by Scarlet West
“Drake,” she said. “Amelia is your daughter.”
I stared. I would never have imagined the effect those words might have on me. Though I had pretty much figured it out already on my own, hearing Trina admit that she and I had made a child together hit me square in the gut. I didn’t know how I expected I’d feel. Would I be angry, hurt, terrified? But at the moment all I felt was joy. Pure and simple joy. I was a father.
I reached across the table, covering her hands in mine, leaning forward so that my face was an inch from hers. “Trina!” I was laughing, and crying, and I didn’t want to stop; I couldn’t have stopped, even had I wished to. “That’s amazing!”
She stared at me as if I’d sprouted a second head. Clearly, she had not expected my reaction. “Amazing? You think so?”
“I know so!” I was laughing again, the tears still rolling down my face. I was a father. Trina was the mother of my daughter. She was there beside me and everything fell perfectly into place.
“I thought…” she shook her head, her own face a picture of such wonderment I could scarce believe it. “I thought you’d hate me.”
“What?” I asked loudly. Trina winced. I shifted in my seat, discomforted. “Sorry,” I said. “But I just can’t believe it! Why of all things, would you think I’d be mad at you? For what?”
“For never telling you for all of these years. For keeping her from you.”
I stared at her, realizing that I probably should be angry, but I just couldn’t find it in my heart to be anything other than ecstatic.
“Trina, look at me.”
She looked up and I looked into her eyes and felt the emptiness of a hundred sleepless nights, the bone-gnawing uncertainty of what people would say and do. The desperation of shame that she had faced utterly alone.
“I am so sorry,” I whispered. “I should have been here.”
It was my turn to feel shame, and I felt it. I had turned my back on her and walked away, believing I’d done the right thing. I thought that if I left then, before we’d become too attached, that Trina would just forget me. That it was too early for her to feel anything for me and that she’d just move on.
I can’t believe I was that ignorant.
We had already gone far too far for that to make sense. I loved her. Why had I doubted that she might have feelings for me?
She had my child!
“I wanted you. But I thought that if I told you, you’d resent me for ending your career, for burdening you. I didn’t want to risk it, especially not since you’d just left me, without saying goodbye.”
I shook my head. “Burdening me? Oh, Trina! You would never have been a burden. Not you, and not Amelia.” I couldn’t believe my actions had made her think that. I had left then because I thought I would burden her. “You are never a burden. Neither of you. You are the lights of my life.”
“Really?”
Her eyes shone. I nodded, wordlessly.
Her hands clasped mine and I felt all the past, all the sadness, dissolve in a sea of light. I was there with Trina and Amelia was my child. I had a chance to make the past right, and I was going to do it.
“Does she know yet?” I asked.
Trina shook her head. She was smiling, and I felt my heart beat faster. “What?”
She grinned. “I don’t know why, but somehow I think she sensed something about you. She wasn’t at all sure what to think about you.”
“What did she say?” I was smiling too, now, wondering what she’d thought of me.
“She sensed there was something between us,” Trina smiled.
“You and me?” I stared. “What? How do you know?”
“She said I was being weird around you. Like I liked you.”
“What?” This time I couldn’t hold my laugh in. “She said that?” I couldn’t believe how observant she was for nine.
“Yes,” Trina nodded, and her lovely mouth smiled.
“I guess it was kind of obvious that there was something between us,” I thought back, recalling the day at the farm. The day had been a beautiful one, and I had spent almost all of it staring at Trina, or talking to her, or both. For a nine-year-old, it must have seemed unreasonably obsessed.
“It must have been,” Trina admitted. “She’s really something else.”
“Yes,” I nodded, chuckling. “She’s quite forthright.”
“She’s like her father,” Trina said, with a sidelong glance at me.
“Really?” I felt a pang of tenderness inside me, so strong it was like electricity. “You think she is?” It was something I hadn’t thought about – was she like me? She looked like me, admittedly. I couldn’t quite believe I hadn’t noticed immediately. Her eyes were just like mine had been, at her age It was obvious.
“I know she is,” Trina chuckled. “She’s been a handful since birth.”
I roared with laughter. It felt so weird to be discussing all those intervening years. We had a lifetime to make up for – Amelia’s lifetime.
“Well,” I said, when I was calmer. “I want to know so much. About her birth, her early years, her first word,” I swallowed, feeling my heart ache again. There was so much I didn’t know. So many precious moments I would never get back. “I want to know everything.”
“Her first word was Dob,” she said with a chuckle. “It was the name she gave her teddy.”
“Dob,” I said, feeling my lips twitch in a grin. “Really?”
“Yes.” Trina chuckled. “She said it twice, too – just to make sure I understood in case I misheard first time. She’s determined. Like somebody else I know.” Again, she gave me a twisty smile.
I laughed. “Well, I suppose I can be pretty hard-headed.”
“No shit,” she teased.
“Hey, let’s not let the pot call the kettle black, shall we?” I said.
She really laughed then, her blue eyes sparkling. “I’m not stubborn.”
“No?” I queried, feeling my lips form a grin. “Not even a bit?”
“Not a bit,” she insisted firmly. “I’m the least stubborn person I know. So un-stubborn that I’ll argue the point with you all night, if I must.”
I roared. “Really? Not stubborn at all.”
“No.”
We both laughed. My hand slipped across the table at the same rate as hers and they met in the middle. We looked at each other as a slow smile spread across my lips.
“Will you tell her?” I asked.
“No,” she said slowly. “We’ll tell her. Together.”
My throat closed up with feeling. I nodded. I couldn’t speak because if I did, I would start crying and if I started I’d probably not stop. I drew a long breath.
“We’ll tell her tomorrow,” Trina said softly. She was looking at me with a particular expression in her eyes and I felt my heart start to race, guessing what it meant. I swallowed and looked at her quizzically.
“Tomorrow?” I said. “Not tonight?”
She smiled. It was a smile so knowing, so tender, that it warmed me right down to my toes. I swallowed again, and that time it was not tears that clogged my throat, but a rising excitement.
“No,” she said. “Tonight, I think, is just for us. We need to make up for lost time. Yes?”
I nodded. “Yes,” I said. “I think we do.”
She glanced around the terrace. Out there, the restaurant was still empty. Inside, in the main room, I could hear the distant sound of chatting and laughing. People were already arriving and the venue was starting to fill up.
“Shall we go?” I asked softly.
She nodded. “Yes,” she said.
“What about Amelia?” I asked, as we got into my car and drove back toward the city center.
“I’ll call Skyler and tell her she’s going to have an overnight guest tonight. She’ll grab her from camp and keep her with Greer for the night. This was all her idea anyway, so she gets to deal with an impromptu sleepover.”
“Are you sure?” I asked her, wanting her to be tru
ly certain.
“I’m sure. I want some time alone with you,” she said, her voice low.
I nodded slowly. “That’s what I want, too,” I said.
We drove quickly to my hotel.
17
Drake
I opened the car door for Trina and tried my damndest not to take her right there in the parking lot against my car. I was turned on in a way I never had been before and in awe of the fact that I was truly getting a second chance with the woman I loved. I was going to do everything in my power not to fuck it up that time.
I watched Trina slide out of the car. She moved like a dancer, and I found myself hooked on every motion. My whole body was hopelessly aroused and I knew that I was going to have a hard time keeping away from her. All the same, I wanted to take it slow. I wanted her to know how much she meant to me.
“Should we go in?”
I swallowed hard and nodded. “Yes,” I said.
We went upstairs together. My eyes were glued to her every movement, from the sway of her hips to the sweet curve of her neck and the way her hair touched it, resting there like a fingertip
At the door, I unlocked it as quickly as I could and then turned to take her in my arms. I pressed my lips to hers and my whole body tensed as I drew her against me, my arms tight around those sweet curves. I could feel the soft warmth of her breasts flattening against me and I drew her closer still, my lips pressing on hers.
She reached up behind my back, her hands stroking my hair. I let my tongue come out and gently play along the lines of her lips, feeling the smooth contours of them warm under the tip. I pressed forward and let my tongue push between them. She opened her mouth a little and it slid inside and I tasted her sweetness.
My hands were at her waist as I pressed my tongue into her mouth, and I felt my body ache for her as I tasted her and stroked her and felt as if I was in paradise. I could smell and see and feel her and my senses swam with it.
“Trina,” I whispered, as we broke the kiss. I reached up and stroked her hair. Looked into her eyes. She looked up at me and rested a hand on my shoulder. It was a tender moment. I bent forward and kissed her again.
This time, I kissed her slowly, my lips pressing hers, our tongues gently stroking and meeting in a kiss of deep reverence.
When I stood up, I swallowed hard. She was pressed to me, and my loins were screaming to take her. Yet, a part of me wanted to go slowly, to do it all perfectly. To show her exactly how I felt about her.
I walked her backward toward the bed and gently pushed her, so she was laying down. My hands found her waist and I drew her close, wanting to feel her pressing along the length of me, her warm, curvy body lying against my hardness, her hip brushing my rock hard cock.
I closed my eyes as her lips stroked mine, teasing and unbearable. She let her lips linger, a sweet whisper of kissing, and then gently licked my lips. I had to clench my fists to control my intense urge. I wanted to pull her onto me, to tear the beautiful dress off her body and fuck her like my life depended on it. But I also wanted to wait. I wanted to tease myself a little. To stretch the moments.
“Trina,” I sighed, as the tickling, sweet kisses became unbearable. “I want to…”
“Shh,” she interrupted, and slid her hands down my chest, reaching for my buttons. “Let me.”
“No,” I said, and this time I reached up and put a hand on her arm. “Let me,” I said. “This evening is yours, and I want to spoil you.”
“Drake…”
“Yes,” I whispered. “I insist.”
I sat up on the bed and kissed her, then pressed her back against the pillow.
I lay back as Drake pushed me against the bed. I bit my lip, feeling a giggle rise in my throat as his hand slid up my leg under the skirt of the short dress. His fingers stroked my thigh and stopped just short of my panty line. He raised a brow at me, and that handsome face with its teasing expression sent shivers down my spine.
“Let me spoil you,” he said softly.
Mutely, I nodded. He lifted my foot in his and started to rub it, squeezing the ball of it between his palms, working on the strained sore tendons with knowing touch. I lay back and closed my eyes, feeling every tiny pressure in every inch of my body.
“I love touching you,” he whispered.
I bit my lip again, feeling my body respond to the husky whisper. I nodded.
“I love your touch, too.”
I reached for his arm, intending to pull him down for a kiss, but he tensed.
“No,” he said. “I haven’t finished yet.”
I opened one eye and smiled at him, lazily. My feet felt heavenly, and he was still busy with them. I felt as if I was melting under his sweet touch and I had a sense it was only the beginning. What could I say? I could lie there like that, and let him spoil me, endlessly.
“Alright,” I said.
He nodded. Rotating my foot, he went to work on the ankle. I felt his fingers stroke my calf and I drew in a shuddering breath. He kneaded the tight muscle and worked his way higher. When he reached my inner thigh I gasped.
He smiled at me, knowingly. “I think your clothes might make the next part difficult,” he said.
He was too busy with my calves, moving to my other leg, for me to complain. He eased the tension with lavish strokes, then his hands started undressing me.
I gasped as he pressed hot lips to my neck. My eyes flew open, and he moved lower. His fingers drew down the zipper of the dress and then started to work it down over my form.
“So beautiful,” he whispered. I shifted on the pillows, opening my eyes and found him looking at me.
His eyes lingered at my breasts and they glowed brightly.
I was hot all over, my whole body aroused. I held my breath as he took off my bra.
I gasped as he kissed my breasts, lips cloying and clinging. I never wanted him to stop, and at the same time I wanted him to move, to kiss me like that somewhere else.
He seemed to sense my desire, because his fingers looped in my panties and he dragged them off, kissing me as he went. When he reached the parting of my thighs I had to fight to stay still.
“Trina, you smell so good.”
I gasped as his hands parted my thighs. I knew he wanted permission, but my brain was almost too swamped, my senses singing, to think. I nodded.
“Yes.”
“Ah.” He gasped, a gentle exhale that I echoed, that seemed to issue out of every part of me, as he parted my thighs wider and then laid his lips to my clit.
I closed my eyes, my whole body responding as he gently drew it in between his lips.
I cried out, then, and he pressed closer, gently nibbling. I found I could not stop twitching as he repeated the motion, drawing it in and pushing it back, drawing it in and pushing it back.
I screamed as an orgasm so intense that I felt my heart my explode raced through me. I closed my eyes tightly and my body felt like it was dissolving, melting, turning into steam. I was sighing, gasping, twitching, and I couldn’t keep the grin off my lips.
“Oh, Drake.”
I must have sounded blissfully aroused. He chuckled and moved up to lie with me. I reached for him and stroked his hair.
“That was…,” I groaned. I couldn’t even find the words. I had never felt anything so amazing.
He beamed. He looked as happy as if he’d just won the lottery. I reached up and stroked his face as he smiled down on me.
“Trina,” he whispered, burying his face in my skin. “I want you so much. I want you to feel as wonderful as I do.”
“Well, that was a good start.”
He chuckled and I smiled and reached for the buttons of his shirt.
“No,” he whispered, squeezing my fingers. “Let me.”
“I want to pleasure you, too.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll let you,” he said, reaching for his buttons, and starting to unbutton rapidly.
We both laughed and he drew the shirt off his body, then bent to take dow
n his pants. I eyed his firm cock, stiff and hard, and just seeing it filled me with more longing for him. He pushed me back against the pillows again and kissed me.
I had to bite my lip not to throw Trina onto her back and enter her immediately. But at the same time, it was a pleasure to go slow. I looked down at her, staring at her soft skin, admiring the way it glowed in the light of the room. I looked down at her and teased myself, just drinking in the sight and scent of her.
The soft round of her thighs was glowing in the lamplight, and the gentle rise of her belly above that was a precious incline. I looked beyond, to where her breasts, full and firm, rose toward the ceiling. Her neck was a pale arc and her face was relaxed and aroused at once, lips half-parted.
“Trina,” I whispered.
Her eyes opened and she reached a hand toward me.
“I want you,” she said.
The words shivered through me, taking my cock – which was already rock hard – to a point near pain. I moved forward and pressed my lips to her chin as I gently kneeled between her parted legs.
She sighed and reached for me and I drew her against my chest as my cock, eager and tense, sought her slippery opening.
I slid into her with a gasp. I had forgotten how impossibly wonderful it felt, feeling the warm firmness of her folds close round me. I drew back and thrust again, marveling as she stretched to admit me. It felt so tight and close, so warm. I closed my eyes and pushed in again, reveling in the welcome of it.
“Fuck you feel good,” I whispered, biting my lip, fighting as my cock ached and longed for release. I didn’t want to give in yet, though. I wanted to keep going, to feel the sweetness of riding her, of drawing and entering, again and again.
She was crying out too, now, twisting beneath me. I gripped her closer and felt her breasts flatten under my chest, the feeling adding more fuel to my already aching body. I was moving faster now, my need starting to grow more and more urgent. She was gasping and moaning and the sounds fired me further so that I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth and let myself go.
