by Piper Rayne
“Well, that was a bad move,” I say, sitting in his office chair to take control of the order.
“Why? She’s still asleep,” he says, oblivious to how good he looks with a baby, especially a little girl, in his arms.
“Yeah. On you.”
He looks down at her. “She’s much more tolerable now.”
Having been friends with Dylan for years, I can order our Chinese food by heart. I order some extra for the employees so everyone can eat since that’s something he’ll want.
“That’s not it,” I singsong, clicking the items he loves.
I sneak another peek at him. He scrunches his eyebrows. God, Dylan holding a child should be illegal. The image could cause ovaries to explode everywhere.
“It’s you and her.” I open my eyes wider at him. “Your attractiveness meter just went into overheating range with her asleep in your arms.”
He smiles and looks at Jolie. “She’s not mine.”
“She doesn’t have to be.”
His smile grows. “So this does it for you, huh?”
I click the moo shu pork and sit back, examining them. His legs are spread open in a casual stance with his broken arm resting on the chair arm. Jolie’s face is tucked into his chest.
“Pretty much.” I slide the chair back to the computer.
“Make sure to get enough for everyone,” he says, ignoring my confession.
I’ve never really thought about having a kid with Dylan. Mostly my time has been spent imagining him in bed, but not really as a boyfriend. I have no expectations of what our relationship will be like. There’s only one stipulation I have and that’s monogamy.
“I did. Are Seth and Knox stopping by?” I ask.
“I don’t know, but I don’t need to feed their asses. My credit card is on file.”
“I see that.” I click the final button and check out using his credit card. “You’re a very generous tipper.”
“Am I?” he asks. “Maybe I should give you a tip for doing the ordering?”
I flutter my eyelids. “Sounds promising.”
“You should give me a peep show.”
“No!” I point at Jolie. “She’s right there.”
He follows my vision. “She’s dead asleep.”
I stand in front of him and look at him one more time. “You have me at a disadvantage. I want to snap a picture just to relive you and Jolie like that.”
He shakes his head, and his smile doesn’t reach his eyes. In Dylan language, that means something is bothering him.
“Does that scare you?” I ask.
His lips purse and he shakes his head. Same reaction I got when I told him I was going out with Jax.
“I think it might,” I say.
“No. But—”
I put up my hand. “Your hot level going up because you’re holding her does not mean I want to have your baby.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
I laugh. “What? Of course! Why would you ask me if I’m sure?”
He stares at Jolie and I step forward to take her, but he shakes his head. “I got her. Keep drooling.”
I cross my arms and wait for him to answer my question.
He blows out a breath. “You’re a girl who thinks about the future.”
I laugh again and he gives me a blank stare. “Sorry, continue,” I say.
“Now I seem like an arrogant prick.”
I nod.
“It’s just you’re you. All life plans and timetables. I figure you’ve planned out our wedding and how many kids you want.”
“Maybe I’m using you for your body,” I say, raising an eyebrow.
A smirk indents his adorable face. “Nah, it’s not that great.” He crooks his finger for me to come to him.
“You think just because you beckon, I should answer your call?”
The office door opens, and Frankie stands there, watching us before her eyes land on Jolie. “I had a feeling she’d crash. I’m between clients.”
She swoops up Jolie and carries her out of the room, shutting the door. Dylan takes that as his opportunity to corner me, and he successfully gets my back to the wall.
“Look, I came to you.” He locks me with his hips, and his pants do nothing to hide his hard length. “So I’m wrong then?”
“I don’t have us married in my mind. I’m not pregnant, and there’s no white picket fence house in my head. I’m in this to see where it goes. I have no preconceived ideas. Okay?” I place my hands on his cheeks, and he nods. “So relax.”
He stares at me. “One day at a time sounds good. I am slowly becoming addicted to you.”
“Cheesy!” I scream.
But he swallows my yell, and we spend the next twenty minutes making out like teenagers until Lyle tells us the food is here.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dylan
Three weeks later, I’m on the couch, watching Superbad with Seth. My phone is out and I’m looking at a picture I can’t stop staring at—Rian and Jolie asleep on the couch a few weeks earlier. I didn’t understand why me holding a baby made Rian so gaga until Frankie and I came home that night and found the scene on my screen.
When Frankie went to the bathroom, I snapped the picture before we woke Rian. After that, my fear of having a family dissipated and I can’t stop staring at the picture and thinking what if we do make it long term? A baby on Rian looks like home.
Rian’s bedroom door swings open and she raises her hand in victory. “I did it!”
She’s holed herself up in that room for two days trying to finish that math problem.
“You solved it?” I tuck my phone away and open my arms.
She runs across the room and throws herself into the chair with me, wrapping her arms around me and kissing my neck. “I think. I won’t know until Dr. Giroux looks at my email.”
“Way to go.” Seth raises his beer.
She kisses me one more time then tries to slide off my lap, but I wrap my right arm—which has become strong in the past weeks—around her to keep her in place. Seth tries to concentrate on the television as though he’s not witnessing our affection.
But as always, the more I have of Rian, the more I crave. Is this what all those guys who I made fun of for being pussy whipped felt like? That all they want to do is spend their time with their girl?
I capture her lips and turn us in the chair to block us from Seth, sliding my tongue into her mouth to tide me over until we’re alone again. When we’re done, Rian gets up and I smack her ass.
“Hey, you should know things are going south with Knox and Leilani,” Seth says.
Rian stops walking toward the kitchen and sits down on the arm of my chair. I take the opportunity to slide my hand up her shirt to touch her bare back, my fingers gliding along her skin.
“What happened?” she asks Seth, sounding concerned.
Seth shrugs. “I heard them fighting. Leilani was saying she’s going back home to Hawaii. Knox asked when she’d be back.”
“And?” Rian asks, much more interested than me.
Knox is a great friend, but I always knew it would end this way. When a girl like Leilani breezes in and out of your life, at some point you have to see her for what she is—temporary. But for some reason, Knox is head over heels and all that rational thinking that’s made him a great cop, flies out the window and travels over the Atlantic Ocean when Leilani walks back into his life. After she’s gone, I’ll be on the bar stool next to him once again, handing him shots to get over her.
“I didn’t hear anything else, but when he went to work, she left too,” Seth said. “And I haven’t seen her yet today.”
“She probably bailed again,” I say, my hand venturing higher up Rian’s back and under her bra strap. How far can I get before Seth notices? I’ve missed her these past two days as I gave her space to finish the problem. It’s not even the sex I miss, as pathetic as I sound. It’s just holding her naked body to mine. Making her laugh. And okay, I can’t lie—I do
miss the sex.
Rian turns to me, her forehead scrunched. “Again?”
Seth raises his eyebrows. I guess he thought all the girls knew. “They’ve weaved in and out each other’s lives more than a crocheted scarf.”
Rian’s shoulders sag because she believes in happily ever afters. But Knox and Leilani don’t have it in them. Rian and I might be different, but Knox and Leilani are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Something neither of them have realized yet.
“I knew they knew each other, but I didn’t realize they’d gotten together and apart so many times.”
Seth sips his beer. “She’s run out on him before. A few years ago when he was drunk one night, he talked about her.”
“They’re just different,” I say, not wanting to get into Knox’s business.
“We’re different,” Rian says, her blue eyes so transparent.
“You don’t want to see the world. And I’m not a black-and-white kind of guy. Leilani’s a wanderer and Knox is a creature of habit. Explain how those two kinds of people can stay together.” My whole hand runs along her skin now. “I believe in opposites attract, but sometimes there can be too much opposite.”
Seth nods as though he understands, but Rian’s lips tip down.
“I feel bad for him. Do you think she’s gone for good?” Rian asks.
As she asks, the door of our apartment opens and Knox walks in, still wearing his uniform. He ignores Rian and me, his sole focus on Seth. “Did she leave a note?”
“Not that I saw,” he says.
Knox nods, and his eyes meet mine. His authoritative finger points at me as if I said or did something. “I don’t want to fucking hear it.”
Knox slams the door behind him, and Rian turns to me.
Seth sips his beer. “Can I stay here tonight?”
“The couch is yours,” Rian says.
“Or my bed,” I offer.
Rian smiles. I feel bad for Knox. I saw the heartbreak Leilani left behind last time, which was why I wasn’t so keen on her reappearance in his life. Still, tonight I’ll hold Rian a little tighter.
I wrap my arms around Rian’s waist, swiping the chocolate frosting from the bowl and holding my finger in front of her mouth.
“You do know this is taking me twice as long, right?” she says.
I don’t move my finger. She puts her mouth over it, twirling her tongue around it. Just like that, my dick pops up in my pants like a timer in a turkey.
“Let’s take the bowl to the bedroom,” I suggest.
“And leave the cake bare?”
The timer goes off, so she dislodges from my arm to take the cake out of the oven.
“Sure. I say we frost you instead.” I swipe another finger of frosting when she’s not looking and eat it myself. Damn, she really is a great baker. “Any word from that professor guy?”
“No. I got the receipt that the email went through, but he was out of the office.” She puts the cakes on a cooling rack.
“I still think you should do something you love with that money if you’re the first one who solved it. Like, I don’t know… open up a chocolate-and-chocolate cake shop.”
She laughs. “That’s the only cake I make?”
I nod and steal another swipe of frosting. “Yeah, because you love your boyfriend so much. But then again, maybe you should serve everything except the chocolate-chocolate because this cake is only for me since I’m the most special person in your life.”
“I think I could still sell the chocolate-chocolate cake but give you something no one else gets.” She looks coy, like she wants to play.
I’ve never come across a game I didn’t want to conquer. “Like?”
She strips off her shirt and unhooks her bra. “How much frosting can you lick off me?”
“Oh, you have no idea how much I love this frosting and your body. It’s like when someone decided to put peanut butter and chocolate together. Perfection.” I grab the bowl. “Let’s go.”
“Your bed though.” She places her hand on my chest. “So we can sleep in mine afterward.”
I unzip my hoodie, leaving it on the floor, and back her toward my bedroom. “I love that you can be spontaneous but still think of the aftermath.”
She giggles and dips her finger into the frosting, then traces a line down her tit and around her nipple. We open my door, she falls to my mattress, and I kick the door shut, my mouth watering and ready to work its way over Rian’s body. I bring my mouth to her chest, and with the first swipe of my tongue, she shivers under me.
“Oh, Dylan,” she says.
Once I’m done sucking one tit, I swipe the frosting on her other one and mimic my move. Traveling a line from her tits to the top of her waistband with my tongue, I unbutton her jeans and slide the zipper down. I help her get her jeans and panties off. Once she’s naked in front of me, I stare at her, still surprised she’s mine.
“What are you waiting for?” She props up on her elbows as though something’s wrong. “You okay?”
I nod. “Yeah, I’m great.”
After dipping my finger into the frosting, I bring my finger to her mouth and she moans around it. Instead of spreading the frosting anywhere else on her body, I fall to my knees and pull her legs over my shoulders.
“I did have plans of licking frosting off you.” She watches me slide my tongue up her folds. “But we have time, I suppose.”
Her back falls back on the bed.
“That’s what I thought.” I chuckle into her center, blowing cool air on the flesh I wet with my tongue, and she squirms.
After only the short time we’ve been together, I know what gets her off. She loves clit play, so I flex my tongue, using only the tip to lick tiny circles around her nub. Her hands go to her sides, gripping the sheets. At least my right hand can widen her, putting light pressure right under her clit, and her back arches off the bed.
I fucking love watching her get off.
The more pressure I use, the more she grinds against my face. My name comes from her mouth, along with praise of how great I am at this, how she never wants me to stop. I watch her chase her orgasm on my tongue, and my dick grows thick and aching between my legs.
I ramp up the speed a touch more. One of her hands grabs my hair, pulling and tugging, as her breathing labors. She’s so close, so I up the speed until she unapologetically grinds my face into her pussy. She crests over that threshold and falls back down on her back.
It takes some awkward effort on my part but I remove her legs from my shoulders, ditch my track pants, and nudge her legs open. Her eyes perk up when she feels the tip of my dick at her opening. But she presses her hand to my chest.
“Oh no, you don’t,” she says, pushing me to sit up.
I sit back on my knees. “What?”
She grabs the bowl of frosting and swipes a smear across my chest. “I get to play too.” Her gaze dips to my very erect cock.
I sit back. “By all means.”
Her tongue slides along my chest, teasing my nipples. My eyes close, relishing her mouth, until she palms me, rubbing and pulling, her thumb spreading the pre-cum along the tip of my dick. As she slides off the bed and falls to her knees like I did, she urges me to the edge of the mattress. With one hand on the base of my cock, she lowers her mouth, and stars fill my vision.
Damn, is there anything Rian isn’t good at? She really is a certified genius.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Rian
As I stare at my computer and read the message again, tears well up in my eyes.
“‘Congratulations, you’re the winner. Your check will be issued next week, and your name will be listed in our academic journal next month. Great job, everyone at the association is very impressed. Sincerely, Dr. Giroux, President of the Mathematics Association of America.’” I read the email out loud, still processing that I actually did it.
Jax walks out of his bedroom, spots me, and freezes. “Shit.” He turns to go back but then faces me again. �
��Where’s Phillips?”
“He’s asleep,” I say.
“In which bedroom?” His gaze flickers to Dylan’s door then mine.
“Mine,” I say, not understanding what’s wrong with him.
“Thank fuck.” He walks through the living room to the bathroom and shuts the door.
Odd.
I minimize the email, seeing three from my dad waiting in my inbox. Apologies for what he said mostly. I should print out the congratulatory email and go to their house and tape it to every available surface. Maybe then they’d be proud of me. But a part of me doesn’t want anyone to know I won.
My phone rings and I jump in my seat.
My eyes zero in on the name. Johann must’ve gotten word that the problem was solved and the contest closed. Ever since that day I was going to ask him for help and Dylan talked me out of it, he hasn’t contacted me. Which suits me fine.
My phone beeps that he left a message, then an email from him pings on my computer. He’s probably upset that the contest has been closed and is wondering if I’m the one who solved it.
The bathroom door opens and Jax walks out in a towel. “So you’re still together?”
“Yes,” I say.
He nods. “Cool.” He disappears into his bedroom.
What is up with him?
I look at the box of tissues next to my computer. He thought I was crying over Dylan?
I shut down my computer, walk into my bedroom, and set my phone on the nightstand, then I slide under the covers with Dylan. He stirs, sighs, and wraps his arm around my body.
“Good morning,” he murmurs, kissing my forehead.
I run my hand down his chest. “Good morning.”
I lay with him as he falls in and out of sleep. Peeking up, I cast small kisses to his chest.
“I won,” I whisper.
He bolts up and my body falls to the mattress. Looking at me, his eyes widen. “You did?”
I nod.
Then his body is on top of mine “Congratulations! That’s awesome.”
I nod again but the tears well up even more this time and my throat constricts.
