Playing Pretend: A Single Dad Secret Baby Romance Page 7

  “Fuck- just like that, sweetheart… get me hard again-“ My juices seeped from my entrance to slicken his throbbing, hot length, and I moaned when he reached around to grab my butt hard. “Turn around- I want to watch your ass jiggle while you fuck me, Delainne.”

  Panting harshly, I jostled around while Eric ripped open a condom, and he kneaded my butt cheek with an eager groan. For a moment, I didn’t know what to do, and I hissed when he swiped the protected head between my folds. Gripping my left cheek hard, he guided me as I slid down on him, and a shocked sputtering burst from my throat.

  “Oh, my God-d-d-d-d! Oh- it’s go- good- it’s good-“ Gasping hoarsely, I tightened around Eric’s dick and ducked my head when my hips connected with his. Frosty prickles rippled upwards, all the way to my collar bones, and I ground my teeth in my efforts to fight off my release. In my narrowed vision, his toes and feet flexed, and I fisted the soiled sheets underneath weak arms.

  “Just your lower back, Delainne- lift only your hips.” Grinding out the command through a clenched jaw, Eric gripped both my butt cheeks to spread them. Nodding listlessly, I whimpered as I chaotically rolled my hips, and his length caressed my undulating walls. “No- up and down, not around.”

  “Okay-“ My breathless rasp rode a weak wave of determination, and I squeezed my eyes shut to concentrate. Eric’s hands squeezed and kneaded, his nails raking over the tight globes as I jerked roughly. His length reached deep, and the pleasure mixed with intense shock at the unexpectedly powerful euphoria that rocketed through me.

  “Fu-uck yes, sweetheart- exactly like that. Bounce just like that.” The sensations searing my nerves were different than when I was on my back, and goosebumps washed my flesh at Eric’s direction. Gripping my waist firmly, he blew out scalding breaths that weaved through the fine, peach fuzz hairs on my back. “Just like that- sweetheart-“

  “Yes-s-s! D- Deep- it’s so d- de-ah-h-h!” I couldn’t stave off my orgasm when Eric tilted his hips, and my entire body spasmed around his length. Color popped behind my tightly shuttered eyelids, and my face heated as tension locked my muscles. His groan echoed in my ears, and I whimpered what should’ve been a moan that couldn’t squeeze past the lump in my throat.

  Gasping fiercely when the wave subsided, I shivered violently when Eric sat up to wrap one arm around my shoulders. His hot pants rolled down between my breasts, and he reached between my legs to circle my nub roughly. Chapped lips scorched my neck and shoulder blade, and I rolled and ground as he forced another release that was more intense than the first.

  “Cum on that fucking cock, Delainne- yeah-“ Clamping down on his length, I squealed from the passion that gripped me, and Eric grabbed my face to turn my head to his. Kissing me greedily, his need for me filled my lungs as they screamed for oxygen, but he didn’t notice as he shoved his tongue down my throat. The taste of him went straight to my head, and I moaned and whimpered as his tongue danced against mine.

  We barely moved, entangled in this way, but each twitch and slight thrust threatened to drown me. Eric’s fingers left my nub to tangle in my hair, and he pushed my torso forward to brace himself back. My lips ached for his, a yearning clogging my already tight chest, but I couldn’t even open my mouth before he thrust with a jerk.

  “Fuck!” Somehow, Eric folded his knees at an awkward enough angle to slide out from under me, and my core throbbed in protest. His voracious heat was replaced with stabbing cold, but he didn’t leave me empty long enough for me to take a shallow breath. The head of his cock plowed past my entrance, eased by the latex glove, and black spots dotted my vision. Choking on the pleasure that rampaged through me, I let out a shriek of rapture before he pulled my head back.

  I sobbed from the ecstasy that flooded every cell in my body, and moan after moan wrenched from my throat. Eric’s grunts swept down my back with each, powerful thrust, and he tugged my hair with careful gentleness. His hips colliding with mine rattled my bones, and my eyes rolled in their sockets as another orgasm crashed through me. Tightening around his hard rod, my walls quivered in time to the rippling of his length, and he gasped and sputtered above me.

  “Fu-u-uck yes-s-s…” When Eric pulled out, I couldn’t protest as my elbows buckled and gave way. All of the tension seeped from my body, and the sound of the condom being tossed in the trash can by the bed rattled loudly against my skull.

  It was all over so fast that I didn’t know what to do, but Eric slowly laid down on his side in front of me. Watching him, face flushed and lips dry, through heavily lidded, wide eyes, I struggled for air even while he reached to caress my cheek.

  “You develop dimples on your ass cheeks when you cum hard enough.” Flames licked my cheeks as Eric dragged his palm down to knead my butt cheek, and his lips twitched in a tired smirk. “It’s sexy.”

  “Th- thanks…” His smile widened, and he shuffled close enough to conform our fronts and kiss my lips. Throwing his arm carelessly around my back, he held my firmly before nudging his knee between mine, and I sighed in pure, untainted content. His smell saturated my fogged mind, and his warmth and strength cocooned me in security.

  For once, I was actually kind of grateful to my step-brother. If he wasn’t such a creep, I might not have this moment and all of the others like it.

  Eric

  Pulling into my driveway easily, I shut off my car before raking both my hands through my hair. A pang tweaked my chest as I stared at this place that’d become my home, but I knew that the reason wasn’t something that I could change.

  The day after Teagen’s wedding, Delainne had called her boss to formally quit. Supposedly, Donald was very understanding about the whole situation, but I couldn’t help but worry. Delainne was watching Maggie while I was at work, and anxiety pooled in my gut every time I entered my home. I expected things to go horribly wrong, just as they had with the other babysitters. After all, it wasn’t like Delainne took Maggie anywhere, and being cooped up in the house all day must’ve been maddening.

  Climbing out of my car, my legs thrummed with tension, and I locked my vehicle on my way up the walkway. Before I even opened the door, I could hear giggling, and relief slumped my shoulders. Inhaling deeply, I closed my eyes briefly before pushing the barrier open, and the giggling got louder and more intense.

  Delainne was standing in the middle of the living room surrounded by half a dozen partially unraveled rolls of paper towels. Markers and stickers littered the carpet, and two rolls of scotch tape and a pair of scissors sat on the sofa.

  But the mess wasn’t what caught my immediate attention, and I stiffened as I scanned Delainne through narrowed eyes. She was draped in paper towels- over her shoulders, around her chest and draped in a belt of scotch tape that settled around her waist. Her face glowed red, cheeks rounded in a splitting, goofy grin, and I crossed my arms over my chest before Maggie’s rambling entered my scope of comprehension.

  My daughter laid on the floor, in front of a piece of cardboard to stop the markers from bleeding through the paper towels and into the carpet. She talked fast, about what she was drawing, why she was drawing it, and some parts that I couldn’t make out because she started giggling to herself.

  Rocking back on my heels, I took in the scene as my brain slowly processed the absolute magnitude of what it meant. Delainne and Maggie weren’t at each other’s throats; in fact, they seemed to grow closer and closer each day. Watching silently, ignored for the moment, as Maggie popped up with a stretch of paper towel, I rolled my jaw against the pressure that built in my skull.

  Delainne twirled around slowly as Maggie taped the top of the paper towel to her, and only then did she notice me. Embarrassment swamped her features, and she gave me a small, guilty smile on thinned lips. Her freckles brightened as she flushed a deep, dark red, and I cleared my throat roughly to rid the lump that labored my breath.

  “What’s going on here?” Maggie squealed in surprise, whipping around to smile wide and sheepish, and I shot her a pointed look. “I ho
pe you plan on cleaning this mess up when you’re done.”

  “I will, Daddy- but, look! Isn’t Delainne beautiful?” I smiled broadly at how proud Maggie was at what she’d done, and affection squeezed my heart. Waving her hands at Delainne, my daughter puffed up like a bird that’d learned to fly. “I made it for when you get married.”

  Both Delainne and I froze at that, and my gaze flew to hers as they twinkled in panicked confusion. Almost instantly, Maggie felt the tension buzzing between the two of us, and I walked over stiffly to sit on the end of the sofa. My mind ran frantically, and she looked between Delainne and I as I tried to figure out what to say.

  This was bad.

  “Maggie- honey, why do you think Delainne and I are getting married?” I tried my damnedest not to sound any type of way, and my throat tightened from the effort. Maggie shrunk some, shrugging as she twiddled with her marker and stared at her bare feet. Anxiety curdled my blood, and I held my breath behind a clenched jaw as silence rang in my ears.

  “Uh- no reason… I like her- she’s not like the other babysitters… and she sleeps here- that means you’re getting married. And she has a ring like Auntie Casey’s, and Auntie Casey got married.” Grumbling through her answer uncomfortably, Maggie peeked up from under her eyelashes at me. “If you get married, Delainne can teach me how to do a backflip on the trampoline.”

  Flickering to Delainne, we shared a heavy, strained look, and she knelt down next to Maggie. Her smile was soft and understanding, and I took the moment to remember how to breathe properly. “Maggie, if your dad and I were going to get married, it wouldn’t be right now. It takes a long time.”

  “When I’m 7?” The hope in Maggie’s voice broke my heart, and I propped my elbows on my knees to clasp my hands tightly. “My birthday is in April- it’s not for a long time.”

  “Maybe when you’re 7. We don’t know, yet. Sometimes, grown ups don’t get married for a long time, and other times, it’s not so long. Besides, if your dad and I do get married, we would all go on a trip, and we didn’t think of anywhere to go.” Delainne avoided telling Maggie an outright, brutal ‘no’, but I knew she was running out of things to say. “Plus, we’d need to go when you’re not in school, so it’d have to be summer time. Otherwise, you’d miss school and all your friends, right?”

  “I guess so…” Surprise rocketed through me when Maggie didn’t protest, and she bopped her head up and down with a huge smile cresting her cheeks. “Can we go to Disney World? All my friends will be so jealous!”

  “Well, we can’t go anywhere with all this mess, and I need to take this off. Can you clean up while your dad helps me? I don’t want to rip it.” My daughter nodded furiously, dropping to her knees even as mine hoisted me up stiffly. Delainne and I were silent on the way up the stairs to the guest bedroom, and I struggled to catch up to what just happened. The ominous silence was deafening, but the blood roaring in my ears told me that I hadn’t lost my mind.

  “… I didn’t know that’s what she was doing, Eric…” Only speaking up once we were safely in the guest bedroom, Delainne clenched her hands by her sides with white-knuckle tightness. Her voice wobbled, and I sucked up a loud, sharp breath through flared nostrils. “I wouldn’t have let her if I knew.”

  “It’s… I- honestly, I’m at a loss.” Delainne was fully clothed underneath the swathes of paper towels, and I sat on the foot of the perfectly made bed to sigh heavily. “I never thought she’d like you so much. I never thought she’d take you so seriously.”

  Mine was a pitiful excuse, but it was the only one I had. Ever so carefully, Delainne wiggled out of her makeshift dress, and I stared at the small space between my boots. My uniform collar threatened to choke me, and I roughly unfastened the top buttons before she spoke up.

  “What should we do? I mean- just because Greg hasn’t been around doesn’t mean he isn’t still looking for me, and I won’t put Maggie in danger. It’s bad enough that she thinks we’re in a relationship, and she knows we went to the wedding together- what if-“

  “I’ll deal with Greg when the time comes, Delainne. I know what he looks like- I haven’t seen him around, so maybe he gave up when you quit your job. Hopefully, he thinks you’re in the wind again. I don’t know, but it’s not really a priority for me in this moment.” Out of the top of my vision, the pile of paper towels grew until Delainne stepped out of it, and I rubbed my jaw hard. “Maybe- maybe we should be in a relationship- a real one… for Maggie’s sake, and for our own.”

  Her eyes bored holes into my crown, and I rubbed my mouth and jaw as my mind viciously puttered into action.

  “I mean, what are we doing, anyway? You sleep here- and we fuck almost every night. I enjoy fucking you, and you do, too. You’re with Maggie all damn day, every day. When I asked you to do the wedding with me, I didn’t even think she’d get involved at all. It was a performance to get my mom off my back- at least, that’s what it was supposed to be when I thought it up.” Tension thrummed through my shoulders and buzzed down my spine, and I reached to swipe the back of my neck. The more my word vomit spewed, the more it just made sense to me to actually date Delainne, and I flexed my feet in my boots. “I mean- she likes you, and I don’t think you really understand how much that realization is hitting me. Maggie hates everyone that I try to get to watch her, but not you.”

  “… Eric, it was one thing lying to your mother… but I can’t- I can’t do that to Maggie, and you know it.” Frustration bubbled up my throat at Delainne’s calm tone, and I finally lifted my head to catch her gaze. She jutted her chin out, fists propped on her hips and a fierceness causing her eyes to glow. “I’m not stringing her along while we try to sort this out. I did my part-“

  “What do you think a relationship is, Delainne?” Jumping up, my muscles locked in stone when I was a little louder than I should’ve been, and Delainne’s eyes widened. Unease flittered across her expression, but she didn’t back down. Glaring hotly, I knew that I didn’t intimidate her physically; it was my question that disquieted her. “You’ve never had one- you said it yourself. You didn’t think anyone was worth your time. So- am I worth your time?”

  “You know you are.” The nasty snarl filled with disgust that punched me square in the chest, and it filled Delainne’s reddening features. “That’s the problem.”

  For the first time, it really clicked in my brain that Delainne wasn’t just a virgin- she’d never done anything romantic. With her personal drive- and her fuckboy step-brother- she’d probably never been out on even a casual date before. I’d bet money in that instant that she’d never been so much as in the same room with a man she had romantic feelings for.

  Maybe, she’d never had those feelings at all. Maybe, she was terrified of those feelings.

  “… Are you fighting because of me?” The soft, tentative question snapped me out of my daze, and my gaze whipped over to find Maggie hovering in the doorway. Inhaling sharply through flared nostrils, I strode over to pick up my daughter and hold her to my side. The frustration that boiled my blood cooled at the uncertainty on her pudgy face, and I shook my head with a slight, strained smile.

  “No, honey. We were just arguing about adult stuff. It’s not about you.” Clear as day, skepticism shimmered in Maggie’s eyes, and I tore mine away to gaze at Delainne. “Let’s go out for dinner tonight- how ‘bout it? I’m starving, and I bet making that dress took a long time.”

  “Adult stuff… like getting married?” Sometimes, I didn’t like how damn perceptive Maggie was, and I stifled a sigh of exasperation. Turning back to her, I nodded firmly, and she furrowed her eyes atop a deep frown.

  “Maggie, honey, we’re not getting married. Like Delainne said- it takes a long time. Uncle Teagen and Auntie Casey have been together since you were born, and they just got married a few days ago.”

  “You know, too, Maggie…” Speaking up gently, Delainne lost her puff, and Maggie rested her head on my shoulder to lock her ankles against my opposite side. “If we got m
arried right now, we could go to Disney World, and you’d be too small for some of the rides. It’s not as much fun if you can’t go on the rides, right?”

  Delainne’s approach seemed to wiggle a little better than mine into my daughter’s brain, and her frown morphed into a scowl. She’d always been self-conscious about her height and weight; for a six-year-old, it was a tough thing to feel, and I hated that I couldn’t do anything for her. After all, it was a direct result of the same issue that caused Sasha to die before they could even get her onto an operating table.

  “I do want to go on all the rides, I guess.”

  Delainne

  Licking my lips heavily, I twisted to glance over my shoulder at Maggie and fought a frown. She sat quiet, staring out the window, as she fiddled with the straps of her car-seat. The atmosphere was too depressing and stressful for a little girl, and guilt held my heart in a vice.

  “Uh- you know, Maggie, I’ve never been to any of the restaurants in this city. Are there any ones you like the most?” Maggie turned to stare right at me, and I knew that I didn’t sound nearly as chipper as I wanted to. Guilt ate at my gut, and even the idea of food churned my stomach dangerously. She had an expression that screamed ‘I know what you’re doing’, and I twisted a little sharper before speaking up again. “Are there any questions you want to ask me?”

  “Delainne-“ Eric tried to interject, but I shot him a pensive look as he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. Constantly, he went on about how smart and intuitive Maggie was, and he knew just as well as I did that we couldn’t hide this from her. Turning my attention back to the little girl seated directly behind him, I nodded encouragingly as she puffed out her lips thoughtfully.

  “If you don’t want to get married, does that mean you won’t teach me how to do a backflip on the trampoline?” Maggie’s tone was as surprising as it was disheartening- like her question was just an attempt to test waters. Shuffling to twist even sharper, I shook my head, but she didn’t give me a chance to open my mouth. “I’ll have two moms if you and Dad get married. We can go ask my mom- she won’t mind. Grams says that my mom is in Heaven watching me, so she knows I like you.”