Chapter 17

She didn't come back when I expected her to. Owen seemed sick again, but I had no number to contact her.

Why hadn't I even ensured I had her contact information? I'd even checked her resume and somehow there was no phone number listed. But she had left her number on the reply to my ad, so if I needed to reach her, I could. But I didn't want to seem…needy.

Although that was exactly how I fucking felt.

Caro had taken a half day today so I couldn't even call on her to pinch hit if needed. Not that I should. I'd been relying on her for too much lately. Certainly more than what was in her job description.

So I'd spent time with my boy, just hanging out together. At least until he'd started sneezing and sniffling.

Not sure what else to do, I'd suggested we should watch Bubble Guppies on the sitting room sofa like he'd done so often with Maddie. He was good for a bit until he started knuckling his eyes and saying he didn't feel good, so could he have a rocket pop? I figured why not, so I got one too and we watched the cartoon and ate popsicles for dinner since I was saving my leftovers until Maddie came back.

If she ever did.

He shifted around on the couch until he was lying half on my lap, which was how I'd realized his cheeks were red and he had another fever.

Panic instantly seized me, but instead of freaking out and calling Maddie, I gave him another popsicle to hopefully cool him off. Then I looked up online what to do with a three-year-old with a fever.

First, I had to take his temperature, but I didn't have a thermometer. So, I copied what Maddie had done the other day and downloaded the DoorDash app to order one from a nearby store. My order included some children's acetaminophen, Ginger Ale, plain vanilla ice cream, and some Gatorade for electrolytes. The ice cream was in case he had a sore throat. He kept complaining that his head hurt, so I figured the Tylenol should help with both that and the fever, whatever it turned out to be.

But the DoorDash driver couldn't find my house, although the one who'd come here before when Maddie had made an order had found it just fine.

Finally, about an hour later, the driver had finally located my place. I'd taken Owen's temperature with the thermometer and discovered it was 100.5, which apparently wasn't dangerous.

Maybe he'd picked up a bug somewhere. Or the one he'd seemed to have the other day hadn't been completely squelched. I gave him a dose of Tylenol along with some Ginger Ale and another popsicle and I tucked him in on the couch under his new throw with his stuffed toys—including the new Care Bear, to try to cheer him up—to watch the entire slate of shows on Nick Jr.

After a while, he dozed with his new friends tucked in around him after asking a couple of times about Baddie.

I told him she'd be back later. What else could I say?

Meanwhile, I tackled more paperwork. Xavier and Gavin had zeroed in on some new properties they wanted to put offers in on, but we'd have to move quick as the competition was heating up. This time, it wasn't only from Maitland, either.

One of those competitors was freaking Hamilton Realty. Always nice to keep it in the family.

I had such a list to wade through that I didn't look up again until Owen's thrashing on the couch from a nightmare yanked me out of what I was doing.

Which was when I realized it was pitch black outside and still no Maddie.

"Hey Owen, hey there, wake up." I inched up the couch to brush my hand over his now much cooler brow. Maybe the rest had helped him too, at least until he'd had what seemed to be a bad dream. He came out of it slowly, and then he tossed his arms around my neck, so I cradled him in my lap and rocked him back and forth until he was lulled back to sleep.

Not much later, the door opened and Maddie crept inside, her eyes narrowing on the two of us as if she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. I was more than a little surprised myself.

Owen was cuddled against me as if I was actually his father, someone he not only liked but trusted to take care of him.

Fitting, since his mother had been sniffing around more lately, placing calls to Caro to talk to me. As of yet, I'd avoided her. I'd contacted my lawyer to draft a letter to send to her last known address to cease and desist. I still hadn't decided definitively if that was how I wanted to handle things.

Maddie stood in the foyer clutching a duffel bag. "Sorry," she said softly. "I didn't mean to be so late coming back, but Alan asked me to take a short shift at the shop because a bunch of his part-timers were sick."

I waved it off. "So's this one, I think." I brushed a hand over Owen's hair while he slept. "Guess his fever didn't magically disappear the other day from popsicles, after all. Though, surprisingly, they are pretty good."

"Aww, oh, no. Poor little dude." She came over to sit beside us on the couch, dropping her duffel to the floor. "How bad is his fever?"

"It was at 100 but feels a bit lower to me now."

She leaned over to stroke his hair and her strawberry scent floated over me, settling me at once. "Yeah, he doesn't feel too hot. Hi, buddy. How are you doing?" Her soft question as his eyes flickered open had him sitting up excitedly and extending his arms to her.

"Baddie, you came back."

"Of course I did. Sorry I missed sneaker shopping, but?—"

"We didn't go. We watched Guppies and Paw Patrol and other shows while we waited for you to come home." Hearing myself, I cleared my throat. "I mean, back."

"So, we can go shopping tomorrow then? Together?"

"Yes, together," Owen echoed. "You'll stay over tonight?"

"I think so. That's up to your daddy."

"As if I haven't made it clear I want you here as much as you're willing to be."

She nudged her bag with her shoe. "You kind of haven't made anything clear. Honestly, not one thing."

She did have a point.

"Far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to stay as long as you want." I reached up to brush one of her curls behind her ear, and she smiled, glancing downward as if she was shy.

This from the girl who'd walked into my shower and stripped without a moment's hesitation.

"I brought enough clothes for a few more days. While we're in the trial period. You know, because it's a new position. To make sure everything is a fit."

"You fit me perfectly," I murmured as she tucked Owen against her so he could lay on her chest like any little boy would with his mother. She wasn't his mom, but the comfort she brought him was evident.

I was so grateful for her for my son's sake—and for mine.

"Did you have dinner?" she questioned.

"No, we ate junk," I admitted, savoring her surprised laugh. "I'd never had a meal of popsicles, but gotta say I didn't mind it."

She started to rise. "I can put together something quick."

I laid my hand on her thigh, easing her back down with a nod to my already snoozing son.. "When you're hungry, we'll have our leftover bowls. Or we can just have the strawberries and cream, if you want something lighter."

Her tongue peeked out between her lips. "Whatever you want."

"I want everything."

"Oh, is that all?" she teased.

"For starters. But it's the oddest thing. My appetite keeps growing."

Her lips curved. "Mine too."

We ended up curling up on the couch with Owen between us, watching some movies on streaming. I let her pick, and her first choice was animated Spider-Man for Owen, then she landed on some musical and a rom com. I enjoyed them all.

Somewhere in the middle, she reheated our leftover bowls and we added a bit more sauce to them and dug in. It certainly wasn't my favorite meal ever, but it was enjoyable enough—especially when we finished off the meal with the local strawberries liberally doused with whipped cream.

Feeding her with my fingers was a high point.

By the end of the third movie, her eyes were drifting closed and Owen had pretty much slept through the rest of the set once Spider-Man had ended. But I'd caught him shifting even more into her while he slept, so I was pretty sure he was content.

Even when we took him up to bed, he barely roused while we tucked him in with his stuffed animals. Before we left the room, Maddie turned on his carousel light.

As soon as we stepped into the hall, I took her hand. "Do you want to sleep in my room tonight?"

"Do you want me to?"

"Very much."

"Okay. I want that too." Then she took a step toward the stairs before turning back. "I brought condoms."

I nodded. "Your choice."

"Since when is it a choice? I know you're new in town, so maybe you aren't familiar with the Cove lore, but people get pregnant a lot here."

"People get pregnant a lot everywhere. But I know it's especially a thing here. I was warned right away."

"And you have a young son, made here. You didn't have an actual relationship, either, right?"

"We just hooked up and made a baby." I shrugged. "It happens."

"It does, especially here. So, I have to admit I don't get why you're so lax about protection."

"I never have been. I've never gone bare before you."

"You haven't?"

"Absolutely not. I never even considered it. Not once. I definitely did not with Owen's mother. But I've been going with instinct with you."

"And your instinct says to have unprotected sex with me?" She lifted a brow.

"You were all I could think about. It's been a difficult week." I stepped closer and brushed my hand over her hair, carefully undoing her braid until all her waves floated free around her shoulders. "I wanted to make sure you had all the space you needed."

"I needed to think. To process."

"If it makes you uncomfortable, condoms are fine."

"This is like the pregnancy capital of the world. An exaggeration, of course, but not by much." Her lips trembled as she looked up at me. "My brother even had twins."

As if she felt I needed proof, she grabbed her photo insert out of her purse and unfolded it to show me a photo of a big, bullish man who looked remarkably like her with his arms around a smiling blond woman with several adorable kids in front of them.

"Twins, huh?" I commented. "That's intense."

"Yeah, and if you knew how they met…" She quickly recounted how her sister-in-law Vee had accidentally placed an ad in a Facebook group looking for a baby daddy. Maddie's older brother Moose had contacted Vee using a fake name, since he'd had a crush on her for a while—a reciprocated crush, no less. But they'd both been shy to come clean about their interest.

Instead, their interest had soon centered around making a baby and somehow that had worked for them. They'd been happily married and making more babies for years now.

Was that something that people did around here? Made a family and then figured out afterward that it was meant to be?

All I knew was that creating a family the regular way had not particularly worked for my parents. For years, they'd just worked long hours and alternatively ignored each other or fought through the few hours they actually spent together.

"This place has an odd effect on people."

"No kidding." She closed her eyes as I filled my hands with her hair and drew her against me. "I just don't want you to get into a situation you're not prepared for. One kid has been an adjustment. Another would be…" She trailed off.

I pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You're worried about me. Not yourself."

"Whatever happens, I'll figure it out. My family supports me, regardless." She exhaled. "You have no support here. Your sister isn't even here yet. I know you're alone, which can cause people do weird stuff. Moose was so lonely before Vee. Hell, so was Christian before Honey."

Obviously, she couldn't hear herself. She wondered why I was doing such inexplicable things. Nor did she understand why I was so drawn to her. Why just being near her soothed me in ways I couldn't explain.

I mean, granted, she was hot too, but that wasn't why I'd foregone protection. It hadn't even rated with me as necessary.

"I have Owen. And we have you, as long as you want to be with us."

"Jude, this is all so overwhelming. I contacted you for a job, and now, honestly, I'd be here for free. I'm not saying don't pay me," she let out a laugh, "just it makes me happy to be with you both."

I cupped her cheek in my palm as I took her mouth, swallowing her moan of surrender as if it was air.

She wanted to be with me. With us. And all my urges for control didn't seem to matter half as much as just being with her. Just feeling her body against mine while her noises of pleasure filled my head.

I didn't know how I'd lucked into having her in my life, but I wanted her to stay.

Slowly, I backed her down the hall into my room and then I nudged her up the platform steps to my huge bed, switching places with her so she could climb on top of me. Letting her take the reins as she wished while I just savored touching her and kissing her and finding out what kinds of touches would make her breathing speed up and those sounds to leave her. The ones that stole my breath and caused my heartbeat to race while I forced myself to focus solely on her enjoyment and not my own.

She took her time undressing me, exploring me, running her fingertips over my body with a reverence that made me eager to go faster. I wanted to take off every scrap of her clothes and kiss every inch of her.

So I could get to know her in a way no one ever had and no one ever would.

So much for not having control.

You want to give her so much pleasure, she's compelled to stay here.

But pleasure was never a bad thing, right?

I clamped my hands around her waist and switched our positions again, immediately lifting her short, flippy little skirt. "You're so fucking delicious." Before she could reply, I ducked my head under the material, making her giggle helplessly.

I licked a path up her tiny lacy panties, zeroing in on the heart of her. She whimpered, arching into my kisses, gripping my hair in her fists just as she'd promised to do if I did this very thing to her. So I kept going, circling her already swollen clit through the material until she grew impossibly wetter and I couldn't wait for a proper taste any longer. I shoved aside the scrap of nothing and feasted on her, slipping one finger then two inside her, following her moans to discover what she liked best.

She seemed to react most to not knowing how I'd come at her next.

Faster, slower, harder, softer. She was game for it all.

I switched up my thrusts until she started rocking wildly against my hand, begging me softly until I sealed my lips around her clit. "Come in my mouth," I murmured.

"Jude," she whimpered, rising up from the bed as she found her release. I licked her through it, still fingering her, daring to slide down in her abundant wetness to the back, darting my pinky inside, just enough to up the pressure and sensation. "Oh, God, I'm going to…"

"Again." I returned my mouth to her pussy, pushing my tongue inside instead of my fingers which had now found another area to gently explore. I knew right away as she started coming again, because her walls pulsed around my tongue, her offering so sweet, salty, and irresistible.

But my fingers didn't quit their probing and soon she was grinding against my face, mewling in that manner that made me harder than fucking stone. I rutted helplessly into the bedding, but I didn't stop my ministrations. "Again?"

She let out a sound between frustration and amusement until I moved up to suck hard on her clit, setting her off once more. Then she was sitting up to drag at my belt and my pants, clearly wanting more than my tongue and busy fingers could provide.

Leaning up to kiss me, she eagerly drew on my tongue, tasting herself with a little whimper. At the same time, she scooped me out of my pants and ran her fingertips up and down my hard length before she squeezed me, hard, making me swear. Slowly, she dragged me closer to her wet slit, mostly revealed by her scrap of panties I'd shoved aside.

Our gazes locked and clung.

"Your call," I murmured, forcing myself not to make a move until she told me what she wanted.

What I wanted was to be bare inside her again. Already I was hopelessly addicted. And I wasn't going to think about what that meant or didn't mean.

I just wanted her scent all over me, just as it had been this morning. Tonight, I didn't intend to wash it right off, either.

Mid-kiss, she broke away and cocked her head, her forehead wrinkling. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Then I heard it, a very small yet very clear cry. "Baddie? Baddie?"

She shut her eyes and sucked in a breath before she disentangled herself from me and rolled off the bed. She straightened her top and made sure her skirt fell back into place before she rushed into the hall, giving me a few seconds to shove myself back into my trousers and re-button my shirt before I followed.

"I'm here, Owen. I'm still here."

He was standing in the middle of the hall, knuckling his eyes. "You weren't in your room," he complained before she swung him up onto her hip and kissed his forehead.

"I was in the other room with your daddy." She looked back at me as I came up the hall to join them, unsure if we should bring him into my room or take him back to his own bed and settle him back down to sleep. "Did you have a bad dream?"

He shook his head. "I woke up and had to pee."

"Did you go?"

I didn't hear his answer, but she carted him into his room, talking brightly to him before she headed into the bathroom. I went into his room and sat on the bed, assuming if she needed me she'd let me know.

A few minutes later, they returned and she tucked him into bed, rearranging his stuffed animals on both sides of him. "Do you think you can go back to sleep?"

He didn't seem sure so she went to his bookcase, pulling out the one book I'd gotten for him so far, the one his mom had said was his favorite. "Do you want a story first? Do you like this one? Peter and the Penguins Who Wore Plaid? "

Owen nodded, sitting up in bed when Maddie sat beside him again. "My mom used to read that one to me sometimes." Instantly, his thumb went in his mouth as she flipped through the first few pages.

Then she started to read in a soft, clear voice, showing him the colorful illustrations on each page as she flipped them. She'd made it through about half of the story when I reached over to nudge her knee. "Your audience is out."

"You're not. Want me to keep reading for you?" She grinned at me before setting aside the book on the nightstand and shifting to settle Owen more securely against his pillow. She tucked him in carefully then she made sure to arrange his fish, his giraffe, and his Care Bear around him before she held her finger to her mouth and crept to the door.

I followed, looking back at him as a pang hit my chest. He was so cute.

Had my mom ever tucked me in? I didn't remember that she had. My father, either. My nanny had been slightly more caring, occasionally offering a story, but I'd started reading my own stories early enough. I'd even read some to my sister, after she'd come along.

No wonder I didn't have a clue what to do with kids. Thank God for Maddie.

We headed back down the hall to my room, but instead of resuming where we left off, she mentioned she had to go get her duffel and she'd be right back.

I changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed, not wanting to seem overeager. The time with Owen and the easy nature of the penguin story had killed my erection, which was probably just as well. I didn't want to force her to make decisions she wasn't ready for.

In the meantime, I'd just close my eyes for a minute while I waited for her.