Authors: Lexy Timms
“
Mark
,” she gasped again, more urgently.
“Not yet.” He knew she could feel the heat of his breath against her. “Not yet, baby.”
“Fuck you.”
“Don't like it when the tables are turned?” He put on a sympathetic tone, but the grin on his face gave away just how he felt about teasing her the way that he was. “Say ‘please’.”
She growled at him, her fingers fisting in the blankets, and Mark leaned down and spread her open with two fingers, stroking just the tip of his tongue against her clit. He did it once. Slowly. And then again. She made a sound in the back of her throat that sounded like begging, but still didn't say please, so he licked a circle around it. Stroked his fingertips over the entrance to her body but didn't slide them inside.
“Oh,” she hissed. “Fuck.”
“‘Please’,” he reminded her, kissing her clit.
Her thighs trembled under his hands. Mark licked over her clit with the flat of his tongue, giving her exactly what he wanted, and then pulled away. Her whole body jerked.
“Mark. Oh. Please.
Please
.”
“You only had to ask. Not beg,” Mark teased as he answered, leaning in and rubbing his tongue over her. One of her hands slid out of the blankets to tangle in his hair, pulling almost enough to hurt, and Mark would have smiled but his mouth was a little busy at the moment. He pulled her clit between his lips just as two of his fingers slid inside her. Her spine arched, the hand in his hair clenching, and her thighs tried to close around his shoulders.
“Please,” she gasped again. “Again. Mark.”
He kept it up, working her almost roughly, making her writhe and shudder under his hands and his mouth until she was sobbing his name. He could feel how close she was, her whole body drawing tight. That was it. He didn't pull back to say it, wasn't that cruel. Another stroke of his tongue, another thrust of his fingers, and she was shaking apart under him with a cry.
Mark slowed, his tongue gentle and his fingers just stroking her, guiding her through the wash of release until she was slumped boneless and breathless on the bed.
“Oh my…” she breathed. “Damn!”
Mark slid his fingers free and crawled up the bed to lie beside her, wrapping her in his arms. “Good?”
“I think my legs don't work anymore.”
He laughed at that, and stole a kiss. “I'm pretty sure that means I did a hell of a job.”
“What it means is I'm never, ever letting you go. You're mine forever.”
His arms tightened around her. “I could think of worse things,” he answered, face buried in the soft fall of her hair, “than being yours forever.”
Erica turned, and he drew back enough that she could meet his eyes. He could feel the skin-warm metal of her engagement ring against his arm where her hand rested.
“Then it's settled,” she said, and there was something deeper than play in her voice. “You're mine.” She smiled, eyes searching his. “And I'm yours.”
“Absolutely. All the way.”
He was never letting her go, either. Not in a million years. A woman like her wasn't someone you chased off. She was worth everything. And not just because she was amazing in bed.
No, Mark thought, looking down at Erica as she curled closer into his arms, her breathing evening out into the rhythms of sleep. She was the kind of woman a man would risk everything for. And she would deserve it.
Mark couldn’t think of anything he wanted more in the world than to have her by his side.
“So,” Jamie said into the phone as she pulled another plate off the stack and rinsed the remains of dinner from it. “Tell me all about it.”
“It was...” Christine paused, and Jamie could almost hear her thinking about what to say.
“If it wasn't good,” she said, “you know you can tell me, right? I'm not going to take Paul's side over yours or anything.”
“What? Oh. No.” Christine laughed a little. “No. It was really good, actually. It was exactly what I would have wanted from a first date. He was really sweet, Jamie.”
Paul had been working for them again for nearly a week, and he'd taken Christine out for their first date just the night before. Jamie smiled into the phone.
“That's great, Christine! I thought you two would get along well.”
“We did. I mean, he listened to everything I had to say. Really listened. Like he cared. I can't tell you how many guys haven't done that.”
It was Jamie's turn to laugh. “Oh, believe me. I know exactly what that's like.”
“Dinner was really good, too. The place he picked was just right. And afterward we went to this park across from it, with a little pond, and we walked for a while. All the lights were reflecting off the water. It was gorgeous.”
Trust Paul to get a first date exactly right. Jamie couldn’t hold back the giddy little flutter of happiness she felt for Christine. Her sister had been through so much; she really deserved a happy ending. And if that happy ending was with Paul, Jamie really wasn’t going to complain. He was a good guy.
Alex had been happier since Paul came back to the company. It had definitely taken some of the stress off his shoulders, and Jamie was grateful for that. She was also enjoying having him actually be able to come home at a reasonable time some nights. They’d been planning it for months, but having it finally be real was just as wonderful as she’d expected that it would be. The twins liked having their daddy home more, too, and not having to watch them while she did the dishes was a bit of a plus. She could hear them, giggling away in the living room while Alex’s low voice said something that she couldn’t quite make out.
“I'm so glad that you had a good first date,” Jamie said into the phone before Christine could feel like she was being ignored. “Are you going to have a second one?”
The answer had better be yes, after how the first one had gone.
“We are,” Christine said, and Jamie could hear the excitement in her voice. “He has tickets to a show that he's going to take me to. On Broadway.”
That was more than Jamie had expected. She wondered if Paul maybe was moving a little bit fast, but then again he did have a great salary. Show tickets weren't exactly out of his league. And Christine would love it.
“Wow. That's quite a second date.”
The laughter that spilled over the phone line was a little self-conscious. “I told him that he didn't have to spend so much money on me, but he seemed really set on it, so I thought I would just let him.”
“Hey, if he wants to spend money, let him spend it,” Jamie said. “That's one of the nice things about dating Fortune 500 guys: You don't have to worry that they're giving up their grocery money to take you out.”
“True,” Christine agreed, laughing.
There was a knock on the door, and Jamie paused with a dish still in one hand, the phone caught between her ear and her shoulder. Who was knocking this late at night?
“Christine, I think someone’s at the door.”
“At eight? Without any kind of warning?” Christine was silent for a moment on the other end of the line. “Are you sure that you should answer it? What if it's someone trying to rob you or something?”
That thought had occurred to Jamie. But Alex was there, and they had security cameras. “Well, last time someone tried that they didn't knock on the door,” she pointed out.
“It's rude, though. I mean, unless it's someone you wouldn't mind dropping in so late.”
The knocking came again, louder, and Jamie knew that if she didn't get the door Alex would. “I've got it,” she said over her shoulder, putting the dish in the washer and drying her hands before she headed for the front door, still holding the phone.
“Do you need to hang up?” Christine asked.
“No. Not unless it's Mark out there or something, but he would have called first. Whoever it is, I'm sure I'll be able to send them on their way pretty quickly.”
Whoever was on the other side of the door was still knocking, the gesture taking on a sharp tone. Jamie sighed and reached for the handle, swinging the door open. Her eyes widened when she saw who was standing there.
“Mom?”
“Yes,” her mother snapped, forcing her way past Jamie and into the house without so much as an 'excuse me.' “And I don't know why you kept me waiting out there so long. There are things called manners, Jamie. I didn't raise you without them.”
Jamie was still staring, trying to get her scattered thoughts together.
“Mom?” Christine was saying in her ear. “You’ve got to be joking. Mom’s there?”
“I'm going to have to call you back,” Jamie said. “I'm sorry.”
“No problem. Just- No problem. Good luck, Jamie.”
“Thanks.” Jamie hung up and tucked the phone into her pocket, turning to look at her mother, who was standing in the middle of the kitchen with a pinched expression on her face. Jamie had once wondered if that expression was permanently stuck there. “What can I do for you, Mom?”
“You can tell me why you felt the need to make me stand outside the door for ten minutes, is what you can do. And then you can suggest a good lawyer.”
“A good lawyer?”
“Yes. Don't just repeat what I say. I’ve divorced your father, now I’m entitled to his money.”
Jamie stared. Any minute, Alex was going to come out of the living room and wonder what was going on, but Jamie wasn't really thinking that far ahead.
“You have a divorce from Dad,” she said slowly.
Her mother glared at her. “What are you, a parrot? Take some initiative. I know that you know a good lawyer. You did enough damage to poor Stephen that you have to have had one, and the only reason your husband's company hasn't gone under yet is due to you having legal counsel, I’m sure.”
“Excuse me?” The words came out sharper than Jamie had meant them to, but she couldn't believe her mother had just said that. Actually, she could believe that her mother had just said that, but that didn't mean that she was going to stand there and take it. “Our company is doing just fine, actually, despite constant attacks on it. If you have something to say about Reid Enterprises, you can say it somewhere else because I'm not going to stand here and listen to you act like you know what you're talking about when you have absolutely no idea.” Jamie took a step forward. “And as for Dad, you don't need a good lawyer. You aren’t getting anything.”
“Is that any way to talk to your mother?” Under the words, Jamie heard the sound of footsteps, and sighed inwardly. Alex had decided to get involved. “I do need a good lawyer, because there is no way your father is going to give me what I'm due in the settlement, and I've got a wedding to plan.”
A wedding to plan. She was actually going to marry that guy who was young enough to be her son? “With that kid you're hauling around?”
“He's a better man than your father ever was,” her mother snapped, and that was enough. Jamie was going to bodily throw her out of the house if she didn't stop.
“I think,” Alex's calm voice said from the doorway, “that you need to go.”
There was an instant of silence. Jamie's mother looked at Alex, and Alex looked back at her, his arms crossed over his chest.
“You're really going to just kick me out without any kind of help?” She looked from Alex to Jamie. “When I'm your mother? You're going to throw me out on the street?” Her face twisted like she was going to tear up.
“Are you actually living on the street, Mom?”
“Well, I'm certainly not living the kind of life that a woman my age would expect to be living. I lost all that when your father decided to kick me to the curb. I'm too old to be staying in cheap motels. The least you could do is give me a little assistance.” There were definitely tears in her eyes then, and as much as Jamie didn't believe them she wondered if she could really make herself ignore them.
She sighed, turning enough to meet Alex's gaze, a silent 'What do you think?' in her eyes. The look Alex gave her was one she was pretty sure said 'Just get her out of here.'
If they started giving her mother money, Jamie was sure the woman wasn't going to stop at just one request. But if they didn't give it to her, getting her out of the house was going to be impossible, and Jamie didn't want her around the kids. She sighed again.
“Okay. We'll give you some money, but you have to go find somewhere that isn't here to stay. And you need to talk to Dad.”
“Talk to him about what? You know how he feels about me,” her mother answered, already holding her hand out.
“About a settlement. And if you don't think you can work it out between the two of you, then I'll find you a recommendation for a divorce lawyer. But not until you've at least spoken to him.”
The look Jamie's mother gave her was absolutely venomous, but she didn't say she wouldn't do it. She just stood there waiting, hand out, until Alex handed over a roll of bills that she quickly thumbed through. It was several hundred dollars in cash, more than she was likely to get from anyone else, but she looked at it like she'd been stiffed.
“Alex isn't a walking bank,” Jamie said. “We don't keep most of our money here in the house. That's what we've got.”
“Fine.” The woman tucked the money into her pocket and turned away. “Have a nice night.” Her tone said that she hoped they wouldn't have a nice anything, but at least she was leaving.
As soon as the front door shut a little loudly behind her mother, Jamie sighed in relief. At least they’d gotten rid of her for a while, though there probably wasn't any guarantee she wouldn't be back.
“Where are the kids?” she asked.
“In the playpen in the living room,” Alex answered. “I thought it would be best not to bring them in here, all things considered.”
“Thank you.” Jamie smiled at him, wrapping an arm around his waist and leaning into his side as they made their way back through the kitchen to where the twins were waiting. “I don't want her to be around them. I'm not subjecting them to the kinds of things that come out of her mouth.”
“Maybe once she tries this with your father, she won't come back,” Alex suggested.
Jamie wasn't sure that she believed that. Her mother would probably always keep coming back, just to drive the rest of them completely insane. She stood in the doorway and watched the twins in the playpen, rolling big, brightly-colored balls across the bottom of it. Both of them were laughing, pausing occasionally to squeal with delight or slap their hands against the floor. Despite the mess that the last few minutes had been, Jamie smiled. “Sometimes I still can't believe that was us. That we did that.”
Alex’s arm tightened around her as they watched the twins play. They were growing up so much faster than she had thought possible, their hair as dark as their daddy’s and their eyes wide and blue. They were going to be heartbreakers when they grew up.
“I can’t believe I haven’t messed it up yet, considering how terrible my example of motherhood was.”
“You could never be like her,” Alex said. His fingers slid under her chin, gently tipping her head up so that she had to look him in the eye. “There’s nothing about you that resembles that woman in any way, Jamie. Nothing about you that could ever be so bitter and broken.”
Jamie wrapped her arms around her husband and lay her head against his chest, eyes sliding shut. She really hoped that he was right.