Written in the Stars

by Abby Knox

  Devin

  He didn’t care if anybody knew about them. Wynn had pissed him off to the point that it made everything clearer. He wanted to be with this woman and he didn’t care who knew it. If that meant he would lose his job, well, he didn’t care about that either.

  Devin didn’t think any further than that, because when he pushed the door in, Claire was waiting for him on the sofa in the living room. They both knew they had met there for one thing and only one thing.

  His lips were on her before he even took his boots and coat off. Devin never entered a home without taking off his boots.

  But she was so kissable, so in the moment, her sweet face so expectant, he didn’t stop himself. He had thought about how he would handle this moment. Devin had never given anything in his life this much forethought, but he really didn’t want to fuck this up. This was Claire. His Claire. He wanted her first time to be even better than her fantasy, and that meant being in control of himself. He decided he could do that.

  But it didn’t mean he wouldn’t absolutely ravish her body. He was on the couch and kissing her so hard, doing his best not to crush her. He felt her struggling to pull his coat off.

  He sat up and tore off his coat and tossed it along with his boots by the door. He was about to take off his hat, but she put her hand on his arm.

  “Leave your hat on.”

  He grinned at her and nodded, “Yes, ma’am.” They went back to kissing and he smoothed his hands down her sides, pulling her flimsy, satiny shirt out of the waistband of her skirt.

  Claire’s mouth was honey sweet. Her body responded to his caresses like a thirsty flower to water.

  Devin himself was a parched wanderer in the desert and she was a grand palace on an oasis.

  She sighed when Devin’s hand found her breast and gently squeezed. It fit as perfectly as an apple in his hand. He kissed his way down her neck and rubbed his thumb across her nipple over the layers of her bra and her blouse. Claire’s little gasps made his cock harder.

  He tried hard to keep his little friend calm. It wasn’t quite time yet. He was not done priming her body to receive him.

  He spoke his secrets to her in between kisses as he continued to caress her breasts, her little concave belly, her beautiful neck, her cheeks, her thighs.

  “Claire.”

  “Hmm?”

  “I have been wanting to take that jacket off you since the day you walked into my office wearing it.”

  “Maybe I should have left it on then, so you could tear it off me.”

  He laughed softly, tracing his finger over her collarbones.

  “Next time. We can role play your first day and we can pretend we’re doing it in my office with everyone watching. Do you know what role playing is?”

  She whispered that she’d been Googling some things and found that, and lots of other things she would love to try with him. The image of her typing in an internet search to prepare for having sex with him gave him a fresh surge of arousal. “That’s so fucking hot, Claire. Sorry, I shouldn’t swear around you.”

  “It’s fine. What makes you think you can’t cuss? I don’t see any kids around here.”

  He smiled and loosened the top button of her blouse. “Thank goodness for that,” he said, kissing her there just below her neckline. He unbuttoned and kissed his way down, all the way until her top fell open completely. He slowed down to take a mental snapshot of her off-white lace bra, her breasts pushing out with her heavy breathing, her pale skin flushing pink in spots from her arousal and from his touch, the satin top now hanging uselessly from her shoulders. If he was a painter he would paint her like that. He just needed to fix one thing. Devin reached up and pulled loose the stick thing from the knot in her hair, and her raven locks tumbled down around her nearly bare shoulders.

  “Claire, I want to get lost in you. I want to wander all over and inside you and get totally, completely lost.”

  Heat climbed up her neck and spread to her cheeks. “I wish you would. I’m ready.”

  She stood up from the sofa and let her satin top fall to the floor, then off came her bra, and then he heard the zip at the back of her skirt. Seconds later she was standing utterly naked in front of him. He couldn’t imagine the courage it must have taken for her to do that. He felt honored and humbled by it. And so very hard.

  Devin took her hand and led her over to his lap. “Straddle me. It might seem strange for your first time, but this way, you’re in control of the pressure.”

  She smiled and climbed on, resting her knees on either side of him. She was so close and so beautiful like this. His hands moved up her thighs. His mouth claimed her breasts, alternately sucking each nipple as she moaned. Her hands explored and landed at his buttons, making quick work of the snaps in his plaid cowboy shirt.

  He gave her a grin. “Girl, you know exactly what you’re doing to me.” He let her hands move over his rock-hard abdominals and down to his waistband. She inched herself back slightly to unzip his jeans. She then carefully opened the fly in his boxers, reached in and helped Devin’s throbbing manhood spring free.

  “Oh Devin! It’s lovely and so big!”

  He stroked her hair and then reached between her legs and found her wet pussy. “Too big?”

  But she didn’t hear, she was gasping at the entirely new sensation of his fingers making contact with her labia, her vagina. “Oh my god, Devin.”

  “You’re so wet for me, baby. I love knowing that I did that to you.”

  Her cheeks turned beet red. “Every time I pick up the office phone and hear your voice on the other end, I get wet as hell.”

  He took her hand and placed it on his shaft. “You give me an office boner just by existing.”

  “Oh, Devin.” She scattered kisses around his face and down his chest as she gingerly stroked him.

  Her hands on his cock, her kisses all over his chest, and her hair grazing his shoulders all conspired to send little shocks of electricity through his entire body.

  Devin paused to pull some things out of his pocket. She watched with interest as he took out a condom and also a small tube.

  “Baby, you probably know it can hurt a little the first time, so we’re going to use this.”

  He warmed up some lube in his hands and smoothed a small dab of it between her legs, finding her clit in the process. She gasped and bit her lip again. Hot damn, did she know what she did to him when she looked like that?

  Then he put a dab in her hand. “You can put it on for me.”

  After he put on the condom she rubbed the lube on for him, her hands becoming more assertive. She licked her lips and then smiled. Holy hell, he was going to enjoy those lips on his cock one day. One thing at a time, dude.

  Claire inched her body over his shaft. Devin guided himself in just past the tip and waited for her reaction. She smiled down at him and her cheeks flushed. She took control and sank slightly deeper, then deeper still. He felt her body jerk with the pain of breaking through. She closed her eyes and bit her lip. Her brow furrowed slightly.

  “Hey, talk to me Claire.”

  She opened her eyes and he saw a tear in the corner. She blinked it away. “I’m good.”

  “Am I hurting you?”

  She shook her head. “Just for a bit. I’m just so happy you’re my first.”

  Claire moved all the way down on his shaft. The sensation was pure and warm and tight. She gasped and released a high-pitched moan, thrusting into him and clawing his back.

  Then a totally new feeling came over Devin. Like getting lost in the woods and finally seeing his way back to where he started. He had found his perfect woman.

  She started to move up and down on him, her tightness claiming him, fiercer with each thrust.

  “You feel like home, Claire.”

  “I feel like I’m waking up for the first time,” she replied.

  Wanting to hear her moan again, he angled his head down and kissed her breasts, gently sucking one nipple and then the other. He
loved having them at eye level. Each time he nipped her tight little buds with his teeth, she moaned for him and thrust harder.

  For a virgin, she seemed to naturally know what to do.

  “You’re so good at this, love.”

  She breathlessly replied, “I’m just doing the things I’ve been wanting to do to you every time I see your ass walk by my desk.”

  He smiled and squeezed her tit, making her moan a little louder. “What else would you like to do to me?”

  She clamped down hard around his cock. “Just this.”

  Oh my god. “Perfect. You’re perfect, Claire.”

  Devin’s hands slowly made their way downward to find her clitoris again. When he touched this most sensitive spot, he began to tease it in sync with her thrusting.

  “Devin, that’s so good.”

  They moved together, riding the wave of pleasure in each other’s bodies. The slow burn built to a frenzy until he unleashed. He came inside her with a primal noise that surprised even himself. Her climax soon followed. “Oh my god, oh my god. Oh…my…god!” She screamed—actually screamed—as her sex seized around him.

  He noted her look of carefree happiness, of being lost in the moment. He was meant to keep her looking like that for as long as possible, every day for the rest of his life.

  He held her close and rested his hand against her welcoming breasts. She ran her fingers through his hair and kissed the top of his head. She had shivered with pleasure all the way through her orgasm, but now Devin realized she was shivering from the cold.

  He grabbed a quilt off the back of the couch and wrapped it around her shoulders. She curled into him and he held her.

  “Do you want me to get off your lap now?”

  He inhaled the scent of her scalp and rubbed her back. “Never. Never ever, ever get up off my lap, ever for the rest of my life.”

  She laughed and her breath warmed his chest.

  All that mattered was right here. He didn’t care about work Christmas parties. Office protocol. Family politics. Rules. None of it. He was never afraid of anything. Even less so now.

  She seemed to be reading his mind. “What do we do now, about your sister, I mean?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I want to stay here with you, but we should really get back to work,” she said.

  “Yes, we should.”

  She asked, “Do you have a plan?”

  “I say we just do what comes naturally and fuck everybody else. If they want to think I hired you for your looks, then let them think that.”

  She rested the side of her head on his shoulder and traced a finger over his pectorals. “OK. But…maybe you did pretty blatantly hire me because you were attracted to me?”

  “Or maybe we’re both paranoid and nobody thinks anything,” he said.

  “Devin, neither of us are back from lunch yet and it’s 1:30. I think the cat’s so far out of the bag, it can’t even see the bag on the horizon anymore.”

  He shrugged. “Then there’s nothing we can do about that now. Just keep doing your job and let me handle my sister.”

  “Speaking of,” she said, sliding off him, “we should really get back to work and you need to call Wynn.”

  He hated to admit it but she was right.

  “OK, but when can we do this again?”

  “Probably not too often during work hours, just to be safe,” she said.

  Then he had an idea. “Come with me to the company party. It’ll be great. It’ll be like our first date. It’s Friday night, after I get back from Kansas. You’re the only thing that could make that night bearable.”

  As she dressed she reminded him she had no babysitter.

  He thought about this and said, “I will figure something out. Do you trust me?”

  She shrugged as she pulled up her skirt. “Maybe?”

  After Friday night, there would be no maybe. He would make sure of it.

  Chapter 15

  Claire

  Devin’s two-day trip to Kansas may have been good for the company, but it meant that Claire had to endure the office staff’s extremely awkward brunch Christmas party/cookie exchange.

  To which she had brought bakery cookies. Nobody verbally judged her for that, but she definitely felt the judgment as nobody filled up their tins with anything she had brought.

  She didn’t have her own tin, so she sipped their coffee and didn’t speak. Maybe if she sat still enough, they would forget she was there.

  “Everything all right, dear?” Cora was watching her as always.

  Claire put on her best smile and nodded. “I’m not much of a baker.”

  Cora put a condescending hand on her arm. “Not everyone needs to be a baker. I’m sure the boss has recognized your other…talents.”

  She felt her face go deep red and her stomach flip-flop. God, Devin, why didn’t you catch an early flight back?

  Chapter 16

  Devin

  He probably should not have lied to Claire about where he was that Friday morning. After his meeting, he remembered that today was the final deadline for turning in gifts to the assistance agency for the Helping Star tree. So, he had caught an early flight home Thursday night and decided to do some shopping Friday morning.

  At Mason’s General Store, he stared so hard at the plethora of art supplies that he didn’t hear a woman asking him if he needed help.

  At first, he thought it might have been the clerk who had been eyeballing him and Claire when they were kissing. But then when he really looked, he saw another customer—a very pretty, petite woman with a toddler sitting inside the shopping cart looking at a book, and a baby feeding while snuggled up inside one those hippie-looking baby carrier things. He didn’t know what they were called.

  “Maggie!” Devin tried not to crush the baby while giving his younger foster sister a hug.

  She smiled. “How’s my Little Devvy?”

  “I’m still older than you, remember? Good grief, are you still calling me that?”

  “Aw, sorry, bro. Emma, look! It’s your uncle Devin!”

  Devin nodded and tipped his hat at the little girl. “Ma’am.”

  She looked up and said, “Are you a real cowboy?”

  “I used to be, until your Auntie Wynn decided to be a real b—”

  Maggie laughed and cut him off. “Good story. Seriously, Dev.”

  Emma said, “I’m getting a cow for Christmas, you can come play cowboy at my house!”

  Dev looked at his sister. “A cow? Way to spoil the kid, Maggie.”

  His sister rolled her eyes. “Not exactly, we’re expanding into grass-fed beef. It’s been a long process, but we’re finally ready. We told Emma she could name one of them. Just don’t tell her what happens in the end, OK? But seriously, you should come and check it out once they get here. We’d love a few pointers on raising cattle. It’s not a huge herd of cattle like WX Genetics, but it’s respectable.”

  He agreed just to get his sister to stop talking.

  “What are you doing here?” Maggie asked. “I thought you were supposed to be working up at the office now?”

  He shook his head but couldn’t help but smile inwardly. Wynn was one flavor of sister, but Maggie always could win him over. “Yes, I suppose all my sisters are policing me now.”

  She laughed, “Yeah, I know Wynn’s got you over a barrel, doesn’t she? That’s just her way with men, I guess. Anyway, why are you looking for art supplies and what have you done with the body of my big brother?”

  He took out the crumpled paper star from his pocket and showed it to her. “Giving Tree stuff. This girl wants art supplies and I want to give her the best, but I don’t know what is the best and what is garbage. You know, like those brushes where the hairs fall out.”

  Maggie looked elated. Whenever she got that look, there was no stopping the train of thought. It had left the station and was barreling over the mountain at 100 mph and everybody better just get their shit out of the way.

&nbs
p; The next second, she was filling his cart with the best brushes, paints, paper and other accessories that the store carried. Devin assumed they were the best; he wouldn’t know a watercolor from a charcoal pencil, so he had no choice but to go along with it.

  “That should get the kid started, and here…” She adjusted the baby at her breast and switched him to the other breast. “Here, reach into my bag, will you?”

  “No way I’m doing that.”

  “Dude, what do you think I carry in my bag? Snakes? Get on in there and grab the little mini accordion file thingy, it’s blue. “

  He felt like he could not say no to a woman who was working on getting a crying infant attached to her breast in the middle of the General Store, so he did as she asked.

  He opened it and pulled out a piece of card stock with calligraphy on it and fancy flowery borders. It read, “Good for __ art classes at the Rock Barn at Morning Glory Farms,” and it gave the address.

  She said, “I’m starting an after-school program, mixed ages. Like a one-room schoolhouse situation. Kids will come and do homework, run around the farm, ride a horse, learn about animals, do chores if they choose to, or just hang out. And art lessons are included. Go ahead and write ten classes on there and her mom or dad can decide if they want to do it as part of an after-school program or with regular classes on weekends. Next summer I’m going to do a summer camp too, if I can get help. She can pick whatever ten classes and mix them however she wants.”

  “That’s incredible! Thank you, little sis. I gotta run over to the outfitters and sporting goods store. This other kid wants freeze-dried meals.”

  She nodded. “You might have to hit Gander Mountain in Mount Pleasant for that. Jackson has to go there to get any half-decent camping supplies. You have a long day ahead of you.”

  She made sure he had her number if he had any other questions about the art supplies, which he wouldn’t, because he didn’t currently have a phone and did not want one. But he did have a favor to ask her.

  When he asked it, she was almost overjoyed to say yes. “Dev, I’m so happy for you, I would be insulted if you didn’t ask me to do this for you.”