Unexpected Love (Timid Souls Book 3)

by Melanie Munton

  “Fuck. I’m going to make you feel so good, baby,” I told Felicity and her pussy.

  And then I dove in, ate everything she gave me, swallowing it down like the finest dessert…because it was.

  I got her off in record time—another thing I was proud of—and refused to wipe my mouth when I stood back up. I kissed her deeply, letting her taste herself on me until I was fully satisfied with how good I had made her body feel.

  “Oh my God,” she panted as she fought to catch her breath. “That was…”

  “Mind-blowing?”

  She nodded, taking a few more deep breaths before she met my eyes. “But next time, it’s you who’s goin’ to be blown.”

  All manner of thought left my brain.

  She just smirked at me and sauntered toward the door, her luscious tits jiggling with every step she took.

  Christ almighty.

  What the hell was this woman doing to me?

  ##

  Chapter Seven

  Felicity

  “I want to see the monkeys!” Penny said animatedly from the back seat. “And the elphelants.”

  I smiled and looked over at Gabe who had a grin on his face as he glanced in the rearview mirror at his daughter. “El-e-phants, sweetheart,” he corrected her.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see her little face scrunched up in concentration as she slowly sounded out the word. “El…e…phants.”

  Gabe chuckled. “Very good.”

  I won’t lie, I was surprised when Gabe asked me if I wanted to go to the zoo with him and Penny today. We still hadn’t had “the talk” about where the two of us were going or what either of us wanted out of this, but I thought that him asking me out on a date and trusting me enough around his daughter were both good signs.

  The fact that the self-assured, genius millionaire sitting next to me had seemed nervous when he asked me to join them had been completely heartwarming.

  I didn’t want the date to end. Hadn’t before, during, or after dinner but especially after that beyond-incredible orgasm he had just delivered in the bathroom.

  Oh my God.

  I just had sex in the bathroom of a restaurant.

  I still couldn’t believe I’d done that, but I absolutely loved the way it made me feel. Daring, adventurous, sexy, wanted. What woman didn’t love a man who acted as if he couldn’t possibly wait another second to have her? Couldn’t restrain himself from grabbing her in the middle of a crowded restaurant and taking her mouth. Couldn’t take another moment without being inside of her.

  Gabe had that sense of urgency in him every time we had sex and I couldn’t imagine a bigger turn-on. The knowledge that he needed me was unexpectedly fulfilling something inside of me that had never even been on my radar before.

  He stopped his car in front of my townhouse and turned to me in his seat. The shy Felicity of old having bowed out three sex sessions ago, I angled my body in a way that afforded him the best view of my cleavage and pasted on a coy smile. His eyes flicked down to my chest briefly before flying back up to my face, a grunt rumbling out of his chest as he adjusted the growing bulge in his pants.

  My confidence continued to soar.

  I decided to take mercy on him and speak first. “I had a really good time tonight.”

  His eyes searched mine, questions brimming in them that were left unspoken. “Me too.” He reached forward and clasped his hand over mine. “I’m not entirely sure what’s going on between us. But whatever it is, I like it. I want more of it.”

  My breath caught in my throat. Aside from hauling me into the back seat for round two, he couldn’t have made me any happier in that moment.

  “I do, too,” I told him with a squeeze of my hand.

  He smiled softly and lifted my hand up to his mouth to lay a hot, lingering kiss on my fingers. Then, his smile changed into one of uncertainty as he seemed to contemplate his next question.

  “If you’re not busy tomorrow, would you like to come to the zoo with Penny and me?” he asked.

  And here I thought he couldn’t make me any happier.

  There were so many emotions flooding my heart, my voice came out whisper soft. “I’d love to.”

  His eyes snapped up to mine. “Really? Don’t feel like you have to or anything—”

  I cut him off by leaning forward and laying a hard kiss on his lips. “I want to, Gabe,” I whispered against his lips.

  His mouth spread into a devastating smile and it was he who initiated the next kiss. A kiss that quickly became heated and could have turned into more had a loud honk down the street not broken us out of our embrace.

  His hazel eyes captured mine once again. “That’s good to hear,” he said with one last peck on my lips. “I’ll pick you up at nine.”

  And there I was, walking through the doors of the National Zoo with a six-year-old girl pulling on my hand as she fought to make us walk faster, her other hand engulfed in Gabe’s large one. The sparkle in his eyes as he watched his daughter was about as bright as the one in Penny’s when she saw a giant painting of a tiger on the wall of the lobby, pausing to stare up at it with rapt fascination.

  It was that moment I knew that I loved the little girl about as much as I loved the man.

  “I hope those shoes are comfortable,” Gabe said to me after we bought our tickets and made our way to the first exhibit. “Because she won’t stop until she’s seen everything twice.”

  I grinned as we dodged other families and small children on the paved path. “You forget, I was a gymnast. I’ve always been able to handle a lot of conditioning.”

  He put his hand on my lower back, his other one still grasping Penny’s tiny one, as he guided us toward the African mammals area. His touch felt scalding, despite the layer of clothing between his hand and my bare skin.

  He leaned forward and put his mouth right at my ear. “Trust me, I haven’t forgotten anything.”

  Oh, I hope not.

  ##

  It took a lot to wear me out. My momma used to say that I had been blessed with an extra dose of energy ever since I was born. That was one of the reasons why her and Daddy had put me in gymnastics when I was little; to burn off some of that boundless energy. Even in adulthood, I wasn’t one of those people who consumed caffeine like it was its own food group.

  But being around young children was an entirely different matter.

  And Penny Wexler had achieved the impossible. She had flat-out exhausted me.

  It was a good kind of exhaustion, though. I hadn’t even noticed it until we sat down later that afternoon to have a snack and I could feel the stiffness in my joints. Gabe hadn’t been lying; Penny had been a little force of nature from the second we entered the zoo. She ran from exhibit to exhibit, pointing to every animal she saw, squealing in delight when one got right up next to the glass.

  Monkeys were her favorite but she also loved the giraffes and thought it was hilarious when they stuck their tongues out. “Can I ride one of those, Daddy?” she asked. “Like a horsie?”

  “They’re a little too big to ride, Peanut,” he responded.

  “Look! There’s Simba!” she shouted as she pointed to the lions grazing in their patch of grass.

  I watched as Gabe kissed the top of her head and pointed to the female lion next to the one she was pointing at. “That’s right, honey. And there’s Nala right next to him.”

  And so it went with every animal. Penny would ask a ton of questions and Gabe and I would patiently answer, pointing things out to her, which she absorbed like a sponge. Gabe and I had a few opportunities for conversation whenever she was distracted, but our focus was mostly on her all afternoon, which was fine with me. It was a beautiful thing to see the two of them together, father and daughter. They had a close relationship and I fell deeper in love with both of them as the day went on.

  I had to say that I was a little surprised with how easily Penny had adapted to me being there, too. I wasn’t sure if it would have been weird for her to have m
e there instead of her mom—something I think Gabe had considered, as well—but she had been completely comfortable with my presence from the minute Gabe picked me up that morning.

  It was almost scary how normal it all felt.

  Like we were a family.

  Slow down there, girl.

  Yeah, I really needed to. Because those thoughts were dangerous.

  I shook my head and tried to push all of that to the back of my mind and just enjoy the moment, concentrate on the present instead of dwelling on the future. The three of us were sitting on a bench, each having devoured our snow cones, and were trying to clean up before we moved on.

  Gabe and I looked down at Penny whose mouth was bright blue and whose hands were covered in a sticky liquid from the melted ice. “Let’s go wash your hands, Peanut,” Gabe said to her when he got back from throwing our trash away.

  She shook her head and scooted closer to me on the bench. “I want Felicity to come with me,” she told her father.

  I wasn’t sure whose eyebrows went higher, mine or Gabe’s. He looked at me with an amused expression, though I could see the apprehension there, then he looked back at Penny. “You have to ask her if that’s okay.”

  Her dark head of hair whipped around to peer up at me. “Will you please come with me? To help me wash my hands,” she added as she held up her sticky blue hands.

  Like I would ever say no to that face.

  I smiled and held my hands out to her. I may have also gotten a blue raspberry snow cone and it may or may not have dripped onto my hands. “I think I need to wash my hands, too.” Penny giggled at me. “Let’s go,” I told her and led her to the women’s restrooms.

  I didn’t look back but I could feel Gabe’s penetrating stare follow us all the way through the swinging door.

  “Will you come back to my house and play horsies with me today?” Penny asked as I helped her soap up and scrub her hands in the sink.

  My chest tightened with a feeling I didn’t want to name and an uncertainty of how to answer that. “Maybe,” I said as we dried off our hands. “You might be too tired to play horsies when you get home.”

  “Nuh-uh,” she insisted as she shook her head at me. “I’m never too tired to play horsies. Daddy plays with me a lot, but he doesn’t really know how. He’s a boy.”

  I stifled my laugh as the image of my masculine, dirty-talking Gabe playing with girly little horses flitted through my mind. I was definitely going to have to witness that at some point.

  At the same time, though, my heart also broke for Penny. It was obvious that her mother wasn’t very active in her life and that she was desperate for some feminine company. An overwhelming compulsion to be that influence in Penny’s life had been taking over a little more every time I was around this girl, which was crazy. It wasn’t as if Gabe had asked that of me. It sure didn’t seem like he was looking for a new mom for Penny, let alone a new wife for himself.

  He was still dealing with the backlash from his first one.

  I’d had a crush on Gabe for months, had developed feelings for him before I had even realized it.

  I never expected the same to happen with his daughter.

  ##

  Chapter Eight

  Gabe

  How had everything changed so drastically in just a few short weeks?

  Because seeing my daughter walk out of that bathroom holding the hand of the woman I had been crushing on for the past several months changed something in me. The two of them looked nothing alike, of course, but something about the image of them walking hand-in-hand just looked right. The happiness emanating from both of their faces, it was like magic.

  It had never been like that with Vanessa.

  I didn’t want Penny getting too attached to Felicity since she and I hadn’t even established what we were to each other yet. I knew that for my daughter’s sake, I should probably have kept my distance from the woman—be responsible—until we had more direction.

  But I couldn’t stay away from her anymore. Didn’t want to.

  As far as I was concerned, we were in a relationship and I didn’t want out of it. I wanted to be committed to it, to her. And I was going to let her know it, make sure she felt the same way, and assure myself that she was all mine.

  Starting now.

  “I’m clean, Daddy,” Penny told me, holding her hands out for my inspection.

  I quickly looked them over but immediately focused my stare back on Felicity. “Good job, Peanut. Did you help Felicity wash hers, too?”

  Felicity bit her lower lip and her cheeks flushed. I could see Penny nod out of my peripheral vision and she grabbed one of Felicity’s hands to hold out to me. “Hers are clean, too,” she said. Then, she reached over and tugged on my hand, drawing my attention back down to her. “Can Felicity come over to our house and play horsies with me? Pleeease?”

  I could see Felicity’s eyes widen and could sense the panic in her at my daughter’s question. I wasn’t sure where that panic was originating from, but I didn’t have a single problem with the idea. I met her gaze with a challenging expression. She usually rose to the occasion when I gave her that look and I definitely wanted her to this time. I wanted her to forget whatever was freaking her out and just have a night with me, just us.

  “It’s fine with me,” I said to both girls, though my eyes never left Felicity’s. “Penny and I would love it if you came over for dinner tonight.”

  She swallowed so thickly I could practically hear it as I waited for her answer. My daughter, however, was not as patient. She lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Felicity’s tiny waist and pleaded with her, “Yeah, you have to come over! Daddy and I cook dinner together and he lets me have ice cream for dessert sometimes. Please, please, please come!”

  Felicity laughed as she hugged Penny back. When she raised her head to me again, I could tell that some of the tension had left her body.

  “What do you say, Felicity?” I asked her, the challenge still in my voice. “Want to have a sleepover?”

  She flashed me that sexy smirk that communicated seductive intention, letting me know things weren’t going to be so sweet and innocent when she got me alone. “You’re on.”

  ##

  If I thought Felicity looked good walking side-by-side with my daughter, seeing her in my home was an even bigger punch to the gut. This was our temporary home, sure, and we would be moving into our real home soon. But it didn’t matter. She still fit in perfectly with the dynamic that Penny and I had created.

  “See, you gotta do it like this, Felicity,” Penny instructed as she spread the ricotta cheese over the meat and noodles with a plastic spatula.

  We were making lasagna. I watched in fascinated amusement as my little girl showed my woman “how Daddy said to do it” when creating the layers of meat, noodles, cheese and tomato sauce. I had always wanted Penny to have a well-rounded education, wanted her to be as self-sufficient as possible. And in my mind, that included knowing how to cook. So I always did my best to incorporate her “help” into every meal I made and ensured that she understood what I was doing.

  And to see her take what she had learned from me and use it as guidance to teach Felicity the same thing made me a very proud father.

  “Do you like to cook?” Felicity asked Penny as they laid the pasta noodles on together.

  Penny nodded. “Daddy lets me help all the time. I like making cupcakes the best. They’re my favorite ‘cause I like to put the icing on.”

  Penny’s ponytail swung in the air behind her as she talked excitedly, her head bobbing back and forth. Felicity had put her hair up for me because I was terrible with it. That had probably been the biggest learning curve for me as a new father. It wasn’t figuring out the quickest way to change a diaper or what the best method of discipline was. It was learning about girl stuff. How to do hair and what outfits look the best with what shoes and the kinds of toys little girls liked.

  I had to admit that I still sucked at fixing Pen
ny’s hair, and Felicity had outright laughed at my frustration as I struggled with a simple ponytail. She had immediately taken over and had even braided a section of Penny’s hair, which she loved and kept looking at in the mirror. The woman had done all of it in about forty-five seconds.

  It just wasn’t fair.

  Two hours later, our stomachs were stuffed full of lasagna and I was combing Penny’s long black hair, having just finished giving her a bath. She and Felicity had done the dishes together at the kitchen sink while I sat at the table drinking coffee, observing the heart-wrenching scene before me.

  If I hadn’t known better, I would have said that they were mother and daughter with the connection they had.

  They talked like they had been around each other all their lives. Felicity asked Penny about school and her friends and what she liked to do other than play with her horses. She never talked down to Penny, never treated her like she was a foolish child whose opinion didn’t matter. Penny laughed at Felicity’s jokes and had literally paused in her task of drying dishes to listen to Felicity’s stories of when she was in gymnastics.

  I had a feeling that I was going to be enrolling her in gymnastics classes soon.

  But the real kicker? The part that made my heart want to burst from my chest? Penny had asked Felicity to tuck her in. Felicity hadn’t even looked at me for approval. She had just taken off straight for Penny’s room with a loving smile on her face and I had suddenly felt like an outsider. Like I’d been intruding on their relationship somehow. Like I wasn’t allowed to interfere with the bond they were building.

  And I didn’t mind at all.

  In fact, it was a huge relief to me. Comforting that Penny wasn’t so withdrawn that she could no longer let people in. Come to think of it, the most withdrawn I ever really saw her was right before I dropped her off with Vanessa and right after I picked her up. That was as a clear message as you could have.

  Penny didn’t like being around her mother.