“Well, you’re going to have to get used to it, because I plan to spend more time with her.”
“Good.” But my gut tightened at the idea of being away from Maisie. I was an asshole for thinking it, but I wished to God Veronica’d find being a mother as distasteful as she had three years ago and leave again.
“Is that my daddy?” I heard Maisie say in the background. My heart leapt to my throat and the need to hug my daughter nearly brought me to my knees.
“Yes, sweetie. Do you want to say hello?” Veronica asked her.
“Yes.”
“She just finished taking a bath and wants to talk to you.”
“Hi Daddy.”
I sank into a chair as her sweet voice filled my ears. “Hey, lazy Maisie. Are you having fun?”
“Yes. They don’t have a yard here, but the park is across the street. There is a zoo there. Papa Leo says we can go tomorrow.”
Papa? What the fuck? “That sounds like fun, baby. I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
“He said maybe we could get a dog too.”
My heart didn’t know whether to rip in two or hammer in rage. Were they just trying to be a normal family or were they trying to take my little girl from me? “Huh … listen, can you put your mom back on? I love you, baby. Have fun.”
“I love you daddy.” I heard a kiss.
“See, she’s fine.” Veronica huffed when she got back on the line.
“She’s allergic to dogs. Cats too.”
There was silence. Because I didn’t want her to think I was calling her out, I said. “She’d like a shrimp.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“Swear to God, Veronica. She had a friend at school who had one and she wanted one too. Ask her about it.”
There was a long sigh. “I’ve got to go.”
“Okay.”
She hung up before I could say any more. I sat, not sure what to make of the conversation but in my gut, it didn’t sit well.
The next day, I kept my curtain closed when I woke. I didn’t want to see Tessa and be reminded of the fuck up I was. That didn’t stop my dick from remembering how tight she was, or how beautiful she was as her orgasm washed through her. But I didn’t indulge him. He got me into this mess, now he was going to go cold turkey. I’d risk blue balls because the guilt was a bitch.
To take my mind off missing Maisie and to avoid seeing Tessa, I decided to tour my gyms. They wouldn’t be expecting me, which would allow me to see how they were running. Fortunately, they were all running well.
When I got back to town, it was late afternoon. Not wanting to risk seeing Tessa, I stopped by the local sports bar for a late lunch. I knew the owner from college. We’d studied business together and maintained a friendship. He invited me to go to a club with him later that night. He had a woman he was trying to attract and wanted a wingman. I apologized, but declined. I wanted to be home in case Maisie called.
I arrived home right as Tessa and her roommate Corrine were exiting their house. My eyes nearly popped from head at the sight of Tessa. She wore a green dress that made her eyes shine, and her skin look soft and silky. It also left little to the imagination, accentuating her perfect tits, the curve of her hips, and sexy legs. Once I got over the surprise, I got pissed. Now that she lost her v-card she was going out to find another guy to fuck? I wanted to confront her and ask her if she’d just used me. But then I remembered I’d been the one to put a stop to any idea of further fucking. What an idiot, my dick said as I watched her get into her car. I wanted to kill whatever man was going to be able to touch her even as I knew it was my own damn fault.
To distract myself when I got inside my house, I decided to move the furniture. Maybe if the couch was in a different direction, I wouldn’t think about how sexy Tessa looked laying naked on it. It didn’t work. Thankfully, Maisie called on her mom’s phone and she told me all about the animals she saw with her mommy and Papa Leo. I tried to be upbeat, but inside my gut was roiling.
I headed to bed early, hoping to escape the torment in my life, but I had no luck there either. Turns out my dick controlled my sleep. Tessa showed up, naked and beautiful as usual. She sucked my dick and then let me finish by fucking her tits. I woke to a cum-filled mess. Good thing it was laundry day.
9
Tessa
I couldn’t get out of Dylan’s house fast enough. What had I been thinking that I should ask him to be my first? I’d thought I was a mature woman, but in truth, I’d been a silly girl. I accepted that he wouldn’t let love in his life again, or at least I thought I had. But as my heart broke with each step to my house, I realized that I’d hoped he’d change his mind. That he’d realize my feelings were sincere and want what I could offer. Idiot.
I entered the house, planning to make a b-line to my bedroom to cry.
“Hey,” Corrine said from the couch where she sat with a young man I hadn’t met. “You’re finally home. Matt and I have been waiting for you to settle a bet.”
I gathered strength to appear normal. “Oh?”
“Yeah, I told him that the woman who got out of the dark fancy sedan this afternoon was Veronica Tisdale, but he doesn’t believe me.”
“Why would Veronica Tisdale be here … next door?” Matt shook his head.
“Because her daughter lives there,” I said.
“See, I told you it was her.” Corrine gave him a light punch.
“She has a daughter?” Matt’s expression was incredulous.
“Yep.”
“I guess she’s taking Maisie for the weekend. Did you stay so long to soothe Dylan’s soul?” Corrine waggled her brows suggestively. I guess I did, but I wasn’t going to admit I gave myself to him only to have him get away from me as fast as possible.
“He owed me money.” I said.
“So what is she like?” Matt asked.
“Maisie?”
“No, Veronica.”
“She’s not your type,” Corrine said.
“She’s all right, I guess. She’s married again.” After I said it, I wondered if I shouldn’t have. Was it a secret? “I’m heading back to my room.”
“You okay?” Corrine asked.
“Yeah. Just tired. And I need to check in with my parents. I haven’t spoken to them this week.”
Corrine seemed to accept that. I just shut my door behind me when mortification at what I’d done with Dylan hit, and then I cried. Planting myself face first on my bed, I wept. I wanted to hate him or at least be mad, but it was my own fault. He’d told me he wasn’t interested in relationships. He tried to stop me from throwing myself at him. The only person I could be upset with was me. How would I face him again?
Eventually I fell asleep, but in my dreams, Dylan was there, looking so sexy but out of reach. I was a fool to think he’d be interested in me.
I woke feeling completely drained. The house was quiet as it was still early. I headed to the kitchen to make coffee, glancing out the window as I filled the carafe with water. Dylan’s curtain was closed. He normally had it open by this time. Was he sleeping in now that Maisie was away? Did he know that I liked to look over to catch a glimpse of him and wanted to make sure I couldn’t? Humiliation flooded me again.
I finished making coffee and sat staring off into space as I tried to figure out what I’d do over the weekend and how I’d ever face Dylan again.
“You’re up early,” Corrine said entering the kitchen.
“So are you.”
“Matt’s gotta get going, so …” She gave me a sheepish smile as she went to get coffee.
“So, you and Matt?” I said, trying to be happy that at least one person had a love life.
“Maybe. So far so good, anyway.” She sat at the table with me. “He’s showering and then heading out.”
“Where’s Allison?”
“She went home. Her grandma is sick or something. You want to do something today?”
“Sure.” Anything to take my mind off my disastrous eve
ning with Dylan.
After coffee, I showered and dressed. Corrine and I decided to go to the mall to shop. Since we were planning to go out that night, we wanted to buy new outfits. It was money I shouldn’t spend, and yet since I probably wouldn’t be able to afford my last year of grad school, I decided to live it up a little. Retail therapy.
I found a dark green dress that was more revealing than I normally wore, but feeling like it was time to move on from Dylan, I decided to buy it.
“Ooh la la,” Corrine said when I exited the dressing room to show her. “You look hot, Tessa. The guys are going to be all over you.”
I swallowed the nerves at that idea. After all, that’s what I needed. It was time I stopped pining for Dylan and opened myself to the idea of meeting another guy.
We had a late lunch, and then headed home to get ready for the club that night. I worked to push Dylan out of my mind as I put on the sexy dress and did my hair and makeup. But it was no use. As I looked at myself in the mirror, I wondered if he’d like what he saw. Would he see a woman or a love-sick coed?
Inwardly I growled at myself and my stupid crush on him. “I hope I meet someone even better tonight,” I told my reflection.
As we left the house, Dylan pulled his car into the drive. I worked to not look at him as he got out, but of course, I was helpless. I chanced a glance. His eyes narrowed as if he didn’t like what he saw.
I swallowed the pain at that and reminded myself that tonight, I’d be like a normal twenty-three-year-old woman. I’d dance and drink and flirt.
In the club, Corrine and I found a table not far from the dance floor and ordered drinks.
“Hello, ladies.”
That was fast, I thought, until I looked up at the voice and saw it was Matt.
“You stalking me?” Corrine asked teasingly.
“Yep.” He took a seat and waved his hand toward the bar. “Do you mind if my buddy Jared joins us?”
Oh God, was I being set up by Corrine and her new boyfriend? I looked to the man who was approaching. Okay, so he didn’t look so bad. In fact, he was actually really attractive in a boyish, clean-cut way.
He stopped by the table.
“Jar this is Corrine … she’s mine, so hands off. And this is Tessa, I don’t know if she’s spoken for.”
Jared quirked a brow. “Is this a set up?”
“I thought the same thing,” I said.
“It’s friends getting together,” Corrine insisted.
Jared sat in the empty chair next to me. “Well Tessa, I guess it’s you and me tonight.”
“Are you disappointed?”
“Hell no.” His eyes scanned my face and then lower. “Not at all. Do you want to dance?”
“Sure.”
“Behave,” Matt said as Jared and I stood to go to the dance floor.
“You heard him. Behave Tessa,” Jared said as he pressed his hand on my lower back to lead me to the dance floor.
“I’ll do my best, but no promises.”
He smiled. “I like your style.”
I would like to say that Jared totally made me forget Dylan, but that would be a lie, which was a disappointment. Jared was smart and fun and moved well on the dance floor. But I couldn’t help but compare him to Dylan. Even so, when he asked if he could call me some time, I gave him my number. I couldn’t expect to get Dylan out of my system in one day. He wasn’t going to leave it at all if I pined for him either. I needed to move on and live my life, and if Jared wanted to spend time with me, he seemed like the perfect solution to my problems.
That night in bed, I woke up in a heated rush, my body throbbing with sexual need. But it wasn’t Jared who had me all hot and bothered. It was Dylan. In my dreams, he was dancing with me, not in the club but in his living room. He was naked, showing off his eight pack abs, his sculpted chest, and fine hard ass. His dick was hard, thick, long, and I dropped to my knees wanting to taste him.
In the next second, we were in his room, and he was over me, pressing me into his sheets and entering me. There was no pain this time. Just the sweetest pleasure, building and building until the moment I would have come. Instead I woke. I punched my mattress in frustration. My heart was such an idiot.
10
Dylan
The laundry was done. The house was clean. I was a fucking mess. I missed Maisie like crazy and worried how she was being treated by Veronica and Leo. Then there was Tessa. I hated seeing her dressed up to the nines. How many men had hit on her last night? Had she let any of them touch her?
All day my brain was either worried about Maisie or ruminating about Tessa. Finally, late afternoon, a dark sedan pulled in front of the house. Thank God, I thought as I rushed out the door.
“Daddy!” Maisie hopped out of the car, making me wonder if she’d been belted in. She ran to me and I scooped her up.
“Maisie.” I held her. “I missed you a million times.”
Her arms held my neck, and for the first time in two days, I felt like maybe my world would tilt back to right.
“I missed you more.”
Veronica’s driver opened her door and she slipped out. Leo wasn’t with her. I walked over to the driver who was opening the trunk for Maisie’s bag. Along with the bag I’d sent with her were two other bags and a shit-load of toys.
I looked at Veronica. “We were going to keep them at my house, but she insisted she wanted to show them to you.”
“I got lots of pretty dresses, Daddy.”
“I can’t wait to see them,” I said.
While Maisie went to her room to try on a dress to show me, I offered Veronica a drink. I wanted to send her on her way, but she said she wanted to talk to me.
She toyed with her glass and wouldn’t look at me, which gave me a bad feeling.
“What’s going on, Veronica?” I took my drink and sat on the couch, ignoring the memory of having Tessa on it just two nights before.
She let out a long breath. “Leo and I are filing for custody of Maisie.”
My heart stopped. “What do you mean? I’ve never stopped Maisie from seeing you. That won’t change.”
She took a long gulp of her drink. “I want her to live with me now.”
“No.”
The nervous expression evaporated, replaced by anger. “I knew you wouldn’t let her, so we’re filing for custody.”
I laughed derisively. “Do you really think a judge is going to take her from the only parent who’s been there since the day she was born and give her to the one who couldn’t be bothered to see her for nearly a year? Who missed her birthday?”
Her jaw tightened. “I’m in New York full time now. I’m ready to be a mom. Leo and I can offer her things you can’t.”
Fuck you, I thought but didn’t say, as Maisie was in the other room. “And what would that be?”
“The best schools. Opportunities. We have the resources—”
“Just because I don’t live like a king doesn’t mean I don’t have money.”
“We can offer her two parents.”
I shot up. “He’s not her parent. So, help me, Veronica, if you try to take her from me—”
“I don’t want to take her from you, Dylan. We just switch the plan. She lives with me and visits you.”
“What do you think, Daddy?”
I turned to see Maisie coming into the living room. She looked tentatively at Veronica and then me.
“You’re lovely, baby.” I smiled, even though the dress looked like something a doll would wear with a million frills.
“It’s scratchy. Can I show you another one?”
“I’d like that.”
She rushed off and I turned back to Veronica. “I’m not going to let you take her full time. She has a life here.”
“We can offer her more.”
“What does she need that I don’t give her?”
“Like I said. Great schools. Opportunities. Leo has already picked out a nanny who can teach her to speak French.”
&
nbsp; “Nanny? You’re not going to raise her yourself?”
“You have a babysitter, Dylan. Don’t get on me for needing a nanny.”
“But you just said she’d have two parents with you. That means you don’t have to work and can raise her.” I knew that sounded sexist, but I’d be an at-home dad in a minute if I could.
“I still want to work some. But I’m not going to travel as much. And when I do, she’ll come with me.”
“So, you take her out of the fancy school?”
“We’ll get her tutors.”
I frowned. “A nanny and tutors? Who is going to really raise her? Who is going to read to her before bed and sing to her while she’s in her bath? Who’s going to push her on the swing at the park?”
Her lip curled up in a snarl. “I will.”
Deciding this was going to get worse, I worked to pull in my anger. “Listen. You’ve just returned home with a new husband. Why don’t you settle in and have visits? What happens if in a month or even six months you find you don’t like being settled?”
“I’m married now, and the lawyer said that would give me a good chance of winning.”
“Did you tell him you’ve only seen her a handful of times since you left? That it’s been nearly a year since the last time?”
“You’re being a dick.”
“And you’re being selfish.”
“Oh, and you’re not?” she scoffed.
“I am selfish. I want full and total custody of Maisie. But I also want what’s best for her, and that means having her mother in her life. That’s why I’ve never, not once, refused visitation. What about you Veronica? Have you considered what the impact of what you’re asking will be on Maisie?”
“She’ll adjust.”
“That’s how it always is with you. The whole world has to conform and adjust for you. You’re not the center of the world. Maisie is.”
“Daddy …”
Fuck. She didn’t need to hear this. I turned with a big smile. “Oh, that one is pretty.” I said as she stood in what looked like a school uniform.
So Wrong (Heart 0f Hope Book 3) Page 7
