by Melissa Blue
With regret, she loosened her hold. “Look who is here.”
“Dad!” Jayden as always hugged Jake’s legs.
“I got off early to pick you up. We have to hit the grocery store then we can make our famous turkey and stuffing for tomorrow.”
“Can I help you this year?”
Surprise flickered over Jake’s face then he glanced at her. “Yeah. Of course. Gotta keep the tradition going in the family.”
All she could say was, “Have a happy Thanksgiving,” knowing they likely wouldn’t be able to carve—no, steal time to see each other.
“Ditto,” Jake said that, and didn’t move his gaze from hers until Jayden tugged at his shirt for attention.
It was a statistical fact, men interacting with their kids was a sexy as shit thing. She wished that was the only reason her heart kind of skipped at the display between Jake and Jayden. She fucking hoped the emotion tightening her chest, making her want to wear a dopey smile was fleeting. Her breath stuttered. She couldn’t love that guy. It was too soon, so complicated.
Oh, fuck. She was in trouble.
Chapter Twelve
Jake cut off his car’s engine and glanced up at the two-story townhouse, specifically stared at what he knew was the bedroom. The lights were still on. With anyone else he would consider his behavior problematic. No. No. It was problematic. He was just kind of okay with it for the moment. That could change in the next thought.
But he was a single dad. It was shy of midnight. His friend Shayne had offered to oversee the sleepover pre-Thanksgiving. That meant Jake could do whatever he wanted until morning. As was the norm for him lately, Bailey was what he wanted.
He sent off the text.
Jake: U up?
Right after that, he sent
I should tell you I’m parked on your block with a view of your house like the creep I am.
He waited a tense two minutes and was sure he’d hit the moment in his life, in their…relationship where he’d crossed a line. Oh, God. He was problematic as fuck to her too. However she decided to dress him down was deserving. His…infatuation of Bailey had ripped away his sense of right and wrong. He’d been turned inside out and had lost a modicum of self-control.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” he muttered, his hands on the car keys ready to turn his car on and drive away.
The light in her bedroom went off. Then the text came.
Bailey: My front door is unlocked. I’ve heard there’s a man who comes to ravish you making his way around the neighborhood. I’m so…
His dick finished the sentence and that’s where his brain settled. He did start his car but only to pull into her driveway. Her door was unlocked. He stripped down to his boxer briefs in her living room then climbed the stairs, his breathing hitched as anticipation did a happy jig through his veins.
Jake pushed open her bedroom door. Her bathroom door was propped open, light on, and giving just enough illumination he could make her out on the bed. He remained still at the threshold, letting his eyes adjust to the dimness. A few seconds later, he could catch sight of her legs propped open then her arm that slashed down her torso. Another breath and he knew her hand rested on her mound. Another and he made out the way her fingers petted her pussy.
This was why, like a creeper, he’d parked down the street. It wasn’t the first time, by no means. He’d work a double-shift and have a few hours before he needed to pick up Jayden from the babysitter. Either she was a light sleeper or like him, lived on the edge just hoping to hear from him no matter the time of day. He’d send a text and she’d answer. And so much better, he’d get a text before clocking out from work and Bailey would be aching and needing a taste of him.
“Missed me?” he asked.
The sad part is that he didn’t need an ego stroke but reassurance. Jake had to know their…affair was upending both of their emotions, beliefs, lives.
Because it was Bailey, she said, “Come see if I have missed you.”
His body was shameless. His feet thudded over to her. He slid into her bed, skin connected with skin. She was naked, waiting. Wet. His hands, his mouth found hers in the dark to get a taste of her lips and to simply touch her. Her supple body answered the quiet call his fingers sent out. She moaned and pressed her flesh into his needy hands. They kissed and groped until he needed more, and in the quiet, he let his mouth and hands do the talking.
He closed his mouth on her clit and let his tongue lave the hard nub. In answer, she coated his tongue with her arousal. He buried his fingers into her pussy, his mouth still a hot, urgent force sucking the hard bud that yielded so readily to his ministrations.
She fisted a hand in his hair and arched her body closer. This. I need this.
He loved how she bucked when she came. Better, he loved the way she sometimes laughed after a climax.
“I love your mouth, Jake,” she whispered. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you all day.”
What could he say to that? “Be specific.”
She stretched toward her nightstand for the foil packet. Instead of answering, she opened the condom to roll down his cock. Sometimes she’d stroke him until his dick could jackhammer concrete or she’d massage his cock until he came. He didn’t mind the uncertainty of what tonight might be or any night with her. So he rocked his hips to jerk himself into her hand. Between his groans, she’d kiss him.
Pleasure vibrated up and down his spine until he pushed her hand away to guide his cock to her pussy’s entrance. She was already trembling. He thrust inside her deep enough they both gasped and clung to each other.
“Jake, slow,” she said then moaned.
He ground into her, making sure his pelvis rubbed against her clit. They both came so much harder when they fucked like this.
And better, so much better, she dug her nails into his ass. He fucking loved it when she left marks on him. The memory of her became tactile when she brushed along his mind.
They fucked each other mindless that way. After, they kept petting each other’s skin, they told each other about their workday. That turned into talking about their favorite foods then songs…their favorite everything. Neither he or she mentioned what the fuck they were doing or the implications of where their relationship might end up.
He should have been fine with that. Jake was a single dad. He had a kid to throw into their equation, because of that he tried to make most things in his life, that he could control, a certainty. She wasn’t. And under the pain of death would he ever admit, he wanted her to be.
*
Full from dinner, and satisfied, Jake leaned back in his friend’s kitchen chair. Shayne, unable to shake work, dove into clean up. Only a marginal amount of guilt settled inside Jake watching Shayne foil and wipe done everything. He’d been tasked as Abigail’s sous-chef this year. The universal law of the world was if you cooked, you shouldn’t have to clean.
“You know…” Jake said.
“I can take a break,” Shayne finished the sentence. He stood a little under six feet and was stocky white dude who looked rough around the edges. He also had a stubborn streak, which is likely why they got along.
Shayne added, “Yeah. Yeah. I already know what you’re going to say.”
“Kevin’s still here even though Abigail headed back to the restaurant.”
Shayne stopped his scrub of the stove top and narrowed his gaze. “Speaking of my nephew, Kevin has told me some interesting things.”
Shit. This is what Jake got for teasing his friend. “Hmmm,” was the only smart reply, and it left his friend with nothing.
“He’s told me for the past two or three months, you’ve come in for dinner with the same woman.”
Whenever he and Shayne had caught up, it was outside of the restaurant—Jake’s demand. His friend needed a life independent of work and home. Jake felt no guilt for throwing stones in his glass house. That wasn’t the point, and he hoped that wouldn’t be Shayne’s end goal in this conversation.
“You
know I date,” Jake said.
“But you never bring them to my place.”
Which was true. Until Bailey. Since he always ate at Shayne’s in his free time, and on dates, he’d hit up every place that served good food or try a new one. The city was big enough to offer plenty of options. Shayne’s was…home away from home. He tried to tell himself he’d only taken Bailey there because she wanted to date but outside of town. Yet, the truth was outside of Jayden, he didn’t bother to hide who he dated. Jake didn’t have the time or the patience to avoid other teachers and parents, much less worry about what they might think.
Tried being the operative word.
Shayne narrowed his gaze and then sat in the chair across from Jake. “Tell me about her.”
“She’s…” ‘Nothing’ he had planned to say but his lips refused to form the lie.
He closed his eyes. This was his friend. Honestly, his only close friend. He had a few work buddies, and he had even connected with a few of the dads that used the same babysitter outside of Shayne. But why was he lying to himself, much less his friend?
“I really like her,” Jake eventually said. “She’s so great with Jayden. Even yesterday she took some time to talk with him. He was upset and she had him giggling by the end of it.”
Shayne’s brows knit. “What upset him?”
“I…” His brain snagged on that. He hadn’t asked and Jayden hadn’t told him. Not to mention when he’d dropped in on Bailey, they hadn’t talked about Jayden’s need for a one-on-one. Kid’s emotions shifted quickly and it took all of one’s concentration to keep up.
But the question dug in. So much so, he eventually got up and helped Shayne clean the kitchen and living room for the next hour. Before Shayne could think of something else to wipe down, Jake took himself and Jayden home.
By bath time, and still Jake couldn’t let the thought go, he sat on the closed toilet seat. It took him another moment to catch his shaky breath and launched the soft question that had been nagging him.
“The other day…what did you and Ms. Thorne talk about?”
In a rare show of shyness, his son shrugged. He pushed the foam ball underneath the bubbles surrounding him then let go so it rose to the surface with a soft pop. Any other day Jake might have let the pit in his stomach ease, but his son wasn’t shy. For three months, he couldn’t stop Jayden from telling a Ms. Thorne story. She’d come to class in a new shirt and Jake would hear about it. But a whole conversation Jayden had had with Bailey, and his son could only give him a shrug?
He infused a serious tone that he hoped Jayden would heed. “Why did Ms. Thorne talk to you after school?”
Jayden wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I called someone stupid.”
His son was opinionated. Jake wasn’t surprised he’d acted out in this way. “Why did you do that?”
“Maria said that only moms could make Thanksgiving dinner, but you cook it.” Jayden looked back down into the water. “I don’t have a mom who cooks any dinner.”
Jake closed his eyes as his heart sank to his feet. He was so not ready for that question yet. “And what did Ba—Ms. Thorne say? About families?”
He needed to know, but did it matter? She’d told Jake nothing. She hadn’t given him a warning that his world was finally caving in from the lies he’d told by omission. Why hadn’t she?
Jayden answered, unaware of the turmoil his words had created. “She said families are different. I’m sorry, Dad. I shouldn’t have called Maria stupid.”
This is what it meant to be a parent. Issues that cropped up weren’t black and white. His son needed guidance and empathy while being reminded that calling someone else’s live-experienced stupid wasn’t okay.
Jake knew that, but it felt like someone sat on his chest.
I don’t have a mom.
But Jayden did. And that mom had loved him. Jake hadn’t known until he knew that Monique had sleepless nights well before she’d given birth. Light years before Jake could say my son, his brother Benjamin had said it proudly.
Jake had to somehow talk about this. He scrubbed a hand over his face, anger building slowly until his fingers formed into a fist along his brow. Why hadn’t Bailey given him a head’s up? She knew how he felt. They could have sat down together…
That thought pulled his spine straight. This was why he never introduced women to his son. He, more than anyone, needed to remember Jayden looked to him, depended on him. He was the boy’s father now. He couldn’t let Ben and Monique down.
Jake would have to do this alone, like always. Fucking hell. He ignored how the exhaustion of that reality weighed his limbs. He looked to Jayden. The boy had gone back to playing with the ball just like a kid would and should.
And when Jayden got out, Jake would have to take a piece of that away.
Chapter Thirteen
“Jayden Polaski, right?” one of the school’s admin assistants confirmed.
Bailey checked the time. There were five minutes left on her lunch. “Yes,” she said loud enough to not seem suspicious in the teacher’s lounge.
But everything she did now had a few eyeballs taking in every detail. It happened slowly at first. She barely noticed then whenever she walked into a room, people fell silent. No one approached her, but how could she not know the obvious reason. Everyone who cared, suspected she had a thing going with Jake the Rake.
And Jake the Rake had been acting odd the past few days and now Jayden didn’t show up for school. Something was up.
The admin added, breaking Bailey’s thoughts, “He’s going to be out for the week. His dad called in this morning to let us know. He’s really good about doing that. I’m sure he’ll let you know if he’ll need a homework packet.”
“Right,” she said, her voice tight and her stomach churning. “Thank you. I just wanted to be sure.”
She hung up, and at least two teachers spoke behind their hands in whispers. Worry kept her from spiraling over that. It was the middle of a school day, and Jake hadn’t called or texted her. The past few months he’d let her know if Jayden would be running a few minutes late.
Bailey could tell herself he was so focused on Jayden he hadn’t thought to talk to her. She really wanted to convince herself Jayden wasn’t at school for a mundane reason. The platitudes couldn’t offset the dread twisting in her stomach.
She went through class and an after-school meeting before packing up for the day. Anxiety didn’t let her think as she headed toward Jake’s. He answered the door dressed down in basketball shorts and a thread-worn tee. He stepped out onto the porch before closing the door behind him.
The dread soured in her gut.
She smiled instead of frowning. “Hey. I just wanted to check in. Is Jayden okay?”
Jake crossed his arms. “Thanks for coming by.”
His formal, abrupt answer sent a chill down her spine. “Okay, but—”
“You should go.”
He hadn’t said if Jayden was fine. She swallowed down the fear and forced her voice to remain calm. “You’re scaring me, Jake. Is Jayden okay?”
“Why didn’t you tell me about the full conversation you had with my son?”
Her breath whooshed out, understanding hitting her right in the damn heart. “Did he ask about his mom?”
“I asked him about what made him upset, about your conversation with him. Why didn’t you tell me, Bailey?”
“Is he okay?”
He pushed back his shoulders like he was trying to loosen the muscles. “Right now, he’s confused because he has two dads but not like Taylor who has two dads. I had a brother but now I don’t. He has a mom, but she’s dead. That’s what I’m dealing with.”
She could finally take in a deep breath, so she did. “I can talk to—”
“I think…” He crossed his arms. “I don’t think you should right now. I need to be his dad and I need you to be his teacher. Not…”
“Your lover?” she pushed out, so confused at the man standing in front of her.
Jake could be grumpy or abrupt when he didn’t have the patience to beat around the bush. This…whatever this was, bordered on cold.
His blue gaze went flat. “The truth is, I don’t have the bandwidth to handle a budding relationship and my son. It’s just me. We are all we have.”
“What? That’s not true. How can you not see that?”
“That’s my point. Right now all I can see is that I need to be here for my son. Just my son.”
She opened her mouth to protest then stopped. He really couldn’t see the truth. Even when they weren’t lovers, she had been willing to step up for Jayden. He could depend on Shane, Kevin and Abigail. He had Monique’s family if he ever reached out.
Bailey could put up a fight. Reassure him that he wasn’t alone, but anger, hurt and, yet, understanding stirred inside her. His son’s world was teetering.
She pushed down every word wanting to fight its way out. “I will keep an eye on his behavior for the rest of the year, and make sure it’s clear in my reports that in the future he may need counseling.” She had to swallow, hard. “I want him happy and whole.”
His jaw flexed and he looked away from her. “I appreciate that, Ms. Thorne.”
Bailey flinched. He hadn’t called her that in months, not when they were alone. His message was clear. It was over between them. She breathed deeply to keep from crying then turned around and headed back to her car.
Chapter Fourteen
“Phone, please?” Jayden straightened having pulled up his football pants.
Jake’s brows knit, confused about who his son wanted to call. It wasn’t his son’s fault. The week had been both good and emotionally exhausting. “Who are you trying to call?”
“I want to invite Ms. Thorne to my game.”
Gut-punch. He sucked in air. Right. This was why he had kept the women he dated and his son miles apart. He squatted so they were eye-to-eye. “Listen, maybe Ms. Thorne can’t make it this Saturday. She—”
“I won’t know until I call her.”
