I was surprised by her next move, she came around the table with her arms up and hugged me tightly, “How did you get so fucking smart? Why are you so young, yet so level headed? I can see why Flynn loves you.”
That was news to me, but I let her comment slide, and concluded the meeting by telling Flynn we had a conference call with his law firm in twenty minutes. When Lexi left the studio, Flynn kissed me hard and squeezed my body flush against his by holding the globes of my butt, and pressing me into him. “Damn, Valerie, I love when you get all authoritative, feel what it does?”
“You like my dominant side, huh? It turns you on?”
“Only when it’s not me on the receiving end of your wrath, and not in the bedroom, that’s my domain,” he said, with a sexy wink before he stole a greedy kiss.
“Fuck. Home. I need you naked,” he said, as he showered small kisses down my neck. My skin reacted with goose bumps as his hands found their way up inside my t-shirt and cupped my breasts over my lacy bra. “These are mine…for the next few months at least,” he chuckled while his thumbs traced back and forth over my hardened nipples.
I slid my hand down between us and inside the waistband of his jeans. His erect cock had risen to meet it, “And this is mine until such time as I’m too fat to want you to see me,” I giggled.
“That’ll never happen, Valerie. It turns me the fuck on to think of you with my baby in your swollen belly. I can’t wait for that day. I just hope you’re the kind of girl that can’t get enough sex during pregnancy,” he said wiggling his eyebrows with a dark, lusty glint in his eye.
He turned me to face away from him after pulling my hand free of his hard length and settled behind me. “I read this is the most comfortable position for the late stages of pregnancy,” he murmured chuckling as he swept my hair to the side, and began kissing the nape of my neck. I groaned with the instant thrill that ran through my body and sagged back against the rigid bulge that poked into my lower back.
His hands surrounded me—one on my breast and one on my belly. He pinched my nipple through the material as he slid his other hand inside my jeans and into my panties. “Fuck, Valerie, you’re drenched, babe. I love what my hands and mouth do to you,” he said gruffly.
Pressing myself back, I arched my butt up to his cock and swayed my hips back and forth. Flynn turned me around and lay me across the table. His hands fell to the waistband of my jeans. “Four months,” he mumbled as he shoved my t-shirt up out of the way.
“Four months?”
“Yeah, I don’t want you in jeans after that. You can wear dresses or whatever, but I can’t keep fighting with fucking zippers as your belly grows. I want access without having to unwrap you,” he chuckled.
Smiling he glanced up and his eyes connected with mine in a soul searching deep and meaningful stare that said everything about how he felt that words couldn’t.
Eventually, he dropped his head onto my belly and kissed every inch. Glancing up he smirked then began to speak to our baby, “Hey, little dude, I’m your dad. I can’t wait to meet you, buddy. I’m staring at your Mom’s gorgeous belly and wondering if you’ve got her smile. I’m hoping you have her fantastic brain, cause she’s the smartest person I know. It doesn’t matter if you have mine, so long as your heart is as pure as hers,” he whispered into my belly button.
Flynn lifted his head to look at me again with a sheepish smile, “I can’t believe this, babe. I’m scared, excited and shitting myself that I’ll fuck this up between us somehow.”
I sat up and cradled his face between my hands, “Flynn Docherty, you have never fucked up with me. You’ve always done what you thought was right, and that’s made me love you so much more than I would have had we not gone through all that we have together.”
“How the fuck did I get so lucky, Valerie? Why me? My life wasn’t real until I met you. As far as I’m concerned, everything that happened to me in the past happened on paper. I don’t remember much of it. I can barely remember my mom’s face. I can’t remember my dad’s, and I can’t bring myself to remember my brother’s. It still hurts that he’s gone. How am I going to be everything this little one needs?” he asked while tenderly stroking his palm over my stomach.
“I have no doubts you’ll be a fabulous parent, Flynn. We’ll do this together. The fact we’ve both known such sorrow makes us understand how important it is to love while we can. This baby will be surrounded by those feelings and emotions that other people suppress. Most people think they have all the time in the world for that. We won’t do that. I have faith in you, Flynn, and I can’t wait to give this child to you.”
He hugged me tightly then wrapped my legs around his waist. “Okay, my little wise one, thank you for talking me down from the rooftop, I think I need to take you home and worship you for being so beautiful, and for loving me like you do.”
Nestling my head into his neck, he lifted me off the table and carried me out of the studio. “Enjoy this while you can, babe, I may need to invest in a wheelbarrow if you start to get too heavy,” he smirked impishly. I swiped at his arm, and he bit his lip pretending I’d hurt him.
“And you might have to have one to carry your blue balls in with comments like that, honey,” I giggled.
“Damn. Sorry, I was only joking,” he said with a wink.
Chapter 15 ~ Flynn
Face to face
I thought about the new responsibilities I’d have when I became a parent while I sat in the doctor’s office with Valerie that day a few weeks ago. We figured she was around seven weeks pregnant when we made the appointment, and she’d insisted on that particular OBGYN guy after Simone had checked out his credentials.
In my head, I was meeting with some silver-haired, distinguished looking guy with twenty years plus experience in the art of childbirth under his belt. Not one with less than those attributes was qualified to take care of my girl at such a vulnerable time, so when I saw a guy who was probably not much older than me walk into the room, I’ll admit he didn’t sit well with me. When he introduced himself as Valerie’s obstetrician, I struggled with his lack of years or maybe it was the fact he was young and good looking, and his hands were going to be all over my woman.
As it turned out, he was pretty courteous, professional and reassuring until he suggested he may have to insert some kind of probe into Valerie’s pussy. At that point, I struggled not to put the dude flat on his back. Luckily for him, that wasn’t necessary.
Staring intensely at the screen, I felt my throat constrict as I tried to figure out what I was looking at, and I struggled with the feelings that overwhelmed me when I saw our baby’s tiny body for the first time. He appeared as a grainy gray outline on the small screen. His heart flickered like a blinker on a car waiting to change direction as it fluttered fast and steadily at the center of the image. The awesome sounds of the beats were in a rhythm so regular it had seemed impossible to believe, because the spec of life making the noise we heard wasn’t even eight weeks in gestation.
Valerie totally got me at that moment. I couldn’t have spoken, even if I’d had something to say. The whole scene was beyond my comprehension. I’d wanted kids, but never really thought about having a child to take care of. The enormity of parenthood washed over me, and for a moment I’d doubted my ability to do a good job. Then as if Valerie knew exactly what I’d been thinking, she negated my uncertainties before they’d been able to take hold of me.
Seeing our little miracle inside Valerie gave me a greater sense of purpose, and I threw all I had into the band, song writing and polishing my act. I had to make my career work to provide well for my family. I’d wanted to tell the world as soon as I knew, but I couldn’t blame Valerie for not wanting to share her condition with anyone for fear they’d try to use our baby against everything she’d done for me.
Lexi had tried to create more drama, but in a way, she’d managed to gain the sympathy of Val and me, and I was once more in awe at how my girl seemed to be able to take everything i
n without complaint. I added conflict resolution to her list of skills after that.
Shortly after Valerie’s head-on discussion with Lexi, we headed home from the studio to take a conference call with Clayton, my lawyer. According to him, he’d negotiated a six-month jail term for Tyler by saying that we wouldn’t accept Tyler walking free. He’d originally asked for three years, but in the hope of getting some jail time for him.
With Tyler’s cooperation, Clayton said they were going after Bernie and had all the evidence we needed to gain a conviction. I hadn’t wanted the details just wanted it to be over so that I could get on with my life.
Once I’d taken care of that, I organized a surprise for Valerie’s birthday. Keller Muir had a reputation as a God of sorts in the music industry. He’d only do music videos for bands if he liked their music. Getting him to agree to meet me hadn’t been the easiest of feats. He’d needed a lot of persuasion, and even more when I told him what I had in mind for Valerie. He was wary of working with someone else, let alone someone of Valerie’s age, and position in my entourage.
Eventually, he’d agreed to fly up for the day a couple of Sundays later, and Valerie had been as nervous as hell about meeting him. She fidgeted the whole morning prior to his arrival at our studio. It had been the ideal time because all of the other band members had gone off site for the weekend.
I’d expected to drive a hard bargain alongside Val, but within ten minutes of meeting her, I could tell he was as smitten with her as I was. Their discussions got technical, and I excused myself to make some coffee, suddenly feeling out of my depth at the level of skill they both had. By the time I’d gone back to them, Valerie had agreed to use still shots she’d been cataloging since Major ScAlz had been disbanded as part of the video.
These photographs were selected as a kind of ‘out of the ashes’, type introduction to RedA. I loved the idea because some of the photos Valerie had taken had marked the progression from Craig and me playing alone, to the auditions, and so on.
Three hours after they met, Keller and Valerie were like old friends, and a date was set for filming a month later. When he left, he hugged Valerie and said, “When you’re guy here called me I had a lot of reservations, I’ll admit I thought he was trying to pull strings to impress you, but having sat down with you, and hashed this thing out I realize why he wanted you involved. You’ve got a lot to learn, but you’ve taught me a couple of things, and that’s a rarity these days.”
Valerie grinned like she’d won the lottery and Keller pulled her into another warm hug. “I’m quite excited about what we’re planning, honey. Looking forward to this,” he said, and flashed a genuine smile.
When he left, Valerie jumped up into my arms and wrapped her legs around my waist. “I love you, I love you, I love you, Flynn Docherty,” she said as she peppered kisses all over my face. I was excited for her, and for the band to have pulled off such an illustrious director for our rebirth, and it was awesome to have made Valerie so happy.
Arrangements were made for a two-day shoot three weeks later in Chicago. We had made the concession to travel there because Keller had a gap in his schedule, although he was working there, he had a three day break between two other shoots. Going back to Chicago was a bonus because I had felt it would be the ideal opportunity to check out a second OBGYN for Valerie because she was almost fourteen weeks by then.
*****
Glancing out of the window as our chartered airplane descended into Chicago, the city appeared peaceful covered in a thick blanket of snow. On the ground, the temperature was below freezing, and I held Valerie tightly as we transferred from the plane to the waiting black 4x4 SUV that took us home.
As we settled into the car, a twinkle in Valerie’s eyes glinted with excitement at the pending video shoot ahead. We had two days before it was due to take place, and I’d arranged a doctor’s appointment in the city for Valerie just to be safe.
I’d been thinking a lot about the status of our relationship, and if I was honest, I wanted my baby to have my name. I knew Valerie better than to suggest we get married, I knew she’d think I was just trying to do the right thing by her. I was, but I’d wanted her as my wife more than anything by then, baby or no baby. We’d been together less than six months and the pace our relationship had developed at seemed incredibly fast, but I was all in. She was mine, ring or no ring.
Niamh and Teague were super-excited to see us when we arrived. Initially, there was no sign of Niamh, but Teague ran the length of the driveway when he saw our car arrive through the gates. Lee stopped at my request, and I opened the door to let the little bundle of energy ride the rest of the way with us. As soon as he was inside, he lurched forward, wrapped his little arms around my neck, and kissed my cheek.
“You’ve been gone a long time, Flynn. I really missed you,” he said burying his little face into my neck. I choked with emotion that the little guy had no dad around, and realized I was probably the nearest thing he had to one.
My eyes darted to Valerie, and I saw compassion in hers, and I knew instinctively she’d be happy to share our baby with Niamh and Teague. It dawned on me that despite having no blood relations to speak of, Valerie, her family, those guys, and Lee were the nearest to family I had.
“I got a trophy at school for football, Flynn. Can I go and get it?” he asked, bouncing up and down on his toes before we’d even gotten through the front door.
“Wow. Good job, buddy, sure, I’m dying to see it,” I’d said, and sounded really impressed. It was a huge thing for a six-year-old.
Niamh came running out of the kitchen into the hallway, drying her hands on her jeans. “Welcome home,” she gushed, as she grabbed Valerie by the shoulders and pulled her in for a hug then gave me a longer, tighter one.
“Something smells good,” I said sniffing the mouth-watering aroma floating in the air.
“Lasagne—Valerie’s favorite food. Italian, right?”
Valerie grinned and shook her head, “You made it for me? Flynn this woman is definitely a keeper,” she smiled warmly and clapped her hands like an excited child. Before we could say anything else, Teague burst in the door clutching a trophy that was half the size of him, “Look, Flynn. Isn’t it awesome?” he said, struggling over to me with it.
I crouched and studied the trophy after he’d placed it on the ground. I smiled because he’d tried to hold it with one hand and the weight of it almost pulled him over. “Whoa, are you going to play for the NFL, Teague?”
“Sure am,” he said with confidence.
He leaned in and hugged me tightly again, “I missed you so much, Flynn,” he said in a whisper.
My throat squeezed at his admission, “I missed you too, buddy, but I gotta work, you know?”
Teague’s eyes teared up. I stood and pulled him up onto my hip, “Hey, buddy, what’s wrong? This isn’t like you,” I said concerned at his suddenly sad expression.
“Not this Saturday but the next, there’s a father and son day at football. Some of the boys there are being horrible to me because I won the trophy. They’re teasing me because I don’t have a dad. Well, I do, I just don’t know where he is…”
My heart splintered in an instant. I knew that feeling well, “Hey, why the tears? Your dad isn’t here, but I am. What do you say you take me with you? Can I be your dad for the day? ”
Teague’s eyes widened, and his face broke into a perfect smile, his mood changed immediately to excitement.
“Yeah? You mean it? You’ll come with me?”
“We should check it out with your mom and Valerie, but if they say yes, then absolutely, I’d be honored to be your dad for the day.”
I could see the conflict in Niamh, and the torn look that passed through her eyes when they darted to Valerie. I wasn’t sure whether I’d overstepped the mark or she felt helpless at not being able to fill the gap for Teague. However, at that moment, I’d figured his happiness was more important than what any of us adults felt at the time. It wasn’t his
fault the grown-ups in his little life had fucked up.
“Sorry, I should have asked first…” I admitted.
Her eyes brimmed with tears, “No…I’d love you to go with him, I just…” her eyes flicked to Valerie again, and my girl was quick to read the situation.
“Well, I think it’s a great idea. Flynn’s more significant to Teague than anyone else, so it’s fitting he takes him. I bet he’s excited about going with the trophy winner. You must feel very proud of him, Flynn,” Valerie said addressing Niamh’s concerns, and then fluffing Teague’s ego. I gazed into her eyes and saw the same compassion I’d been feeling for him, in them.
Teague picked up his trophy and ran toward the door, “Just taking care of this, Mom, and I’ll be right back for dinner,” he said, far too grown up for a six-year-old. It dawned on me that he was that way because his relationship with Niamh was on two levels, her son, and her companion. I glanced at Niamh and saw loneliness in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before, or maybe I’d never paid attention.
“You didn’t have to…”
“Niamh, we’re as good as family, he’s been around me since he was an infant. Of course, I want to support him in any way I can. You heard Valerie, it’s cool. I’m always there for him and for you, honey. You’ve stuck by me through this, and I hope you see us as friends as well as your role here.”
Valerie stepped forward and hugged Niamh tightly, “You’re important to Flynn as is Teague, therefore you’re important to me,” she said gently. “Anyway, now that we’ve all bonded, can a girl get something to eat around here before she faints?”
Turning back to the stove, Niamh busied herself getting the dish out of the oven. I grinned wickedly and pulled Valerie against me from behind. She looked up at me over her shoulder after I kissed her head, “Valerie Darsin, you are one awesome chick, you know that?”
Ready For Flynn, Part 2 : A Rockstar Romance (The Ready For Flynn) Page 14
