Tempt the Hookup

by Natasha Madison

  “I was wrong,” he says softly, and I unbury my face from his neck.

  “It isn’t just better,” he starts to say. “It’s not even in this hemisphere.”

  “I haven’t been with anyone since you,” I tell him and then look down almost embarrassed but not, but also trying not to vomit when he tells me that he missed me.

  He puts his hand under my chin, lifting my face. “Me either,” he says, and I look at him shocked. “At first, it was too soon, and then I was just focusing on work, and then it was like every single date I compared to you.”

  “Really?” I ask, shocked. “But you are like a huge, huge catch.”

  “It just felt wrong,” he says, smiling. “Eliahn Coco, will you be my girlfriend? Just so you know, you have to say yes.”

  “I don’t know,” I say, smirking at him. “What does being your girlfriend entail?”

  “Well, it means that we eat dinner with each other every night,” he starts saying. “Breakfast also.” I nod my head. “We call each other during the day or just send texts to tell each other how the day is going.”

  “Okay.” I keep listening.

  “We spend the night on the couch, touching and kissing,” he continues, “and then we go to bed with each other.”

  “That doesn’t sound like being your girlfriend. That sounds like being married,” I joke with him, and he laughs.

  “I don’t think married people text each other during the day, nor do they make out on the couch.” He leans in and kisses me.

  “Does being your girlfriend mean we have sex with each other?” I wink at him, and he just smiles.

  “It means that we have all the sex in the world,” he says, laughing. “I mean, if Aiden will let us.”

  “I want to be your girlfriend but can we table sleeping over until we get Aiden comfortable with us being together?”

  “How about we compromise?” he asks me, and I tilt my head. “I sleep here but leave in the morning and then come back.”

  “I can work with that. But what about when Aiden is at your house?” I ask him.

  “Then you do the walk of shame,” he jokes with me. “We really need to get a door in the backyard,” he says, and then I stop smiling and look down. “What is it?”

  “What if it doesn’t work out?” I ask, trying to swallow, but the lump in my throat is suddenly huge.

  “Baby,” he says softly. “Do you think we went seven years without each other to finally finding each other for us not to work out?” he asks, and I shrug. “It’s you, Eli,” he says. “It’s always been you. Even when you didn’t even know.”

  I take my hand and cup his cheek. “It’s always been you. In every dream, every wish it has been you,” I tell him and kiss him, and he gets up with me, wrapping my legs around his waist. He walks up the stairs, and for the rest of the night, we get lost in our kisses.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Luca

  “Did you eat?” I ask Aiden when he opens the door. I look behind him and see Eliahn coming down the stairs. I left her bed an hour ago after some heavy petting, leaving my cock throbbing. I went home, took a shower, and then rushed back over, thinking I would have coffee and breakfast with them.

  “No, Mom is taking sooooo long,” he says dramatically, walking away from the door and going to the kitchen.

  “Morning,” I say softly to her as she stands on the step, making her the same height as me.

  “Morning,” she says softly, and then my hand goes to her waist, and she puts her head forward, kissing my lips. “I’ll make breakfast.”

  “I’ll make coffee,” I tell her, and we walk to the kitchen, holding hands. I shrug off my suit jacket and put it over the couch.

  “What do you want for breakfast?” Eliahn walks to the fridge and opens it. “Scrambled eggs or pancakes?”

  “Pancakes and Froot Loops,” he says, and I walk to the coffee maker to start it and look at him.

  “You can have only one,” I tell him.

  “But I’m starving,” he says, looking at me, and I’m about to cave and just give him what he wants, but I think Eliahn knows he’s playing me. She hands him a container of cut-up fruit. “Ugh, fine,” he grumbles and opens it, grabbing the grapes.

  “Well done,” I tell her as I hand her the coffee, and she starts cooking the pancakes, and I tilt my head to the side.

  “Thank you.” She kisses me, and we both look over at Aiden, but he is too busy watching some YouTube video.

  Breakfast goes by in a flash, and I clean up quickly when Eli goes up to get dressed, and then they both come down. “Grab your bag and kiss Mom goodbye,” I tell Aiden, and he grabs his bag and then goes to Eli, who bends down and kisses his lips.

  “Have a good day, my love,” she says and then stands, and I move to her and kiss her on the lips.

  “You kissed Mommy,” Aiden says, and we both look at him, waiting to see if he says anything else, but he just shrugs and then walks out.

  “Well, we can cross kissing in front of our son off the girlfriend boyfriend list,” I tell her, and she just laughs. “I’ll call you later.”

  “Have a good day, dear.” She winks at me, and I walk out of the house and get Aiden in the car.

  “Are you ready for school?” I ask him, and he just nods his head.

  “I’m going to sign you up for soccer and hockey today,” I tell him, and his eyes go big. “Would you like that?” He nods his head, and I kiss his neck and then make my way over to his school. I park in the drop-off zone and see the monitor coming over.

  “Morning, Luca,” she says, and I raise my hand to wave at her. “You have to keep the line going,” she says, and I just nod.

  I open the door, and Aiden is already unbuckled. “Bye, Dad,” he says, kissing my cheek and then walking to the front door. Teachers are supervising to make sure they get in okay.

  “Have a nice day,” I tell the monitor as I get in the car and make my way to work. I pick up coffee for Lauren and myself, and she is already working when I walk in.

  “Is Leonard in?” I ask her, and she looks up and picks up the phone.

  “He’s in,” she says. “You can go in.” I just nod, handing her the coffee and then walking into Leonard’s office.

  I knock on the door, and he looks up. Even though he is managing partner, he gets here every single day at eight, rain or shine, five days a week. He does take two months off in the summer. “Hey,” he says, putting down the paper that he is reading and taking off his glasses.

  “Can I come in for a second?” I ask him, and he just nods his head, and I close the door.

  “This has to be serious,” he says, and I walk over and sit in one of the chairs, my hands a little sweaty, but I just shake it off.

  “I need to know how much you paid for Eli’s house,” I tell him, and he leans back in his chair.

  “And why is that?” He just looks at me.

  “Well, for one, I’m going to pay you back,” I tell him, and he shakes his head.

  “I bought that for my daughter,” he says.

  “Well, the mother of my son lives there with my son, so,” I tell him, and he just glares. “They are my responsibility.”

  “Have you spoken to Eli about this?” he asks, trying not to smirk.

  “I don’t think—” I start to say, and now he laughs.

  “You don’t think you should have spoken with her before coming in here?” He now sits up and puts his hands on the desk.

  “If you want me to include Eli, I will, but then you’ll have to tell her how much you paid for the house.” It’s my turn to smirk. “And with telling her that, she will want to pay you back.” Now I do smile. “And I know you don’t want her to do that.” He clenches his jaw, and I see the vein in his head ticking. Game. Set. Match. “I wasn’t here before, and I’m going to have a conversation with her with regard to what she paid out before, but I want to buy the house for her and for Aiden.”

  “I will send you an email,” he s
ays.

  I nod at him. “Good. I also want you to know that Eli and I are together.”

  “Meaning?” he says, his thumb tapping the desk.

  “Meaning that we are going to see where this thing goes,” I tell him. “I already know she’s the one for me. I knew it after the first night.”

  “You were a kid,” he says, and I almost agree with him.

  “I was a kid, then the kid grew into a man, and the man never stopped thinking about her. She was what everyone had to be, yet no one could come close to.”

  “If you hurt her,” he starts to say, and I lift my hand.

  “Hurting her would kill me, and we’ve already lost too much time. I lost too much time,” I tell him, and he just nods at me, and the knock on the door has us both looking back. Norma comes in and looks at us.

  “Your next client is here,” she says, and I get up.

  “I’ll be waiting for your email,” I tell him.

  “She isn’t going to like this,” he says, leaning back in his chair, and I look at him and shrug.

  “She needs to get used to it.” And he smiles. “I take care of what’s mine, and she’s mine.” I turn around and then look back at him. “I’m going to register Aiden for hockey and soccer today. Do you want me to tell you when he has practice?”

  He smiles. “I was going to invite them over for dinner tonight.” I nod at him and then walk out of the office, going to mine. Lauren spots me and gets up.

  “I take it that talk went well.” Lauren stands there, and I walk behind my desk.

  “It went as good as it should have when I told him I was paying him for Eli’s house.” I take off my jacket. “I need you to go and find out how much he really paid for it.”

  “How do you want me to do that?” she asks me, and I just smirk at her. “Okay, fine, I’ll use my resources, but you are going to owe me.”

  I nod my head at her. “And I always pay. Now, what is on the schedule?” I ask her. She shoots off the list of things we have to get done, and when she puts my lunch on my desk, I look up and see that it’s past two, and Eli never texted me. I pick up my phone and call her.

  “Hello,” she answers, and it sounds like she’s running.

  “Hey. You busy?”

  “I just got a call from the school,” she says, and I sit up now. “Aiden got hurt in gym, and I’m on my way over there right now.” I spring out of my chair, grab my jacket, and rush out of the door.

  “Lauren,” I say, pulling the phone from my ear. “Aiden hurt school.” Three words and she just nods, and then I turn back to the phone. “What did they say? Is it bad? Should the ambulance be called?”

  I hear a car door slam at the same time I’m in mine. “I have no idea. All they said was there was an altercation in gym class.”

  “An altercation? What the fuck does that even mean?” I ask her, and she blows out a breath.

  “I have no clue,” she says softly, and I wonder if I should just go get her, and we go there together.

  “Do you want me to get you on the way to the school? Where are you now?” I ask her.

  “I’m on my way there already. I’ll be there in about ten minutes,” she says.

  “I’ll meet you there. I’m leaving now,” I tell her and disconnect, making my way to the school in record time. I get there at the same time as Eliahn, and she gets out, and worry is all over her face.

  “Hey,” I say when she gets out of her car, and I kiss her. “You okay?”

  “No,” she says honestly, “I’m not. I’m a mess.” Then she leans in to me, and I put my hand around her shoulder, and we walk into the school.

  We walk into the office and see that Aiden is sitting in one of the chairs, and when he sees us, he starts to cry and covers his face. Rushing to him, I squat down in front of him and take him in my arms. “Shh. It’s okay, buddy, are you hurt?” I ask him, and he just shakes his head.

  “Mr. DiMarco, Ms. Coco,” Mrs. Hope says. “Mrs. Lambert would like a word with you both,” she says, standing up, and I nod at her but turn to Aiden.

  “What happened?” I ask him quietly. He looks down and then up again.

  “Ryan was mad because I scored five goals in soccer and called me Frenchie and then pushed me to the ground,” he says to me. “I don’t like him.”

  I rub his head and kiss his forehead. “Let me go talk to Mrs. Lambert and then we’ll go from there,” I tell him, and he nods his head, and I look over at Eli. “Do you want to stay here with him or come with me?”

  “Honey.” She gets down next to me. “I’m going to go with Dad, and then I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay,” he says softly, and we get up. Mrs. Lambert stands at the entrance to her office.

  “Right this way,” she says and turns, and I make Eli walk in before me. She takes a seat in front of her desk, and I sit next to her in my own seat.

  “Well, it seems we have a situation,” she says, and my back goes up right away with her tone. “It has come to my attention that Aiden is not getting along with a couple of kids.”

  “Is that so?” I say, and now I’m ready to rumble. “And when did this matter come to your attention?”

  “It came up last week, and then this incident today only cemented it,” she says.

  “Really? That’s interesting since nothing was conveyed to us regarding this issue.” I look over at Eli. “Did you get an email or a note saying there was an issue?”

  “I did not,” Eli says, and I look back at Mrs. Lambert.

  “Well, regardless,” she starts to say. “Aiden’s actions today are unacceptable.”

  “Aiden’s actions?” I say, my blood boiling. “And what actions are those?”

  “Well, there was an altercation in the gym class,” she says. “And Aiden put his hands on another student. Something we don’t tolerate around here.”

  “I take it you got Aiden’s side of the story?” I ask her.

  “Well, I spoke with the gym teacher,” she says, “and the other boy involved.”

  “And you spoke with Aiden also, right? You know the saying that there are three sides to every story, Mrs. Lambert.” I take a second to look at her. “There are always three sides to every story.”

  “The thing is, Mr. DiMarco,” she says, and I look out at Aiden who sits there swinging his legs looking around.

  “Where is the other child involved in this?” I ask her, and she looks at me. “Why is only Aiden in the office?”

  “Well, after getting the teacher’s side and Ryan’s, we, well …” She looks down and then up at me. “Sent him back to class.”

  “Fascinating,” I say, then look at Eli who just smiles at this point. “So you brought only Aiden down to the office and had him sit like he did something wrong.”

  “Well, Mr. DiMarco, putting your hands on another student is wrong.”

  “Did you know that Ryan pushed Aiden first?” I ask her, and she stumbles with her words.

  “Well, I wasn’t aware,” she starts to say, but I cut her off.

  “And you also were not aware that he called him Frenchie?” I tell her, and she opens her mouth and then closes it. “I really don’t appreciate my son being called out and called names. I also don’t appreciate him being brought down to the office and not being heard.” I start to get up, and Eli follows me. “It is safe to say, Mrs. Lambert, that we will be looking for an alternative school, seeing as the new kid is”—I shrug my shoulders—“well, apparently guilty before proven innocent.”

  “Mr. DiMarco,” she starts to say, and I hold up my hand.

  “I’m not going to say that my son is innocent, and if he did push the other child, his mother and I will rectify that it doesn’t happen again.” I look at Eli, who just nods her head. “But what I’m not going to do is sit here and have him be guilty when you didn’t even give him the time of day.” I don’t wait for her to say anything else; instead, I walk out of the office.

  “Honey, let’s go get your stuff, and then
we can go,” I tell Aiden, putting out my hand and walking out of the office.

  “Am I in trouble, Dad?” he asks, looking up at me. I stop and turn to him, squatting down.

  “Did you push Ryan?” I ask him, and he looks down.

  “He pushed me first,” he says quietly.

  “Doesn’t matter that he pushed you first. It is not okay to put your hands on other kids,” I tell him the adult thing to say, but I really want to high-five him and tell him not to take anyone’s shit and stick up for himself all the time.

  “He is always pushing me and calling me names,” he finally says. “I don’t like it here.”

  “Why don’t we get your things, and we can sit down and talk about things with your mom?” I tell him, and he smiles.

  “Okay, Dad,” he says, and we walk to his class, and he gets his books.

  “Is everything okay?” his teacher asks, looking concerned.

  “I’m not really sure,” I tell her and see Aiden go over to his desk and grab his stuff and then walk out to his locker. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Of course,” she says.

  “Is my son a good student?” I might be biased and think he’s at the top of his game, but I need reassurance.

  “He is one of the top five of the class. His reading level is already that of a third grader, and his math is exceptionally high,” she says and then looks at him. “He is a pleasure to have in class.”

  “Thank you,” I tell her, and I want to jump up and celebrate, but instead, I walk back to the office and find Eli there chatting with Mrs. Hope.

  “Thank you for everything,” Eli says. “Please forward me anything that I may have forgotten to sign.” She sees us. “Ready,” she says with a smile, and I can tell it’s fake.