May the Best Man Win

by BJ Bentley

  “Did you sleep well?” I asked, eyeing her over the rim of my coffee mug.

  She darted a glance at me but opted to shovel a forkful of eggs into her mouth rather than answer my question. I chuckled at her obvious reluctance to admit that she slept soundly while wrapped in my arms. It seemed that everything about her morning after behavior was making me chuckle.

  “Why are you still here?” she mumbled, chewing her bacon. She clearly had no qualms about talking with her mouth full.

  “We’re having breakfast.”

  She rolled her eyes. “No, I mean, I’m surprised you didn’t bolt right after...you know.”

  I sat back in my chair, assessing her body language. She seemed like she was on guard for something. Waiting for the other shoe to drop, perhaps? “You expected me to what? Fuck you and chuck you, as the kids say?”

  “Something like that,” she muttered.

  “Eat your breakfast and get dressed. We have to leave in an hour.” I stood, taking my empty dishes to the sink and washing them.

  “What’s all this ‘we’ nonsense? I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Except for that part where you are. You’re going with me. To my house. On Sundays, when the weather’s nice, Tierney and I like to be outside. Today, we’re going to Washington Park.”

  Washington Park was a vast recreational space that included the Oregon Zoo, the Portland Children’s Museum, several gardens, and open park space among a few other attractions. There was always something to do there, and it gave Tierney and I the opportunity to establish a routine where we could bond without getting bored.

  “Just out of curiosity, and not because I’m at all interested, but what do you guys do on Sundays when the weather’s not nice?”

  “Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, obviously,” I deadpanned.

  “Obviously.”

  Her small smile triggered one of my own. “So, finish up. There’s fun to be had. You do remember what that word means, right?”

  She narrowed her gaze. “Have you been talking to April?”

  “No…,” I drawled in confusion. Taking in her mulish expression, I continued, “I promise you won’t have to steal any pigs.”

  Her lips twitched as she tried to bite back her smile. “Fine,” she huffed. “But I’m still not convinced that this is a good idea. I’m Tierney’s teacher.”

  “Yes, you are, and an excellent one at that.”

  “This could get messy,” she warned, chewing her lip in worry.

  I pushed off the counter where I’d been leaning and stood before her. “We’ll definitely get messy,” I rasped, intentionally misunderstanding her concern. I let her see the heat in my gaze so she wouldn’t miss my meaning. Her quick inhale told me she’d caught my drift. “Dirty, sticky, sweaty messy.”

  “I don’t know if I’m ready for this.”

  “Trust me, doll, you aren’t.” It was a promise.

  ***

  The moment we entered Washington Park, Sophie visibly relaxed. She’d been a little tense and awkward on the drive over, probably because she suddenly didn’t know how to act around Tierney. I guess sleeping with your student’s father will make you question your ethical boundaries. I didn’t have that problem; we weren’t doing anything wrong. Sophie, on the other hand, was hung up on other people’s perceptions about her. She cared that people might talk or make assumptions about her, our relationship, and her treatment of Tierney. I knew she had concerns about not giving Tierney special treatment, but those concerns were wholly unfounded. Tierney was incredibly bright and well behaved. She didn’t need special treatment. Besides, I was me. If I wanted her to have special treatment, I’d just throw some money around and make it happen. As it was, it was a moot point.

  Tierney walked between us as we entered the park.

  “Where do you want to go first, baby girl?”

  “The Forestry Center,” she answered, unsurprisingly. My daughter was as fascinated with the earth’s environment as she was with any of the other planets she liked to study. “Then the zoo,” she added after a pause.

  “Okay.”

  “And then rose garden!” she added before turning to Sophie and saying, “Do you like roses, Miss James?”

  “Well, sure.” Sophie shrugged. “Do you know anybody who doesn’t?”

  Tierney’s face twisted in thought before she shook her head. “Um, no.”

  “Exactly.”

  I smiled at my girls’ banter and decided that I wanted every Sunday to be just like this one. Waking up with Sophie in my arms, us sharing breakfast, and the three of us spending the day together. A family. The only thing I’d do differently going forward is work morning sex into the routine.

  Coming upon the entrance to the World Forestry Center, Tierney made a beeline for the petrified stump on display. She was obsessed with the petrified chunk of Giant Sequoia that was now a mineral likeness of the original tree trunk. It was always the first thing she wanted to see whenever we visited, and I wondered at how she could still get so excited seeing the same thing every single time.

  “She’s different with you,” Sophie said softly.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I just mean she’s...more childlike, if that makes sense. I mean, she’s only seven years old, but in class she’s quiet. Reserved. Not shy, exactly, but...incredibly studious.”

  I mulled over her observations. “Yeah, I guess I’m not surprised. I think she knows she’s different than the other kids. Smarter, for instance,” I said, only half-jokingly before sobering. “She got picked on last year. The other kids in her class called her a nerd because she wears glasses and has her nose stuck in a book ninety-nine percent of the time. Well, you know how kids are.” I shrugged. “So, if she’s a bit more sedate around the other kids in her class or keeps to herself, I understand it. I don’t like it, but I get it.”

  Sophie’s expression turned pained, though I didn’t quite understand why. Tierney’s behavior was a defense mechanism, but I didn’t think she was suffering because of the bullying from the year before. And, as far as I knew, it was no longer happening. At least, not since I’d had a talk with Sophie about Kyle Morris.

  My steps faltered when I realized Sophie had stopped walking. I turned sideways, so I could face her and still keep Tierney in my peripheral vision.

  “She doesn’t go outside for recess.” She was still speaking quietly, though there was no way Tierney was close enough to hear her. “Kids her age should be free to play. She shouldn’t have to fear the actions of others.”

  “What does she do if she’s not at recess?”

  “I have a reading nook in the back of the classroom. She likes to read.”

  “Ah. That doesn’t surprise me either. Listen, Soph, don’t worry about it. Tierney may not be the same as other kids her age, but she’s not unhappy.”

  She still looked worried, so I worked to distract her by grabbing her hand and tugging until she was flush against me.

  “Hey, doll. It’s Sunday Funday. No frowning.” I planted a quick kiss on her mouth and strolled away, whistling.

  I made it to where Tierney was standing, inspecting the petrified stump with a critical eye. “What are you thinking, baby girl?”

  “Hm. What percentage of this do you think is calcite?”

  “Good question.”

  “It’s from North Dakota.”

  “Okay.” I waited for her to continue, since merely knowing the stump’s origin wasn’t enough information for me to provide her with an adequate answer.

  “So, what’s the mineral composition of the soil in North Dakota?”

  I shook my head. “That’s your area of expertise, not mine.”

  She looked thoughtful for a moment before asking, “Can we Google it when we get home?”

  “Sure, babygirl, we can Google it.”

  “Okay. I wanna show Miss James the plates,” she said, bounding off.

  “Tierney, don’t leave my sight!” I called, watc
hing her immediately slow her roll. Kid had a habit of getting excited and forgetting that she couldn’t just take off whenever she wanted.

  I turned back to Sophie, who had been quietly standing a few feet away, watching, as Tierney and I were talking. Her expression was soft and her eyes had a slightly glazed look. “Sophie?” I called softly, taking her hand and intertwining our fingers. Her eyes drifted to mine. “You okay?”

  She blinked. “Yeah.”

  “Come on.” I tilted my head in the direction of the entrance. “Tierney wants to show you something.”

  “Okay.” She was responding, but she still seemed a little dazed.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine, Damon.”

  I blinked in surprise when her hand squeezed mine. I had fully expected her to pull away rather than accept my casual yet intimate touch. Sophie’s walls were towering and fortified, and I had been thinking that if I couldn’t tear them down or blast my way through, I might have to find a way to tunnel under. I may have been falling for her, but I was still me, and I wasn’t above employing a little artful manipulation to get what I want.

  Somehow, I had made more progress in one weekend than I had made in several weeks of trying to get her attention. I just wasn’t quite sure how I’d done it. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth or question Divine Providence, I returned her hand squeeze and dropped the subject.

  Chapter 15

  Sophie

  “Don’t come.”

  Damon’s command did little to stop my muscles from clenching as the orgasm ripped through me. In fact, his dictate seemed to have the opposite effect. Like fuel on a fire, I burned hotter and faster.

  “Somebody’s not very good at following instructions,” he growled. He pulled out of me and flipped me to my stomach before landing a stinging slap to my ass. “Up,” he ordered, grabbing me by the hips and pulling me from his massive bed.

  It was three days after our Sunday outing to Washington Park. I hadn’t had any contact with Damon at all on Monday or Tuesday, and I was steadily rebuilding the walls that had crumbled over the weekend. Or at least I was, until each time I looked at Tierney in my classroom, and the carefully laid bricks tumbled all over again. Damon on his own was arrogant and overbearing, but Damon with his daughter was another monster altogether. The kind of monster that appeared harmless and unassuming on the surface, so it could more easily slip past your defenses.

  With Tierney, Damon was less of the obnoxious cad I’d always taken him for and more of the good-natured teddy bear he’d apparently been hiding beneath his callous exterior. I was coming to realize that I may have misjudged him, and while that should have been reassuring, I found it terrifying. The more I started to like him, the more I wanted to open up to him, and that kind of vulnerability was something I couldn’t afford.

  “Don’t move.”

  This time, Damon’s command dared me to defy him. He’d moved me from the bed to the floor-to-ceiling window which overlooked the Douglas fir and ponderosa pine-covered landscape beyond. With my palms laid flat against the cool glass and my panting breaths fogging up the surface, I wondered if we could be seen from below. Damon’s massive house was fairly isolated on its hill, so it wasn’t likely, but the possibility still gave me a thrill that I wasn’t all too sure I should be feeling.

  “Damon?” I called over my shoulder, feeling a coolness at my back where his body heat should have been. He didn’t answer me, but he was back behind me before I could turn around.

  A piece of fabric appeared before my eyes, and Damon’s hot breath caressed my ear as he whispered, “I gave you an order, and you disobeyed.” He wrapped one of his silk ties- the one he’d been wearing earlier- around my head, effectively blindfolding me. “Now, I’m going to show you what happens to bad girls.”

  A mixture of fear and anticipation had me pressing the pads of my fingers into the glass. Deprived of my eyesight and not hearing a peep from Damon, my sense of touch was heightened. I shifted my weight to the balls of my feet and back again, feeling like a caged tiger, until I felt a feather-light caress behind one knee. Was he touching me with his fingers or a feather? I couldn’t tell; the touch was too light and fleeting. The sensation traveled up the back of my thigh until it reached the curve of my behind and then disappeared.

  A breath blew across my heated skin, and goosebumps broke out all over my body as my flesh tightened. “Damon,” I gasped, just as he drew his wet tongue through the cleft between my cheeks. My toes curled into the plush carpet, my legs shaking with the force it took to keep my knees from giving out.

  “I’m going to move you, and no matter what, you’re going to keep your hands on the glass.”

  This time I did what he said, knowing he was going to punish me for disobeying him earlier. Holding my hips, he pulled me backward. My hands slid down the glass as he moved me into a folded position, bent over at a ninety degree angle. He slid his hands from my hips, down the outside of my thighs until he finally reached my ankles, pulling each one out so that my legs were spread far more than shoulder-width apart. I sensed him, rather than felt him, position himself between my legs.

  Seconds ticked by with neither of us speaking or moving. The only sound was that of my own blood rushing in my ears. Finally, Damon blew a breath across my folds, causing me to flinch. A low rumbling shook my body when Damon’s mouth landed where his breath had caressed me. The sound didn’t come from Damon, it was my own relieved moan. His mouth worked between my legs, building another orgasm deep in my core until the dam broke and I shattered. The intensity of the build-up had been just as potent as the orgasm itself, and I had to give the man credit- he knew how to get a woman off.

  I hadn’t recovered by the time he stood and thrust inside me once more. I felt him lean over my back and remove my blindfold. I blinked rapidly, trying to adjust my eyes with my restored vision.

  “Look at us,” he said.

  It took me a moment to realize he was referring to our reflection in the expansive window.

  “Watch me fuck you, Sophie.”

  And I did. I watched us in the glass as he claimed me.

  I took in my hooded eyes and parted lips.

  The way my ample breasts swayed with each powerful thrust.

  Damon’s skin, glistening with sweat.

  The way he bit his lip like he was trying to hold back a snarl because it felt so good to be inside me that he ached from the pleasure.

  “Oh, god,” I whimpered just as I felt another orgasm erupt. It was too much. Too intense. Too soon.

  “Fuck!” Damon bit out as I felt him stiffen as he came.

  Folding himself over my back, he laid a trail of soft kisses down my spine. Both of us were panting, Damon from exertion, but me from the overwhelming emotions I felt bubbling to the surface.

  “What the hell was that?” I asked with a tremulous chuckle. If I didn’t lighten the mood, I would cry.

  “That, doll, is what happens to girls who misbehave,” he rasped, still trying to catch his breath.

  “Well, as far as punishments go, that might have been a little extreme.” I groaned as he pulled out of me, my body aching at the loss.

  “Punishment? Oh, Sophie, bad girls don’t get punished. They get rewarded.”

  I felt an aftershock in my pussy. His tone told me he was excited at the prospect of my future defiance, and if I was honest with myself, so was I. It had been so very long since I was anyone other than Serious Sophie. I’d spent years as the responsible teacher and reliable sister, two roles that I excelled at because I worked hard for them. I suddenly didn’t feel like working so hard anymore. The temptation to be reckless was strong, but remembering what was at stake, I squashed the impulse.

  Finally feeling like I had strength back in my limbs, I stood up straight and turned to face Damon. “I should get going.”

  “Stay,” he said over his shoulder.

  It wasn’t worded as a request, but I treated it like one, non
etheless. “I really can’t. It’s a school night.”

  He finished tying off the condom and chucked it in the trash. “Soph, it’s late. Just climb into bed with me and sleep. I promise to drive you home in plenty of time to get ready for work.”

  “I shouldn’t.”

  “But why not?” he challenged.

  I opened my mouth with the intention of listing a litany of reasons why spending the night was a bad idea, but not a single one of them made it past my lips. “I think we need to set some clear boundaries.”

  He sighed. “Alright, I’m willing to hear you out.” He spread his arms in a gesture of expectation.

  Taking a deep breath, I laid down the ground rules. “I’m willing to keep seeing you, so long as we keep this casual.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Casual?”

  “Yes. The occasional date is acceptable. Sex is a given, obviously, but I think we should forego sleepovers or anything else that may foster a false sense of intimacy.”

  “False sense of intimacy? Do you even hear yourself right now?” He didn’t sound angry, just incredulous.

  “Tierney-”

  “No. Stop,” he insisted, holding up his hand. “This has nothing to do with Tierney. This has to do with you running scared.”

  “I’m not scared,” I lied through my teeth.

  “Babe, you are petrified of letting me get close. You always have been, and to an extent, I get it. I come with a reputation. But I don’t even think this is about that. I think you’re too busy trying to be one version of yourself, that you’re afraid to indulge the others. Let the other Sophies come out to play for a while.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “Other Sophies?”

  “Sure. Let Serious Sophie be in charge Monday through Friday from eight to three.”

  How did he know I refer to myself as Serious Sophie? “So, during school hours?”

  He nodded once. “I’ve gotten a peek at Silly Sophie when you get around your sister, and I’d like to meet her for myself. And when we’re together, like this, you can let Sexy Sophie take the wheel.” He wrapped his hands around both of my elbows and pulled me into him.