She focused on the question he’d just asked about her parents’ whereabouts. “My mom is living in London with a guy she met there a few years ago, and my dad . . . well, I’m not quite sure where he is right now since he’s moved around a lot. I told them both about Val when I found out I was pregnant, but neither one has ever made an effort to see her.”
“Jesus,” he said, his voice low but harsh. “That’s pretty shitty.”
She laughed, though the sound lacked humor. “After the childhood I had, it doesn’t surprise me one bit. My parents are pretty selfish people.”
When she cast a quick glance at him, she saw the furrow of his brows, as if he was thinking about what she’d just said and wanted to ask about the less-than-perfect childhood she’d mentioned. “I don’t expect anything from them, and that way I’m never disappointed,” she said, hoping to detour those questions in his gaze.
It was the bubbly sound of Val’s voice as she told Robbie to go down the slide with her that thankfully had Connor glancing away to look at his daughter. The glee that escaped Val as she glided down the short sloping surface made a smile tug at Connor’s lips.
“So, you’ve raised Val all on your own, without any help from anyone?” he asked, his gaze still on his daughter.
“For the most part, yes,” she said, knowing he meant close family. “My neighbor and good friend, Avery, and her husband, are always there for me if I need anything.”
He tipped his head her way so she could see his serious expression. “It wouldn’t have been that way had I known. You would have always had someone there for you and Val.”
She believed him, that he would have been a father who was present in Val’s life given the chance . . . and would be from here on out. “I’m sorry you missed out on the first three years of Val’s life,” she offered, meaning it.
“Me, too.” The big, warm hand still at the nape of her neck slowly moved, until his thumb stroked intimately along her jawline. Their gazes held, his filled with heat and desire and more questions she wasn’t sure she wanted to answer. “About that night in Denver—”
“Mommy, can you push me on the swing?” Val asked as she came barreling up to Katie, defusing the moment between her and Connor and effectively deterring anything else he might have said or asked. “I want to go as high as the sky!”
Without missing a beat, Connor lowered his hand from her face and turned his full attention to Val. “What do you say I push you on the swing so your mom can sit and relax and enjoy the day?”
Val gave him a skeptical look, but Connor wasn’t dissuaded.
Leaning toward Val, he bent his arm up and pointed to the taut bicep now bulging around the sleeve of his T-shirt. “See this big muscle right here?” he asked Val, and the little girl nodded, eyes wide as she stared at the impressive swell of sinew in his upper arm that made even Katie want to swoon. “That means I’m super-strong, and I can push you much higher than your mom can.”
“Okay,” Val agreed.
Katie rolled her eyes. A gorgeous guy flexing his muscles was all it took to convince Val to give in to him.
Her daughter ran off toward the swing set, and Connor stood, a pleased grin on his too-handsome face.
“Oh, my God,” Katie said, pure amusement in her voice. “You’re shameless, using your muscles to sway a girl like that.”
He laughed, the sound low and intimate and, yes, completely and utterly shameless as he met her gaze. “It worked on her mom, didn’t it?” he said, and with a sinful, sexy wink at her, he followed Val, a cocky strut in his walk.
She was suddenly feverishly hot, and it had nothing to do with the sun overhead. Yes, his magnificent body had made her weak in the knees, and there wasn’t a night that went by that she didn’t close her eyes and remember what it felt like to run her hands over his hard chest, those taut abs, those strong thighs . . .
Damn. She shifted on the bench and cut off that line of thought before she spontaneously combusted out in public.
She focused on Val and Connor instead, and the effortless way he picked her up—with those big, muscled arms—and helped her into the little bucket seat, designed so that younger children wouldn’t fall off, or out of, the secure chair. He pushed her as promised, but clearly tempered his true strength so that Val didn’t go too high. Her little girl giggled as the swing soared up into the air, her little legs kicking back and forth as she raised her arms to touch the sky.
After a good ten minutes, Val announced that she was thirsty, and Connor stopped the swing to let her down. They walked together toward Katie, with Connor still pouring on the charm.
“So what do you think, Val? Did my muscles work?”
Val nodded exuberantly, and lost in her enthusiasm, she looked up at Connor and slipped her tiny hand in his, already trusting him. “You are stronger than Mommy. I almost touched the clouds!”
Connor smiled down at her, and Katie could nearly see the lump in his throat that he had to swallow back because of the way his daughter had, without thought, just held his hand. “Next time, we’ll try harder.”
“Okay.” Val beamed up at him, clearly already won over by her daddy, which Katie completely understood.
When the two of them reached the bench where Katie was still sitting, she already had Val’s juice box out and the straw in it for her. Her daughter gulped down the apple juice and Connor sat down in the space next to her again, his thigh pressing lightly against hers.
The whole scene seemed so . . . normal. This was probably going to be their new routine for a while, she realized. Meeting up somewhere, being with Val together, and eventually, when the little girl was comfortable enough, Connor would take her for a few hours on their own, then maybe an entire day, then weekends . . .
“Want some of my juice?” she asked Connor, offering him the box she’d just drunk from as she leaned against his leg and nearly batted her lashes at him.
He gently touched her hair. “I’m good, but thank you.”
She took another sip, then lifted her free hand and tried to show him the gesture for three fingers. “Did you know I’m going to be this many fingers on my buthday?”
The corner of his mouth twitched with a grin at her attempt to hold her thumb and pinkie finger together. “Yes. Your mom told me that you’re having a birthday soon.”
“I am. With cupcakes and presents!” She did a little hop-skip on her feet in her excitement, then blinked up at him guilelessly. “Are you coming to my party?”
She saw Connor hesitate before saying, “That’s up to your mom.”
He didn’t look Katie’s way, and she realized that he was truly leaving the decision up to her, without any pressure. But he’d already missed two of Val’s birthdays, and she wouldn’t keep him from being a part of her third.
“Yes, of course he’s invited to your party,” she said, feeling yet another shift in this three-way dynamic where Connor was now a part of all those special events.
“Yippee!”
While Val hopped around like a human jumping bean, Connor finally looked at Katie, his eyes warm and grateful as he mouthed the words thank you to her.
Chapter Six
Connor lay in bed, one hand behind his head as he flipped through the channels on the TV mounted on the wall, trying to find something that interested him. At this point, he didn’t think it mattered what show he watched, since his mind really wasn’t able to concentrate on a program when he instead kept thinking about Katie.
It had been three days since their time together on Sunday at the playground, and while she’d agreed to invite him to Val’s birthday party that upcoming Saturday afternoon, Connor knew he had to take things slow and steady with both girls. He didn’t want to overwhelm either one of them by insisting he see Val every single day when he was still a stranger to the little girl, though that was definitely something he intended to build up to.
He also understood that after three years of being a single mom, Katie had a set routine with th
eir daughter, and Connor was doing his best to be respectful of not making too many changes in the little girl’s life too quickly. That kind of disruption wasn’t fair to either Val or Katie, and for right now, he had to be content with the few things Katie had agreed to when it came to him forging a relationship with his daughter.
So, even though he didn’t physically see Val every day, they did talk on the phone each evening at seven, right before her bath time and after he was home from work for the night. That was their deal, because it was important to Connor that Val at least heard his voice on a daily basis, so she’d remember him since he was going a whole week without seeing her until her birthday party. The next time they were face-to-face, he wanted her to be comfortable with him and not have to start from scratch all over again.
He loved their nightly conversations, anticipated them, actually. Val was so animated, so inquisitive, and such a chatterbox. When he asked about what she did that day, she had no problem telling him all the details of spending time with her mom or what had happened at her preschool or what she and her friend, Leah, had done. And somewhere along the way she’d picked up the phrase “catcha later” that she used with him at the end of their phone call, instead of saying good-bye. He liked that they were already establishing those special personal phrases between them.
When he called at the designated time, Katie always answered, but she quickly handed the phone to Val, telling him she was going to run the little girl’s bath while they were talking—deliberately never giving them enough time to have a conversation of their own, which was starting to annoy him, because as much as he enjoyed his time on the phone with Val, he wanted to get to know Katie better, too.
He still felt something for her, the attraction between them was still strong, and now his emotions were involved. She was the mother of the child he was just getting to know, but she was also a woman he’d enjoyed spending time with in Denver. In fact, regardless of Val, he would have wanted to get to know Katie better and spend time with her again.
There was no doubt she had her guard up where he was concerned, and a part of him understood that she was trying to protect herself from being hurt in any way—clearly after Brice she had trust issues with the male gender. After hearing her story about her parents, he also knew her own father hadn’t set a great example of showing his daughter how real men treated the women who were important to them in their lives or how a man should take care of his children.
So yeah, Connor definitely had his work cut out for him with Katie. Tearing down those defenses was his goal, and if he had to start with the physical attraction to build on the emotional trust, then so be it. He already knew by the few touches they’d shared that Katie was still interested in him physically, that given a little push in the right direction, she’d be as soft and sensual and uninhibited as she’d been with him in Denver.
He wanted that with her—a relationship that not only included Val but one that the two of them could gradually build upon when it came to all those subtle, sensual glances she gave him and the desire she tried hard to disguise but he was one hundred percent attuned to. And he had no issues taking advantage of that chemistry since it was definitely mutual.
He glanced at the time on his cell phone—9:20 p.m. He inserted his Bluetooth into his ear so he could be hands free and took a chance and called Katie. She answered on the third ring, her soft, husky voice washing over him like a warm, well-placed caress.
“Connor?” she said, clearly surprised to hear from him so late.
“Yeah, it’s me,” he replied, turning off the TV with the remote to give their conversation one hundred percent of his attention. “Did I wake you up?”
“No. I’m in bed reading. But Val is already asleep . . . unless it’s important for you to talk to her?”
Of course she would assume his daughter was the reason he’d called. That’s the way it had been for the past three days. “I didn’t call for Val. I called to talk to you.”
There was a distinct pause before she asked, “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is good, Katie,” he assured her. “This call is strictly about you and me, and getting to know you better.”
“Why?”
He sighed, hating the skepticism in her tone but not surprised, either. The men in her life previously had clearly fucked her over and Connor had to remind himself that patience with Katie was key. “For one, you’re the mother of my kid, but make no mistake, that’s not the only reason I want to know you better. You and I had something special that night in Denver and I think you still feel the chemistry, too.”
“It was just sex, Connor.” The words sounded forced, as if she was trying to convince herself of that fact. “A fantasy about having sex with a stranger in a hotel room, remember?”
He pushed his hand through his hair and clenched his jaw in frustration. Oh, yeah, he fucking remembered everything about that hot, erotic fantasy that had been so passionate and real, and he wasn’t going to let her reduce their time together to something so meaningless, even to protect her own emotions, when he’d felt that connection between them.
“I’m going to have to call bullshit on that, sweetheart,” he drawled, blatantly calling her out. “If it was just casual sex, then why did you leave in the morning without waking me up or saying good-bye? Why didn’t you leave me your contact information? And why did you change your flight so you wouldn’t have to see me?” All the questions he’d spent over three and a half years wondering finally came spilling out.
“Because I was in a bad place in my life and . . . I wasn’t ready for another relationship when I couldn’t seem to get it right with the guys I dated.”
He heard the raw honesty in her voice and appreciated that she was at least giving him the truth. “And now?”
“Now I’m a single mom and I have a daughter I need to take care of,” she said, her voice much softer.
Her walls were back up, her words meant to make sure Connor knew she had no room in her life for a man or a relationship—but he wasn’t going to let her off so easy when it came to building something special between them. “What about you, Katie?” he asked, wanting to know that she mattered, too. “Who takes care of you?”
“I don’t need a man,” she replied firmly. “I can take care of myself.”
“But wouldn’t it be nice if you had one who took care of you every once in a while?”
She sighed, and he could feel her gradually relaxing, those defenses dropping. “I’m not sure I know what that’s like, and sometimes it’s easier to just depend on yourself and not be disappointed . . . or hurt.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way. Some guys like taking care of their women.”
“Mmm,” was her undecipherable response.
She was so jaded, clearly based on all her own experiences. So, he decided to take a different approach with her, and while Connor knew he was taking a huge risk by going the sexual route with his next question, it would at least force her to think about what they’d had together back in Denver. What they could have again.
“Katie . . . ” he said, invoking a teasing note to his voice. “I want you to tell me something . . . when you’re alone at night, taking care of yourself, are the orgasms you give yourself as good as the ones I gave you?”
She sucked in a shocked breath, obviously not expecting him to be so bold and daring, but he wasn’t going to tiptoe around their attraction. “All you have to do is give me an honest answer.”
He half expected her to hang up on him, but then she laughed softly, dissolving the brief tension between them. “Truthfully, no.” She exhaled a deep breath, as if gathering the courage to say more. “You’re very talented when it comes to making a girl feel good.”
“I liked making you feel good and I enjoyed taking care of you that way. I’d be happy to provide those orgasms anytime, Katie,” he said, coaxing her along. “Want one now?”
He could have sworn he heard her breathing escalate. “It’
s late and we really shouldn’t.”
As far as protests went, it was a flimsy one, because she sounded like that was the answer she should say. Not the answer she wanted to give so she could feel good. So he could make her feel good. And there was enough excitement in her voice to tell him she liked the idea of him giving her that pleasure, and that’s what he focused on for now.
Placing a hand behind his head, Connor stroked the other down his bare stomach to the waistband of his cotton shorts, his dick already perking up at the thought of trying out some dirty phone sex with Katie. “I won’t keep you too long, sweetheart. I can have you coming pretty damn quick.”
“That’s quite a promise.” Amusement and something more inviting mingled across the phone line.
She wasn’t refusing him. In fact, now there was a bit of a tease in her voice, and he took advantage before anything changed. Like her mind. “Do you have one of those monitor things in your bedroom so you can keep an eye on Val?”
“Yes. Why?” she asked curiously.
“Because I want you to get up and close and lock your door, Katie,” he ordered softly. “I’m about to make you feel so fucking good, and the last thing you want is our daughter walking in on you while your hand is between your legs and you’re having an orgasm with me on the phone.”
“God, Connor,” she breathed huskily, clearly aroused by his explicit words.
“Take care of the door,” he prompted again, and when he heard the rustling of the bed covers indicating that she’d gotten up, he took the time to strip off his shorts so he was completely naked, then settled on top of the covers.
The Book Boyfriend Series Box Set Page 58
