by Mia Madison
Logan lives in a well-kept, two story house on the edge of town. I park and ring the doorbell, clutching onto the gift like a lifeline.
“Hi,” he says when he opens the door and gives me a quick kiss that lingers a little too long to be just a greeting between friends. He’s wearing a light blue sweater and jeans that looks so good on him. And his eyes are smiling. At me. “I’m so pleased you came. Meet the terrible tot.” He looks down at his legs. The little one is clinging to them. He rubs her hair, and she giggles and hides behind his knees and peeks out.
“Hello, Alice, isn’t it? My name’s Tia, and I’m very pleased to meet you.”
She pokes her head out a bit farther.
“I brought you this.”
Her eyes light up at the sight of the gift, and she reaches out to take it.
“You didn’t need to bring anything,” Logan says, but I can tell he’s pleased. “Let’s go through to the living room. It’s along here. Excuse the mess.” He picks up his daughter and carries her along the hall, and I follow.
There are a lot of toys about, but not much more mess than that. The house is painted in warm cream, and he’s used mainly neutral colors. It feels homely but soothing. No hard edge to it at all. We sit on the couch, and he helps Alice rip off the paper. There’s a tenderness about him I love—a gentle giant who I guess not everyone sees.
“Doggy,” she says, and cuddles the toy so hard it’s a wonder the stuffing doesn’t squeeze out.
“Say thank you to Tia,” Logan says.
“Thank you.” She beams at me.
“She just learned to say it properly,” he says, putting her on the couch with her new toy.
“I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. I hope you like that. Most of the meals I cook now are child friendly, as in they can be mashed up and spooned in. Though these days Alice’s food is not as mashed up as it used to be. Now it just gets mashed into the floor if she’s not hungry or my culinary skills are not up to scratch. So if you find a drop of spaghetti sauce somewhere I didn’t spot, you know why.”
I laugh. “Spaghetti sounds good.”
*
I love the way he helps Alice with her dinner while eating his own. It’s all I can do to focus on twirling the long strands around my fork and eating it neatly, while he seems to have no trouble at all. And he makes garlic bread to die for, which Alice also wolfs down.
“After every dinner comes bath time. Sometimes I need a shower, too, to get the food out of my hair.” He laughs. “But I seem to have escaped this time. She’s on her best behavior for you. We ran around and played chase. Maybe she didn’t have the energy to toss the meatballs.”
He wipes her face. “Bath and bed for you, little lady.” He lifts her out of the high chair. “Make yourself at home while I get her organized.”
When he goes off, I clear the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. Somehow, a task I hate doing at home feels good here.
“Hey, you don’t have to do that,” he says, when he comes back and catches me cleaning up. “That’s not what I meant by making yourself at home.”
CHAPTER 14
Logan
“I forgot what it was like to have someone other than me do anything at all here. I usually take Alice to my sister’s house when I’m at work. Anything I don’t do stays undone.”
I kiss Tia again, but not for doing the dishes. I kiss her because she’s here with me, and I want to.
“Did Alice go to sleep?” she asks.
“Yes. Out like a light. She’s cuddling her dog. That was an inspired gift. She’s mad for them. But I think a puppy would be too much chaos just now. I want to get one for her eventually. We had a dog when I was small. He used to go insane when I came in from school.”
Now that Alice is in bed, and we’re alone in the kitchen, I notice Tia biting her lip, yet I don’t think she’s usually the nervous type.
“Did you change your mind now that you understand what you’re getting into?” I ask
“Not at all.”
I smile at her. Maybe she was just thinking. I don’t know. I’m glad if she’s going into this with her eyes wide open. “I’m glad you didn’t make a run for it when I put Alice to bed. How long can you stay?”
“A few hours.”
And I’m even happier. I hoped she wasn’t going to tell me she needed to leave now that dinner is over. “Do you want to watch a movie?”
“A movie would be good, as long as you’re watching it with me.”
“I thought I would just watch you, watching the movie.”
She laughs. “Only watching? Sounds kinky.”
“Maybe a bit of touching as well.”
“Kinkier still.”
I take her by the hand and lead her to the couch, throwing the toys that ended up there today onto the floor, and pick up the remote. “Should I even pretend I’m interested in switching on the TV?”
“I always thought TVs were a terrible invention. Very distracting.”
The remote joins the toys on the floor. I switch on the lamp on the side table and pull her onto my lap for a kiss. I’ll never get tired of kissing her.
“You’re so fucking gorgeous that I’ve been distracted by thoughts of you ever since the party. I don’t need the TV to distract me.” I plant small kisses along the side of her neck and in the hollow of her throat. She nuzzles into me with a soft murmur of pleasure.
I wonder how long it’s been since anyone except her dad told her she was beautiful.
“You are, you know, amazingly lovely.”
“Maybe I’ve got scales and feathers under my clothes that will turn you right off.”
“You hid them well at the Christmas party. I didn’t spot a single scale or feather. But I’d better check in case new ones sprouted.”
She laughs as I pop a couple of buttons from her blouse open and peek inside. “Nope. I don’t see scales and feathers, only lace in here, and…” She squirms on my lap as my hand skims over the mounds of her breasts. “Skin. Beautiful, soft skin.” I dip a finger into the cup of her bra, finding a hardened nipple, and she sucks in a breath. “Something hard here, though.”
I undo more buttons on her blouse and pull one side out of her bra, bending my head to take the peak in my mouth. She moans as I suck on her nipple and graze it with my teeth, her breath coming hard and fast. Then I bite it gently, and she gives out a small squeal.
“Too much?”
“No,” she gasps out, and uncovers the other one, shyly offering it to my mouth.
And when I sense her hips arching, her hands reaching out to tease the hardness raging in my pants, I unbutton her jeans and pull them down to expose the black lace of her panties, her soft, pale thighs as gorgeous as the rest of her.
“See, not a feather or scale in sight,” I say.
“Not too, you know, fat?” she asks.
“Just perfect, ripe for kissing.” I plant a row of kisses along the soft skin from the inside of her knee right up the velvet smooth skin of her thigh to her mound, breathing in the feminine scent of her, pulling her panties to one side and dipping my tongue to taste her for the very first time.
I hear her panting above me, running her fingers through my hair. She raises her hips to meet my mouth, as greedy for my lips as I am to taste more of her.
She’s moving so much I have to hold her steady for my mouth. I pull at her panties so I don’t have to hold them open, and with a tug she is free of them and her jeans.
I look at her lying there, wearing nothing but her bra and blouse, pulled open to my eyes. And then I’m back, pleasuring her with my mouth, teasing her nipples with my fingers as I flick her clit with my tongue, while she gasps beneath me.
When the change in the tone of her voice and the speed of her breath tells me she’s close, I suck that delicious, engorged nub, and she calls out, bucking under me, and squeezes my face between her beautiful, soft thighs.
I kiss my way up her stomach to her breasts, and we lie still
for a moment as she regains her composure.
“They should prescribe that for couch surfers everywhere,” she says as I turn my face up to kiss her. “They’d soon turn off their TVs. A much better form of distraction. But now it’s your turn.”
She takes my finger and licks slowly from the base to the tip, and without taking her eyes off me, she circles the tip of my finger with the point of her tongue, and then flicks across it fast, a promise for what she has in mind. I almost come right there. Fucking sexy move, the minx.
I lift her from the couch, ready to carry her to my bed. I want her there where she belongs. I don’t want to spend the next couple of hours, if that’s all we have, making out like teenagers on the couch. I’m going to fuck her as hard as she can take, in my bed, until she screams out my name.
But there’s a cry from upstairs. Alice! Who would be a dad at moments like these? I groan and put Tia down. “I’d better go to her.”
By the time Alice calms down, so have we, and Tia is dressed. “I thought you might bring her down. I didn’t want her to come across a naked lady in her living room who she only met a couple of hours ago. It might have given her a fright. And she might not have invited me back.” She laughs. It’s great that she sees the humor in all this.
“I’d like you to stay the night, but I don’t want to rush you.”
“I don’t feel rushed. But Dad…”
“Yes. I know dads can be very protective.”
She laughs. “I need to get my own place. Once I get a job, I’ll probably move in somewhere with Cassie.”
CHAPTER 15
Tia
It’s the hardest thing ever to leave Logan at his house and drive back home, especially knowing that I left him wanting. Though I can’t say once was enough for me, either. Once with Logan just makes me want him even more.
He kisses me sweetly at the door, his lips lingering on mine, tempting me to stay. “Why do I think you’re going to feel differently about everything once you leave, and I’ll never see you again like this?”
“I won’t feel differently.”
“I hope you don’t.” He frowns. “But look what happened when we tried to get just a couple of hours alone.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll cope.” I stand on my tiptoes and kiss him again. “You have a gorgeous daughter, even when she wakes up at the wrong time. No wonder you love her to bits, and I won’t feel any differently later. I promise.”
He smiles and hugs me. “I don’t want you to go home.”
“I would stay if I could, but…”
“Your dad, I know. I don’t want to upset him either.”
I kiss Logan again. It’s as if my lips can’t help going in for another shot at that. Then I get in my car. Logan blows me a kiss as I leave, and that’s the picture I have of him in my mind as I drive the short way home. That, and the way he made me come on the couch. Better get rid of that picture from my mind before I arrive.
I think about Logan’s fear that I will change my mind about him. It’s strange, but I’ve never felt like this about anyone. That’s ridiculous, given my engagement and how little time I’ve known Logan. But when we talked over dinner, I felt like he was starting to share everything that mattered.
He told me about his family, and asked about mine. He told me how having a kid had changed him, and what it was like in Afghanistan. And he wanted to know more about me, too. What I liked to do, to read, to listen to, and what I wanted beyond working at the fire station. I liked that.
I thought I was in love with Simon, but did I really know him? Did he ever tell me about his past, his feelings, anything that mattered? Thinking back, I don’t think he did. We had fun together, but we never had a heart to heart. Nothing below the surface.
I liked him, especially at first, but now I see there was no real connection, something I’m starting to feel for Logan. That must be why Simon broke our engagement so easily. There was no real attachment to break. And also why I got over him so fast, despite all the tears. I should have been more heartbroken by his betrayal. But it seems my pride was dented more than my heart.
It’s only a couple of days before Christmas, and Dad keeps me busy shopping and preparing for our trip. We are going to his sister’s, my aunt June’s, for the holidays. There’s so much to do, I won’t see Logan at work, but we keep in touch by text.
“Alice has taken to calling her dog Tia. I think that means she likes you, not that she thinks you’re a dog.”
“lol”
“For the record, I don’t think you’re a dog either ;)”
“Thank you. I think.”
“Missed you at the fire station today. Place is missing its biggest highlight. Were you busy today?”
“Nothing important. Buying stuff to take to my aunt’s. You?”
“Fire in Alderstone. Three-story block of flats. Glad everyone got out.”
“Yes. Including you. Take care.”
“I will.”
And I send him pictures of some of the joke gifts I’m buying my aunt’s family. I want to reassure him too, in case there’s any doubt. “By the way, I haven’t changed my mind about you.”
He texts back. “Good. Can’t wait to see you again. I’ll be pleased when Christmas is over, and you return home.”
I wish we weren’t going away, but Dad doesn’t always get the holiday off, and he wants to spend Christmas with his sister’s family. I’ve never objected before, so I don’t want to start now. Last year, Dad was working and I spent Christmas with Simon’s parents. I briefly wonder if Simon will be taking Freya this year, and then realize I don’t care if he is or not.
*
My aunt hugs me when we arrive. “Sorry to hear about your engagement.”
I forgot this would be the first time I saw her since the big breakup. I smile at her. “No need to be sorry. I think it was for the best.”
She levels a look at me. “I think you really mean that. You look happy.”
“I am.”
“New man?”
“Could be.”
Dad rolls his eyes, and June catches him. “You don’t approve?”
“I’m saying nothing. It will fizzle out all the faster.”
“He’s said enough already.” I sense an ally in Aunt June, but I don’t want to get Dad’s back up, it being Christmas and all, so I give him a hug. “Apparently, my new friend is too old and has far too much baggage in the form of a very cute two-year-old daughter.”
“Have you met her?” June asks me.
“I have.”
“If that didn’t put you off, nothing will. Two is a terrible age for tantrums.”
“Yet they all grow out of it. Most of them, anyway. She seems better behaved than a lot of adults to me.”
And then the conversation moves on, and Dad and I both enjoy the Christmas break with June’s family, her husband and his kids. June’s is a second marriage, I remember. It works well for them.
I talk to Logan on the phone—a long conversation, full of promise, and I feel closer to him than ever.
On Christmas Day, he sends me a picture of him and Alice. She’s wearing the most adorable little reindeer antlers. And I want to get back and hug them both.
The link he sends me with the picture is to his Facebook page, and he’s changed his status to in a relationship with me. That’s the best Christmas present he could give me, even though we haven’t swapped gifts.
CHAPTER 16
Logan
I have to work until Christmas Day, but when I’m not at the station, I spend all my time with Alice, Emma and her family. Tia is never far from my thoughts. I can’t stop thinking about how it felt with her in my arms, how much I want her in my bed. Christmas was a source of strife when I was married. And not much fun when I was in the military far from home.
But now I get to spend it with people I love. Only Tia is missing, though it’s too soon to talk about love. In any case, I feel lucky to have Alice, despite my shitty marriage, an
d now I feel lucky to have found Tia.
She texts me, after I send the picture on Christmas Day, “I like your new Facebook status.”
And I text back, “I like it too. I hope I wasn’t being too presumptuous.”
Like a teenager, I can’t help myself checking whether she changed hers. She did!
Once, in the days after Christmas before she gets home, I ask about her dad. I can see it’s going to be awkward at work if he’s against us, but it won’t be enough to make me give her up. I don’t think I can. Not now.
She says, “He’s okay. I think he’s accepted that I’m going to see you, even if he’s not that happy about it.”
Otherwise we chat about all kinds of things, and I leave the elephants in the room—her dad’s disapproval and my ex, who is enough to ruin any kind of joyful thought at Christmas—out of it. It’s better that way.
And I tease Tia with how it will be when she gets back.
“You know you left me hanging the last time,” I tell her. “I’ve built up quite a head of steam thinking of that thing you did with your tongue and my finger. I hope you’re ready for that.”
“I’m imagining doing it right now, only not with your finger.” She laughs. A dirty laugh.
My cock jolts. “Tia, have a heart.”
“You started it.”
“Yeah, and this time we’re going to finish it, if a certain little devil decides to stay asleep.”
“You had better be quiet then when I make you come,” she says.
“Is that right? The question is who’s going to come harder?”
*
I make dinner for her on her first day back. It’s my day off, and I have a gift for her. We said we weren’t going to swap gifts, but I couldn’t resist when I saw a soft lilac cashmere sweater so perfect for her in the store.
“I love it.” She takes off her jacket and puts it on. The soft sweater makes me want to hold her more than I already do.
“But I don’t have anything for you. Just this.” She gets a bottle of wine out of her bag.
