by Lia Lee
“Fuck, Danielle, you’re driving me crazy,” Rodney groaned, but I didn’t let up, and neither did he.
After a while, Rodney took his finger out of my mouth and wrapped his hand around my throat. He didn’t do anything other than lightly stroke me with his fingertips, but the knowledge was there that he was in control, and it drove me closer and closer to another orgasm. Rodney knew how to get me hot and bothered. He knew which buttons to push. I didn’t know if it was because he knew me as a person, or because he had been with enough women that pleasure had become universal to him. I preferred to believe it was the former. Either way, he made me feel fantastic, and I didn’t want him to stop.
I stopped concentrating on what he was doing and focused on what I was feeling. Despite being in the shower with water cascading over my body, I felt like I was on fire. Every nerve ending was alive, and I was hyper-aware of everything. The feel of his hands on my skin, his hips pushing against my ass, and his cock deep inside of me, sliding in and out.
An orgasm built at my core, and it grew rapidly until it took over and drowned me in the ecstasy that came with it. I cried out, dropping my head between my arms, my wet hair hanging down. Rodney pounded away, slamming into me, and I felt my pussy close around him, my walls clamping down, and suddenly, I was aware of every inch of him as he stroked against me in and out.
I gasped, trying to catch my breath through the water that ran over my face. I lifted my head, raking the hair out of my face. Rodney spun me around, barely giving me a chance to breathe before he kissed me. He pushed me against the wall and kissed me hard, his tongue in my mouth, his hands in my hair for a moment before he ran them down my body again.
He grabbed me by the thighs and lifted me up, keeping the wall at my back to steady me as he lifted me. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and he lowered me onto his cock. I gasped as he slid into me again, deeper this time with gravity on his side. He held me under my ass and started fucking me against the wall, pushing me hard against it to hold me in place. I moaned, the sensations just this side of pain, and pleasure washed over me in waves so I wasn’t sure if I was orgasming again. All of the sensations blurred together, and the only thing I was really aware of was his breath rasping in my ear, his dick sliding in and out of me, his hands under my ass, and my breasts bouncing as we fucked.
Rodney groaned through gritted teeth, his strokes shortening, and he pumped faster into me until he pushed himself deep into me. I orgasmed at the same time he did, and our cries melted together, echoing in the bathroom with the water running down the drain in the background. He pumped into me, releasing, and my body contracted around him, milking him.
I didn’t know how long we were pressed against the wall. Eventually, Rodney let me down, planting me on wobbly legs. My body was numb, my pussy rubbed raw, and I was slick with our sex.
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” Rodney said, his voice hoarse.
He helped me back under the spray. I tipped my head back to wash my hair out of my face, and Rodney ran his hands between my legs. But this time, he was gentle, as if he knew how tender I was. I rinsed him off, too, before turning off the water. He bent and picked up two towels, wrapping one around me before taking care of himself.
When we climbed out of the shower, I dried my hair and put on pajama shorts and a tank top. Rodney rubbed his hair dry with a towel and pulled on a pair of boxers before leading me to the bed. He opened the covers and let me climb in first before he joined me. He pulled the cover over us, and I laid on his chest, his heart beating against my cheek. When it was the two of us, lying together like this, it was easy to forget about our age difference, easy to forget that my dad was his best friend, that I worked for him. That I was pregnant.
I closed my eyes, and Rodney stroked my hair. As if everything was right with the world, I drifted off.
Chapter Twenty Five
Rodney
I woke up with Danielle on her side with her back to me, her haired fanned out on my pillow. Her feet were intertwined with mine. It was the only place we were touching, but it was strangely intimate.
I loved waking up to her. I had been such an idiot, fighting it for so long. I should have given in from the start. Now that we were together and the sky hadn’t fallen, I realized it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it might be. It was just the two of us, together.
Sure, when Tommy came back from my mom’s, it would be a little hard to explain why Danielle was here and sleeping in my bed. Because I wanted her to stay here with me throughout the pregnancy, and afterward. He was old enough to start wondering about these things, but we would have to tell him soon that he would have a brother or a sister. He already liked Danielle, at least. I could only hope for the best.
Tommy and I had made it this far, and it hadn’t been easy. If we could do this, we could do anything.
I wormed out from underneath Danielle to let her sleep a little longer, and I found my phone. It had died. I hadn’t connected it to the charger last night. I had been a little distracted. I plugged the phone in and walked to the kitchen to make some coffee. I switched on my laptop to check my work emails.
When the coffee was brewing and returned to my laptop after it had booted, I opened the Techsider, a magazine that covered the latest software. An article suggested my software release would be delayed due to personal issues. I frowned.
My phone went off, messages pouring in, and I ran to the bedroom to grab the phone before it woke up Danielle. They were all from Mark.
What the hell is all over the news???
This better be a fucking joke
You’re dead.
My phone rang. I didn’t answer it. Something had gone wrong. I couldn’t deal with it if I didn’t know what it was. Another message landed in my inbox.
Answer your fucking phone!!!!!!
I opened the magazine app I used to cover all the different online magazine platforms, and my stomach sank. I was plastered all over the place, featured in a picture of me and Danielle in the rain. Kissing.
Except, we hadn’t been kissing. I had tried to shelter her from the rain. It had been at the restaurant where I was supposed to have been safe. But whether I had kissed her then or not, I had kissed her at some point. And then some. And it was out there now.
My head started throbbing dully as I read the first article that popped up. They knew who she was. I didn’t know how they’d found out who Danielle was and that it had been her I’d been out with. I guessed anyone at the restaurant could have vouched for that. An interview with Monica was posted on another page where she told the story of Danielle throwing up and that she had thought it to be morning sickness.
I lowered my phone and pinched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger. What if it had only been food poisoning? Monica hadn’t known anything. But if it had been food poisoning alone, we could have squashed the rumor. But it wasn’t. She was pregnant with my child.
And now the whole world knew that it was a possibility. The worst case scenario had happened.
I walked to the bedroom to wake Danielle. I had to talk to her about this. When I opened the bedroom door, Danielle sat up in bed, her eyes wide and panicked.
“My dad has been trying to call me non-stop,” she said. “What’s going on?”
She knew something was wrong. He’d tried to phone her yesterday, too, but it hadn’t been the same.
“It’s out,” I said. “It’s in the news.”
Danielle frowned, shaking her head as if she refused to believe it. “I don’t understand,” she said. “How?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but a hammering on the door cut me off. Danielle’s eyes widened.
“Danielle, open this door!” Mark shouted outside.
“Oh my God,” Danielle whispered.
“Rodney, you piece of shit! Face me like a man!”
I made to stand, but Danielle grabbed my hand and shook her head.
“We can’t hide in the room forever,” I said. “We hav
e to deal with this. We got ourselves into this mess.”
I stood and left the room with Danielle calling after me to stop. I walked to the front door, my stomach turning to stone. I had wanted to hide in the bedroom like Danielle, but I had to face this. Sooner, rather than later.
When I opened the door, Mark stood before me, fuming.
“Do you want to tell me why you’re all over the news, kissing my daughter?” Mark shouted. “What the fuck is this shit?! Where is Danielle?”
I lifted my hands. “Mark, calm down. Come in, so we can talk about it.”
“There’s no fucking way I’m having any kind of conversation with you, you backstabbing, two-faced, perverted son of a bitch!”
He continued to swear at me, calling me every horrid thing under the sun.
“Let me explain,” I said when I got a chance, but Mark wouldn’t hear any of it.
“No, let me,” Mark said. He pulled back, his hand balled into a fist, and swung at me. I managed to evade the blow. Behind me, Danielle screamed.
Mark tried to come at me again and again, but I was stronger than him, faster than him, and fitter than him. Mark had lived a happy life, filled with food and alcohol and lazing around. I had spent all my extra time working out to run away from my problems, to somehow undo them. I would never have thought I would end up using my skills and my fitness against my own friend because I had slept with his daughter.
“Stop it, Dad!” Danielle kept wailing whenever Mark tried to hit me. I managed to spin him around and pin his arm behind his back so he couldn’t move. He squirmed and grunted and growled, until he finally calmed down enough for me to risk letting him go.
When I did, Mark yanked his arm back and glared at me. Danielle stood in the doorway, her cheeks wet with tears. She had pulled on jeans and a t-shirt, and I was glad she hadn’t decided to come in wearing something more condemning, like my T-shirt or a robe.
“Is it true?” Mark asked Danielle. He was breathing hard, defeat in his voice now. He rubbed his shoulder, and I wondered how badly I had hurt him. “Are you pregnant with his baby?”
Danielle looked like she was going to burst into tears. She nodded.
“I love him, Daddy,” she said.
Mark and I both reacted the same way, our jaws dropping. He was horrified. I was overjoyed.
If the situation hadn’t been so dire, I would have kissed Danielle. To hear her say she loved me, to face her dad and confess it, was music to my ears. Of course, it only pissed Mark off more.
“Who the hell do you think you are? You don’t even know what love is. This is ridiculous!”
Danielle shook her head. She had been panicking about facing Mark before, but now, anger took over, and she was brilliant in her rage.
“I’m twenty-four, Dad. I’m old enough to know what love is, and old enough to make my own decisions. Old enough to have a baby, for crying out loud.”
Mark shook his head, glaring at me with eyes that spewed fire. He turned his attention back to Danielle.
“Fine, if you fancy yourself so grown up, then you’re out of the house. Don’t bother coming back home. There is no place for you there.”
I could see how devastated Danielle was to hear Mark’s words. Standing up for what she believed in had been one thing. Losing family was another.
“And you,” Mark sneered, looking at me again. “Don’t you think I’m going to give you another cent toward your company. I’m pulling all my funding. This is it. This is the end for you.”
“No, Dad,” Danielle cried. “You can’t do that!” She seemed to be more worried about me and my business than she was about herself.
Mark laughed sarcastically. “Oh, can’t I? You just watch me.”
He turned around and marched out the front door, slamming it hard enough behind him that the windows rattled. I wasn’t sure which was worse, Mark storming off after kicking his daughter out of the house, or him threatening to cut off his funding as an investor to Berry Software.
Danielle blinked at the closed front door as if she couldn’t believe what had just happened. Her face crumpled, and she started to cry. She leaned against the wall, sliding down to the floor where she sat cross-legged on the tile. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
I walked to her, kneeling next to her, and stroked her back. I felt awful. All of this was my fault. I had caused this. I had slept with this girl when she had mostly been minding her own business. I had pushed her into a position that she couldn’t get out of. Not only would we be having a baby together now, but her father had disowned her. I didn’t know if there was anything worse in the world.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” I said in soothing tones, but I wasn’t sure Danielle believed me. I wasn’t even sure I believed me. I had known Mark for a long time–he was a good friend and a great father—but when he decided he was done with something or someone, there was no going back for him. Mark barely did second chances, and to him, business was business.
“How do you know?” Danielle asked. She looked small and frail now, sitting on the floor crying. I wished I could do something to make the pain go away, to undo what had been done. But there was nothing I could do. Nothing, other than being there for her.
“I know because we have each other. Together, we’ll get through this.”
Danielle nodded, and she tried to mop up her tears with the hem of her shirt. I knew that my words weren’t good enough. There was nothing I could do or say to take the pain away. All I could do was prove to her that I had her back, and we were in this together. That no matter what happened, no matter how much she’d lost, she would still have me.
Danielle had told Mark that she loved me. She had chosen to keep the baby and to let me into her life. After losing everything else, I could only hope that this would be enough.
Chapter Twenty Six
Danielle
By Sunday, I was still at Rodney’s house. I hadn’t gone back to Lisa’s, even though I probably would have been more comfortable at my friend’s place. I didn’t have what it took to explain to her what had happened, to relive the whole thing.
I was a blubbering, hysterical mess. I couldn’t stop crying, even if I wanted to. I couldn’t blame my emotions on the pregnancy hormones. Anyone who had been kicked out of the house would feel the way I did, pregnant or not.
I couldn’t believe my dad had kicked me out. I had always thought I was his favorite, his little girl, the person he would fight to change the world for instead of sending me out there to fend for myself. I guessed everyone had their limits. Everyone had a place where they would draw the line. I had never guessed my dad’s tolerance was so shallow.
Maybe it wasn’t. This wasn’t something small, after all. Rodney was his best friend–or at least, he used to be–and not only was he twice my age, but he was my boss and the father of my unborn child. All of this was already difficult to swallow, and to find out over social media had to be the worst way for it to happen.
Maybe my dad was right in reacting the way he did. What killed me was that I was going to have a baby, and my family wouldn’t be a part of it. I had always been a daddy’s girl. If my dad didn’t want me anymore, who the hell was I?
Rodney was difficult, too. He had told me I could stay as long as I wanted, and when I had wanted to leave on Saturday night, he insisted I stay. At the same time, he was acting weird with me, giving me the cold shoulder, even though I had done nothing wrong. Of course, Rodney had lost someone, too. I had only lost my father, but Rodney had lost his best friend, and if he couldn’t manage to pull things together, he might lose the company as well. His pain would be double my own.
I locked myself in the spare bedroom and dialed my dad’s number. Even if he wouldn’t forgive me, he couldn’t pull funding. I didn’t want to be the reason for the company going under. I knew how hard he had been working and how much his company meant to him.
I dialed my dad’s number and pressed the phone to my ear. I counted how many t
imes it rang when it started. After seven, I knew I would get his voicemail. I didn’t leave a message. Instead, I tried again.
No matter how many times I tried or how many missed calls or voicemails or texts I left my dad, he didn’t answer. He didn’t want anything to do with me. He didn’t even want to hear me out. I guessed I couldn’t blame him, but it still hurt like hell. I had been defiant my whole life, breaking all the rules. My dad had been upset with me many times, but he had never taken measures this drastic. He had never rejected me.
When I finally gave up trying to call my dad, I wandered through the house to find Rodney. I was glad Tommy wasn’t home yet. Apparently, Rodney’s mom would only bring him through much later. I was relieved I wouldn’t have to put on a happy face. I didn’t have what it took to be forcefully happy.
I found Rodney in his office, a room I hadn’t been in before. It was an executive kind of room, decorated in dark brown and wine red. Rodney sat behind a large desk, his hands in his hair. When I came in, he looked up. He looked tired, even though we hadn’t had a bad night’s sleep. Emotions were more tiring than anything else.
“I tried to call my dad,” I said, sitting down in an armchair close to a full-length bookshelf. “I wanted to get him to change his mind about pulling funding, but he doesn’t want to answer. I’m sorry.”
Rodney shook his head. “Don’t be. This is not your fault.”
“It feels like it is,” I said.
Rodney leaned back in his chair. “I phoned the other investors. I had to talk to them as soon as possible. I didn’t want to leave it until tomorrow before we handled this in the meeting.”
