22. Best Partnership Imaginable

22

BEST PARTNERSHIP IMAGINABLE

P hoenix was mentally exhausted.

It felt like nothing he did was right when it came to his business. He was trying and would get three steps ahead and then feel as if he was four steps behind.

The holiday sales were through the roof better than projected, but when he ran the numbers, the costs were higher than he anticipated, thanks to delays and discounts he had to offer to not get refunds when shipping times were pushed back.

Add to the fact that his after holiday sales were so good that he sold out and had so much out of stock he feared he was turning customers away.

When one of his machines broke down today, he’d never cursed and swore so much in his life. He literally had to go to his office and cool down and pray that tears didn’t fall from his eyes in front of his employees.

The price to fix it was more than he had without not being able to make payroll, which he’d never jeopardize, so he did the unthinkable in his mind. He dipped into some of Elsie’s money in the bank and told himself he’d put it back as soon as possible.

He didn’t have a choice though, without fronting the costs for the parts and the labor, the company wouldn’t even schedule him to repair it.

Then he came home and saw all that he missed with Elsie and worried that he was not doing right by her.

He was paying someone else to raise his best friend’s daughter and worried Maryn would be disappointed in him. His pride had him focusing on his career rather than time with the two people he loved in this house.

But he saw the smiles and giggles on Elsie’s face and knew that he was doing something right and had to push everything else aside. He had a choice to fix his business, if he could just swallow his pride and listen to his father and ask for help.

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everything you do with Elsie,” he said to Crystal. “When I decided to hire a nanny I had figured it was going to be someone here to watch her while I was gone. Feed her and bring her places. That I’d be rushing home and getting dinner on the table and then doing her laundry and cleaning the house and it feels as if I don’t need to do any of it.”

“Don’t feel guilty over those things,” she said. “Consider me a good deal.”

He laughed at her joke. “It’s the best deal ever,” he said. “I feel as if I get more out of it than I pay you.”

“And here I think I don’t give you enough. Why don’t we just agree that it’s the best partnership imaginable and table it for the night? It’s date night.”

“It is date night,” he said. And next weekend he was going to take her on a real date and have a sitter watch Elsie.

He felt he owed it not just to Crystal but also to himself. They had to be able to experience what a normal dating couple would be doing too.

“I found a few movies we could watch,” she said. “We can do it in the family room back here or maybe upstairs. I don’t care. If you think Elsie will wake up and look for us we can stay down here. I don’t know that she is thinking of this as a holiday people are staying up late for.”

“Did you play it down for that reason?” he asked.

“Yes. I didn’t bring it up at all. She’s not in school to realize it. I kind of wanted her to just assume we’d be going to bed at our normal time. Was that wrong of me?”

“No,” he said, reaching his hand over to lay it on hers next to him at the island. “It’s not at all. I think we can watch TV upstairs. There is a monitor in her room that I hear in mine. I’ll bring it upstairs in case she gets up.”

“What?” she asked. “I didn’t know that?”

He started to laugh. “Relax. You should see the panicked look on your face. It’s only there from when she was younger. It’s on but so low it’s not even something I notice. I don’t even think she realizes it’s in her room. At some point I’ll take it out. But I’m still getting comfortable. I wanted to make sure I knew if she was crying or something at the other end of the house.”

“That’s nice,” she said. “Do you hear her talking to herself or ever crying?”

“No,” he said. “Not at night. She sleeps well and barely makes a noise. I think she might have had some bad dreams since she’s been here that I went in to check on her, but she never woke up and I let her go.”

He wasn’t sure what to do but then realized it might be better to let Elsie sleep through it and she didn’t remember it the next day.

When the two of them were done with dinner, they cleaned up together. He opened a bottle of wine and poured her a glass and he got some whiskey to drink in the glasses she gave him for Christmas. Then they went upstairs to her room to watch a movie. He’d stopped to get the monitor and bring it up and set it on the coffee table.

“Before we watch a movie, don’t suppose I could get you naked?”

He laughed. “You most certainly can do that.”

They left their drinks on the coffee table in her living room and she pulled him by his hand to her bedroom.

He hadn’t been in here once since she’d moved into the house. And if he was thinking she was making the first move again, he was going to tell himself to cut the shit and get over it.

He shut the door to her room and locked it. Then he walked over to the bedside drawer and opened it and then another until he found what he was looking for.

“Oh boy,” she said. “What are you doing with that?”

“I’m going to use it on you,” he said. “I’ve been thinking of what was in this little bag ever since it dropped out of the box.”

He opened the black velvet bag and removed a blue vibrator. Not very big. Not even the size of his full hand. Didn’t women buy these things to have something bigger? Maryn always joked about that. Though it’s not like she had anything real either.

“Do you want me to get undressed?”

“I’m going to tell you what to do,” he said. “I don’t want you to think I can’t take control of the situation.”

“You can take control any time you want,” she said, moving over and kissing him on the lips.

She lifted her shirt over her head and he noticed a black lace bra that was pushing her up higher and bigger than normal.

“Do you have black underwear on too?”

“I do,” she said. “Not a matching set but close enough.”

She wiggled out of her jeans and let him see the string bikinis barely on her hips. When she turned there was just a tiny swatch not covering much of her ass.

“Remove your bra and touch yourself,” he said.

Her eyes went wide a bit. “I like this side of you.”

“Good,” he said. “Remove your underwear too. Slowly though.”

She dropped her bra out of her fingers, then slid her panties down to the ground and kicked them away.

“Now what?”

“Now get on the bed,” he said. “Spread wide for me.”

She climbed on her bed, sat on the edge with her feet on the bed frame and spread her legs wide, her fingertips trailing along her inner thighs.

“I don’t even have to touch myself to know how wet I am. Can you see it?”

He gulped. She was good at this. “I can,” he said. He turned the vibrator on and moved closer. He leaned down, his mouth to hers, a kiss meant to start softly, but it turned passionate quickly.

While he was kissing her, he moved the vibrator down and inserted it inside of her, sliding it in and out, then he hit the button to turn it on and she all but shot off the bed.

“Oh God. I’ve never done that.”

He was going to ask if she was okay, but the moan she let out gave it away. He resumed kissing her and was moving the toy in and out of her while the motor ran.

She was all but squeaking during their kiss.

“Lie back,” he said.

She flopped on the bed while he stood there and watched the movements of the toy inside of her, her legs shaking some while he did it.

Then he decided to take it out and put it against her swollen bud. Her hips shot up in the air, her hand going to his to hold it in place.

“I’m controlling it,” he said.

She let out a frustrated groan and all it did was send more blood to his cock. He felt he was going to burst in his pants fairly soon, but he was having too much fun to stop this now.

He moved the plastic around into different positions every time she seemed like she was going to come.

He wanted this to last and enjoyed the movements of her naked body.

Her breasts were the right size and his eyes shifted up to see them moving on the bed when her hips lifted. Her ab muscles were clenched and if he wasn’t mistaken, she might be breaking the skin in her palms with her fingernails.

Maybe he would stop teasing her for now because he wasn’t sure how much longer he could stand it himself.

He laid the vibrator lengthwise between her lower lips and it was enough to set her off, hips rising and falling while she came.

Phoenix stood back and watched her. What a lovely erotic sight it was.

Her blonde hair was spread on the pillow, her cheeks were pink, her mouth was open, her breath was panting out, her eyes slanted and almost shut.

He kept at it until he worked her up some more, pulled the toy away and shut it off, then stripped faster than he ever had before.

He had a condom in his pocket and covered himself, then looked up to see her eyes on his.

Her legs went up in the air and he grabbed a hold of each ankle, then slid inside of her while he stood on the side of the bed.

He was thrusting into her at a steady pace, her body building again, her voice getting a little louder than it’d been.

He placed her legs around his waist, helped lift her so that she was sitting, then picked her up and held her tight while he fucked her standing up.

No need for a wall and he wasn’t sure he could walk to one anyway.

His hand went under her hips and held her there as he jerked up into her nice and deep.

His mouth crushed hers and he felt her starting to come. It was as if the minute she pulsed around his cock, he knew he’d be done. Or she knew he’d be done.

Maybe they just knew together.

He held her close against his body and felt them squeezing each other tightly.

When her head dropped to his shoulder, he knew he had worn her out.

He laid her back on the bed and then turned to go to the bathroom.

Somehow he thought he’d managed to fall in love and had no idea how it happened.

What else could explain the racing of his heart and the fear of leaving her alone each night and worrying that she’d think he wasn’t there for her too?

Jesus, just one more thing to add to his list of fears of future failures...a relationship.