24. Halo

I'm never late.

At least I wasn't.

Until I had responsibility for a little girl who is still napping and a woman who told me she had a surprise for me.

Lola is struggling with her sleep schedule, and if I wake her from this nap, she'll be a fucking disaster this afternoon. And I'll be honest, the sight of her little face all screwed up while tears and snot vacate her body in vast amounts breaks my heart into so many pieces, it's hard to put it back together when the crying is done.

I lean back against the kitchen counter, sip the third cup of coffee I've had time to make, and watch the second hand on the clock by the door tick away the afternoon. We're meant to be at the clubhouse for a barbecue that started about thirty minutes ago.

Bizarrely, I'm unusually calm about it. My home is my castle, and now I have two princesses living in it, and it's completely changed the energy of the place in a way I could never have imagined.

It feels more like a lived-in home.

Everything feels softer. I'm certain it's the girls.

And the shit Ari is sneaking in when she thinks I'm not looking. A little gold tray that she's put two tumblers and my bottles of tequila and scotch on to make a little bar. A mirror in the entrance hall.

"Are you ready?" Ari's nervous voice comes from the stairs, and my heart squeezes.

"Ready, kitten."

"Don't be mad. I can change if you don't like it or you think it's too much or something."

Now I'm curious as to what exactly she's wearing. "Just get your ass out here."

When she steps into the kitchen, I have a heart attack. At least, I'm sure that must be what this is given the way my chest feels like it just cracked open and my heart splattered all over the kitchen floor.

"Fuck me," I say as I take in every glorious inch of her.

"You like it?" she asks.

"Turn around...slowly."

I don't know where to look first. Her long hair hangs in thick wavy pigtails. My hands itch to wrap them around my palms while I do all kinds of perverted things to her. They're playful, but there is nothing juvenile about the look.

The one-piece swimsuit is the Stars and Stripes. I'm a big believer in our flag and what it's supposed to stand for, even if it often falls short. Normally, I'd take a position that the only thing a flag should do is fly, but it's impossible to defend that stance when I take in the way it hugs Ari's body. It's faded…denim blue, white, and a weatherworn red. As Ari turns, I can see it's backless but cups her tits to perfection. The denim shorts she's wearing just cover the cheeks of her ass, but if she bends forward even a centimeter, they'll be on show. And the white ankle socks with white Converse send blood racing to my cock.

"I know you were a SEAL, so the swimsuit is a bit of a nod to that. And that you seem to like it when I'm…bratty, so I thought the pigtails were cute. Gwen said it would be perfect when we went shopping for today, and that the other girls would be?—"

"Shut up," I instruct. "You look breathtaking. And move your hands." She has them pressed to her stomach as if she's nervous.

I put my coffee down and walk over to her. Once there, I cup her neck as I kiss her. It's not with the gentleness I initially planned but with the kind of hunger that comes from being seen. From knowing that Ari thought about me yesterday while she was out shopping with the girls. That I was on her mind. That she wanted to please me. That she went to this effort so I would like it, so we could walk into the clubhouse together and I'd be proud to have her on my arm and in my bed.

Ari knots her hands into the lapels of my cut, fisting them, pulling me closer.

Our tongues fight each other, seeking the connection that comes with this kind of intimacy. Something raw. Unbridled. Passionate.

Time stops.

Nothing matters except the way she feels in my arms.

I pick Ari up, kick a chair out of the way, and sit her down on the table. I kiss her cheek, bite her neck, and fight with the button on those tiny shorts because there is no way I can get through another minute without fucking her.

My balls ache at the idea. My cock is already straining against the zipper of my jeans.

"Jax," she gasps.

I tug the shorts down her thighs, unable to wait to put my mouth on her. I grip the swimsuit in my fist, pulling it out of the way so I can drown in her taste.

She's already wet. "Were you thinking of how I'd react to this outfit? Is that what got you so excited? So wet?"

"Yes," she cries as I suck hard on her clit. "I touched myself thinking about what you'd do to me in it."

"Such a naughty little girl, touching what's mine."

I slide a finger into her, then another, as I continue to tease her clit with my tongue. Her hands sink into my hair, pulling firmly.

"Are my fingers better than yours?" I ask, my voice gruff.

"Always. Please, Jax. Make me come."

"Ask Daddy nicely," I say, the words tripping over my lips before I can overthink them.

Her eyes meet mine, and I swear electricity or something snaps between us.

"Please, Daddy." When she bites down on her bottom lip, I'm done for.

I still have a condom in my wallet, and I pull it out. "I'm fighting back the urge to fuck you bareback and not give a shit who knows that my cum is all up inside you. But I know you went to a lot of effort to look nice, and we haven't gotten tested yet. We're gonna fix that tomorrow." I move her hand to the swimsuit. "Hold it out of the way so I don't ruin it." As soon as I have the condom on, I thrust into her. My cock is too big for her, but I don't have patience right now. All I can think of is how good it's going to feel as she comes apart around me.

"Oh, God." She tries to make purchase with the table, but the surface is slippery. There is nothing to hold on to.

I take one of her ankles and prop her foot on the edge of the table, then repeat with the other.

"Fucking love your flexibility." She's wide open for me, her tits bouncing beneath the flag I fought for.

I place my palm between her tits as I thrust hard. The sound of chairs colliding and legs scraping across the floor tells me I'm gonna have some furniture to rearrange when I'm done. But it's hard to give a fuck about that when her wet warmth feels so incredible that it gives me an existential crisis.

"You feel so big," she says.

"Such a nice thing to say, Ari. You make me so hard for you."

Need churns in me. I want more of her. I want to be in her so deep, we can't figure out where I end and she starts. I want to eat her out, bite her. I want my cock so far down her throat, she chokes. I want to fuck her ass while she comes on my fingers.

I want it all. Right now.

Her cheeks are flushed as she bites down on her lower lip. So fresh-faced, she reminds me of how old I am.

"You're too fucking young for me," I say in a moment of honesty.

She leans up on her elbows and looks down at my cock as it hammers in and out of her. "You seem to have no problem keeping up."

I reach for her pigtails, wrapping them around each hand, pulling her to me so I can kiss her again.

It must be an uncomfortable position for her to sit in, but the fact she'll do this for me means everything.

"Good girl, letting me take you like this."

The crotch of the swimsuit is getting ruined with her own fluids.

It's fucking hot.

Her pussy grips my cock. She's watching it, her mouth open as she gasps. I'm watching her. Watching the way the sun brought out her freckles. How her chest is mottled red. How she's losing the battle to stay in control.

"You want to come, kitten?" I ask.

"Please, Daddy," she begs.

Those two words slay me into a million pieces. "Eyes on me, Ari. I want to see you when you do."

She does as I say. They're bright and clear. No longer tired and jaded like they were when she first arrived. There's no fear in them, just a heady mix of lust and desperation.

"You're being such a good girl," I say. "You want me to let go of your hair?" I ask.

"No, pull harder."

It shocks the hell out of me, but I do as she says, until she's almost upright. I can see the outline of my cock as it hits up inside her. The sight of it makes my head spin.

I feel unbalanced.

My knees shake.

"You need to come for me, kitten. Come on my cock."

She cries out, first in frustration, but then in relief as I finally hit that place inside her. I feel her squeezing me tightly. I feel it in my bones.

I lower her back down to the table and let go of her hair. With my palms, I force her knees wide open, holding them down as I thrust into her.

Gratitude hits me out of nowhere. That I get to do this with her. That she's mine. Out of all the women on the planet I could fuck, I might get to fuck Ari for the rest of my life if I'm lucky.

That thought sends electric shocks down my spine, hammering into my balls.

The idea that I get to do this with her forever has me seeing double as I finally come deep inside her. I come so hard that it's difficult to remain standing. I slam my palms to either side of her forehead and kiss her like I've never kissed her before.

I hope she feels that I think she's precious.

The first crack of a babble comes through the baby monitor as I ride out the end of my orgasm, breathless and spent.

"Perfect timing," Ari mutters against my lips, her hands wrapping around my neck.

"Little cockblocker." I stroke Ari's cheek gently.

"She waited until we were done. Perhaps she doesn't deserve that title."

I kiss her, harder this time. "Who says I was done?"

Ari brushes her tongue against mine. "At least she isn't crying."

"If she'd woken up five minutes earlier, I might have been."

Ari laughs, and I follow, my cock still deep inside her.

Guess that's the perfect balance of life.

"So, Daddy, huh?" Ari asks.

I run a knuckle along her cheek. "It's a kink. Not something I need all the time or out of bed."

"Technically, we aren't in bed, right now."

"Brat. Does it bother you?"

Ari shakes her head. "Not at all. It was hot. And it was nice to feel…"

"Feel what?"

After everything we just did, her cheeks still blush. "It's complicated."

I reach between us and pull out of her. "Tell me."

Ari sighs as I raise her to sitting. "There was something freeing about it. Feeling cared for, that I was important to you. That I was being a good girl for you, doing something I knew you would be proud of me for. That you were teaching me how to be with you in that moment. It was like a different level to just sex. More intense. Does that sound weird?"

"No. It doesn't." I kiss the tip of her nose. "It sounds fucking beautiful."

"I bet I look a mess now. I'll need to change," she says.

"Not at all. I want you to wear this." I finger the straps that go over her shoulders.

She glances down at the crotch of the suit. "Really?"

"Definitely. Do the best you can to clean it up, but I love the idea that we just totally marked it, and you're going to wear it anyway. Plus, no swimming in the clubhouse yard, so your shorts will cover it. Will you do it for me?"

Ari touches my cheek. "I have a feeling there isn't much I wouldn't do for you."

"Because you want to though, right? I know you did shit for your cunt of an ex because you were scared. It'd fucking kill me if you were scared of me."

She wiggles to the edge of the table and kisses me softly. "You're teaching me the difference. I can't explain it. I feel like I could say no and you'd stop. And I want the kind of co-existence you do. It's like something inside me responds to something inside you. And circumstances, and death, and babies, and life…nothing seems to turn down what I feel for you."

I lift her down so her feet touch the floor. "I'm feeling you, Ari. Like, really feeling you too."

She blushes and reaches down for her shorts. "Good. Because you keep…you know…doing that…and I'm not going anywhere."

I love the way she can't bring herself to put words to what we just did. "Go get cleaned up, and I'll go get Lola ready, and then we'll go together to the barbecue, yeah?"

"Together sounds good," she says.

As I walk behind her when we make our way up the stairs, I can't help but agree.