by Shane, Riley
Just as I was about to beg him to make a move, I heard the crunching of leaves behind me. Heedless of any passersby, I cried out when Devlin circled my pussy with his tongue. He dived in, devouring me until I flooded his tongue in a rush of orgasm.
I was still panting and shuddering when he wound his hand around my ponytail and pulled in a silent order for me to straighten. I did so, and he released my hair before he moved me back a few paces and slid between me and the table.
My legs had folded under me, and I was on my knees before he could command it. I leaned into him, my hands gliding up his thighs to find his cock, but he grabbed my hair again, stopping me. His erection brushed my lips, and I opened my mouth, letting him feed his cock to me. When he only gave me the tip, I tried to lean forward, but his grip on my hair tightened just hard enough to remind me he was controlling this scenario. All I had to do was enjoy.
“God, Naya, you should see the picture you present.” His voice was rough with want, the tone signaling he was skating on the edge of his control. He was getting off on this as much as I. Good.
Without my sight, I had no recourse but to imagine what we looked like. What would someone coming across us see? Him, six feet of muscle standing over me like a god. Me, blindfolded and supplicant on my knees, taking what he offered.
His hand in my hair held me in place while he fucked my mouth. The wind had picked up, and it cooled the wetness seeping from me, causing my pussy to clench and unclench in time to the thrusts of his cock in my mouth. I moaned around his dick, and with a sharp curse, he released my hair and pulled out of my mouth.
I wanted to protest; I hadn’t tasted my fill of him. But Devlin was already drawing me to my feet and reversing our positions, bending me over the table once more. I braced myself against the weather-roughened wood and spread my legs as far as my clothes would allow.
I felt the tip of his condom-covered cock press at my entrance. For a moment, just the head of his cock was inside me. Then he clutched my hips with his hands and slammed his penis home, sending me to my elbows with the force of his thrust. I clenched my hands as I pushed back against him, meeting him stroke for stroke. His hands left my sides to lace his fingers with mine over the tabletop. Pulling our clutched right hands off the table, he brought our entwined fingers to my clit and began to strum the sensitive bundle of nerves.
My heartbeat strummed in my ears as the pressure inside me built up more and more, yet never to the point where I could come. Cold sweat dripped down my forehead to my blindfold, but I barely noticed. Everything in me centered on Devlin’s harsh breathing in my ear, our joined hands on my clit, his cock shuttling in and out of my pussy. Orgasm was so close…
Devlin shifted his angle ever so slightly and nailed my G-spot. I screamed his name, not caring who heard. I heard Devlin’s groan and felt him shudder as he came.
Suddenly, my arm couldn’t hold up my weight anymore, and I slumped over the table, Devlin arching over me. I muttered a protest, but Devlin mumbled something that sounded like “One more minute.”
I gave him two, then nudged him again, and he pulled out of me. Shivering, and regretting pushing off my human blanket, I stood and blindly pulled up my underwear and pants before my butt froze. Devlin undid the blindfold, and I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the light, such as it was. As I redid my ponytail, I grinned like a fool at Devlin.
“That was unexpected,” I said.
“I give good gift.”
My favorite smile—that Devlin smile—appeared on his face, and my heart skipped a beat. For a moment, I worried my reaction showed on my face, for Devlin pulled me into his arms but made no further move. When he didn’t say anything, I relaxed into him and forced myself to simply enjoy the dregs of pleasure still floating through my system.
“I’m feeling too lazy to move,” I murmured against his chest.
“I’m not carrying you all the way back.”
I snorted. “How unchivalrous of you.”
“Yep.” He stepped away. “C’mon. Last one to the car gets tied up tonight.”
“It’s always sex with you, isn’t it?” I said it jokingly, but the image of having Devlin tied to my bed had me bounding off like a shot.
Chapter Twelve
Being adequately motivated, I beat Devlin back to the car—barely. I was huffing and puffing when I pulled my purse out of the trunk. Out of habit, I grabbed my cell phone from of my purse and checked it for missed calls or texts. There were twelve missed calls and six texts, all from Leah or Shannon. Surprise had me dropping the phone after reading the first text.
“Naya? What’s wrong?” Devlin picked up my phone just as it started ringing. “It’s my mom.”
Since I didn’t make a move, he answered it for me. “Mom? She’s right here. What—Oh. Okay, we’ll be there ASAP. Bye.” He hung up the phone. “Leah went into labor, and this time, there’s no stopping it.”
Mutely, I nodded. The baby was a month early. I tried to focus on what I’d read about preemies after Leah’s Thanksgiving scare. Her doctor and the local hospital were excellent, and it wasn’t like my niece would be the first preemie born.
I could be as logical as I wanted, and it still didn’t help. No matter how many women went into labor every day, no matter how many preemies were born healthy, none of that held weight against the fact that it was Leah in labor, Leah delivering a month too soon. All I could think of was her admission that she was frightened. Now I felt her fear as keenly as if it were my own.
It took me longer to collect myself than I’d have liked, but Devlin waited patiently and didn’t attempt to soothe me with platitudes I would have hated.
Finally, I pulled it together. “All right. We need to get to the hospital. First, however, I need to call my parents and see if they can handle the guests. Thank God they’re back from Washington State. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone.”
“She’s having a baby, not flying to the Maldives.”
Rather than answer that idiotic statement, I gave Devlin a withering look.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, apparently that was the wrong thing to say.”
“Yeah, it was. More likely than not, it’ll be at least half a day more before our niece is born, genius. Vivi was in for over twenty hours with the twins, and Tara ranged from fourteen to eighteen with her brood.”
“Ouch.”
“Yes, ouch. Think about where they’re pushing these kids out of.”
Devlin looked a bit queasy. “I’d rather not.”
“‘It’s like pushing a chicken through a Cheerio,’ as Tara said.”
“You can stop with the visuals now. I’m begging you. I was in your ‘Cheerio’ not too long ago, and I’d rather not have that image tainting the memory.”
Men. “Just drive. I’ll call my parents on the way.” I brought my foot up to rest on the car so I could fix my shoelace. As I did, I felt the dried mud on my knees cracking beneath my clothes. “Dammit. I need a quick shower too. We both do.”
“I don’t disagree. But, uh, Naya?”
“Yeah?”
“If we’re gone overnight, will they stay at the Emerald?”
“Probably.”
“In your apartment?”
“Yeah, why?” He gave me a look, and I remembered what was in my apartment. I wasn’t ashamed about having a happy and healthy sex life, not in the slightest. That being said, the reality of my parents happening across my leather cuffs, butt plug, and rope wasn’t something I wanted to contemplate. “Oh. Okay, new plan: we go back home, shower, do a three-minute cleanup of the apartment, and then I’ll call my parents.
“Dammit, we also have to run by Lei’s place and make sure Merlin has enough food and water. Ten bucks says Jon didn’t think of it, and Lei’d kill me if no one checked on the furball.”
“Good plan.”
* * * *
We swung by Leah’s house first and took care of her cat. A quick glance also revealed Jon and Leah had been so f
razzled they’d forgotten the car seat they’d need for the baby, so we took that along with us.
Devlin and I arrived at the hospital with eighteen hours to spare. Though I’d known we’d likely have a long wait ahead of us, my nerves had been jangling until I reached the hospital. It was a good thing I hadn’t argued with Devlin over his taking an extra five minutes to pack his laptop and talking me into grabbing some of the paperwork I needed to do, even though I was sure I wouldn’t be able to sit still long enough to be productive in the waiting room. After the first few hours of waiting, though, I found myself grateful for something to do. The wait seemed to go on forever, but finally Jon walked out to give us the good news: mother and baby had made it through delivery healthy and whole. The hospital was going to keep them an extra night just to make sure there were no ramifications from early delivery, but so far everything looked good.
True to my long-standing prediction, Miriam Kaylee Levi was born an all-out diva with a strong set of lungs, just like her mom. And also like Leah, Miri was as cute as a button.
“You do good work, pal o’mine,” I said to Leah as I peered over Shannon’s arm at the tiny bundle she held. I was itching to hold the baby, yet while Jon and Devlin’s mom loved me like a daughter, I knew there would be bloodshed if I tried to take Miri from the ecstatic new grandmother.
“Thanks,” Leah replied. “Now that I’m not screaming in pain, I’ll even credit Jon with having a hand in it too. She’s beautiful, isn’t she? Absolutely perfect.”
“Yes, she is,” Shannon cooed, more to the baby than Leah. When her cell phone buzzed yet again, Shannon sighed. “They’re just going to keep calling, aren’t they? I shouldn’t have texted people the moment Jon came out to tell us.”
With obvious reluctance, Shannon handed Miri back to Leah, then kissed them both on the forehead. “I’ll go share the news and make sure Sam and Devlin got some food in Jon.”
When it was just the three of us, I took a seat next to the bed and held out my arms. “All right, hand her over.”
I could blame some kind of mystical encoding in my gender for my reaction when I first held my niece, but I knew there were plenty of women out there who didn’t go gaga the moment they held a baby. I, however, was not one of them. When Miri opened her eyes and stared at me, I melted. And when she started to fuss, I stood and walked her around the room, not wanting to give her back to Leah just yet.
I was so entranced, I barely noticed when Devlin and Jon came back into the room. At least, not until Devlin came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me.
He leaned over and rested his chin on my shoulder. “She’s a cute little squirt, isn’t she? I thought she might look like a sea monkey or something.”
I lifted my head, prepared to roll my eyes at Leah in the universal signal of Why are men idiots sometimes?, when I saw her studying Devlin and me, a small smile on her face.
A wave of longing hit me. Standing there with Devlin, a baby in my arms, felt much too natural. Had things been different, Devlin and I might have been in Jon and Leah’s position. I saw it, and I knew Leah could see it too.
Needing to break the moment, I stepped out of Devlin’s embrace and carefully handed Miri back to her mother so Leah could feed her. Devlin must not have known anything was wrong, for he moved off to a corner of the room to chat with Jon, making jokes from the sounds of it to keep his twin awake.
I sat beside Leah again, trying not to brood.
“Have you thought about what I said before?” she asked.
“About what?”
“Different paths. We’ve been best friends for more than twenty-seven years, Naya. Don’t think I couldn’t tell what was going through your mind just now.”
I didn’t know what to say.
Leah sighed. “Look, Jon and I…our attention is going to be centered on this little bundle for the foreseeable future. That being said, you’re not alone. You’ll never be alone. Decide what you want most, and Jon and I will be there for you to help make it happen. Whatever it takes.” She stared at me intently. “Get it?”
“Got it.”
“Good. Now pull your head out of your”—she looked down at Miri and revised her word choice—“you know where, and take what you want. Otherwise, you’ll end up exactly where you started.”
I held her gaze, then nodded. “I need to think.”
“You overthink things, but do what you gotta do.”
“I will. And Lei? Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For punching that bratty little boy in the face all those years ago.”
Leah looked at her husband, her love for Jon shining in her eyes. “Yeah, he was an ass back then. But it all worked out. I got you, I got him, and now I have Miri. And all it cost me was a trip to the principal’s office.”
I laughed. “What a bargain.” I saw that both she and the baby were getting sleepy, so I figured it was time to leave the new family to get some much-needed rest. “Get some sleep. I’ll move the rest of the family along. Call or text if you need anything?”
“I will. And don’t forget what I said.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
* * * *
By the time Devlin and I returned to the Emerald, we hadn’t slept in twenty-four hours. My parents had taken care of the guests and had seen them off, so the B and B was empty, a fact that I was extremely grateful for at the moment.
I stopped to read the note my mother had left me, and in that short delay between walking into my apartment’s living room and making it to the bedroom, I found Devlin had already gone to sleep. I watched him for a moment and considered using the time to think over what Leah had said. But weariness dragged at my heels, and I lay down, intending only to close my eyes for a minute.
I was out before my head hit the pillow.
Chapter Thirteen
When I woke, the sun was setting. Devlin was beside me, still fast asleep. Part of me wanted to roll over and go back to bed, but my nerves dragged me upright. Now that my judgment wasn’t clouded by the overwhelming cuteness of my new niece and the effect she had on my biological clock, I needed to think through an idea I’d been mulling around in the back of my mind for the past few days.
I changed into comfy clothes and quietly let myself out of my apartment. Walking down the steps, I looked around the B and B, studying everything Leah and I had built.
Could I give all this up? Years of hard work, of blood, sweat, and tears. Sacrifices made not just by Leah and me, but by our families, who helped make our dream a reality. Could I really toss it all away to start somewhere new? In a place where I’d have no professional reputation as a photographer or innkeeper and a thousand times the competition to make a name for myself? I’d have to build from nothing, would have to at least start by working for others, making someone else’s vision a reality instead of bringing my own to life.
I rebelled against the idea.
I loved my life at the Emerald. It wasn’t simply running a B and B that I enjoyed, but the fact that I got to run it with my best friend and in the town I loved. The Emerald, my photography…they weren’t just businesses. They were dreams. My dreams. Dreams I’d made a reality. And they were centered here. Almost everything I knew and loved was here in Emerald Valley.
Almost everything.
Devlin lived and worked in Southern California. He had put everything of himself into his job and reputation as a chef in LA, just as I had here with my own careers in Emerald Valley. One of us had to give, and deep down, I’d always feared it would have to be me.
I looked around the Emerald again. I loved this place so much, and a part of my heart would break to give it up, but… Geography and dreams had been the problem for Devlin and me for the past fourteen years. If nothing changed, then according to our agreement, Devlin and I would put an end to our relationship. Permanently.
I felt violently ill at the thought. I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t imagine a life where there wasn’t even a possibili
ty of some kind of future with Devlin.
I had my answer then, didn’t I? It came down to a choice between Devlin and Emerald Valley, and I could no longer choose Emerald Valley. Leaving everything would be painful, but losing a chance at a life with Devlin would be devastating. I could survive, sure; I was strong enough to live a contented life in Emerald Valley without the man I loved. But I wanted more than contentment.
Leah was right. Devlin and I had tried a dozen different combinations, but we were always on the same road. And that road led to a dead end. It was time for us to stop repeating our mistakes. I’d been a coward these past few days, trying to keep some small scrap of my heart protected from what I saw as inevitable loss. But losing Devlin wasn’t a certainty, was it, unless I made it so.
When Devlin woke up, we needed to talk. It was time I gave him not just my body, mind, and part of my heart, but the whole of it, and ask him what he wanted in return.
Decision made, I walked back upstairs to my apartment. Devlin was awake and in the living room, putting the menorah in the window.
“I’d wondered where you’d gone off too. The sun was pretty much set, so I went ahead and lit candles.”
“Thanks. I needed to think about a few things, and I lost track of time.”
“I’ve been thinking about some things myself. Do you mind if we go with my gift tonight instead of yours?”
I rubbed my forehead. I wanted to talk life-altering decisions, and he was offering sex. “I’m really not in the mood right now.”
He picked up an envelope I hadn’t noticed was lying on the coffee table and came toward me. “Please? Just open this.”
Sitting down on the couch, I studied the plain manila envelope. Whatever this fantasy was, it obviously didn’t involve kinky props. I opened the envelope and peered inside. There were three pictures. I pulled them out and flipped through them once, twice, three times. My heart started pounding, but I wasn’t sure if I was reading Devlin’s message correctly.
