by Brynn Paulin
“By hiding in the bathroom and crying.”
I pushed away from his chest, trying to get up. “Shut up.”
His arms tightened, and he buried his nose in my neck. “No. And you’re not going anywhere. Maybe not for days. I don’t think I can let you out of my sight. The past couple days have torn me apart.”
“Yeah. Me, too.” I still didn’t know why he hadn’t answered my calls, but I wagered my time had been shittier.
“You were headed to my office. Your phone got broken. Where does getting arrested fit in? God, Princess, just the thought kills me. You’re too precious for that hell. It makes me crazy to even consider.” True to his word, his body practically vibrated beneath me.
I flattened my hand to his chest, making a small circle while I leaned my head on his shoulder. His agitation was about to get ten times worse.
“Ella was in the lobby when I came in. I was upset and started yelling at her about what she’d said to you. Then she threw herself down those steps. I mean, you want to talk about crazy. She must have figured it was only four steps and she wouldn’t get hurt. I don’t know. She started screaming about me pushing her. And Diana said she saw me do it. Security came over and there were a couple cops coming out of the deli. They believed Ella and Diana. I got arrested.” Frustrated tears filled my eyes as I remembered it. I squeezed my lids shut against the memory. “I didn’t have anyone to call,” I whispered.
“Fuck,” Brix muttered.
“The next day sometime, I was released. Apparently, they reviewed the building’s security tapes and saw what happened.” I shrugged. “I tried to go see you yesterday. I needed to see if my phone was there, too. It wasn’t with my things the police returned. The security guys threw me out. That’s how I hurt my ankle.”
“Fucking hell,” he muttered. Barely controlled fury filled his eyes, and I knew heads were rolling. My hand started circling on his chest again. “Have you been to the doctor?”
“It’s just a twist.”
“You should have it looked at.” He took a deep breath, probably trying to digest everything. It was a lot. “I bet one of those bitches took your phone and texted me.”
“Maybe. The screen was pretty busted up though. Let me see the message.”
Brix handed over the phone, and I pulled up the texting app then scrolled to my name.
Cricket: We R done. I don’t want to be with u anymore. Yes, I’m breaking up with u. Maybe u would have been better off with Ella after all. Relationships aren’t my thing.
“Babe, you had to know I didn’t send that. You know how weird I am about spelling out things. Even you and are.”
“Didn’t sound like you, but it came from your phone and you wouldn’t answer. My number’s blocked. And you’d disappeared. Until Lance tracked your credit card here, I was half afraid you’d been taken.”
“No. Just pushed out.”
“Princess…”
“So where were you during all this?” I asked.
“I had a pretty shit day, too. Grand had a heart attack, needed immediate surgery. I stayed with him until he was stable. There was no phone signal there, or the hospital has a signal blocker. It killed my battery. Once he was stable, he sent me out of there to go see my pretty fiancée. Then I got this text and couldn’t find you. I’ve been out of my mind.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” A muscle below his eye ticked, and he was breathing like he’d Hulk out any second. Shaking his head, he pulled up his phone app and made a call. “Larry, Elijah Brixton here. Diana Farrow is terminated immediately. Revoke all her accesses and box up her things from the office. I want her out of the building in ten minutes. She’ll know why. I want her emails scoured. Look for any interaction with Ella Conway. As for the security personnel on duty Wednesday and Thursday in the lobby, they’re terminated, as well—”
“Brix,” I protested. “It’s not their fault.”
“Among a host of other things, they hurt you,” he argued.
I shook my head, indicating I still didn’t agree.
“Give them sixty days of severance,” he relented. “Thank you. Text me when it’s finished.”
He hung up and turned his full attention on me. “They should have listened to you. They should have checked surveillance before letting you get arrested on hearsay or suspicion. I can’t even tell you how pissed I am.”
“They thought they had a witness.”
“Doesn’t matter. They have better training than that.” His arms looped tightly around me again. “Come home. Let me take care of you. You should know it’ll probably take me a while to recover from this. I’m going to need to have you under me, with me inside you, a lot over the next few days.”
“Days?”
“Maybe longer.”
“Okay.”
“Princess?”
“Hmm?”
“This incident? It tells me more than ever, there’s no way I can ever let you go. I know you’re doing undergrad here, but after that, I’ll be following you wherever med school and residency takes you. I’m feeling pretty obsessive and possessive. Hope that doesn’t scare you.”
I shook my head. “Hopefully, I’ll stay here.”
“I’d be thrilled. You have no idea.”
“I always thought I wanted to get away from this city, from my family, from everything here. Now, I want to stay more than ever.”
“And you’ll marry me.”
I stared at him, my heart racing. “For real? Are you proposing?”
“I kind of already have, but yes, I want you to be mine in every way. I know you have big plans for your future, and I want them for you—I do—but I also want babies with you. Soon. I want us to start our family. I want you tied to me in every way. I want you to marry me. Will you?”
“Babies? What about school?” The baby thing was a done deal, but did he want me to quit school for that? It didn’t make sense with what he’d said earlier.
“We’ll hire a nanny. Nannies, if we need to. I don’t want you to miss out on anything, but I want a family with you more than anything.”
“Okay.”
“To…?”
“To marrying you. To having a family. I hope they take after you and not me.”
“Are you kidding? Cricket, how many times do I have to tell you, to show you, you’re gorgeous? You’re everything. If our daughters look like you, I will be—well, fuck. I hope they don’t look like you. I’d end up wanting to shoot all the little pricks panting after them. We better only have boys.”
“You’re crazy.”
“But I’m yours.”
“Yeah, you are.” I sighed happily, listening to his heart beat steadily beneath my ear as I hugged him.
“And I love you.”
“Oh, Elijah… I love you, too. So much.”
“Thank God for that. Let’s go home, baby—and make some babies.”
I grinned, knowing how over the moon he’d be. Taking his hand, I placed it over my belly. “About that…”
Epilogue
~ Brix ~
“Cricket Aurora Brixton.”
I stood, my three-year-old son, EJ, jumping next to me and two-year-old daughter in one arm. Awkwardly, I clapped for my wife as she walked across the stage to get her diploma, graduating from her premed program as an honors scholar and Summa cum laude. She already knew she’d be heading to the NYU School of Medicine in the fall.
Fuck, I couldn’t be prouder of her.
“Look, there’s Mommy,” I said, watching her finish crossing and studying her, ever worried for her safety, especially since she’d insisted on wearing heels instead of flats despite her eight-month baby belly. They were moderate height, but still worried me.
Pregnant again. I couldn’t help my grin. Aldan called us rabbits, but I didn’t give a fuck. I glanced over at him and the wife he’d brought home from Michigan. He and Mazie met at the arts college and would both graduate next week. They’d insisted
they had to be here for Cricket though. They were our family.
With the continuing rift between Cricket and her relatives, and me having little contact with mine except my grandfather, times like this were important. We’d made our own family, with Grand, “Uncle” Aldan and “Aunt” Mazie, “Uncle” Booker and his wife, Marigold.
They were all here to support Cricket. And all of them teased me about keeping her knocked up. What could I say? We liked sex, but not birth control. She’d be starting med school with a newborn, but we’d be okay. We’d proven we could function with a toddler, a newborn and her schooling already. Adding a third baby would be hard, but my princess had been adamant she didn’t want more than a couple years between our kids. So, our second son would be here in June.
“Done, Daddy?” Rory asked as we resumed our seats. My two-year-old was about finished with the long ceremony. I had to admit, she’d done great until now.
“Hey, come to Grand,” my grandfather said, pulling Rory into his arms. Since his heart attack, he’d made a full recovery and was stronger than ever. “Look what I have for you.” He pulled a toy from one of his many pockets. He always had special treats for his “darling little girl,” making him a favorite, ranking just below Mommy and Daddy in her books—truthfully, sometimes above Daddy. But I couldn’t begrudge her devotion to my grandfather.
EJ looked up at Grand, and Grand grinned, pulling a car from another of his pockets. “Didn’t forget you, son. Here you go. Don’t roll it down the aisle, okay?”
“Okay, Grand,” he answered, angelic to the last, even though I knew that car would probably end up a row in front of us before long.
Content, with my family surrounding me, I settled in for the rest of the ceremony.
* * * *
“Brix,” Cricket yelled forty-five minutes later, toddle-running toward me where I waited outside Yankee Stadium where the commencement ceremony had taken place. Our family had gone ahead to the restaurant I’d rented out for the celebration party.
I rushed to her and took her into my protective embrace. “Baby, you shouldn’t be running.”
“I wasn’t.”
I lifted an eyebrow at her. The woman was brilliant but stubborn.
I pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “So fucking proud of you.”
She smiled wide. “Thank you.”
“One step closer to being Dr. Brixton,” I teased.
She smirked at me. “Dr. Markawicz.”
“Markawicz-Brixton,” I said. We’d had this conversation a thousand times. I wanted Cricket to use my last name, and she insisted her professional name would be Markawicz even though she’d been a Brixton for four years now.
“Such a mouthful,” she said. “I guess it’ll have to be Dr. Brixton.” She sighed as if she were disappointed, but I saw the sparkle in her eyes.
“Really?” I asked.
She nodded. “Really. I’m proud to be your wife. I just like teasing you. It’s kind of silly, but I was saving it to tell you as a thank you for how you always support me.”
“I’ll give you anything you ever need.”
“I know.” She cupped my cheek. “You’re my prince that way.”
“You ready to go celebrate?” I asked.
A shadow passed her eyes, then she nodded smiling wider, a sure sign she was hiding something.
My thumb stroked over her cheek. “What is it?”
“Just wish my dad could have seen me.”
We’d reached out to him a few times—when we’d married, when EJ was born—but he hadn’t responded, so we’d stopped. It made me furious he was still so brainwashed about the relationship between Ella and Cricket. I couldn’t understand his willful blindness. Especially after Ella had been prosecuted for what she’d done. It had ended up with fines and community service, but it was clear what she’d done.
“We’ll send pictures and tell him what you’ve done, okay?” I didn’t really want to—he didn’t deserve it—but Cricket needed the hope he’d come around some day.
She nodded. “Elijah?”
“Hmm?”
“You make me so happy every day. Never doubt that. Nothing about my old life can diminish that. I mean…do I feel a little bad about my day, the past and all? Yeah. But…I don’t regret a day of my life with you. You have given me a perfect life. I can only hope—”
“Princess,” I interrupted. “You do. You make my life perfect, too. Every single day.”
Epilogue Two
~Brix ~
“Dr. Brixton will see you now.”
I smiled at the receptionist then followed her back to Cricket’s office. It had been a long haul to get here. Undergrad, med school, and the hell on earth known as internship, then residency, and now, she’d landed a position in this pediatrics office—handy since we’d had five kids over the past twelve years we’d been married. Our sixth and final child would be here in six months.
My wife took it all in stride, and with our money, she’d been able to pursue her medical dream and grow our family. I knew many people didn’t have the luxury, and I didn’t fool myself into thinking we could have managed without the monetary means. Hell, my princess might have managed it, since she was that driven, but it would have been a hell of a lot harder.
God, I loved that brilliant woman more than I’d ever thought possible.
As much as she was career driven though, she was just as committed to our family. I didn’t know where she got her stamina. Being in an office, she had regular hours and was only on-call one week out of four. During her off time every day, she made me and the kids priority one. I made sure my schedule coincided with hers, so we were home together.
The receptionist dropped me at Cricket’s office even though I could have found my way on my own. “Let Dr. Brixton know we’re locking up,” she said. “You two will be the last ones out.”
“Will do. Thanks.” I liked that. Maybe, Cricket and I could play a little doctor. I had something that could use a checkup. We’d never consider using one of the exam rooms, but Cricket’s office… It would work.
“Well, Mr. Brixton,” a sweet voice said behind me as I waited in the chair facing her desk—a sweet voice that never ceased to make me hard as steel. “What brings you here today?”
She shut the door, and I heard the lock click, then she circled around in front of me. I pulled her into my lap, and she giggled, wrapping her arms around my shoulders.
“My wife is working, and I have an issue that needs to be checked.”
For emphasis, I pushed my hips up into her, so my erection pressed against her hip.
“Hmm…” She slipped a hand down to my lap and stroked my length. “It does seem to be swollen. I think an examination is in order.” Slipping off my lap, she went to her knees then worked open my belt and fly. She was a naughty fantasy, kneeling between my legs in her lab coat. Her fingers ran over my bared cock, and I groaned.
“Very hot and hard,” she observed.
“It’s quite uncomfortable,” I agreed.
“Let’s see what we’re working with.” She pulled my boxer-briefs farther down, and my length popped completely free. “Oh my. I could see how this would cause discomfort.”
“You have no idea. Do you have a treatment for this?”
“It’s an old-school solution, but I think you’ll find it very effective still today.”
“What is—oh fuck,” I gasped as her hot mouth surrounded my length, drawing hard. My hand went into her hair as she jacked her mouth up and down my steely rod. “Fuck, princess, yes, take it all down like a good girl.”
* * * *
~ Cricket ~
I moaned at Brix’s flavor on my tongue. I’d been craving him all day since I’d had to jump out of the bed, running for an on-call emergency early this morning. Everything had turned out fine, but I was super needy for my man. That was one thing about being pregnant. I wanted Elijah. All. The. Time. Thankfully, he happily obliged.
We hadn’t planned
this interlude in my office, but I hadn’t been surprised when the receptionist had let me know Brix was here. Twelve years in and we were just as hot for one another as we’d been the day we’d met—probably even more so now. Back then I didn’t know the glory of sex with Elijah Brixton. Now, I knew him in all ways. He owned me in all ways.
I groaned as his cock hit the back of my throat, then I swallowed, trying to take more, sucking hard on his length. His hips jerked, his precum leaking on my tongue as I drew back while massaging his balls.
“I’m going to come,” he grunted. “Get up here. I want to fill that little pussy of yours, not your mouth.”
“Can’t I have both?” I whined, looking up at him.
“Brat.” He pulled me up to straddle him. “How do you want it? Riding me, or bent over your desk.”
“Over the desk like the bratty girl I am.”
“I thought so,” he growled, lifting me onto my feet. “Strip. I want you completely naked so your tits rub against the wood while I spank that bare ass.”
My pussy clenched in anticipation, my folds getting even wetter than they already were. Hurrying, I slipped off my lab coat and draped it over the extra visitor’s chair. Quickly, I stripped out of my pants, blouse and underwear.
For a moment, I stood still before him, completely nude and confident. The scars down my arm and leg didn’t bother me anymore.
He grinned. “Get over to that desk.”
“Yes, sir,” I laughed, giving him a snappy salute I knew I’d pay for in a few minutes. Sure enough, Brix was on my heels, pulling off his clothes as he moved. With his hand on the back of my neck, he bent me over the desk, careful of my belly. He was always so careful with me, even when we played rough.
Then his hand smacked against my ass. I cried out in pleasured surprise.
“Better be quiet, Princess. The staff might not have cleared out yet. You know your sounds are only mine.”
“Sorry.” Not sorry. I bit my lip.
“Sure you are.” His hand slapped down in my rear again, and I groaned into the glossy wood of my desk. He knew just how much I liked this. Somewhere during my second year of undergrad, we’d discovered how much of a stress relief it was for me. Now, Brix provided it on the regular.
