Two of my own fingers slid down between my thighs, and I touched myself as I stroked him into my mouth. Every sensation was on overload, and I increased my bobbing on him even more, letting him slide as far down my throat as I dared. He moaned loudly and then tightened his fingers in my hair. He held me in place, and I rubbed my clit as he came in my mouth. I suckled him, wanting every drop of his essence, and he shook as he emptied into me. Just as he seemed to be done, I slid my mouth off him, and our eyes met.
“I’m not done,” he grumbled.
Lifting me by my chin, his strong, gentle touch guided me to stand. I continued to stroke him until he spun me around and bent me over the desk. I spread my legs to invite him to me, and he wasted no time plunging his thick cock deep inside. He stayed there a moment, and we basked in the glory of his body filling mine. When I had adjusted to him, wrapping around his throbbing mass like a glove, he began to slam into me.
Stars filled my vision as he fucked me deeply, an animalistic grunt welling up from his chest as he took me, dominating me in that moment. I was vulnerable and open and unequivocally his, and he worshiped me with his cock and his hands that clasped at my ass. I could feel the coming rush of another earth-shattering climax, and I clasped onto the desk sides, pushing my hips into him. His speed increased as he pulled me by my hips, and I felt like he stretched me until I could take no more. The wave of the orgasm rolled over me, and a deep, furious growl rolled up from behind as he came again, this time deep inside my pussy, and we throbbed together, riding the wave as one. Sweat rolled down the small of my back as he pressed down into me, emptying himself fully and letting my body milk him. When there was nothing left, he sank down to the floor, pulling me with him, and our mouths crushed into one another for a deep, satisfied kiss.
So, we ended up here again, I thought to myself a few minutes later. Sprawled across each other, sweaty and breathing heavy. Only this time I didn’t immediately jump away from him and start to get dressed. We had slid down and were now stretched out on his office floor, my head on his chest and his arm draped lazily over my hip. I lifted my head just enough to look over to where Rosie had moved into the doorway of the bathroom attached to Quentin’s office. The puppy was staring at us, her head tilted to the side as if she seemed to be trying to figure out what was happening. I couldn’t help but shudder. That wasn’t a memory I particularly wanted to hang on to.
“At some point we should try this in a bed,” Quentin mumbled, turning to press a kiss to my head.
I could have said anything else, but my stupid after sex brain could only think of one thing.
“I’m pregnant,” I said.
There was a beat of silence.
“I mean, I know I’m good. But I don’t think you would be able to know that fast,” he joked.
“No, Quentin, I’m pregnant.”
He sat up, and it forced me to move off him and sit up to face him.
“That’s not funny,” he said.
I shook my head, starting to say I knew it wasn’t, but instead broke down in tears.
39
Quentin
Merry’s words were ringing through my head, like she was saying them over and over even though I knew she’d only said them once. Well, twice. She had to say them twice because I had to make a stupid joke when she said it the first time. Now I realized that was actually why she came to the office that day. However, we ended up detouring down the path of talking about our feelings, though it was obvious she had come to see me that that day with the intention of telling me the news.
She was pregnant. Merry was pregnant.
That meant I was going to be a father. It was a lot, and we needed to talk about it. But first I needed to make sure she was going to be okay after my stupid comment. Merry looked so terrified, completely falling apart and sobbing as she sat there on my floor. I hated to see her like that, to watch her curl up into herself and hold her knees to her chest as she cried. There were so many thoughts and emotions happening in her, but it was obvious one of them was fear. Not fear because she was pregnant, but fear because she had just told me. She didn’t know how I was going to react to what was going to happen, and it was upsetting her to the point it looked like she was about to fall apart.
I got to my feet and dressed as quickly as I could. Not bothering to put my shoes on yet, I collected her clothes and helped her into them. Taking her by her hands, I got her to her feet and led her over to the couch again. We sat down, and I looked over at Rosie. My puppy had been patient and quiet, barely making herself known up until now. It was what I’d asked her to do, and she was being such a good girl, but now I needed her to go back to her bubbly, adorable puppy self.
“Rosie,” I called. “Come here, puppy. Come see Merry.”
She scrambled over and jumped up on the couch. This was a puppy who didn’t need to be asked twice for affection. I patted Merry’s lap, and Rosie immediately bounced into it, lifting her little head to lick Merry’s face. She circled around a few times, then licked Merry again and again. Merry was still sniffling, but the tears had slowed, and she smiled at the affection from the puppy.
“How long have you known?” I asked.
“A few weeks,” she admitted. Her head dropped down for a second before she looked at me again. “I know I should have told you as soon as I found out. You should have been the first call I made, and I should have just been honest with you from the beginning. But I didn’t know how. I had no idea how I was supposed to have that conversation with you.”
She was obviously struggling to force the words out through the tears that were falling fresh again as she seemed to realize the impact of her holding back the information from me. I reached out and wrapped my arms around her, hugging her tight. It pinned Rosie between us, but she was happy to be able to lick both of us at the same time.
“How did you find out?” I asked.
“You remember when I took a couple of days off?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, reaching up with one hand to brush tears away from her cheeks.
“I was feeling sick. Just tired and queasy, then when I smelled strong food odors or tried to eat much, I got really sick. I thought I just had a stomach bug or a virus of some kind. With everything that had been going on and all the upheaval and change in my life, I honestly wasn’t even paying attention. It didn’t even occur to me that I’d missed my period. Then I mentioned it to Olivia. She’s the one who recognized the symptoms. Her sister and sisters-in-law have been pregnant several times, and she’s been there for all of them. She said I sounded just like what her sister felt. So, I asked her to get a test.”
“So, she knows?” I asked.
I didn’t mean it in a negative way, but she squeezed her eyes closed and looked away again.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know you should have been the first one to know, but she was there and encouraged me to take the test to see if that’s what was happening.”
“No,” I said. “Don’t apologize. I’m glad she could be there for you. That’s not something you should have gone through by yourself, and it makes me happy to know you had her.”
“She’s the only one who knows,” she told me. “I haven’t told anybody else. Even Brandon. I didn’t want anybody else to know until I figure it out how to tell you.”
I held her close to me again, kissing the top of her head and stroking her hair. This wasn’t enough. We needed to really talk about this. Not sitting on the couch in my office while the workday went on around us. I wanted to bring her home, to my home. I wanted to tuck her into bed and curl up beside her so we could cuddle and really talk. But first there was something that couldn’t wait.
Merry had calmed down enough that I was okay gently moving away from her and getting up to go over to my desk. Rosie happily took my spot, going back to licking and snuggling. I grabbed my phone off my desk and called my mom.
“I need you,” I said when she answered the phone.
“Quentin? Is e
verything all right?” she asked, sounding understandably worried.
“I just need to talk to you. Can you please come to my office?”
“Of course,” she said. “I’ll be there as fast as I can.”
I hung up the phone and turned back to Merry. She was looking at me with widened eyes.
“You called your mother?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “I can’t keep this to myself. I already told you I’m really bad with secrets.”
She chuckled, which made me feel better.
“Apparently,” she said. “How are you going to do it? She’s not the biggest fan of the two of us having anything to do with each other in that way.”
“I’ll figure it out when she gets here. Don’t worry,” I said. “This is my mother we’re talking about. I’ve had surprising conversations with her before.”
“One like this?” she asked.
“No,” I said, sitting back down and wrapping my arms around her again.
That was all I had the opportunity to say. My mother must have sprouted wings and flown, because she burst into the office door far faster than I would have thought she’d be able to get there. That was good to know.
“What’s going on?” she asked, coming into the office and staring at us.
Her eyes locked on where my arms were wrapped around Merry, and I could see her starting to get angry. She’d been clear with me about how she felt regarding the power dynamics of our relationship, and I shouldn’t have anything like that to do with one of my employees. I could tell she was about to say something, so I got ahead of her.
“We’re getting Rosie a baby,” I announced. Beside me, I saw Merry turn to look at me, her eyes even wider. I kept looking at Mom, wanting to make sure she understood what I was saying. “Merry’s pregnant.”
I waited for the reaction. In that moment, I was very aware it could have gone any direction, but it only took a few seconds for a huge grin to break across her face. My mother was all but glowing as she threw her arms open. Merry and I stood up and let her gather us up into a giant hug. She stepped back from that and then hugged each of us individually.
“I can’t believe it,” she said. “I’m just so happy. I’m going to be a grandma.” Then she looked over at Rosie. “I’m sorry, honey. You will always be my precious grandpuppy.”
This seemed to satisfy Rosie, and she jumped over to her bed, dropping down with a sigh as if to say she had done her duty for the day and was going to take a nap. She definitely deserved an extra handful of treats today.
“I know this might be weird or uncomfortable for some people,” I said, but Mom immediately shook her head.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s going to be fine. It’ll all work out. I promise. We will figure it out, and everything will be perfectly fine,” she said. “You leave telling your father and your brothers to me. Unless you want to make some sort of announcement.”
Merry shook her head. “No. It’s fine for you to tell them. Thank you. That actually takes a lot of stress off me.”
“Good. You don’t need any stress right now. What you need is rest and time together. You two take the rest of the day off,” she said.
“Aren’t I the one in charge of this company?” I asked.
“Not when I’m on grandma duty. You go home, and we’ll all get together tomorrow,” she said.
I watched with a lump in my throat as she gathered Merry in her arms again for another hug. She murmured something I couldn’t hear into Merry’s ear, and Merry smiled, hugging my mother closer. As they pulled apart, Mom looked down at Merry’s stomach, searching for any sign of the baby. Merry ran her hand over it.
“There’s not much to see yet,” she admitted.
“There will be soon enough,” Mom said, “and I can’t wait to see it.”
“Well, before that happens, I’d like to get her home,” I said. “We have a lot to talk about.”
Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, I guided Merry toward the door.
“Come on, Rosie,” she called, and the puppy happily fell into step with us.
I finally got her out to the car and brought her home like I’d wanted to all along. We got to the bedroom, and I gently removed her clothes down to her panties and bra. Stripping down to my boxers, I pulled back the blankets on the bed, and we slipped in. She sighed as she settled down in the crook of my arm. She seemed calm and happy now, and we fell into conversation. It was easy and stress-free. I leaned over and kissed her, just because I wanted to. We had time to figure everything out, and I knew we would. I loved her, and she was finally right where she belonged.
Epilogue
Quentin - Six Months Later
I paced back and forth in the hallway, occasionally smoothing my jacket or reaching up to adjust my tie. This was where I’d been for the last forty-five minutes, and I didn’t know exactly what was going on. I turned to the sound of footsteps coming toward me and saw Darren.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “The girls scurried off into Merry’s office, and I haven’t seen them since.”
I reached up and wiggled my tie again.
“You all right?” Darren asked.
“This tie is just really uncomfortable. I don’t know what’s going on with it. It’s like it’s pushing into something wrong on my neck,” I told him.
“Not having second thoughts, are you?” he teased.
“Not even in the slightest,” I said. “Well, possibly about the tie. But not about anything else.” I adjusted the knot again, but it still wasn’t any more comfortable. “How does it look? Does it look right?”
“It looks like you’re wearing a suit and tie,” Darren said. “You wear them all the time.”
“I know, but the difference is when I wear them it’s because of work. This is my wedding day. Shouldn’t I feel more… like me?” I asked.
Just then, Cole came into the hallway.
“Not to pressure you or anything dude,” he said. “Your wedding started twenty-five minutes ago.”
“I know,” I said. “Not exactly sure what’s going on. I haven’t heard anything from her in almost an hour.”
“I’m not worried about the dress!” Merry’s voice suddenly shouted from down the hall. “I just want to be married before I give birth. So, can we please just get on with this?”
I turned to the others with a grin.
“There’s my Merry,” I said.
Her attitude didn’t really surprise me. She was obviously cranky, but she was always cranky at this time of day. Carrying a baby was hard work, and she’d been doing it for eight months now. She was doing a great job of it, right up until around six every evening when she got hungry and angry. Really angry. Which begged the question of why we decided to schedule our wedding for five-thirty.
The door to her office opened down the hall, and Olivia’s head popped out.
“Quentin,” she called. “Can you come here for a minute?”
“Be right back,” I said.
“All right,” Cole said. “I guess I’ll go back out and tell more jokes to the crowd.”
I laughed. He was teasing, of course. At least, I hoped he was. My best friend was many things, but a stand-up comedian was not one of them. Besides, there wasn’t really a crowd out there. After I proposed to Merry three months ago, we talked about what we wanted for our wedding. I told her she could have anything, anything that she wanted or envisioned or dreamed of. I wanted her to have the perfect wedding day, even if we waited until well after the baby was born.
She immediately shot down that idea. Not because she didn’t want the baby to be at the wedding, but because she didn’t want to wait that long for us to get married. We both agreed a small ceremony with just family and close friends sounded ideal. But now it seemed a wrench had been thrown into the plans.
I slipped in through the partially open door to the office and closed it behind me. Merry was standing near the desk, her han
ds behind her back.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
She whipped around and dropped her hands.
“My dress ripped,” she said. “I guess I put on a few pounds.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Her saying she put on a few pounds was an understatement and she knew it. She joked about it all the time. After taking the first five months of her pregnancy to even begin to show, Merry made up for lost time over the last couple of weeks. Her belly grew round and beautiful, and there was no denying she was very close to delivering our baby boy. Which was good considering her due date was in only three weeks.
“I don’t care,” I told her. “We could paperclip you into it and hope for the best, and I would still think you are the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen.”
“That’s really sweet of you and I love you more than I could possibly tell you for saying it, but it doesn’t take into consideration one important little detail,” she said.
“What’s that?” I asked.
She took a few steps and the dress opened further, revealing her panties. I laughed harder.
“I can try to fix it,” Olivia offered. “I have a sewing kit in my maid-of-honor bag.”
“Do you have about a yard and half of extra white satin in there, too?” Merry asked. “Because if not, there’s no getting me in this thing. This is a sun’s out, buns out situation I don’t think anybody in those seats out there is prepared to see today.”
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