I glanced over at him. His eyebrow was arched and he was grinning like a fool.
“Why so far away?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “I don’t bite, darlin’.”
I took an audible breath, taking my time to walk over to the couch before settling beside him. He reached out and tugged on the ends of my hair. He hadn’t done that in years.
“You wearing yellow for me?” he asked, playing with the hem of my dress.
I shook my head no.
“Is that right?”
His hand slowly moved to caress the side of my cheek, and I resisted the urge to lean into his touch.
“What is this about?” I blurted, needing to know.
He smiled not answering, sliding his fingers down my face to my neck. Touching the charm on the necklace he gave me.
“Are you just trying to get laid? Is that what this is about?”
He raised his eyebrows with a predatory regard.
“You and I know both know that I don’t have a problem scoring pussy, suga’.”
He also hadn’t called me that in years, and it still stirred emotions in me.
“You know I bought that necklace as a gift for our wedding day. I was going to put it in your jewelry box for you to wear down the aisle.”
My mouth parted and I swallowed hard.
“I had that charm made when I bought the ring.”
He let go of the necklace, and I almost whimpered at the loss of his warm touch. Reaching into his pocket, he brought out his keys. He took off a keychain and threw his keys on the coffee table. It had a series of numbers engraved on it with a heart cut out on the side, like it was missing a piece.
“I had this made that same day. It’s the coordinates to the beach by Ian’s house. The beach where I realized that you belonged to me.”
He brought the keychain up to my necklace and placed my heart charm inside the cut out.
It was a perfect fit.
“See, darlin’, you’ve always had my heart and I’ve always been your home.”
“Dylan…”
“I am your soft place to fall.”
The air was so thick between us that I found it hard to breathe, not knowing where he was going with this.
Hoping.
“After Giselle was born my aunt asked me if I wanted to name her. To have her carry a part of me, a part of us even though she was going with her.”
He narrowed his eyes at me not understanding what I was getting at.
“Giselle means promise.”
He beamed. “Well that explains a lot, doesn’t it?”
I nodded.
“She gave me your letters.”
I jerked away only to have him pull me back in by the nook of my neck.
“I asked her to. I read every last one. Word for word. I didn’t stop until I read them all. Every time the guard would come to my cell to tell me you were there, I already knew it. I felt you. A huge part of me didn’t want you to see me like that. I didn’t want you to see the man that I had become. The man I hardly recognized anymore. I was a miserable bastard the entire time I was locked up. I barely spoke to anyone. I kept to myself. I purposely started fights so that they would put me in the hole and I didn’t have to be around anyone and I could get lost in my own thoughts. Memories. Of you.” He laughed, his thumb rubbing back and forth along the pulse of my neck.
“I should have known better when they said I was getting out early for good behavior. I was anything but.”
He looked deep into my eyes for a few seconds, contemplating what to say as I waited on pins and needles.
So when he said, “I hated you.”
I felt all my wishful thinking come apart.
“But mostly… I hated you because I couldn’t stop loving you.”
She visibly relaxed.
“This last year I’ve done a lot of soul searching. For the first time in my life I was lost. I tried to find that man. The one that you met. The one that you loved. The one that was made just for you. I couldn’t find him. The more I searched, the harder it was to accept that I might never be him again. The more time we spent together, the more I started to laugh, I started to smile, I started to feel like I was alive again. It was then that I understood that you could save me, too.”
She finally leaned into my touch. I yearned to feel her. Wanting her to give me anything she could.
“I couldn’t forgive you, suga’, until I forgave myself,” I sincerely spoke.
She closed her eyes, taking in my words. As if she wanted to remember them forever.
To remember this moment for the rest of her life.
I leaned in close to her lips, resisting the desire to claim her mouth, the urge to make her mine once again.
“I love you, Aubrey,” I breathed against her mouth. “I have never stopped loving you. I belong to you. Just you and me. You’re my girl.”
She didn’t hesitate, “Promise?”
I smiled along her lips before I softly pecked her. I kissed her slowly, wanting to savor this moment as much as she was.
“Always,” I murmured, parting my lips, beckoning her to do the same.
She did.
We kissed for the first time in what felt like an eternity.
My chest rose and descended with each deep breath I took. I placed my hand over her heart and it felt like it beat for me and only me.
Like it never stopped.
With my hands framing her face, I kissed her again. Slower, more delicate, and defined this time. Less frantic, and desperate, but with the same intensity and passion.
“Dylan,” she panted.
I bit her bottom lip and stood up bringing her with me. She wrapped her legs around my waist. I wanted to take my time with her. Remembering every last inch of her gorgeous body.
The layers of all our regrets were stripped away and all that was left was us.
I couldn’t stop kissing her. Not for one damn second. I set her against the wall and her eyes immediately widened. My hands lightly touched up and down her thighs.
Her eyes were different, yet I had seen them like that before.
We gazed into each other’s eyes as I claimed her mouth the way I wanted to. Her breathing labored and I waited for the words that never came. I leaned away from her, putting some space between us. Her eyes dilated, knowing what I was going to do next. I moved my hand tortuously slow down to her soft bare folds, feeling her wetness seep through her panties onto my fingers. I proceeded to make circles around her clit, my techniques continued to become more persistent and demanding. Her legs started shaking, her eyes closed, and her head fell back against the wall.
“Don’t close your eyes,” I ordered.
She watched through a hooded gaze as I manipulated her bundle of nerves.
“What, darlin’? I teased, rubbing faster and harder.
She moaned so loud that it shook her entire body. She came with such force. I had never experienced that before.
“That long, huh?”
She laughed still trembling. “Asshole.”
“I want to fuck you against this wall.”
Her eyes widened, listening to my filthy words that always did things to her.
“After I’m done coming so fuckin’ deep inside you, there will be no chance in hell that we didn’t make a baby on another wall,” I growled, biting her bottom lip. “Then… I’ll take you into our bedroom and make love to you all night long, because, suga’, I haven’t had sex in almost eight goddamn years. I will have no mercy on making you mine all over again.”
“You’re lying,” I stated.
He his eyes gleamed, and I knew he was telling me the truth. When the shaft of his cock slid up and down my slit, I came once again, lathering up our sacred parts with more of my wetness.
“Jesus, Dylan. Just fuck me already,” I begged, wanting to feel his hard cock deep inside me.
“Ahhh…” he captured my mouth with his as he forcefully thrust into me. Giving me exactly what I jus
t asked for. My back arched off the wall and he put his arms under mine, holding me close. My legs curled around his waist and my arms around his neck. He stayed inside me, just holding me and kissing me.
I rocked my hips, trying to get him to move because I was growing anxious and impatient with all the emotions and sensations he was causing. With each kiss and caress, he made his way deeper into my heart.
He grabbed the sides of my face and looked deep into my eyes. He was searching for something, I knew only I had the answers he was looking for. I kept his gaze as raptly as he looked into mine. It was as if we were absorbing our way back into each other’s blood streams, where neither of us could function without the other.
Never taking his eyes off mine, he started to move, it was slow, loving, and passionate. His hand reached for my neck and he softy pressed down on it. It was a move that I was familiar with. He always wanted to feel my pulse against his fingertips. I did what came naturally and placed my hand over his heart, making him groan upon contact.
I moaned and my pussy pulsated. He started to pump faster into me and the nerves in my lower abdomen throbbed for release.
“Fuck, suga’… do you have any idea what you do to me? Tell me… tell me what you’re thinking. Tell me what’s going on in that beautiful mind of yours?”
“I’m going to come,” I breathed out, thinking he wanted me to talk dirty to him.
He kept hitting the same spot, more aggressively than before.
“Do you feel me inside of you?”
“Yes,” I panted.
“Give me what I want, Bree,” he rasped. “Tell me what I want to hear.”
I moaned, closing my eyes as I arched my back.
“Let me see your eyes.”
I opened them and looked intently into his. I could feel he was close to losing it, because his thrusts were becoming faster.
“I fucking love you,” he groaned, taking me over the edge just as he was.
It was then I screamed out.
“I love you, too.”
He took me back to my bed and made good on his promise. Deep down in my heart, I knew it would always be that way.
“Whoever said babies were exhausting, wasn’t kidding.”
Lily shrugged. “You’re old now.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Older! I meant you’re older now.”
It didn’t take long for Dylan—in his words—to knock me up. I’m not sure if we conceived on the wall or the next month that he pretty much lived inside me.
We named her Constance, it meant always.
I was a high-risk pregnancy because of my age, but thank God I didn’t have any complications. Which only opted Dylan to want to make more. We talked about getting married a few times during my pregnancy, but honestly, we had waited that long, and the last thing I wanted was to walk down the aisle with a big belly. Constance was almost five-months-old now and still no proposal or ring on my finger.
Giselle was attending Wilmington University because she wanted to stay close to Mason, who was a year younger than her. They officially started dating after prom much to Dylan’s disapproval, but she still lived at home with us, so that he approved of.
He said he loved having all his girls under his roof. It made him sleep better at night. We bought a house shortly after I found out I was pregnant, right on the beach. We literally lived within walking distance from Lucas and Alex, and that alone made Giselle want to stay at home. Of course, she didn’t tell her Daddy that.
“How’s my girl?” he cooed over the baby monitor, and Lily and I grinned at each other.
“Daddy missed you today. Let’s not tell Mama that I woke you up.”
I shook my head.
“Jacob did that with Riley and Christian. Get used to it. They don’t understand that you shouldn’t wake up a sleeping baby.”
Not even a second later we heard her cries.
“Told you,” she added. “I’m going to get out of your hair. Have fun with that.”
I chuckled. Dylan had just gotten home from work. He went back to the police force, and as much as I worried about him, I knew it was a part of him. He promised he wouldn’t take on hard cases now that he was a Detective III. So far it hadn’t been that bad. He was home every night for dinner and weekends. He reassured me he spent most of the time in his office. He was assigned this case a few months ago, and I could tell it was wearing him down.
“Oh, by the way. Have you seen Austin lately?”
“Yeah. He came over the other day,” I replied.
“Okay.”
“Why?”
“Jacob mentioned something about him and Briggs officially breaking up.”
“They’ve been together and breaking up for years. I stopped trying to keep up with them along time ago.”
She nodded. “Good point. I’ll see you later. Give Constance a kiss for me and Giselle my love.”
Lily hugged me and left.
“Shhh… shhh… baby girl, feel my heart. Feel Daddy’s heart. Shhh…”
Just like that she whimpered for a few seconds and stopped crying.
“Unbelievable,” I said to myself as I made my way into our bedroom.
I stopped working once I got pregnant and that’s what ultimately made Dylan want to start back at the force again. I wanted to stay home with Constance and be the mother I never got to be with Giselle. She was a great older sister and jumped right on board with Dylan on giving her more siblings. My doctor said women were having babies well into their fifties now and my thirty-nine years of age wasn’t as much of a big deal as it used to be.
I would give Dylan whatever he wanted.
If he wanted a house full of his girls, who was I to deny his desires.
After everything he ever did for me.
I owed him…
Us.
That much.
“Daddy loves you so much, baby girl, but if you keep crying like that every night and not lettin’ me have my way with your Mama, then how am I going to give you another sister?”
I laughed.
Dylan was the first man I’d ever met who didn’t care if we had a boy. He said he wanted to stay the man of the house and protect what was his, and that he was more than enough of a man to deal with all of his girls.
I sat at my vanity looking at my reflection through the mirror, finally happy with what was staring back at me. I touched the charm on my necklace, sighing contentedly. I took off my earrings and opened my jewelry box, ‘Fur Elise’ by Beethoven immediately assaulted my senses. I placed my earrings in their usual spot, but there was something already there.
I looked over and my heart dropped.
“Oh my God.”
“That’s not the answer I was hoping to get, suga’.”
We locked eyes through the mirror.
“Is that—”
“What do you think?” he walked over to me and picked up the ring that was shining brightly against the lighting in the room.
“I’m waitin’.”
I cocked my head to the side. “So am I,” I challenged.
He grinned, getting down on one knee and peering deep into my eyes.
“Marry me.”
It wasn’t a question.
I tackled him to the ground for it.
There wasn’t a place on Aubrey’s body that I didn’t kiss, touch, or suck. There wasn’t one moan, pant, or I love you left for her to say after I thoroughly made love to her the way she wanted.
I had everything I ever wanted.
Everything I ever hoped for.
I didn’t care how long it took us to get to that place because all that mattered was that we were there.
Together.
Forever.
“Mmm…” she groaned, her eyes fluttering open as I licked her pussy the next morning. “Jesus, McGraw, how do you want back in already?”
“I want another baby girl,” I simply stated.
She smiled big and wide.
“You think you could do that for me?” I asked, sucking her clit into my mouth, moving my head side to side. “Hmmm…” I hummed.
“Ask your boys,” she sassed in reference to my come.
I gently bit down and she squirmed.
“My boys do just fine, darlin’.”
I pushed two fingers into her warm, wet pussy and her back arched off the bed. Hitting her sweet spot while I fucked her with my mouth.
“That feel good?”
Her breathing hitched and her legs trembled.
“What?” I pushed harder and sucked faster.
Her legs tightened so fucking hard around my head as she came all the way down my face. I savored the taste against my tongue, swallowing all her juices like she was my favorite goddamn meal. I kissed her clit one last time and made my way up her body, stopping when I was fully on top of her. Enclosing her with my arms and positioning my cock at her entrance.
I would never be able to get enough of her sweet, sweet pussy.
Mine.
I thrust all the way inside her in one swift movement. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head. I kissed along her neck and down to her breasts.
Her heart pressed against mine.
Where it belonged.
“Do you feel me inside you?” I growled into her mouth.
“Yes.”
“Give me another baby girl.”
She smiled.
I slammed into her, shoving my tongue in her mouth. “God, suga’, I fucking love you.”
“Promise?”
“Always.”
“I love you, too.”
“Prove it.”
I angled my leg higher, making her leg incline. Our mouths parted as I roughly took what’s mine. We were both panting profusely, desperately trying to cling onto every sensation of our skin-on-skin contact. I felt myself start to come apart, and she was right there with me. I came deep inside her, her pussy squeezing my cock so fucking tight.
I kissed her one last time and looked deep into her eyes.
“There’s my girl.”
She beamed and announced,
“I’m pregnant.”
I had been trying to find the right time to tell him, and that seemed as good a time as any.
“You’re fuckin’ with me?”