Neighbors with the Single Dad (The Single Dads of Seattle Book 8)

by Whitley Cox

  Her eyes flared. That thought came to her more often than she cared to admit. Only Todd didn’t kidnap her; he killed her and then took the boys. At least once a week she woke up in a puddle of sweat after having a nightmare much like that. And of course, those were the nights the boys chose not to climb into her bed, so she’d then have to pad barefoot through the house to go and check on them, often sitting on the sides of their beds for close to half an hour staring at their messy bedheads and angelic faces.

  Todd would have to kill her before she allowed him to take her children away from her. He knew it, and she knew it. Which was why she had those kinds of dreams. Awful, haunting, gut-wrenching dreams.

  “But then when you texted me back that you were alive … ” His voice grew wooden. “I became angry. I told you how Katrin treated me. Like a second-class citizen in my own marriage. I was never considered, never consulted or shown respect. Her communication skills were total garbage—and that’s coming from me, a man, and we’re not known for our outstanding communicating abilities. And that’s exactly how I felt you were treating me. Like I wasn’t worth a proper phone call, or at the very least a text message apologizing for bailing. Like I was an afterthought.”

  Totally understandable. If the shoe was on the other foot, she would probably feel that way too.

  “I’m a good man, Eva. I’m not like Todd. Not at all. You’re a woman worth waiting for, but I won’t wait around forever, and certainly not so that I can just be walked all over. Dogs are great, but I’m nobody’s lapdog.” The sudden flare of his nostrils and narrowing of his eyes said that he had indeed been upset. She appreciated the fact that he had cooled down before coming over. Todd would not have shown such courtesy.

  Her throat grew painfully tight as she fought back the urge to cry. She nodded stiffly. “I know what I did was wrong. Celeste said the same thing. So did my therapist. And I knew as I was doing it that I was wrong. I’m truly sorry for making you feel like you don’t matter, because you do.” She cupped his face with both hands and brought her head closer to his until their noses were only an inch a part. “You matter a lot, Scott. So much that it scares me a little. We haven’t known each other that long, and yet … ”

  “You feel this pull.”

  “Yeah, I feel this pull.”

  “Me too.” His hands fell to the backs of hers as they rested on his cheeks. “We can take this as slow as you need to, Eva. I don’t want to push.”

  “I don’t want to go too slow.” A cheeky smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth.

  His own wily grin made her insides get hot and turn to goo.

  “What are we going to do about Todd though?”

  A warm puff of air from his nose landed on her top lip. His dark eyes held a mix of confusion and sadness. He pulled away from her and pushed his hand into his freshly cut hair. “I have no idea. I will probably lose my job if I try to ditch him.” He shook his head before scrubbing his hand down it, pulling on his beard and chin. She found his hand and laced her fingers with his. He brought the back of her hand to his lips. “I’ll have a chat with my boss in the morning and say that there is a conflict of interest surrounding Fletcher Holdings. Maybe he’ll just give Todd to another executive.”

  If only things were that easy.

  “I’ve missed you,” she whispered, the intensity of the emotions she felt once again making her throat feel clogged and her chin tremble. With her free hand, she gripped the front of his shirt, her eyes now pleading with him. “I never meant to hurt you or worry you. I just … ” Her fist tightened. “Todd is a trigger for me. I’m not sure he ever won’t be. Not until he’s dead, anyway.”

  Which was probably going to be never, because the man wasn’t human, and he never got sick. Not even a sore throat or the sniffles. Meanwhile it seemed like she and the boys came down with one plague or another every six weeks or so.

  “But I should have called you, and I’m sorry.”

  “Water under the bridge, baby. Just shoot me a text next time, okay? Don’t make me worry. My imagination runs rampant when I’m worried. I may be a happy-go-lucky guy on the outside, but inside”—he pointed to his head—“my imagination always goes to the worst—sometimes completely illogical—case scenario.”

  Her laugh felt forced, but being so close to Scott, feeling his warmth and safety surround her loosened all the muscles of her body, and eventually she chuckled freely. “I promise.”

  “Good.” Unlinking their hands, he gripped her by the waist and flipped her around until she was straddling him in the chair. A squeak darted from her throat when she was roughly plopped back down in his lap and over a rather noticeable bulge. “Now, new topic. Better topic. Sexy topic.” His grin made the air whoosh from her lungs. “I had plans for us, Ms. Marchand. Big, naked, dirty plans. I was forced to do those plans on my own.”

  Her eyebrows lifted. The thought of Scott touching himself was crazy-sexy, his big hand wrapped around his impressive length, sliding back and forth until hot, white cum shot from the center. She wet her bottom lip.

  “Do you know how hard it is to lick chocolate off your own stomach?” he asked.

  Her fantasy exploded, and her vision refocused on his face. He was grinning like an idiot. A handsome, sexy idiot.

  “You … chocolate?” she breathed, well, more like gulped.

  “Ah, glad you’re back. Your face went all blank for a second, and I thought you were either in a spontaneous coma or having some kind of silent female hysteria.”

  Her hands landed on his shoulders, and she steadied herself, locking her gaze with his. “Just imagining you taking care of business, that’s all. It was hot.” She lunged out and snagged his bottom lip between her teeth, tugging just enough to make him growl beneath her.

  “Another time,” he murmured, reclaiming his lip. “And we’ll definitely have to incorporate chocolate another time too.”

  A pout pulled the corners of her mouth down. But not for long. That pout quickly turned into a gasp of surprise when she found herself—actually both of them—on the move. She wrapped her arms around his neck and locked her thighs on his hips as he stood up from the chair and walked them both over to the larger chair that had the overhead hairdryer above it.

  He sat down but set her on her feet beforehand. “You owe me,” he murmured, his fingers hooking into the belt loops of her denim capris. “I’m a forgiving man, but I’ll be a more forgiving man if I get to see some skin.” His eyebrows bobbed playfully. “Catch my drift?”

  With an eye roll and a smirk, she reached for the hem of her T-shirt and made to pull it over her head, but his hands on her stopped her.

  “Let me. It’ll be like unwrapping a present.”

  Her nipples peaked beneath the thin fabric of her bra, and her mouth grew dry. She released her shirt and allowed him to slowly ease it over her head, his lips tracing a path of warm, wet heat over her lower stomach as the fabric left her skin.

  Goosebumps chased his lips, and her breathing grew more and more ragged. His tongue now joined the party, and when he dipped it into her belly button, she giggled and squirmed, but his strength held her in place.

  Together, they shed her shirt. Now she stood in her pale blue bra and denim capris.

  The auburn storm that swirled in his eyes dissolved any and all of her fears. This man wanted her—her, Eva Marchand. He demanded nothing from her but honesty, and that she could do. She could give him honesty and consideration. Never again would she let Scott think he was an afterthought with her. Because he couldn’t be further from such a thing. He was her first thought. When she went to bed at night and then again when she woke up in the morning, Scott was the first thing she thought of. He consumed her.

  Long, strong fingers worked at the button and zipper of her jeans, the warm backs of his knuckles grazing her belly just enough to send hot zaps directly between her legs. With his help, she shimmied out of her pants and kicked them to the side. Now she was in her black cotton undies—than
kfully not her laundry-day granny panties of yesterday—and her blue bra. Her underwear didn’t match, but at least they were clean and didn’t have any holes in them.

  She’d given up long ago being one of those matching thong and bra kind of women. It was just too much work. She had her favorite bras and her favorite underwear, and unfortunately, not too many of them matched. But they were damn comfortable.

  Scott didn’t seem to give a damn either, the bulge in his dress pants evidence enough. With his encouragement and the way his hooded eyes devoured her like she was a juicy steak cooked to perfection, she stepped between his wide-spread knees. Beginning at her knees, his hands trailed up her legs, over her thighs and the curves of her hips, settling on the roundness of her butt cheeks. His breath on her belly made everything inside her tingle, and then when his fingers gently pulled her cheeks apart and one finger pressed against her crease, those tingles turned into quivers and jolts of both anticipation and pleasure.

  “Not today, but I would love to see you truly come undone after I’ve given this some of my undivided attention.” His tongue swirled around her navel again. “Whether you ever let my cock in there or not is irrelevant. There are so many ways I could make you come from just a little bit of … ” He licked her belly, then pressed his finger against her tight hole. “If you get my drift?”

  Oh, she got his drift, all right. She got his drift, jumped onto his drift and wanted to ride his drift wherever the hell it was headed.

  There wasn’t a single thing she would say no to when it came to Scott and the bedroom. They’d only had sex that one night, but it was enough for her to know the man was a god. Especially when her last sexual partner had been Todd the Selfish Lover Demon Spawn.

  “Hmm?” His hum and the buzz from his lips against her ribs was connected directly to her clit, and her hips jutted out toward him of their own volition. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  It was a hell yes.

  “But not today,” he reiterated. “Today … tonight, I want just you. Just Eva.”

  From her ribs, he dipped his head again, but this time lower, his nose pressed right against her panties, directly over her clit. He inhaled.

  She gasped.

  “Ah, Eva. I’ve missed this. I’ve missed you.”

  Her fingers pushed into his hair, and she tugged just a little. “I’ve missed you too.”

  The twirl of his tongue over the fabric that covered her clit made her legs spasm, and she gripped his hair tighter to hold on, to keep herself up.

  He chuckled against her, causing a warm gush of arousal to seep from between her legs. “Panties off,” he murmured, the heat from his mouth searing her through the cotton.

  She did as he instructed, with his help, of course. Thank goodness, she’d taken care of the playing field on Sunday right before their botched date on Monday. She was sporting her small strip of hair but nothing else.

  His look was predatory. Hungry. Insatiable. And the way he licked his lips reminded her of a lion licking his chops as he stalked an impala on the savannah. Ravenous and willing to give the chase of a lifetime to get what he wanted. What he needed. What he craved.

  And right now, Scott craved her.

  Her ego did a little happy dance. It’d been far too long since a man had looked at her like that. And Scott looked at her like that a lot. Todd had actually gone so far as to call her post-partum body—just six months after she had Kellen—“absolutely disgusting.” After that she ate nothing but chicken breasts and cucumbers for an entire month.

  His hands on her thighs brought her back to the now; she blinked and smiled down at the man who gazed at her with nothing but adoration. No disgust or contempt filled his eyes. Just … awe.

  “Are you wet?” The deep, gravelly tenor of his voice was an aphrodisiac all on its own. He also didn’t wait for her to respond and slid two fingers between her folds, where, of course, he found her slick and swollen. His nostrils flared and his eyelids dropped even farther. “Very.”

  She pulled a long breath through her nose and then slowly released it. “Scott … ”

  “Eva … ” Those two fingers explored further, delving into her quivering heat, where she contracted around him. His thumb landed on her clit and her hips jerked.

  “Scott,” she pleaded.

  The man was skilled with his fingers for sure, but she wanted, no, needed more. She needed him. All of him. Inside her. Not just a couple of fingers. No matter how talented those fingers were.

  Would she come from this? Absolutely.

  But it wasn’t just about the orgasm. It was about the connection, the intimacy, the feeling of being one with another person who was beginning to mean a great deal to her.

  “Scott, please.” She was whimpering now.

  With a growl, a grunt and the speed of a cheetah, his fingers were out of her, he was up out of the chair and she found herself pushed forward, hinged at the hips, hands on the armrests.

  The zip and swish of his pants behind her was like sweet, raunchy music to her ears. Dribbles of her arousal trickled down her inner thigh, and her pussy clenched at the thought of having Scott inside her again. Then came the quiet tear of the condom wrapper—he was so prepared, showing up with protection—and before she could blink, wiggle her hips or ask him where he went, he was pressing the thick head of his cock against her dripping slit.

  “Scott … ”

  Although she’d been hoping for hard, fast and dirty, the laziness with which he eased himself inside her was a million times better. His girth coasted across every one of her neurons as he made his way into her body, giving each inch his undivided attention. Her eyes threatened to roll back into her head.

  She could come just from this. Just from the first thrust.

  His fingers squeezing her hips and a low grunt said he was to the hilt inside her now. She was tight. The pleasant ache and throb between her legs as she adjusted to his size sent shivers sprinting down her limbs.

  This was what heaven felt like. Ecstasy. Pure bliss.

  That was until he started to move.

  Oh God.

  Now that was heaven. Every draw of his cock, followed by a hard plunge and a hip swivel that knocked her G-spot just right. She could hear angels singing, harps playing. Clouds were everywhere. It really was heaven.

  “You’re it for me, Eva.” His dark timber made her core clench around his length. “I know this is all new, but new or not, I feel the pull, and I know you’re it. I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me now.”

  “Scott … ” That was all she could say. His name was a plea on her lips. A plea for more. For harder, for faster, for it to never end.

  The slapping sound of flesh on flesh was a new dirty music that filled her small spa space, and when his hard chest connected with her back and he hunched over her, changing the angle, she nearly lost her mind. And she really did lose her mind when his finger pressed against her clit.

  Every muscle inside her went rigid, her toes curled on the tile floor, and her back bowed as the orgasm came crashing through her. Like the waves on a harsh sea, it pounded her, jostled her, rocked her to her very soul. Until she was nothing more than a boneless, buzzing pile of goo still standing only because Scott was holding her up. Keeping her safe, tight against his chest and his wildly beating heart. After a few moments, he stood back up, his pumping becoming more fervent, his cadence more erratic. He was close too.

  She did her best to return to the moment, to regain some of her senses and be present for him when he came. Her eyes remained glued shut, her lips parted, skin tingling. She was still riding the high of her climax, enjoying the exquisite way his cock drove deep into her and then retreated over her sensitive channel. The potential for another climax bubbled deep in her belly.

  Her breasts swayed heavily beneath her. Even in her bra, they jiggled with each one of his mighty thrusts. Her hard nipples ached for the heat and relief of his mouth.

  The smell of sex, hairspray and S
cott’s own citrusy, manly smell circled around her, combining into one intoxicating scent that was uniquely their own.

  “Eva, babe.” He grunted. “I’m close.”

  His thumb shifted from her hips to the top of her crease, sliding just south enough for the hairs on her arms to tingle and her pussy to tighten around his cock.

  “Come for me,” she whispered, curious to one day find out what it felt like to have him show her the pleasure she could experience in that intimate, forbidden erogenous zone.

  “Eva.” Her name was more of a strained purr as he pumped into her harder and faster, his fingers tightening on her hip.

  She squeezed her muscles around him as best she could. His breath hitched. He stilled, inhaled sharply, held it and then let it out in a moan of satisfaction as his cock began to pulse inside her.

  “Oh fuck, babe,” he ground out, hunching over her again and wrapping an arm beneath her, his fingers delving into her bra and tugging on a tight nipple.

  That was all she needed to send her back over the edge. To send her back to heaven. Squeezing her eyes shut and gripping the armrests until her knuckles ached, she allowed the orgasm to consume her. To shred her very existence, take all the remaining muscles that worked, and pummel them until they were nothing but jelly. Moaning with each pulse of her orgasm, she milked his cock as best she could, pulling him deeper inside her as his own release began to wane.

  She knew he was spent and his orgasm over when his warm breath swept across her sweat-kissed skin and his fingers on her nipple relaxed.

  “Babe,” he cooed, planting gentle, sensual kisses across her shoulders as he held her there in place, still safely nestled inside her. “So good.”

  “So good,” she echoed.

  A mewl of mourning slipped from her throat as he gently stood up and slid out of her. She missed him already.

  While Scott went about zipping up and disposing of the condom, she went on the hunt for her clothes.

  They took turns in the bathroom, then met up again under the bright recessed lighting next to her desk and computer. Neither of them was able to keep their grins at bay. And let’s be honest, why would they want to?