I worried about the novelty wearing off and my tummy cramped. I looked over at him while he was paying rapt attention to something my daughter was saying to him. Tiana does this thing where she’d grab your face if she thinks you’re not giving her your full attention and she did that now; with her greasy hands. It must be love because he didn’t say anything to her about getting bacon grease all over his sexy face. And where did he learn to be that good with kids?
They begged for another trip to the park and he readily agreed, telling them to get their shoes on and the Frisbee to throw for the dog. “That poor dog must rue the day these two showed up.”
“He loves it, it gives him someone other than me to entertain him all day like I have nothing better to do.” It must be true because as soon as he saw the Frisbee he started bounding around in circles with a happy bark.
It was getting easier to have Kevin around the kids. I thought for sure that would take some doing, but after years of hovering I was surprised to find that with him I didn’t feel the need to keep an eye on them the whole time.
Just like the day before they tired themselves out and was asleep by the time we made it back to the house. We wiped them down best we could before tucking them in for a nap and he showed me in the home office how to pull up the files I needed to work on the restaurant invoices.
This was so much better than anything I’d expected. I worried how I was going to handle being away from them and not being there when they came in from school once school started back. This was the best of both worlds. I could work from home as often as I could get away with it, be here for them, and still make me own money.
That last part was very important to me. After the last ten years of someone else telling me what I could and could not buy it was going to be a joy to have my own income. Granted it probably wouldn’t be much, but it would be better than what I had before.
Kevin had said he didn’t want me taking Robert’s money but I wasn’t sure how realistic that was. I had two children to plan for, not just myself and as their dad it was Robert’s responsibility to take care of their needs. Every time I think of how he tried to screw us out of what was rightfully ours, I saw red.
I earned that money for putting up with his shit and the kids deserved combat pay for the hell he put them through. I cleared my throat and looked up at him as he was busy reading some mail that was on his desk.
“About what happened this morning, what Dylan said.” I risked a look at him.
“What about it?” I had his full attention now.
“I don’t want you to think that they saw a lot of that. It was going on a long time, but the last time it happened, they saw and that’s when I made the decision to leave.”
“You think that’s what I care about in this equation?”
“No, I don’t know, I just don’t want you thinking I’m that kind of mother.” I didn’t look at him, couldn’t. I didn’t want to see the accusation and judgment. He moved around the desk and lifted my chin. He studied my eyes for the longest time before dropping my chin and moving back around the desk.
“Why don’t you tell me about this hitting stuff.” The words just tumbled out. Like someone had turned the tap and rivers of water flowed. I was in tears halfway through telling him how horrible my ex had been to me, and the kids. He’s the last person I would’ve ever imagined sharing this much of my life with, but he made it so easy. That silent stare that seemed to see into me, that said ‘I’ll know if you’re lying so don’t you fucking dare.’
He didn’t say a word, just let me vent until I had it all out of my system. His mouth might not have been moving but the rage was evident in his eyes and the way he clenched his fists. “That’s all of it?” When I nodded my head yes he just turned on his heel and left the room. Uh-oh, maybe I should’ve held some things back.
Nothing more was said and I spent the morning doing laundry and cleaning up a little. “I have a cleaning service that takes care of that. There’s nothing for you to do here but take care of the kids…and me.” He gave me one of those full body head to toe looks and I could almost see the smoke. Why must he be so hot? He was even better than my dreams. That only made my regret sharper.
I turned off the vacuum when he stalked towards me with intent in his eyes. My first thought was how much longer will the kids be down for their nap. He took my hand without uttering a word and led me to the bedroom and his bed. There was something different about the way he touched me. Almost like glass, like he was afraid I would break. I felt tears gathering in my eyes.
23
Kevin
I’d spent the morning after listening to her life story trying to set some things up. I wanted to hurt this guy and hurt him bad. He was already gone so I’d have to make a special trip to knock the fuck outta him and now wasn’t a good time. They needed me even more than I’d first thought when I learned they were staying in that motel. And the fact that this asshole had shown up here unannounced and made demands of her told me that he had no respect whatsoever, that he thought he still had control over her life. I’m gonna have to school his ass, but there was some other shit closer to home I needed to take care of first.
I’d stayed away from her afraid that I’d hurt her with the anger that was burning through me. But seeing her looking so at home as she cleaned our house made my dick hard as a fucking steel pike and there was no denying him. He wanted to fuck. The kids would be up soon I’m sure, so I planned to do her hard and fast. But once in the room everything she’d told me came flooding back and I wanted to savor.
I wasn’t ready to give her the words, wasn’t ready to open myself up like that again, but I could show her with my touch. I undressed her slowly even though the clock was ticking. I was pleasantly surprised when she lifted my shirt and I raised my arms for her to pull it off over my head.
She went to work on my jeans next and I stepped out of them and my jockeys. I picked her up and kissed her as she wrapped her legs around me. I took her down to the bed and covered her body with mine. “You’re so soft.” I brushed a lock of fallen hair off her forehead. “And unbelievably beautiful.” Her eyes were bright and full of some emotion that I couldn’t quite decipher.
She took my face unsurely between her hands and brought my lips to hers. I let her take the lead for all of two seconds before her sweetness became too much and I took over. The kiss became raw and heated. Before I left her mouth with a few last nibbles of her lip and made my way down her body.
I took her breasts in my hands and squeezed gently until her nipples peeped through my fingers. “I don’t pay enough attention to these I don’t think. I licked first one then the other before sucking the right one into my mouth. I pressed my cock into her slit, making sure to catch her clit with the underside of my leaking cockhead.
Her pussy was already juicing as she writhed under my onslaught. She tried pulling me into her but I took my time even though I wanted inside her so bad my nuts were beginning to ache. I needed to show her, to erase the damage that had been done. She wasn’t aware that I had discerned even more from our conversation than she had revealed; that I had read between the lines and knew that he had broken her down. Now it was up to me to rebuild her. She and the two kids asleep upstairs.
When her nipples became hard pebbles on my tongue I left them alone and made my way to the main course. I spread her legs open wide over my shoulders and licked the wet folds of her pussy. Her ex is an asshole. Nothing this sweet should be mistreated. How the fuck do you hold something like this in your arms and let it go?
I wasn’t going to bring him here though, not even in my thoughts. I teased her clit out of hiding and slid two long fingers into her heat while tonguing her clit. “How does a pussy stay this perfect after all these years?” I may have stepped over my own invisible line in the sand with that one.
She got shy on me and tried pushing my head away. I brushed her hands aside and went back to my inspection. “Did you know you’re like three differe
She wasn’t saying a word to any of this, but her eyes followed my every move. I could see the affect my words were having on her and kept it up while I climbed up her body. “Put me inside you.”
I looked down as her hand moved between us and she gave my cock a few strokes before rubbing the head around her slit. When she made a pass at her hole again I pushed and slipped the head inside her tight opening. I hadn’t been lying earlier. Her pussy was still as sweet as I remembered, and the memory was a lot to live up to.
“This belongs to me now. This, you the kids. After today anyone wanting to get at any of you will have to go through me.” I slid deeper into her as I held her eyes. “No one will ever hurt you again, not as long as I live.” I kissed the tears from her cheeks as they fell and pulled her in close, turning onto my back with my arms wrapped securely around her.
“Ride.” I touched her everywhere I could reach as her body moved over mine. Soft caresses against her cheek, sweet suckling of her breasts, a tender brush of fingers up and down her tummy. And when her pussy clamped down around me like a vise, I didn’t grab her ass and pound up into her the way my cock cried out for me to. But instead kept pace with her and rode the wave that washed over both of us as we came together.
When she collapsed against my chest I held her in my arms, hoping that she’d felt what I needed her to. With one final kiss to her forehead I took her from the bed and into the shower to clean her up. I even dressed her myself.
Something had changed between us, between this morning and now. Not quite sure what, it was more a feeling than anything else, but it made me feel lighter somehow. As we prepared lunch together I couldn’t help but realize how different this whole thing had turned out.
After her earlier revelations I had done some serious digging. It’s amazing what you can find when you start looking with different eyes. When I’d first looked into her life once learning she was coming home after getting a divorce, I’d been looking through the eyes of a spurned lover. I had my own axe to grind and quite frankly was happy as fuck that the shit had failed. Now I’m still happy, but for a different reason.
I found out some things by digging into everyone around her that I don’t think even my sister knows and there’s a possibility that she may not even know all of it herself. It all came about when I realized that she hadn’t really known the man that had become her husband. That struck me as odd in this day and age and so I did some more searching and what I found had changed my whole perspective.
She wasn’t completely off the hook, but I was feeling a whole lot more magnanimous towards her. The problem is I now have to shield and protect my little family from that shit. The best way to do that is to get my ring on her finger as soon as possible, which I plan to do soon.
The kids were starting to make noise upstairs as we were putting the finishing touches on their grilled cheese sandwiches and fruit. I looked at my watch and saw that they had been out for a little over two and a half hours. “Do they usually nap this long?”
“It depends. Today was a little hotter outside, and they ran around a lot, both of which tired them out.” I’ll have to remember that for future endeavors. Even the damn dog had slept away the morning. Then again his lazy ass does nothing more than sleep and chase imaginary shit in my damn yard.
Two sleepy kids came into the kitchen where they’d heard our voices still rubbing the sleep from their eyes. I noticed that Dylan was still holding his sister’s hand as he led her to the table. That was a far cry from the surly kid I’d met just a few short days ago. “Hey kiddos nice nap?” They both nodded as they climbed up on their usual chairs at the table.
I tried imagining someone hurting them, especially someone who was supposed to love and protect but all that shit did was piss me off no end, so I had to put it away. It’s best I focus on where we go from here. I wasn’t going to try to fix his mistakes, but I was damn sure going to show them how a real man treats his woman and kids. It was scary as fuck to realize that Dylan was already mimicking some of my actions, which meant if I wanted him to grow up to be any sort of man, I’ll have to be on my shit twenty-four seven.
I looked over at Julia and she looked… happier, less tense, but there was still a bit of hesitancy present. I guess that was to be expected, but I wasn’t planning on letting that shit go on too long. She felt my stare and turned her head my way. I think I gave her my first genuine smile then.
24
Julie
I was telling the kids to stop playing with their food and to get a move on because it was almost time for me to be going in to work.
“You’re not going in today, you can work from here.” He gave me a pointed look as he put a sandwich on my plate. What’s with him and feeding me bread? I was only planning to have some fruit.
I looked at the bread like it was the enemy the way I’d learned to in the years I’ve been struggling to keep my weight down to what it was before I had the kids. That was something that had been very important to Robert, and it had become habit. I’ve been denying myself some of my favorite foods for years; like cheesecake.
“Are you sure?” I’m pretty sure this had something to do with what happened the night before with me going off to meet Robert, but certainly he must know I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. I preferred my ass welt free. He just nodded and dropped the subject.
He left later that afternoon and I found myself once more lounging around the pool while the kids played. I was happily surprised when Sandy showed up. It felt like ages since we’d seen each other outside of the restaurant and we hadn’t really had time to talk.
“Hey you’re here.” She said hi to the kids and dropped down on the adjoining lounge. “Yes, my brother ordered me here. I guess he was worried about you guys being here alone, plus it’s my day off anyway and I haven’t got much of anything doing. The kids are all out of the house with one thing or the other and Ron is running the streets looking for some part for some manly project that goes completely over my head.”
She had a bottle of wine, which she presented with aplomb making me laugh. “Hey, it’s not champagne, but it’s not Boone’s either.” That made me laugh since Boone’s is what we used to drink when we first started experimenting with wine and wine coolers.
The conversation started off light but I knew there would be no better time to come clean than now. There was no question that something was going on between her brother and I, my children and I had taken up residence in his home after all, and that stunt he’d pulled with the business, was more than a dead give away.
“There’s something that I never told you…” I told her the whole sordid story. The sun was about ready to go down by the time I was finished and it was time to get dinner started. She hadn’t interrupted me once and when I finally did look at her face as we headed into the house behind the kids, instead of censure I saw understanding.
“And now here you are. I’m so happy for you honey. So you think big brother has an axe to grind huh.”
“I guess; I mean wouldn’t you?”
“But doesn’t he know why you did it?” I shook my head as I pulled the chicken I had marinating from the fridge.
KEVIN
Even though I’d sent my sister to the house I still wasn’t comfortable leaving them alone, so I headed back home as soon as possible. Ty had the place covered so I knew I had nothing to worry about, and the night manager was someone I trusted, well as much as I trusted anyone that wasn’t part of my team.
I pulled into the garage and opened the door leading into the house. My garage is built in a way that you can’t hear me coming in unless certain doors or windows are open and since it was hot as hell everything was shut up tight with the AC on full blast. So that is how I was able to walk in on their conversation without them knowing I was there.
I stopped short at Sandy’s question and waited. Probably should’ve announced my presence but what the hell, I’ve learned a lot of shit at open doors before. “No, what was I going to say? Hey Kevin, I’m a complete boob who’s been in love with you forever, but I have to marry this other guy because my daddy said so. But before I do, I want to give you my virginity because I never wanted to be with anyone else but you ever?”
Say what now? That was a new wrinkle. Is that what really happened or was it just something she was saying to keep my abrasive sister from lighting into her? It was obvious that she’d finally told Sandy about our night together.
“I wish you’d told him.”
“What?”
“That you were in love with him, I mean, I knew. It was obvious, each time I even mentioned him you’d get all dreamy. Why do you think I was always telling you about his letters and what he was up to?”
“You knew?”
“Of course I knew, we were best friends remember? Still are.” I guess the women shared some kind of girly hug then because it got quiet and then there was movement again.
“So how are things now, you two working it out?”
“Yeah, seems like. I’m not sure how to feel though. We haven’t really talked about that night, not really. I used to think it didn’t mean anything to him. Sometimes I’d convince myself that he never even gave it a second thought, but now I know better. My worry now, well sort of, is his relationship with the kids. Everything is new and shiny now, but what happens when the novelty wears off and he realizes that he’s taken on the care of another man’s kids? Will he resent them, us?”
“Are you serious? I have two stepchildren and three we share together and sometimes I forget I didn’t give birth to Tracy and Nigel. If there’s one thing I know about my brother it’s his great capacity for love. If he didn’t want your kids they wouldn’t be here. You’d still be in that Motel room and he’d probably be hitting you up for sex at the restaurant. I want to thank you for sparing me that.” They broke into laughter and I took that as my cue to make my presence known.
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