  Five minutes? I had him coming down my throat in less than four.

  He stared down at me in awe, trying to regain his breath. “That was un-fucking-believable.”

  I licked the tip, giving it one last kiss before tucking it back into his pants.

  “You earned it.”

  “How do I earn another? Because you just blew my mind.”

  I pushed against his thighs as I stood. “Come on, we need to finish and get to the meeting,” I said. As I sat, I tried to ignore the dampness of my panties and instead focused on finishing my lunch.

  After we cleaned up and popped a couple of mints, we gathered up our laptops and headed down the hall. We had barely made it out of his office on our way to the conference room when someone I didn’t recognize stopped us mid-step with a snide comment. “It’s frowned upon to be dating a subordinate.”

  Thane stopped and turned back to him. “Good thing I’m not her boss.”

  “She’s working for you,” he sneered.

  I’d never seen him before, and I wondered what department he was from. By the way Thane interacted with him, I had a feeling they knew each other. From Thane’s attitude, I also had a feeling he wasn’t a fan of the man.

  “Temporarily. When Crystal gets back, Roe will be back in Marketing where she belongs.”

  “Why not send her back now and use the temp agency like you’re supposed to?”

  Thane stepped forward, his glare making the man slink back. “Do I answer to you?”

  “N-no.”

  “That’s right.”

  “But Mr. Donovan—”

  “Is well aware of the situation. Obviously, he has no issue.”

  We continued on and just to make certain everyone knew, Thane wrapped his arm around me and pulled me tightly into his side.

  “You know what’s hot?” I asked him as we walked.

  “Besides you?”

  I gave his ass a pinch. “Pretending that it’s forbidden.”

  His steps faltered, and I knew his mind was swirling. “Fucking in secluded areas, trying not to get caught?” His voice was tight and low, causing a spike of heat to rush through me.

  “I knew you’d like that,” I said with a giggle.

  “You’re going to kill me, woman.”

  “Woman? What happened to baby?”

  He smirked down at me. “Baby entices. Woman fucking wrecks my whole day.”

  I pretended to ponder his statement, but the reality was that I loved both. His. I just loved that I was his and that he was mine.

  Over the weekend I stayed at Roe’s for the first time. It was possibly the best night sleep I’d had in years. There was something so cozy about her bedroom mixed with having her in my arms.

  Being with Roe was… hard to describe. In her arms, there was peace but also an edge of protection and love that I didn’t even know I craved. She was quickly becoming my everything, which was why when I woke in my own bed on Monday morning, a single text caused my anxiety to spike and race through me.

  Roe: I can’t work t
oday.

  Immediately, I pressed call. “Is everything all right?” I asked as soon as she picked up.

  She made a murmuring sound. “I don’t feel good.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  Another inarticulate sound. “Sinuses and headache.”

  That didn’t sound good. “Okay. Take some medicine and crawl back into bed. I’ll call you later to check on you, and then be by after work.”

  “‘Kay.”

  Unease and random worry invaded me constantly throughout the day, but especially after I hadn’t received a response to my texts in three hours. The entire day I felt off. Not having Roe nearby was a strange, empty feeling that I didn’t care for. By hour five with no response and Roe not picking up my calls, I left before three. My schedule was clear, and I took advantage of it.

  When I arrived at Roe’s, she answered the door more unkempt than I’d ever seen her. Her hair was a tangled rat’s nest around her head, eyes barely open, nose red, and she looked like she could hardly hold herself up.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, her sinuses sounding completely stuffed.

  “I came to take care of you.”

  She blinked at me. “What time is it?”

  “Just after four,” I said as I stepped in, making sure to lock the door behind me.

  She blinked slowly, not really looking at anything. “I need to go get Kinsey.”

  Kinsey wasn’t there? “How in the hell did you get her to daycare this morning?”

  She shook her head. “I wasn’t so bad then. I came back and laid down, and when I woke up it was like someone ran me over.”

  “You’re not going anywhere right now.”

  She shook her head. “I have to pick her up by five thirty.”

  “Call them and tell them I’m coming to get her.”

  Her brow scrunched. “You?”

  “Yes.” I directed her to the couch and sat her down. “I’ll go pick her up and bring her back here while you rest.”

  “But…” she trailed off, her sick brain unable to fire off on all its usual cylinders.

  “Just do it.”

  I went into the bedroom and located her phone. After handing it to her, I went back into the bedroom and pulled mine out to call her mom. I’d only been sick twice in the last eight years, so I had no clue what Roe might need.