I walked until I stood in front of her, forcing myself not to reach out and touch her as she looked up at me with her beautiful stare.
I didn’t know what I would do if I couldn’t wake up to that stare any longer.
“But I’m broken, Michelle. When I made it to the big leagues, I spent the first paycheck at a plastic surgeon’s office where they used a laser to get as many scars off as I could, then tattooing over the rest. My entire life has been spent trying to shove that part of my life behind me so I don’t have to look back at it. And even though I walk around with a high head and a pocket full of cash, I’m still an asshole with trust issues. I still question everyone that comes around me. I still see the worst in people because that was all I was shown my entire life.
“Until Anton,” Michelle said.
“Until Anton,” I said. “Michelle, I’m sorry for the things I’ve put you through. For the turmoil I’ve caused you. I should’ve trusted you instead of assuming you were like everyone else. Because it was clear as day when you slid into that bed beside me that first night I met you that you were unlike anyone else in this world. Those papers up there? That custody agreement? It was the only thing I could think to do as a father in the moment. Operating underneath the mindset I allowed myself to fall into. I know what it means to be a shitty father, because I was raised with one, and I want to do right by my child. I want to protect my child, Michelle. Our child.”
I took a chance and rose my hand to cup her cheek, fully prepared for her to pull away. She didn’t nuzzle into it, but she didn’t pull away from it, and I got a chance to soak up the glorious warmth I’d come to associate with her.
My Michelle.
The woman I loved.
“I’ve gone about all of this the wrong way, and I’m sorry,” I said. “But when I told you circumstances have changed, I meant it. You’re going to be a fantastic mother, Michelle. I know it. And I’d never dream of taking our child away from you. There’s no woman better to raise it. There’s no woman on this planet who possesses the love and affection and patience needed to raise a child more than you. And I admit, a part of me that is scared you’ll turn out to be just like my mother and leave. There’s a part of me that is still worried you’re doing this to get to my money instead of me. And there’s a part of me that fears I’ll turn out to be just like my father. I will always battle against those voices. I’ll always deal with that part of my past. But it doesn’t change what I want, and it doesn’t change how I feel, and it doesn’t change the fact that if you walk out that door I’ll pursue you to the ends of the earth to try to keep our family together.”
I felt her jaw quiver before a tear slipped from the corner of her eye. I caught it on the tip of my thumb as she drew in a ragged breath and everything inside of me came falling to the ground. The walls. The darkness. The questions. The voices. They all buckled and fell to the floor at our feet as my eyes danced between hers.
“What about the paperwork?” Michelle asked, with a whisper.
“Ancient history,” I said. “I’d never ask you to sign something like that now.”
I traced my wet thumb over her lower lip and watched her flush. Her chest rose and fell with her heavy breaths as she took a step towards me. Michelle was the most beautiful woman in the world. The most seductive woman I’d ever come across. And the closer she stepped to me, the more I became convinced that she wasn’t walking out. That she wasn’t leaving.
“I’ve been an asshole,” I said. “But I swear to you, I’ll make it right.”
Then, I pulled her into my arms and crashed my lips against hers.
Her arms slid effortlessly around me and I pressed her back into the front door. I reached out and locked it, feeling her smile into my lips. Our tongues collided and fire raced through my veins. But I wasn’t going to toss her over the couch and take her lewdly. I wasn’t going to fuck her against the door and make her cry out my name.
I wanted to make sure she knew how I felt about her with every move I made. With every roll of my hips and every stroke of my tongue. My hand slid down her body, gently cupping her breast and playing with her nipple until I felt it pucker underneath her bra. I kissed languidly down her cheek. Down her neck. Down to her shoulder. I pulled her shirt off to the side and nibbled against her skin, lapping at it and nuzzling into it as her breathing grew deep.
“I love you,” she said, breathlessly.
I slowly rose my head and hooked my eyes with hers as my hands slid to her ass.
“I love you too, Michelle. More than I’ll ever be able to verbalize.”
Effortlessly, I picked her up as she wrapped her legs around me. I suckled on her lower lip and bathed myself in her whimpers. I held her close to me as I walked through the living room and down the hallway, making my way to her bedroom. I pushed us in and went straight for the bathroom, knowing exactly where I wanted her. I wanted to treat her like the queen she was. Like the beautiful woman she had become to me.
Like the graceful and strong mother of my child.
Her lips fell to my chest as she peeled my clothes from my body, and the feeling of her fingertips racing along my skin made my toes curl. Clothes fell to the floor of her bathroom before I backed her into the shower, then I reached over to turn on the water. Hot water combined with cold to blanket us in the waterfall pouring over our heads. I turned on the misters to blanket us in a thick steam as our hands explored one another.
I caressed her curves. Swirled my tongue around her nipples. Heard my name tumbling from her lips as my fingers slid between her pussy folds. She bucked into my hand as my fingers sank into her. She rolled into my thumb as it circled her clit. I kissed her. Marked her. Groaned with her as she clung to me. Her nails dug into my muscles and her legs began to shiver, and the second she came into the palm of my hand I encompassed my lips with hers.
I swallowed her moans before I brought my hand to my lips, making her watch as I licked every salted drop of her from my skin.
Then, before I could catch her, she dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around my thighs, pushing my cock down the back of her throat.
Chapter 26
Michelle
“Sweet holy fuck.”
Those three words had me hollowing my cheeks out as my body fell limp with my first orgasm. He loved me. Grayson loved me. I slid my tongue around the head of his cock and drank down each drop of precum. I wanted as much of him as I could get, and yet I enjoyed the slow pace he was taking. The water falling over our bodies and the mist blanketing us off from the world was too much. I opened my eyes and looked up at him, watching as his back fell to the shower wall. Water dripped down the crevices of his chiseled muscles, making him glisten like the Greek statue he was. His hand cupped my cheek before fisting my hair. He rolled his cock all the way to the back of my throat. I moaned around him, feeling his girth thicken against my teeth.