“It’s nothing.”
“Your face tells me otherwise.”
“It’s just — this — you . . .” I struggle to find the right words. “It’s so different. So wonderful.” I shake my head. “They’re happy tears.”
The crease on his forehead smooths. He begins to rock his hips, slow and tender, so that he’s riding my clit more than he is moving in and out of me. “I’m glad. I feel the same.”
I snake my hands around his neck, massaging the flexed muscles I find there with my thumb. “Why did it take us so long to get here?” I murmur, rolling my hips to match his languid rhythm. “We’ve known each other for two years, give or take.”
A smile teases at his lips. “I don’t know. Maybe we weren’t ready. But,” he punctuates the syllable with a powerful thrust that makes my back arch and my inner walls contract with pleasure, “if two years is what it took for us to come to this moment, then I consider none of it lost time.”
Another strong thrust, one that tears a groan from my throat. I wrap my legs around Ben’s low back, pushing my hips up into him so his length hits just the right spot to make my toes curl and my head fall back.
My walls begin to cave in on themselves, and now it’s Ben who moans. We both feel my orgasm cresting. I clasp myself to his upper body so my torso lifts from the seat.
I gasp and cry out as arousal coils tight in my low belly, then rips free and sends me crashing over the precipice of another climax.
Ben pushes himself into me again and again, his pace frenetic, all rhythm lost to his need to follow me as I fall to pieces. His cries fill my ears as he buries himself deep in me one final time.
I feel him pulsing inside me. His twitching cock nudges me even higher toward a fresh climax that makes my skin sing and my ears ring.
I hold onto Ben for dear life. His warmth grounds me even as his touch drives me into a shuddering, wailing orgasm that splits my heart wide open to everything that he has to offer me.
Ben
It takes me a full five minutes of resting with Hattie curled into my arms to realize that we didn’t use a condom.
Fuck.
My heart starts battering the insides of my ribs. I love being Rory’s dad, but I’m not sure I’m ready to welcome another baby into the world.
But then Hattie settles into me deeper, nuzzling my bare chest with her cheeks. I catch the way the corners of her lips sleepily curl skyward and I realize something else.
If ever I end up a father twice over, I want it to be with this woman and this woman only.
The truth of this makes my heart pound for an entirely different reason. Gratitude, mixed with something else.
Something that feels a lot like love.
Even though Hattie and I are only just finding each other in this new way.
Even though I don’t know if she wants me for tonight or forever.
Even though I just pounded her in the back of her truck, practically in public.
After all our years of being connected by Rory, I am falling in love with Hattie MacLean.
And fuck, I couldn’t be happier.
Her eyes blink lazily open. “I could fall asleep like this,” she murmurs, wriggling more tightly against my skin, lids falling shut once more. “But that’s probably a bad idea.”
“You falling asleep in my arms? That sounds like a dream come true.” I massage the back of her neck, making her groan. “But maybe not while we’re out in public. Naked.”
“We’re in the privacy of my car.” She cocks one eyebrow at me without opening her eyes.
“Which is parked in a very public lot.”
“Are you trying to get rid of me?”
I laugh. “No. I’m trying to get you to come home with me.”
That gets Hattie’s attention. She sits bolt upright. “You’re serious?”
“Like a heart attack.”
“Like a heart attack? Oh my god, you’re so old.” She’s joking, but the humor on her lips doesn’t make it to her eyes. She’s turning something over in her mind.
“What is it?” I keep my words soft even though I’m aching to know what argument she’s about to use against me.
“Rory.”
Ah. That argument.
“She’ll be asleep.”
“And tomorrow?” she prods. “What will we tell her when she finds me in your bed?”
I grin, but my heart feathers with nerves. “Well, if you stay the night, I expect you up early to make us pancakes. She’ll find you in the kitchen, not my bed.”
“Ben.”
“Pancakes will go a long way to buy Rory’s love.”
She laughs in spite of herself, but I know that she’s concerned for good reason.
“Look,” I say, caressing her cheek, “I don’t exactly have a plan here. And I’m not sure what I’m willing to tell Rory aside from the truth.”
“You don’t think we should hide our —“ she gestures wildly “— whatever this is until we’re more sure of ourselves?”
“Hattie.” I scoot her off my lap so I can look her square in the face, making her hands a home inside mine. “I’m head over heels for you. You’re the one for me, and nothing’s going to change that.”
“But how do you know?” Her words are a whisper now, brow furrowed with worry.
“Because I’ve loved and I’ve lost. Because I’ve dated since Rory’s mom died and I couldn’t be bothered to engage in even casual sex. I know what I want, and I won’t settle for anything less. And what I want is you.”
“I want you too.” Tears brim in her eyes. “And Rory. I want us to be a family.”
My stomach flips with joy. This woman doesn’t just want me. She wants my daughter too. She sees a future with the three of us, together.
I remember the lack of condom usage and my stomach flips for a different reason. It’ll be a future with four of us if we don’t do something about that.
“Let me take you home with me,” I say. “We don’t have to do anything but sleep. And in the morning, you can slip out before Rory wakes if that’s what you feel most comfortable with. And if you want to stay, we’ll figure that out together. But know this — when I look at my future, it has you in it front and center.”
Hattie draws a shaky sigh and, after what feels like the longest moment of my life, nods. “I want to come over. And I don’t want to sneak out from under Rory’s nose. I like the kid too much to do that to her.”
Grinning, I start pulling my clothes on. “You just made me the happiest man alive.”
She wrinkles her at me, watching me hurriedly pull on my pants. “What’s the rush?”
“Oh.” I try to keep my tone casual. “In all the um, excitement, we didn’t use a condom. If we go now, we can make it to the late-night pharmacy before it closes.”
Hattie stiffens, face slamming shut. “Oh.” Her voice is stone.
Ice pricks at the back of my neck. I’ve fucked up somehow. “What is it?” I say. “What did I do?”
She shakes her head, but her graceful ease seems suddenly heavy. “We don’t need to go to the pharmacy.”