Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Jeff

Della’s hand trailed along my thigh beneath the sheet.

Damn, but that was the best way to wake up. Hard and ready for the naked woman tucked into my side.

“I need to go.” Her lips were a whisper against the shell of my ear.

Go? Absolutely not.

With a quick flip, I pinned her on her back, settling into her hips as I nuzzled her neck. “Not yet.”

She hummed and looped her arms around my shoulders, arching into my mouth as I trailed my lips across her collarbone.

Stretching for the nightstand, I felt across the surface for a condom, except the table was empty. I lifted, squinting in the darkness of my bedroom. “Fuck.”

“What?”

“I’m out of condoms.” I pinched her side. “Your fault.”

Another insatiable night and my limited stash was gone.

She giggled, her hands drifting down my spine before her palms squeezed my butt.

My woman liked my ass. To be fair, I liked hers too.

“What if we didn’t use a condom?” She reached between us, fisting my shaft. “I’m on birth control. And you know how long it’s been.”

“It’s been a while for me too.”

She dragged the head of my cock through her wetness. “I want to feel you. Nothing between us.”

Was she expecting an argument? With a thrust of my hips, I slid inside Della’s tight, wet heat. “Fuck, you feel good, baby.”

“Yes.” She was already starting to flutter around my length. Her hands clamped on my hips, her nails digging in hard.

I pressed deeper, gritting my teeth. Goddamn . I wasn’t going to last this morning. She felt too good.

“More.” She tilted up her hips.

This woman. Always wanting more.

I’d give it to her. Every fucking day, I’d give her more.

I rocked into her again and again, drawing out those sexy mewls. Bringing that flush out on her cheeks and chest. I fucked her, lazy and slow, until she pulsed and came on a gasp, her entire body trembling as she detonated.

“Della.” I groaned, burying my face in that silky hair as I followed her over the edge, pouring myself inside her body until I was spent.

She wrapped her arms and legs around me, trapping me so we stayed connected. “What are you doing to me?”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve had more sex in the past two nights than I’ve had in my entire life.”

I chuckled, my cock twitching inside her. “It’s good, baby. It’s really fucking good.”

“How good?”

I leaned back, pushing the hair off her face. “Best I’ve ever had.”

Those sparkling caramel eyes softened. “Really?”

“Really.” I kissed the corner of her mouth. “You want more. I want more.”

Not just sex. I just wanted— needed —more of Della.

We held each other, limbs entwined, until the alarm I’d set last night chimed, and I rolled over to shut it off.

With a sigh, Della slid out of bed and began picking up her clothes from the floor. Clothes I’d stripped off her last night inch by torturous inch, just like I’d promised.

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, dragged a hand through my disheveled hair and, while Della was in the bathroom, pulled on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt.

Last night, after games, Panda Express delivery and more games, I’d sent Katy upstairs to shower. And like the night before, Della had slipped into the backyard, inspecting my progress on the firepit while I’d kissed Katy good night and waited for her to fall asleep.

Then Della and I had locked ourselves in my bedroom. She’d offered to leave around midnight, but by the time we’d gone at it again, it had been nearly two in the morning and I hadn’t wanted her driving home at that hour. Not when the bars had just closed and there was the chance of drunk idiots on the road.

So I’d set my alarm for five, leaving us just a few hours of sleep together. It wasn’t enough.

How was it that I’d just met this woman but I was already hooked? Maybe another guy, especially one with my history, would have put up his guard. Would have held up a hand and kept her at a distance.

But Della was…special.

Yesterday, hearing her rambled confession on the front porch, I’d felt like an asshole for hanging up on her just because her pissant of a roommate called her baby. I should have listened.

There weren’t a lot of people I trusted. I preferred a tight circle. But I’d make a space for Della.

She emerged from the bathroom, dressed with her hair tied in a messy knot.

I held out my hand, amazed at how perfectly hers fit into my palm. Then I led her to the door, kissing her in the entryway before watching as she climbed in that mint green Jeep and drove away.

Damn, but I was in trouble.

The best kind of trouble.

On a yawn, I headed for the kitchen and brewed some coffee. Then I headed outside to pick up where I’d left off on the firepit.

A few hours later, Katy came downstairs.

“Morning, Dandelion.”

“Morning,” she muttered with a frown.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to go to Mom’s.”

I didn’t want her to go either. “It’s just for the day.”

“She had her chance but she got sick or whatever. I just want to hang out here today.”

“I know.”

Katy aimed those sad hazel eyes my way and I knew before she spoke what she’d say. “Do I have to?”

I nodded. “It’s just for the day.”

“Why?”

“Your mom won’t get to see you for a week. Won’t you miss her?”

“No. And it’s not like you want me to go either, but you don’t feel like fighting with Mom, so I have to go.”

Ouch . Her truths were sharp this morning. “I’m sorry you don’t want to go. It’s not for long, then you’ll be back. And you’re right, I don’t want to get in an argument with your mother.”

“She ruins everything.”

“Katy,” I warned.

“It’s true.” She tossed out an arm. “Every time I’m having a good time she ruins it. Either she gets sick so we have to leave stuff early or I’m here and she wants me to come back. It’s not fair.”

No, it wasn’t. But life wasn’t fair.

“How about we go out to breakfast before heading over?” I hauled her into a hug and kissed her hair, then sent her upstairs to get dressed while I took a quick shower.

We went to our favorite café and an hour later, I dropped her at Rosalie’s and went to Home Depot for more yard supplies. Anything to avoid going home to an empty house. It never got easier, leaving her, even if it was for a day.

But shopping only took a couple hours, and as expected, when I got home, it was too quiet. Too lonely. So I dug my phone from my pocket, hoping Della would help me fix that problem, but it rang with Katy’s name on the screen.

“Hey, Dandelion.”

She sniffled. “Can you come get me?”

“Katy, you’ve only been there for two hours.”

“I’m not at Mom’s.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “Where are you?”

“The emergency room.”

* * * *

“Daddy!” Katy shot out of her chair in the ER’s waiting room, running into my arms as I walked through the sliding doors.

“You okay?”

She nodded, her face buried in my stomach as her arms held tight. “I hate it here.”

“I know you do.” I kissed her hair, then unwound her from my waist, taking her hand as I walked toward the receptionist. “Rosalie Dawson?”

Rosalie had kept my last name, wanting to have the same name as Katy. I understood her reasoning, yet it felt like something she’d stolen, along with my money to pay for emergency room visits just like this.

The rage I’d built up on the drive over would undoubtedly last the rest of the week.

Why have Katy come to her house if she was going to pull this bullshit? She could have spared our daughter a visit to a place that reeked of antiseptic and illness.

While the receptionist made a call to the nurses past the ER’s doors, I glanced around the room. A couple was huddled beside the windows. The woman was hacking and coughing so hard I feared she’d choke. Then there was a man slouched in a chair in the far corner, his clothes tattered and dirty, like he’d worn them for weeks, not days.

Not the place I wanted my kid to spend her Sunday.

“A nurse will be out in a minute,” the receptionist said, motioning toward the doors that led into the ER. Doors I’d been through too many times.

Less than sixty seconds later—I counted, because Katy was not spending more than that minute here—a nurse walked out and called us forward. “Rosalie Dawson?”

I raised my free hand, then with Katy’s grip firmly in mine, we followed the nurse into the ER, past a few empty exam stations and those where the curtains had been closed. All the way to the end of the row, where she tugged back the partition, revealing Rosalie on a bed, eyes closed and resting on her side.

“Rosalie.” I waited until she opened her eyes, then checked my anger.

She looked miserable. Maybe I should have gone in when I’d dropped off Katy earlier. Whether or not she was actually sick, it still wasn’t fun to see her here, beneath a white hospital blanket, wearing a faded blue gown.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“My stomach.” She winced, like speaking the word made the pain worse. “It started hurting again.”

“Have you seen a doctor?”

She nodded. “Just a minute ago. He’s going to do an ultrasound to make sure it’s not my appendix.”

“All right. Can I get you anything?”

“No.” She looked to Katy, her eyes welling with tears. “Sorry, honey.”

“It’s okay, Mom.” Katy went over and gave her a hug. “I hope you feel better.”

“Thanks.”

I jerked my chin toward the hall. “Give me a minute, Dandelion.”

Katy nodded, then shuffled outside the curtain, no doubt eavesdropping.

So I moved closer to Rosalie’s bed, sitting on its side. “I’ll take her home. Let me know what the doctor says.”

She nodded, closing her eyes. A tear escaped. That was the hardest part of all this. Maybe she was sick. Maybe it was her appendix. Maybe she was fine.

I didn’t know what to do for her. I never had. In moments like this, part of me wished we were on better terms. But too much had happened. Too much trust had been broken.

“Can I call someone for you?” I asked.

“My mom is coming over.”

“Okay.” I put my hand on her shoulder for a squeeze, then stood. “Hope you feel better.”

Katy was exactly where I’d expected when I passed the curtain, her ear all but pressed to the fabric. So I held out a hand, taking hers, then got us the hell out of the ER and went home.

“You want lunch?” I asked.

“I’m not really hungry. I kind of just want to play in my room.”

“We’ll eat in an hour or so.”

“’Kay.” She turned, about to head upstairs, but stopped. “Thanks for coming to get me.”

“I’ll always come to get you.”

“I know.”

I waited until she was upstairs, until I heard the click of her door close, to pull the phone from my pocket. I headed out back as I called Della, just to hear her voice.

“Hey.” She sounded like she’d been crying.

Not the voice I’d hoped for. “What’s wrong?”

“Luka.” She blew out a long, frustrated breath. “He told me it was a dangerous game screwing a student’s father.”

“What? How would he even know?”

“He doesn’t. He just thinks he does. And he’s right, not that I’m going to tell him he’s right, so I ignored him. But…”

“But he suspects something.” And that was a huge damn problem. If Luka had some warped sense of possession over Della, if his ego had been bruised because she’d moved on, no way he’d keep our relationship a secret. “Fuck.”

“Yep. Fuck.” Hearing her say fuck would have been adorable if not for that wobble in her voice. “He’s right.”

No. My stomach dropped. “Della—”

“What are we doing? What am I doing?”

I walked across the yard to the firepit, sitting on the stack of bricks that still needed to be laid. “What do you want to do?”

“I’m Katy’s teacher. This is my job. I thought maybe we could keep this a secret, but Jeff, if someone finds out…”

“So we wait.” That was the only option.

“I’d understand if you didn’t want to. If that’s asking too much. We hardly know each other.”

“It’s not too much.” Maybe her roommate couldn’t go two months without a woman, but that dumb motherfucker had been blind to the treasure in front of him all along. For her, I’d wait without question. “It’s only two months.”

Two miserable months without her. Maybe I’d finish the garage. Maybe I’d finish this yard. Maybe I’d do everything around here I’d been putting off, so that in two months, she’d have my undivided attention.

God, what a fucking bad day.

“How are you?” she asked.

“I’m good,” I lied. “But I’ll let you go.”

“Will you call me?” she asked.

Yeah, I’d call her. “Every day.”