“You probably wouldn’t have even gotten a BLT that day.”
“Why?”
“We didn’t serve them. I made the cook make one just for you. I felt like you couldn’t take any more stress. And picking a different sandwich seemed like it might be what pushed you over the edge.”
He laughs and kisses me. “It might have. Let me thank you for your consideration,” he says, kissing his way down my throat. He lifts up my Tshirt and kisses down my stomach. I kick off the covers to let him go all the way down.
He pulls off my panties and tosses them over his shoulder, giving me a crooked grin. I part my legs and he settles his head between my thighs. He teases me at first, the very tip of his tongue darting in and out of my folds. When he suddenly licks right up my center, I gasp and clutch the sheets.
His gentle tickles turn to searching probes, forceful laps, and I begin to thrash about on the bed. My oral sex experience is, I admit, not broad, but I’m certain Corbin is in a master class. He clearly enjoys it, teasing, looking up to watch my expression, going back to work with gusto. He lets me get so near a climax and then backs off, gentling his touch, letting the build-up subside. Then goes near again, backing off once more.
I’m wild with need, yet want this delicious yearning to go on forever. He slides a finger into me, then another, pressing down slightly as his tongue continues to lap firmly. He sucks my bud into his mouth and the suction pairs with the pressure of his tongue to push me right to the edge again. This time he pushes me over, working his fingers, his tongue, sending me into a rocking delight. I bite my lip to keep from crying out and waking Maeve. The feeling pulses through my body, making me spasm with pleasure. He keeps at it, more gently this time, letting me ride it completely to the end.
At last, I pull him up to me, tasting my own juices on his mouth. His cock is pressed hard against me as we kiss. Corbin rolls onto his back, pulling me on top of him. I lean forward and rise up to let his cock press against my opening and then slide, oh so slowly, down onto him. I sit atop him, completely filled.
“Oh my god, you are so beautiful,” he murmurs, reaching up to cup my breasts.
I begin to raise and lower myself, feeling his length deep inside me. When I angle myself just so, it’s as if he can reach my very center. As his cock presses that spot, I moan low, trying to keep the noise down, but unable to stop it completely.
I put my hand on his face, feeling the scratchy beard stubble on my palm. It’s one of those overwhelming moments, when I feel lucky and bewildered and…in love. When the thought hits me, without thinking I say it. “I love you.”
Corbin’s eyes shine and he pulls me down to a kiss. “I love you, too,” he says when he pulls back. The sappy smiles fade as the power of first I Love You’s drives us to more passionate lovemaking.
My thigh muscles burn as I ride him and Corbin’s hips are rocking in rhythm to mine. Our bodies press together again and again, passion turning to raw, animal need. He’s sitting up, too, and we cling to one another as we thrust. My cries are no longer quiet and I no longer care.
Another climax wells up and crashes over me, causing me to cry out louder still. Corbin’s cock swells within me as he, too , finds release with a shout. We continue to cling together, rocking more gently, as our orgasms subside and our brains return to our heads.
At which point I hear Maeve on the monitor.
“Guess we woke the baby.” I whisper into his neck.
“Totally worth it. I’ll get her.” He pulls away from me and puts on a robe. I’m glad he went, I don’t think I could get up if the house was on fire.
I can hear him, through the monitor softly singing to Maeve. Soon, she is quiet, then he is too, and he comes back into the room.
“That wasn’t so hard,” he says with a smile.
“You’re a natural,” I say, still flat in the bed.
“God, I hope this goes well with the Hamiltons,” he says, wrapping me in his arms again.
“It will,” I say. It has to.
The next day is mostly Corbin rushing around the house with orders on how to fix things that aren’t broken and straighten things that aren’t askew. Connie and Marta good naturedly pretend to re-clean the already spotless house. Corbin even mows the lawn along the driveway himself, much to the head-shaking confusion of the gardener.
He sleeps in his own bed that night, certain that he will toss and turn so much that neither of us will get a wink of sleep. I appreciate the consideration, but I manage to keep myself up quite well on my own.
I’m in the shower when I hear the helicopter arrive with the Pierces. It has been decided that they will stay here in the main building with Maeve and I and the Hamiltons and their lawyer will meet with Corbin, Asia, and Jarvis in the conference room of the winery. “I don’t want those people in my home,” Corbin had said.
As I get dressed, I can hear Maeve’s grandparents bringing her up to the playroom. I decide to take my time, let them have a moment. When I come in, Mitsy and Ed are both lying on the carpet, trying to get Maeve to crawl toward them. She’s on her hands and knees, rocking and smiling at them, but can’t seem to get enough momentum to take that first “step.”
"She’s so close," says Mitsy as I enter. “It’ll happen any day now. There will be something she wants just out of reach and she’ll forget that she doesn’t know how to crawl and –zoom!–off she’ll go. With my children, they all took off after one of the dogs.”
Edward says, “I guess Corbin just needs to get her a dog, then she’ll go.”
“He keeps saying he’s going to,” I tell them. “Honestly, it makes my job a lot easier if she can’t get away from me.”
Mitsy nods. “No sense wishing babyhood away. It goes so fast anyway. Truly, it seems like months since Corbin was this size.”
I smile at the idea of baby Corbin. “She’s grown so much just in the time I’ve been here, so I can imagine.”
“Corbin was such a blessing,” says Mitsy. “When I had the girls, nearly one after the next, I was too busy to really appreciate them. She shrugs.”I had help of course, but even so, it’s draining. And I was so focused on when they were hitting each stage of development, worried if they dropped behind what the charts said. But they were ten, eight, and six when Corbin was born. All in school, so grown up. And so I got to enjoy him completely." She laughs. “He didn’t walk until past his second birthday, probably because he never had to. Three big sisters, a nanny, me? His feet never touched the floor. He looked so much like Maeve, with big blue eyes and he had thick black ringlets I couldn’t bear to cut.”
“Everyone thought he was a girl,” says Edward, maybe still a little sore about it.
She waves her hand dismissively. “When Sarah was struggling in her first year of college and Emily had an eating disorder and Laura was doing her best to flunk out of Andover–all in the same year!–I still had my sweet nine year old, playing with Legos, bringing me flowers from the garden, sleeping with a teddy bear.”
I’m trying not to giggle at this kind of mama’s boy image I’m getting now. I want to ask if they ever had matching sailor suits.
“And it was hard for him to adjust to life at Groton because he’d been so coddled,” says Ed.
“Nonsense,” Mitsy says mildly. Clearly they’ve told this story before and she’s no longer interested in arguing. “He fell in with a bad crowd after that lacrosse coach was such an asshat. Pardon my language.” She looks at me and smiles. “Anyway, he was a delightful child and I’m sure Maeve will be, too.”
“I hope today goes well,” I say, looking out the window toward the outbuildings. “I think she’ll have a better chance at being delightful if
we can keep Enid Hamilton away from her.”
As if summoned, I see a long black car turn down the drive. “I bet that’s them,” I say, pointing.
My phone buzzes and Asia texts me that she’s there and that she’ll keep me updated. Jarvis doesn’t think she’ll have to do much. I didn’t see her car, so she must have come in the side drive.
We keep playing with Maeve and chatting, but the mood in the room is darker, distracted. I know we all want to know what’s going on in the conference room.
“I never liked Elise,” says Mitsy suddenly. “I met her at a Parent’s Weekend at Dartmouth, it was right before Ed had his heart attack, I recall. Not that I blame her. Not for that. She was a beautiful girl, no doubt, but she seemed so…fake. She said ‘Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Pierce, Corbin’s told me so much about you!’ in that Eddie Haskell way–do you know who that even is?”
I nod, I know the reference, if not where it came from. Some TV show.
“Fake like that. Like she was also trying to suggest the things she’d heard weren’t good. Just…never liked her. But Corbin had always been a pretty sensible kid, very smart, so I assumed she’d be cast aside soon enough.”
“No such luck,” says Ed, galloping a plastic horse in front of Maeve.
“No, shortly after that, Corbin embarked on some kind of weird campaign. His grades came up, which was nice, but he started calling home more often and telling us about the clubs he’d joined…”
“We thought he’d gotten scooped up by some cult or religious weirdoes,” says Ed. “It was odd.”
I have to laugh, if a bit bitterly. “You know, this is very different from the story he tells. He remembers that he was a screw up until the heart attack and at that point he vowed to be a better son, to make you two proud. Elise was part of that. He thought she was the kind of girl you’d want him to be with.”
“Oh good lord,” says Mitsy, shaking her head. “No, I even told him not to marry her. Told him it wasn’t too late to back out. He never said a bad word about her, but I could tell she was making him miserable.”
“I offered to send him to India, to clear out while we cancelled the wedding and sent back the gifts,” says Ed.