by Lia Lee
“She’s broken-hearted, you asshole. She’s not all right. I can’t believe you!”
“Give me a minute to breathe, Lana! I had no idea this was going to happen!”
“You had the sex!” Lana pointed out, gesturing her knife toward him. “You can deal with the consequences!”
“We were using condoms! I didn’t know my secretary was poking holes in them!”
Lana let her hand drop. “Oh my God. Are you serious?”
“Yes.” Samson pushed his fingers through his hair and shook his head wearily. “I don’t know… I genuinely never considered she would go that far. I didn’t intend to lead her on. I was very clear when I told her about the job…”
“Don’t blame yourself. Who would suspect her to go that psycho over you?”
Samson pursed his lips. “So, April is here?”
Lana pinched her lips to the side and then finally stepped back. “Go easy on her. You don’t have any idea what it’s like to be in this situation.”
“I have some idea of what it’s like to shockingly be put in the position of a parent, yes.” Samson tried to fix his hair and his clothes.
“You’re fine. She’ll just be happy to see you.”
“She blocked my number.”
“She was pretty sure you were done with her.”
Samson spun around. “How? How could she think that? I told her how much I love her!”
“Because, Sammy. She spent most of her life not being loved.”
Samson felt his shoulders slumping from the weight of the difficulty in front of him. With any of the girls in any of the cities he’d been in, he would never have felt the burden of teaching them what it felt like to be appreciated and loved. He would never have cared enough to do so.
“Thanks, sis,” Samson said. He headed for April’s room.
Inside, he could hear some soft jazz music. It was from a band they’d heard play several weeks ago. It was hard for him to believe that they’d only been dating since the middle of the summer. Samson felt like April had become such an integral part of his life. He rapped on the door.
“I’m decent,” April said.
Samson poked his head in. April was sitting on the floor in the middle of several boxes, clothes in different piles, and a little black dog sniffing around each. “It’s me.”
“I know. I heard you yelling. Your secretary needs therapy.”
“She needs to be blacklisted and sued into the ground.”
“You would know better than I about the legal ramifications of birth control sabotage. Or the legal ramifications of anything. It’s not my specialty.”
Samson came over to sit next to her. “April, I don’t want to talk about her.”
April kept starring down at the dress in her hands, her brow scrunched up as though she didn’t know where to put it.
“Are you leaving? Are you going to New York?”
That caused her to look up. “What? I’m not going to New York.”
“Then why are you packing?”
“I’m sorting clothes that I need to put away until after the baby comes,” she said flatly. “And looking through some that Garcia’s wife dropped off, since apparently I can’t keep a secret about anything. I don’t know how you kept me out of the tabloids.”
“Money. Bribed ‘em.”
April laughed softly. “That’s not true.”
“It is. I knew how important it was to you that our relationship not affect your work. Imagine my surprise when you left the job you love.” Samson started to move closer, but the dog barked at him. He stared at it until it hopped in place and then hid behind the chair.
“I can’t work there. Not with you, not if… Not if we aren’t together. It’s too hard.” April covered her face. “I’m not trying to manipulate you. I’m just, you know, knocked up and all that.”
Samson tentatively put a hand on her knee. “You can cry if you want to. I will admit to drinking a lot of wine over the past week. With whatever emotional outpourings that might lead to.”
April arched a brow at him skeptically. “What do you want from me?”
“I want you to move in. April, I love you. A baby doesn’t change that.” He reached over and wiped some wetness from her blotchy cheek. “It was never that I didn’t want you. And I would never want to do anything to hurt you or make you leave. It was only that, because I have no relationship to speak of with my father, I don’t know if I’m ready for that.”
“Well, you’d better get ready, Samson! Or get out! Because if you want me, the baby’s part of the deal now. I know you didn’t choose it, and neither did I, but this is where we are.” Fat tears rolled down her cheeks, and she sobbed once before spitting out, “Dammit!”
Samson slipped in behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “I just have to admit how I’m feeling about being a father. I’m not ready now, but we have time.”
“Not that much time.”
“Given that we were already moving towards some kind of commitment, or we would have if I’d been able to convince you to live with me, I think we were already on this path. It’s simply new and very, very shocking.” Samson kissed her temple, and April sobbed again, then buried her face in his chest.
“I thought I’d done something wrong. I thought I’d ruined it.”
“No.” Samson cupped her cheek, and she looked up at him again. He found her beautiful, even like this. “You are everything, April. You are my night and my day. You are my lioness and my mouse. You are my person.”
April laughed and leaned up to kiss him. “You finally got it.”
“We may not have had the families we wanted, but that’s no reason for us not to try to build one. That’s what we do every day. We take what’s there, and we make something new and beautiful.” Samson pulled her closer to him. “Unfortunately, you’re going to have to pick up the bulk of the work on this one.”
“I don’t mind. I love her already. Or him.”
“See? You’re already so good at this. I’m going to have to let you take the lead once again.”
Samson watched her distressed eyes slowly growing warm and full. The tears that came now were happy, and Samson and April began to kiss, moving toward one another at the same time. He kissed the salt of her tears from her face and stroked her hair, determined to make sure she knew how precious she was to him.
Fatherhood would come. His own father had grown into it, albeit it had taken him twelve years. Samson fancied himself a quicker study that that, and he had April, who knew how to fight for what she wanted when she had the confidence to do it. He had no doubt that April would fight for him and their child with an unrivaled ferocity.
Samson lifted her onto the bed without breaking their kiss. He couldn’t stop touching her. It had been too long, and he had needed her too much. She pulled her blouse over her head in a fluid motion, revealing breasts that were spilling out of her bra. Samson blessed each with careful kisses, knowing they must still be sensitive.
His kisses descended in a line from her perfect, swollen breasts, to the sweetest little curve rising up from her pelvic bone. They were one now. It had been true before, but now they had to try even harder to make their foundation a strong one. He placed a kiss right at the curve and looked up at her meaningfully.
She unfastened the safety pin holding her shorts together and slipped out of them. Gratefully, Samson began to nibbled and lick along the inside of her thigh. She sighed happily and reached out for his hair. His hands cupped over her buttocks, appreciatively squeezing, and he moved his face closer to her lips.
She smelled different. Good, but more intensely sexual. Her body had been at work, changing and preparing. All Samson could do was worship it. And so he did, spreading her lips with his fingers, and administering broad laps inside. He’d been with her long enough to know that it would drive her the wildest if he alternated his lapping, not letting the sensation become too intense on either side. Just bringing her up to the edge, over and over
, moving around, and all the while, gently rubbing her mound where soft blonde hair curled shyly.
Her fingers tightened in his hair and her panting grew higher, more needful. Her body was calling for more, and he gave it, lapping faster, and slipping two fingers inside her to rub at the back of her channel. Soon, her whole body was quivering as she moaned and her thighs clenched against his head as though to keep him at his work.
Samson didn’t slow, falter, or rest until his job was done. She was gasping and sweating and her fingers had clamped down on his hair, and all he could thing was how luscious she was, and how much pleasure he would give her for the rest of her life.
A bit proudly, he felt her come twice before he left her off the hook. Even then, he remained in position for a few minutes longer, enjoying the twitch of her lips against his, before he crawled up into the bed with her.
“You are a master.” April made a bowing motion with both hands.
“The pleasure is all mine. Well, most of it is.” Samson curled up against her and rested his hand on her side. “I owed you a bit of relaxation, after all the stress of the last week.”
“There’s going to be more stress. For instance, where will we live after you’re done in Houston? Will I come with you? Will we travel with the baby? What about—”
Samson pressed his head against hers. “It doesn’t matter. We’re both good planners. We will come up with a plan.”
“Okay.” April nuzzled against him. “I’m so glad Lana didn’t stab you.”
“That was a close one.”
Samson trailed his fingers along her stomach, wondering at how she had crashed into his life one day in a tank top and cut-offs and changed everything.
“I never thought I was a man meant for love,” Samson admitted. “I thought I could do without it. Until you.”
“Oh yeah?” April smirked. “Well, you’re welcome.”
“Thank you.”
Epilogue
April checked her rearview mirror as she entered the parking lot. She was definitely excited, and more than a little on edge. She slid into her designated parking spot and leapt out of the car.
She was smiling from ear to ear as she bounced in the elevator, waiting for it to reach the office. Finally, the doors opened, and suddenly there were balloons everywhere, and streamers, and the screaming of a startled toddler. Samson lifted Jude up and gave April a sheepish grin and a wave.
“It’s Mommy!” Samson said. “Hey, kiddo! It’s Mommy! She’s back. Can you say 66th Annual Progressive Architecture Award?”
“There is no hope for this kid,” Lana said. “You two are far too dorky.”
“I may be a dork, but I’m a winner.” April came over and took Jude from Samson and peppered kisses all over her baby boy’s face. She hadn’t wanted to go without her fiancé to New York, but Samson insisted that it was important for her to accept recognition for her work. He was a lot more comfortable being on his own with Jude since the boy had started running around the house. Jude was big, and healthy, and now that Samson wasn’t afraid that he’d break him, he played with him whenever he got the chance.
The Progressive Architecture Award was the third one she’d won for Bennett Industries, but it was by far the one she was most proud of. After years of hard work and dedicated progress in designing and consulting on almost a hundred projects, April had the honor of adding a major structure to the a major city skyline here in Portland.
It was beyond a dream come true.
Samson slipped behind her and gave her a hug and kiss. “I’m so proud of you, babe. We got cake.”
“I love cake.”
“Let me take this heartbreaker.” Lana took Jude from April’s reluctant arms. “You can’t eat with a toddler on you.”
Jude grabbed Lana’s hair.
“Ow. I know you love my hair, but leave me some, would ya?”
April cast a glance back at her son. She had missed him so much, but she would have all evening with her boys. Samson put his arm around her shoulder and guided her to the cake.
“Oh! It’s the Aqua Tower from Chicago!” April turned and gave him a kiss. “That’s so fun. You know, for all the travel we’ve done, I still compare every trip to that first one.”
“You have such low expectations that I can never disappoint you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s our story. It’s part of how we met. Plus, we screwed in a bootlegger’s parlor.” April rested her shoulder on his head. “Do you think anyone will ever fall in love outside of my building?”
“Probably. As we speak. I haven’t been that impressed with Portland.”
“They have amazing doughnuts here. And their city planning is lightyears ahead of Houston.”
“True.” Samson took her hand. “Look, I have something to talk to you about.”
April pried her gaze away from a few coworkers who had taken to dancing with some of the fallen balloons. “What is it?”
“My parents want to have dinner with us. I told them that you would be tired from your trip, and I would have to ask you.” Samson licked his lips. “My father now calls you The Boss.”
“That’s hilarious, considering you’re still literally my boss.”
“You’re not a first-year worker anymore. You’re one of my lead architects.”
April squeezed his hand. “If you feel up to it, I don’t mind. I think they just want to get close to the grandkid. I’m glad your father’s being nicer to you now anyway, even if it is only for Jude’s sake.”
“I don’t really care what changed in the old man.” Samson leaned over and cut her a piece of cake. “They RSVP’d for the wedding, by the way. They’re definitely coming.”
April took her cake. “That’s amazing. As long as they behave.”
“I’ll tell them The Boss said so.”
“Sleeping with The Boss has worked out so well for both of us.”
Samson forked a piece of cake and held it up to her lips. She took the bite and then wiped the side of her mouth as she smiled. Feeding each other cake was on their ever growing list of things not to do at the wedding, so they had to get these embarrassing, cloying behaviors out of their system. The day was quickly approaching, and things were falling into place. What had once seemed like a foreign concept was now what Samson looked forward to the most. They had to resist the urge to elope so that they could be married already.
April knew they needed to have a real ceremony. It was time. The two of them, their son, all of their friends, and their two dogs Damien and Gigi; it was a celebration of their relationship and what they had built together with love and a lot of determination. As they had both learned to love and be loved, it was like patching up the holes that had been left in them by careless people.
And all that was left was the beauty that they had so ambitiously created.
THE END
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All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2015-2016 Sophia Lynn.
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Chapter One
Laine’s eyes narrowed into thin slits and fixed on the temp.
His eyes went wide as plates. The clock ticked. A tumbleweed may have passed by.
He set his notepad down on Laine’s desk and picked up the phone. “Brandt Interiors,” he half-sang, “This is Jacob speaking. How may I direct your call?”
Laine smiled victoriously and looked back to her computer screen. She had a lot of work to compl
ete on this account before going home for the night. Convincing the Madisons that they needed to redo their den as well as all of their bathrooms—and that she was the only decorator in the state (and especially the only one at Brandt Interiors) they should even consider—had put her schedule back a few days, but it would be worth it. The commission on this account was going to be astronomical. Mr. Brandt had a tendency of overlooking her work or handing her assignments over to more senior (and more male) employees, but once he saw what she’d done here, turning a bathroom remodel into a whole home project, he would have to notice her. A raise and preferential leads couldn’t be far behind.
Jacob tried to hand her the phone, but she cut him off with a wagging finger.
“It’s your sister.”
She met his eye, sucked in her cheeks, and then went back to work.
“She’ll have to get back to you,” Jacob said. He rolled his eyes after taking a message and then reclaimed his notepad before returning to his business.
If Laine had a second to breathe, she might have felt guilty for blowing off her baby sister Emma. But Emma’s already-bustling acting career had taken off in the past year, and she rarely made time for Laine and their father. No doubt Emma was between takes or photoshoots or fabulous lunches with beautiful people. She could wait a few hours for Laine to take a break.
Laine had been hired at Brandt Interiors directly after her graduation from Parsons four years ago. Ever since, her life had been patterns, swatches, and haggling with suppliers. It was just how she liked it, aside from having to scavenge for recognition among less-talented associates. It didn’t leave much time for those rare creatures known as weekends and vacations, though. Laine only took time off to go visit her father, who lived alone upstate. Laine called him almost every day. He was about as good at making social ties as Laine was. Emma had tried to play matchmaker for him throughout her high school years, but it had come to nothing. Greg McConnell had always been a one-woman man.
“Hiii-eee!” Emma sang from the doorway, rapping her knuckles up and down the frame.
