by Fiona Murphy
As if I’ve conjured him up, Chris is closing the door to my office with a devilish smile. “Hey, sugar, you looked down this morning. I came by to cheer you up. Pants down, ass up, bend over your desk.”
I don’t hesitate. He’s so dirty, this is so wrong, people have been in and out of my office all day long. As I lay my head on the desk I whisper, “Please at least tell me Mary knows to keep people out of here.”
“She might be aware you are in a very private conference. So wet for me, such a good girl you are. Today, we’re going to try a quickie. Let’s see how fast I can make you come twice.”
The sound of his zipper is loud in the room. His fingers push inside me and head right to my clit. Holy fuck, I’m coming in two minutes according to the clock on the corner of my desk. Fifteen minutes, I have fifteen minutes until I—oh god, yes. Chris thrusts into me hard, each thrust harder, deeper, better than the last. I forget the clock, I forget the hard wood under my body; all that matters is Chris’s cock thundering inside me. Biting my hand, I fight to contain my scream as I come. Chris growls as he comes with me, hot spurts that coat me deep inside. Slowly, he moves, easing down from his climax. When he pulls out I moan at the loss of him.
“Hmm...mission accomplished. It wasn’t quite under five minutes but we have time to work on that.”
“No way, sugar, this was just to cheer you up. Since your beautiful smile is back on show we won’t be doing this again. Quickies have their place, just not when it comes to me making love to you.” He kisses my neck softly then goes down to his knees to pull up my pants.
Did he really say, ‘making love’? Did he mean it? I’m smiling for a whole new reason now.
***
Chris
Watching Amelia work the room, I can’t keep the smile off my face. She’s so beautiful, she’s glowing. After a few men got too damn close to her, trying to hug her and kiss and shit, I had to correct them. Now I can finally give her a little room. She’s laughing as she talks with her hands.
“You can take her home after this. She’s tied up everything she needed to. I’m also surprised her clothes haven’t come off her by your sheer will alone.” Karen is smiling up at me.
“I’ll be happy to.”
“I knew the minute I saw you two together there was something special. You need a little good and she needs a little bad, but don’t forget labels don’t tell the whole story. Amelia knows you aren’t defined by the bad boy label. Do you?” Before I can answer, she’s gone.
Of course I know that, but I’m not always sure Amelia does. Does she know it? I watch as Ethan enters the conference room. He looks tense, but when he smiles as he kisses Amelia’s cheek he hides it well. Our eyes meet, and he nods, then with another kiss to Amelia’s cheek he’s gone again.
Amelia makes her way to me. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, client call. He asked me to tell Holly he’s going to be a little late tonight.”
We head straight to Ethan and Holly’s place after we finally get out of the conference room. Holly is exactly what I thought she would be. Bossy, funny, pretty with curves, confident, and it’s clear she cares about Amelia. I like her instantly.
Once Ethan is home we leave Holly and Amelia in the kitchen while he shows me his office. I’m not surprised by what comes next.
“As her brother, I have to tell you if you hurt her I’ll break your pretty face. As a guy, I can’t judge you when my past before Holly wasn’t much better. It’s obvious you care about my sister. I trust her judgement in all things but men. It’s Mary who vouched for you, her I trust when it comes to men. Let’s eat. I’m starving.”
Just like that, the night was easier on everyone.
***
Chris
Waking up, the glow lasts until we’re done with breakfast when Amelia’s phone goes off with a text from Ethan. It’s a link to a news story from the night we went to the strip club. Someone sold the story of what went down in the back when Amelia was with the strippers. I frown at the thought of her thinking she felt she had to learn something from the women. The story mocks Amelia for her weight and good girl image, how she was trying to be a bad girl to keep me. Well, there goes leaving the house and her happy glow. Damn it, is she crying?
I look up. Her hand is covering her mouth and she’s laughing. It’s the moment in the conference room all over again. She’s laughing so hard she’s crying. “I’m a bad girl now. A ‘hefty’”—she uses air quotes—“femme fatale who managed to win the baddest boy in baseball.” She rolls her eyes. “How do they keep doing this? For ten years you’ve been the bad boy. You aren’t a boy anymore, and you’re so much more than a bad boy. Whatever, at least this means I’m no longer a good girl. Come on, slowpoke, I’m in the mood to hit the bookstore. I’ll put on my comfiest shoes.”
The storm I was expecting, isn’t even a sprinkle. I follow her upstairs, first we need to christen my walk-in closet.
20
Amelia
I breathe in deep the scent of Chris all around me. For the first time since we started, I’m awake before him. A whole month together...it’s weird how totally not weird it’s been living with him and spending nearly every waking hour together. We go check on the progress of the building together; I helped him pick almost everything from the color on the walls to the stain on the doors. Two more owners have sold, leaving only two tenants. It’s been so fun we’re already looking for other properties.
The plans for the new kitchen are going so smoothly I’m waiting for something horrible to happen. With the help of a female architect, the guy only lasted twenty minutes when Chris came home to find him beside me. We have a plan ready for the walls and a ridiculously expensive support beam that will be necessary. We’ve picked out everything from paint colors to backsplash but Chris really wants to wait until the season is over or at least during the season when he’ll be away for a while and I can be the one to deal with it. I startle at the way he says it. His surprise at my surprise has his eyes swirling dark blue as he kisses me then bends me over the island.
Our only breaks from each other are when I go hang out with Holly to keep an eye on her for a few hours in the afternoon, per Ethan’s orders and when he works out. I used to go watch him work out, but I kept interrupting because I would get hot and bothered watching him work up a sweat. After the third time he cut his workout short he exiled me from the basement. Killjoy.
Spending time with Holly has been fun. I help her with her editing, doing some proofreading. We talk about the books we worked on and trade suggestions. I’ve realized I really missed us being friends like we used to be before I buried myself in work. Although I still came over for dinner often and we’d all watch movies together, it wasn’t the same as when we first met at the book club she used to organize. Over the past few weeks we’ve slowly found our way back to it.
I’m also learning to cook from both Holly and Chris. Holly is teaching me to cook with all the yummy good fat. Then I come home and Chris teaches me how to cook with things like safflower oil and turkey. It’s more fun than I thought it would be. Holly isn’t as fun a teacher as Chris is, though.
I love the hours we spend in the kitchen. Chris will plug in my phone, then hit shuffle and tease me at the eclectic mix of music coming out of it. We argue East Coast rap versus West Coast, Nas versus Common, and I breathe a sigh of relief he has no love for Kanye. We sing along to Journey as well as Pink, then make out to Usher, and make love to Rihanna. I will now forever associate the smell of turkey meatloaf with the time Chris brought me to orgasm from sucking and playing with my breasts alone.
Our time out of the kitchen is even better because I’m usually right up against him as we read together, or lie on the couch together watching old games, movies, or television.
I’m feeling guilty, though, as I still haven’t gotten any closer to knowing what I want to be now that I’m a grown-up. Holly has been trying to get me interested in helping her edit, she went from a few
clients to more than she can handle. While I like doing the proofreading, I’m just a second set of eyes. I’m too worried I’ll miss something major if it’s all on me.
Hmm...Chris moves. Time to wake him up in the best way possible.
A few hours later, I’m reviewing paperwork for one of the women who came to the legal clinic for help when the doorbell rings. I look up to see Chris carrying two large suitcases toward the door.
“Come on, sugar, time to go.”
What? “Go where?”
He comes toward me with a smile, his dimples showing, blue eyes glowing. “Happy birthday, Ms. Bishop. Your gift is a week in Athens, Greece. For seven whole days we celebrate your birthday, all day, every day, whatever you want to do, we do. You want to go?”
I squeal as I hug him tight. I always wanted to go to Athens. After I graduated Penn State I got a trip to England for a week even though I pleaded for Athens. My parents declared Athens vulgar, refusing my repeated requests. My only other trip overseas was a weekend in Paris for work three years ago.
When the car takes us out of the city I’m surprised. “Where are we going?”
“Private plane, it has a bed in the back.” Chris winks at me and I laugh as I pull him down for a kiss.
The flight is long but very enjoyable as I thank him again and again for my gift. Once we land we’re taken to a hotel in the middle of Athens I swear is a palace. I can’t stop gasping as I walk through it to our enormous suite, clinging to Chris’s hand. That’s pretty much how I spend the week, gasping over the beauty that’s even more stunning in person as I cling to Chris, trailing behind him.
On my birthday I wake up to breakfast in bed. As I finish Chris hands This is already the best birthday I’ve ever had.”
“This is kind of for you and me.” It’s a plane ticket, for two weeks from now, to Phoenix. I’m confused. He reaches out to run his hand through my hair, pulling me towards him. His eyes are glowing sky blue. “I want you to come with me for spring training. Being with a player isn’t easy, I’m not at home a lot—”
I throw myself at him, cutting him off as I kiss him with all the love inside me. “I don’t care if it’s once a week for two hours, I’ll take you any way you’re willing to give me. Yes, yes, yes.”
***
Chris
When I asked Ethan about what to give Amelia, he didn’t even think before responding a trip to Athens. Apparently, it was a place she’d been wanting to go for years but for some reason never had. Of course, she wouldn’t want anything as mundane as a sparkly pair of earrings or a new handbag. Everything she wanted she usually bought for herself. Planning the trip was fun, until I got to the actual travel plans.
The layovers and hours in the air and at airports seemed like torture. Ethan even came in handy for the solution to that problem as well. He gave me the card for the private jet rental he’d used to get him and Holly back to Chicago as quick as he wanted. The cost was a bit of a surprise, but I shrugged it off. It was her birthday. I wanted it to be spent enjoying every minute, not in pain as we trudged from one gate to another. In the end it was worth every penny.
Amelia smiled so often she complained a few times that her face hurt. I just laughed as I held her close. From the Acropolis to the Parthenon, and a visit to Santorini to see the sunset, resulting in an unplanned stay in a tiny hotel that she swore was the best part, every moment felt full of her happiness.
Then came her birthday as I held her gift in my hand. I’m such a selfish bastard her birthday should be all about her. What if somewhere along the way she changed her mind? As happy as she’s seemed for the last month, what if she was putting on a show?
I’d been glad to see that although she still read, it wasn’t a daily thing. She was focused on learning to cook, chattering about her impending status as an aunt, musing about what she wanted to do with her life, pulling me behind her in the Shedd Aquarium or cuddling up to me in a movie theater or on the couch. Her excitement of redoing the kitchen is what really sold me, she was willing to dig in, warning me it wouldn’t be easy that couples fought all the time when they remodeled but she knew we wouldn’t because what I wanted in a room I spent most of the time in was more important to her than being right.
Which she was going to be by the way, she tossed at me as she pulled me down to her. I loved her sassy mouth as she whispered, at least if we fought we would find out what makeup sex was like. I laugh just thinking of the her glowing green eyes. She was present and accounted for every day, not lost in the pages of a book.
When she opened her gift, she was confused. I felt like an idiot as I realized she didn’t know what it meant, about spring training in Phoenix. The change that came over her as I told her caused happiness to balloon inside me until I thought it would burst as she told me she’d take me any way I would give myself to her.
Maybe this won’t all go sideways and fucked up. Maybe the sweetest sin I’ve ever committed would be the best thing I’ve ever done.
21
Amelia
I’m in the walk-in closet trying to decide what to take. Even in February Phoenix is hot. I can’t even remember what dressing for warm weather includes. Okay, definitely some sundresses. Chris likes the easy access of dresses, as I learned from the bag he packed for me to go to Greece. I was surprised then by how many things fit me that I hadn’t worn in a while. Out of curiosity, I try on a clingy size fourteen dress. It fits. I’m not uncomfortable, it isn’t too tight, it fits just right.
I run downstairs to find Chris in the office at his desk. “Chris!”
He looks up from his laptop. “What, sugar?”
“Look.” I twirl.
A half smile flashes a dimple. “As I tell you every day, you’re beautiful. I’m not sure how today is any different. Is it a new dress? Not bad, a little too sexy for you to be allowed far from me in it.”
Laughter bubbles out of me. He does tell me every day I’m beautiful. Sometimes he whispers it as he kisses me awake, sometimes it’s when he makes me give him a kiss before he lets go of my coffee, sometimes it’s when he holds me tight as we watch television. Every time his sincerity is in his eyes, his kiss, the way he holds me close. Every time he says it, I feel it to my toes, right to my heart. I hold out my hand to him and he’s up, taking it, pulling me against him. “I was happy because I realized I went down a size, then you make me happy by reminding me it doesn’t matter what the size my dress is. I’m so lucky you are such an arrogant asshole who knows me better than I know myself. Thank you.”
His hands go to my ass and he cups me, squeezing, molding, and caressing it the way he loves to do. “You’re welcome. Care to thank me with more than words?”
I nod with a smile as I pull him down to me.
The next day Chris is silent, serious. It worries me until he puts his fork down over breakfast.
“I know I’m probably going to mess this up, but I need to say it. I like your body the way I found you. Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed the changes in your body. They aren’t huge, but they are visible. I don’t want you to change. I don’t want you counting calories and eating salads and trying to become something different.”
It’s crazy how well he knows me. Last night I plotted ways to keep losing weight while daydreaming of making it back to a size eight. “Honestly, yes, I had plans of trying to get back to the dress size I was before I gained my weight. Then I woke up this morning knowing I didn’t want to go back to the stress of it all over again.
“I’ll probably still lose a little weight because of you, the only thing I’ve really done different is eating better with the food you cook. I finally fell in love with myself. I like her. I don’t want to change her.”
His relief is clear. “Good. I don’t want her to change either.”
***
Amelia
Chris and I travel at the crack of dawn to Phoenix. He’s renting a house in Scottsdale, only twenty minutes from where they practice and play. We get a c
ab to the house. Chris arranged for a rental Mercedes for us to drive while we are here. It will be delivered tomorrow. He was seriously going to rent a Ferrari until he remembered his cousin and her husband, as well as Catherine, will be coming to stay with us.
I’m scared spitless about meeting Catherine; my tummy’s flipping constantly just thinking of it. Chris laughed, telling me Catherine already liked me. When I asked how he knew that, he said because he did. I love when he’s silly.
The house is huge. Wow. “Chris, why in the world did you rent something this big?”
“I wasn’t sure if Catherine would be coming at the same time as Regina and Travis, and I like my space. It’s not too big.”
Unlocking the door, he thanks the cabbie while I explore. “Not that big? It’s huge.” I gasp. “A pool?” I run for the back. Holy crap, it’s not just a sliding door the door folds closed so it becomes one huge space. “I don’t have a swimsuit.”
Chris catches me around the waist. “Good, you aren’t allowed to wear one anyway.” Then he picks me up and tosses me in the water. I’m going to kill him. I break the surface as he dives in beside me.
He catches me below the water, pulling me to him. Hmm...he took the time to undress. I’ll kill him later. Turning me to face him, he drags me over his body until I’m lying on him as he swims us toward the shallow end. His body is just fucking perfect. I shiver as he tugs at my panties; the water is cool and I’m so hot. I cling to his neck as he stands, my legs wrapping around him. Our bodies align perfectly, and his cock slips inside me. Every time, every single time his first stroke is the best. Every time I want to thank him for this feeling, this moment, for him.
We’re on the stairs in the shallow end. I’m astride him in a way he’s never allowed me to be. We are so doing this again. Between his hot body against me, his hot cock inside me, and the cool water around me, I’m overwhelmed by the different sensations. His hands on my hips, hard and tight, bring me down him over and over. My hands on his chest help me push down on him, more, deeper, don’t stop. I crash hard into my climax with a scream. Chris yanks me down to him, his mouth crushing mine, taking everything as he keeps moving inside me, drawing out my orgasm, spinning me, faster, it’s too much. And then it’s perfect when he comes hot and thick inside me. This moment, every time, just like this. This ecstasy, this perfection is ours alone, his and mine, when we become one.
