by MJ Fields
“They were sexy as sin,” he cuts me off.
I laugh at his joke. He doesn’t.
“Tell me you’re kidding.”
“I had to hold the tablet in front of my pants for a reason.” He tips his glass to me and winks.
“I’m going to not question your sanity and imagine whatever other odd kinks you may have.”
He sets his glass down and leans in. “I’ve spent a lifetime surrounded by women who care more about exuding sex appeal and wearing the most expensive labels. Women who’d look past being treated as property for material gains. Not one has worn panties that screamed, I could give a fuck less what ye think like those knickers did, Elizabeth. Coupled with yer blatant fuck-you-I- haven’t-time attitude, ye became something I needed beneath me.”
“Well, dang.”
He shrugs and leans back. “Then, well, out of true concern, I dialed a number and all that went to hell. I didn’t want to just redden yer arse, I needed to ken it was okay, because ye made me so, Elizabeth Bloom.”
Goosies … everywhere.
“Now, shall we eat?”
I nod as I look into his eyes. Eyes that are expressing a million different emotions, yet none seem to be mixed nor dull the other. They show me lust. They show me concern. They show me determination. And I swear they show me love.
As he plates the steak then cuts mine, I’m not surprised that it’s cooked to perfection.
“It looks amazing.”
He nods. “Aye, even more so when you live with a wee little vegetarian determined to save every animal she’s ever seen.”
Reusable bags, sexy accent, amazing lover, not just emotionally stable, but woke AF, silicone lids instead of plastic wrap, single dad who has clear love for his daughter and knows what he wants, and in my non overthinking, anxiety-ridden, lucid mind, one of those things is me.
Standing at the sink beside him, rinsing dishes as he loads them in the dishwasher, sexual energy like static electricity jolts between us each time we touch.
He closes the dishwasher and turns toward me. “I had a million places I wanted to lay ye out tonight, to devour ye, but I want ye in my bed so fucking bad that my desire to be a gentleman is getting beat to hell by my need to make ye come.”
Jesus, is he real?
“Pinch me.”
He looks at me oddly.
“A figure of speech.”
He grips my waist. “I was thinking ye had a kink ye needed explored.”
“I’m happy to be a passenger as long as you’re in the driver’s seat.”
“Fuck,” he growls before his mouth crashes against mine.
Saturday
Ethan
She’s lying naked in my bed, the sun lightly filtered with the sheer curtains hanging over the large windows overlooking the landscape of the backyard. The room is big enough that it stretches to both sides of the house, yet I’ve never paid attention to anything but the street side until now.
Why?
Elizabeth Bloom’s bedroom window is the view from the front.
I prefer her in my bed than seeing shadows across the way and allowing myself to imagine it’s her.
Her raven hair is loose and fanned out over my pillow and hers, the white sheet lays diagonal across her body. One perfect breast rises and falls, uncovered. My mouth waters with my desire to bring her rose-colored nipple to a sharp peak just to see what isn’t lust alone in her eyes. The curve of her hip, her full, sexy thigh, and bended knee leading to her strong calf, and slim ankle now adorning my gift … I crave everything about Elizabeth Bloom.
Everything.
I have one charm to gift her each week leading up to the four-day trip that I must take to Scotland. The trip coincides with a long weekend, in which Kai’s grandparents were given visitation by the court, per their request.
They refuse to discuss arrangements with me; their preference to do it through lawyers, which pisses me off when they’re granting the requests without being consulted.
It won’t happen again. I’ve made sure my lawyer has made that abundantly clear. I’ve blocked their access to her the best I can, but I am sure Christmas was changed. They’re not even Christians, for fuck’s sake, yet they tried to impress upon the courts that it was important to them.
Grandparent rights may be important to a child’s wellbeing in some cases, but the grief they live, borne of regrets they have, will not force me to lend sympathy to unsympathetic people. I was only allowed four hours with them hovering with my Kai for eight years. They deserve far less, and they have received it.
They didn’t win that battle, so I’ll be surprising Kai with her first trip to Scotland. My heart’s desire is to show her that part of her genetic makeup, the part that has no doubt been villainized enough that she has “little” desire to see it.
It won’t be Elizabeth’s first trip to Scotland though. Well, I’m hoping it won’t.
Which is why I sit here, cock hard, salivating at the sight of her instead of licking her sweet cunt before fucking her hard enough to feel me for however long it is until I do it to her again.
I want her un-fucked reaction to my requesting her company. Then, when she accepts, she’ll remain that way. I won’t fuck her again. I’ll own her, as she owns me.
Eyes on her ankle, fixated on the reality of what she means to me, I remind myself that patience is an actual virtue, one I’ve never met its acquaintance, aside from the situation with Kai, and now Elizabeth. Polar opposite situations, yet both drawing very similar conclusions.
“What are you doing way over there?”
I look up as she quickly pulls the sheet off her then covers herself again.
“Would ye do me a favor, Elizabeth Bloom?”
“I’ll do as many as you’ll do for me … more if necessary.”
“Fuck.” I place my hand over my heart. “This is it, isn’t it?”
She sits up quickly. “Are you okay?”
When she starts to get out of bed, I hold up my hand. “Stay, please.”
“Ethan, are you okay? Is Kai okay? Do you need—”
“I’m in love with ye,” rushes out, and I immediately wish I could take it back when I see the shocked look on her face.
I throw myself back in my chair and run my hand through my hair then down my face, as if that could somehow erase the way that revelation was revealed. “T’was not the way I wished to tell ye.”
When she starts giggling, I pull my hand from my face and watch as she covers her mouth.
“Are ye laughing at me, Elizabeth?”
She now uses both hands to cover her mouth as she falls back on the bed and her body shakes in spurts of giggles.
“Never in my life have I seen such nonsense,” I mutter as I stand up and stomp toward her.
“Nor have I.” She laughs harder now.
“Explain, woman,” I say, pulling her hands from her face.
Beaming, she’s fucking beaming. “Ethan, love is the good stuff, the best actually, and you make it sound like an announcement.”
“Ye’re laughing at something that’s very serious and that I would like ye to give serious thought to.”
She sits up, grinning like Kai does when I tell her we’re going for ice cream. “It’s not something to consider; it’s a feeling. Ponder maybe, but—”
“Then ponder it.”
Again, she laughs and covers her face. This time, it’s endearing.
“We’ve pondered it. Tried to deny it. Wished for it.”
“We meaning ye and yerself?”
She nods. “Me and myself.”
“In the future, me and myself need to ensure, I is included. Meaning, when we question feelings between us”—I point to her—“ye”—then back at myself—“I would like to have full access to any doubts so that they can be squashed immediately.”
“You’re freaking adorable. So …” Smiling, she reaches for me.
I take her hands and allow them on my chest. “They have to st
ay put. They move anywhere but, and this meeting will be totally off track.”
“We’re having a meeting?” Her voice squeaks.
“Businesses have failed, empires fallen, because there is no direction amongst those involved. I won’t let that happen. We have to be on the same page. So promise me when ye’re holding those meetings in that place in yer head, that if it involves in any way, shape, or form my love for ye, that I get a vote.”
“Is this about being the best?”
“I don’t do anything half-assed, Elizabeth, and I’ll be dammed sure when it comes to my treatment of ye, meeting yer needs, being yer partner will come first in my life.”
She nods and looks up, tears filling her eyes. “Me and myself want you to know that I have loved you for weeks.”
“Then come to visit Scotland with me.”
“What?” Her bottom lip quivers.
“I want to show ye my country,” I say as I wipe tears from her eyes.
“I don’t have a passport.” She sniffs.
“We’ll make that happen.”
“When?”
“Yer next four-day weekend.”
“Are you for real?”
“I am and so is my love for ye.”
Monday
Waiting for Kai to come home while the pain in the ass “partner,” who insisted on working her bloody shift because she insists on paying for her passport instead of letting me, I feel a weight lift off me that I hadn’t realized was ever there.
We made love twice, and we discussed how to deal with telling Kai that we’re together.
Elizabeth insists no overnights where Kai may wake up and find her in my bed, and as much of an irritation as that will be, it also shows how much she cares for my daughter. Not that I doubted it. Kai adores her, and she has a very good sense of people and their true intentions. I see it in her body language.
In fact, when she returned, the first thing she wanted to do was take Scotch out so she could ride her bike, and she stopped in front of Elizabeth’s house and spoke her first words to me in the thirty minutes she had been home.
“Can I say hi?”
“Ms. Bloom’s at work.”
“There’s no school.”
“She works two jobs. The school and a restaurant by the water.”
“Why?”
“To make extra money.”
“Why does she need extra money?”
“Apparently, Ms. Bloom has an expensive habit.”
“What?”
“It’s called Ben and Jerry’s.”
“Who are Ben and Jerry?”
“Ye’ll have to let her explain.”
“Does she have two boyfriends?”
First, what in the fuck? Second, what has my little girl thinking it’s okay to have two boyfriends? And third, why am I all of the sudden pissed off at ice cream?
She giggles, snapping me from all those disturbing thoughts.
“What’s so funny?”
“You like Ms. Bloom.”
“She’s a very lickable …” Fuuuuckkk. “Likeable person.”
“You said lickable.”
Parent fail number one. Yes, one. This was one hundred percent my fault.
“I didn’t.”
“Uh-huh.” She smirks.
“I think ye’re just craving ice cream. How about we get Scotch home and go get some?”
She nods and grins.
“Kai, did you lose a tooth?”
She quickly closes her lips around her teeth, scowls, and her face grows red.
I squat down. “It’s okay, a sheòid; I was just wondering.”
She nods.
“Then we better hurry and get Scotch back. We have cause to celebrate.”
She puckers and twists her lips.
“These things are called milestones. And in this house, we celebrate milestones.”
“Can we have dinner first?”
I nod while trying to check my anger at them so it doesn’t resonate to her. “I’ll cook you anything you want.”
“Can we go out to dinner?”
Shocked, because she’s been adamant about eating dinner at home and knowing crowds set off her anxiety, I nod. “Of course.”
“Somewhere by the water?” she asks, getting back on her bike.
“Yes, of course.”
Tuesday
Lizzie
Soaking in the bath, I keep my leg raised because I may be healed, but it’s obviously going to take some getting used to. Plus, I ended up covering the last three hours of Lucy’s shift because her water broke.
My phone rings and, knowing myself all too well, I don’t dare to keep the phone in hand while soaking, so I lean over and gasp when I see the picture that pops up on the screen identifying the caller.
Laughing, I hit “Accept.”
“Ethan James Stewart, what in the hell did you do to my phone?”
He sighs. “Right, about that—”
“How did you get into my phone?” I interrupt when understanding hits.
“This should be an in-person conversation.”
“I’m taking a bath.”
“I know.”
I sit up, and water nearly splashes my screen. “How do you know I’m taking a bath?”
“I’m not sure how to explain this other than”—he pauses—“fate a good enough answer for ya?”
“Ethan,” I growl his name.
“Are you challenging me?”
“Questioning you, yes.”
“Yer security code isn’t hard; it’s like mine … Well, sort of. Forty-four is my country code and twelve is Kai’s birth month. Yers is your parents’ birth month, and I know their birthday because of the text. That part is divine, pure, and untampered with truths, Elizabeth. Ye may have not given me access directly, but I was given it indirectly.”
Seriously?
Totally okay with it.
He continues, “I changed the caller identification for me, because I thought my cock looked better than Ethan Jamie Outlander dash Stewart and the drooling face emoji and may serve as a reminder of why I am, in fact, better for ye than the television and yer vibrating wand.”
I cover the laugh threatening to escape.
He sighs heavily. “My bedroom window faces yer house; I see when the lights are on, and I know the rooms in it, so I know ye’re in the bathroom. Is that acceptable?”
“Oddly, yes.”
“Good. Now, can we discuss the other member of the Stewart clan who is seemingly as obsessed with ye as I am?”
“She’s my favorite member of the clan, so yes.”
“I’ve been demoted, have I?”
“Your creeping set you back, big guy, but rest assured, your actual member is my favorite of any clan, so that should make you feel totes-ma-goats better.”
“What the fuck is a totes-ma-goats?”
I can’t help laughing. “It’s something you should never say again if you ever want anyone to take you seriously, Dr. Stewart.”
He sighs.
“Talk to me, Ethan.”
“She’s on to me.”
“What?”
“She thinks I lost my chance with ye because of two men named Ben and Jerry.”
“What?” I laugh.
“We talked about taking this very slow with her, but she devised this whole dinner thing tonight.”
“Okay, you’re confusing me. Let’s start at the beginning.”
He tells me all about the conversation in front of my house, and I laugh so hard I snort.
When he gets serious about why it bothers him, I close my eyes and listen while he steps out of his normal character and rants a bit.
God, I love this man.
“She lost a tooth, Elizabeth, and no one made a big deal about it. She deserves to have a big deal made of her.”
“I agree, but you’re forgetting something very important.”
“What’s that?”
“The Ethan effect. You have a way a
bout you that makes everyone feel special.”
“Only those I love.”
“I bet you’re an amazing doctor.”
“Elizabeth, ye’ve met me in my office. I’m an asshole.”
We both laugh for a good minute when he says, “Tomorrow, I go back to being an asshole.”
“I’m sorry. Coming off a vacation is killer.”
“Not if ye love what ye do,” he states.
“Amen!” I laugh. “I agree totally.”
“I’m glad ye love yer career, Elizabeth.”
“Speaking of, who’s picking Kai up from school?”
“Maryanne.”
“Kai seems to adore her.”
“She’s been part of her life since she began school. She was her aide.”
“And she came to work for you?”
“She’s great for Kai—some consistency. Plus, I pay more, so she’s very happy, too.”
“See? You’re rocking fatherhood and everything else you touch.”
“I’m glad ye approve.” He yawns. “It’s one in the morning, love. I’ve kept you too long.”
Love.
Swoon.
Keep me forever.
“Well, then, sweet dreams.”
Softly, he whispers, “A chuisle mo chroi.”
His Rs roll over me, causing me to moan, and I have no idea what the hell he said, but honestly, it doesn’t matter much at all.
While lying in bed, my phone chimes, and I laugh as I grab it, seeing Ethan’s name.
When I open the text, I see he’s shared his location with me.
I type out a response.
Is this in case you run so I’ll know where to find you?
Ethan: I have yours, you may as well have mine. You have Kai’s, as well. Please understand, Elizabeth, I feel very protective over the ones I love and love me in return.
It’s the end of a very blah Tuesday; pretty sure it has a lot to do with the knowledge that I won’t be seeing Ethan at pick-up, but when Kai walks in with her teacher, Miss Mancy, no doubt skipping recess again, I feel much better.
“Hey, Kai.” I smile, and she smiles back.
