Who's Your Daddy? (27 page)

My mother sniffed. “We’ll just see how high and mighty you are when your child—”

“I would never speak to my son that way.” The venom in his tone sent a shiver down my spine. “He’s done plenty of things to piss me off, but I would never talk to him or about him the way you’re speaking to her. That’s how my own father speaks to me, and I won’t watch you do it to her.” Before either of my parents could reply, he turned to me. “Do you want to stay?”

I glanced at my parents. Then I looked at him. “No, I don’t.”

He made an “after you” gesture, and we both started for the door.

“Carmen, wait,” my mother ordered.

I stopped, but I didn’t retrace my steps. “No. There’s nothing left to discuss.” Before I lost my nerve, I continued my escape, disbelieving with every step that I was doing this. I was really turning my back on my parents and walking out instead of letting them berate me.

They both shouted after us, but Don put a hand on the small of my back, and we kept going. Out of the kitchen. Across the living room. Out the door.

The front door shut behind us, and we were home free.

Neither of us spoke on our way down the hall. When I glanced back at him, the tension in his face and shoulders was visible. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him so furious in my life, not even when Ryan pushed him or Julia got on his last nerve.
Maybe
after another falling out with his dad.

While we waited for the elevator, I looked at the numbers instead of him as I whispered, “Thank you.”

Don turned to me, and I met his eyes. He took a breath like he was about to speak, but instead, he pulled me into a gentle, passionate kiss. Right there in the hall, holding on to me with protective, sheltering arms, he kissed me.

My woman
.

He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I meant what I said.” He swallowed. “I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather have a child with.”

I smiled, my cheeks burning a little. “Well, I think my sister was right about you and Isaac too.”

“What do you mean?”

“She said if I was going to get knocked up, I couldn’t have picked a better couple of guys to do it.”

We both laughed. The elevator opened, and we stepped in. As he pressed the button for the lobby, Don’s humor faded. The doors closed, and he cleared his throat.

Avoiding my eyes, he said, “Listen, um, back there”—he gestured in the general direction of my folks’ place—“I didn’t mean to. I mean…” He paused, closing his eyes and releasing a sharp breath. Finally, he looked at me. “I hope you didn’t think I was jumping in because I thought you couldn’t stand on your own two feet. I just, they, I lost my—”

“Don.” I slipped my hand into his. “I can’t stand up to them to save my life. I don’t need someone to fight my battles for me, but”—I gestured in the same direction he had—“with them, I can use all the help I can get. I meant it when I said thank you.”

He put his arms around me again, and just before our lips met, he whispered, “You deserve so much better than them.” He kissed me, and I let myself melt against him. I wasn’t the type of girl who needed a protector, but damn, once in a while there were times when I could sell my soul for someone to help me out. Only someone like Don could make me feel protected but not helpless, like he wasn’t some knight in shining armor who thought I was a damsel in distress, but like every word he spoke and every move he made simply said,
I’ve got your back
.

“
Then maybe she ought to think twice before talking to
my
woman like that
.” I pulled him tighter and lost myself in his kiss. Only Don could say that without sounding like a territorial asshole.

Why can’t I find more guys like you?

All too soon, the elevator jerked to a stop at the ground floor. A pang of disappointment tugged at my heart when we separated.

We walked in silence out to the car. His kiss still tingled on my lips, and maybe it was just the stress of being around my parents or the fact that I was so damned grateful for him stepping in when my own confidence had failed me, but it was all I could do not to suggest climbing into the backseat instead of the front.

I am truly going out of my mind.
I shook my head and reached for the door handle.
So he told my parents off? That just means he doesn’t put up with assholes. I should take a hint, not get weak in the knees and swoon over him
.

We both got in the car, and Don glanced at me.

“You doing okay?”

I nodded. “I’m sorry you had to see all of that.”

He put his hand on my knee. “I’m sorry you had to deal with it at all.”

“Such is life.” I looked at him in the darkness, and we both fell quiet.

All the way back to my place, neither of us said much. My mind kept wandering between the elevator and my parents’ place. From Don stopping in the hall to make sure I was okay, to him being nothing but supportive when I spoke to my parents, to the moment he’d had enough of their crap, and right back to that long kiss in the elevator. This night was…surreal. On so many levels.

He parked in a guest spot below my apartment.

“Thanks for coming with me tonight,” I said. “I’d probably still be there.”

He smiled halfheartedly, and rested a hand on my leg. “Any time, babe. I know what it’s like, believe me.”

“Yeah, I suppose you do.”

Our eyes met, but we both quickly looked away.

After an unusually long and awkward silence, he faced me again. “Anyway, I—”

Once again, our eyes met, and both our gazes immediately retreated to the safety of the windshield. This wasn’t like us. Don and I never played the game of awkward silences and broken eye contact. But this had been an unusual evening. Maybe we just didn’t know how to draw it to a close.

“I guess I should let you go,” I whispered. “Though I guess it’s still early…”

“But it’s been a long night for you already. I imagine you’re wiped.”

“Just a bit.”

He leaned across the console. “Good night, Carmen.”

 
“Good night.” I met his lips, and though he probably only intended for a brief kiss, I indulged myself and let it go on. He didn’t protest. His arm slid around my shoulders. With a shaking hand, I touched his face, and I shivered when his cheek hollowed beneath my fingers a second before his tongue slipped past my lips. A low growl came from the back of his throat as he pulled me closer.

By the time he sat back, we were both out of breath.

I swept the tip of my tongue across my lips for one more taste of his kiss. My heart thundered in my chest. Maybe we didn’t know how to draw tonight to a close because this was neither the time nor the place to do so.

My voice was as unsteady as my hands when I said, “I really don’t want you to leave yet.”

“Do you want me to stay?” Once again, our eyes met, and this time, neither of us looked away.

“Yes.” I gulped. “I do.”

Don killed the engine.

Without a thread of clothing to divide his body from mine, Don lowered me onto my bed. We touched now like we’d only aspired to in the car: hands all over each other, skin touching as much skin as possible, tangled in a passionate but tender kiss.

After a while, he pushed himself up onto his forearms, and unlike in the car, we had no trouble keeping eye contact now. I couldn’t look anywhere but right at him, and he looked right back at me. I caressed his cheek, and he turned just enough to kiss the inside of my wrist but still didn’t look away from me.

Shifting onto one arm, he reached up and tenderly brushed a few strands of hair out of my face. Neither of us spoke. Neither of us even breathed for a long moment.

Then Don came down and kissed me again, and I lost myself in him. Everything we did was made of equal parts lust and…something else. Some deeper need that had fingers brushing skin, then digging into hips and shoulders, then caressing again. Holding on for dear life, clawing in search of purchase, then touching each other like one of us might crumble at the slightest pressure.

And it wasn’t until Don parted my thighs with his hand and kissed his way over my hip that I even cared about getting any kind of release. All that had mattered was being close to him, as close to him as possible, and I’d almost begged to have him inside me just so I could be that much closer, but now his lips and tongue kept mine from functioning. He knew just when and where to be gentle, when and where to be more forceful, and just like I did when he kissed me, I let myself get lost in everything he did with his mouth.

One hand in his dark, disheveled hair, the other clawing at the sheets, I closed my eyes and let him take me right to that blissful, white-hot place few men had had the patience to get to. He did it so damned effortlessly, like he knew exactly how to make my entire body shake and melt and fall to fucking pieces, and when he slipped two fingers inside me and bent them slightly, I was gone.

Don came back up, and when he kissed me this time, there was nothing gentle or tender about it. Now it was lust that drove us. Pure, primal, needy lust. My body tingled from my orgasm and ached for more. I wanted everything he could give me and then some.

He slid his hand beneath my head and grabbed my hair, gripping it just hard enough to make me bite my lip and whimper, and when he kissed my neck, I raked my nails down his back. Don groaned and pulled my hair harder, and I dug my nails in. His teeth scraped my neck, drawing a moan of pure ecstasy out of me.

“Fuck me,” I said. “God, Don, fuck me.”

He nipped my shoulder hard enough to make me yelp. “I’m getting there.”

“
Now
.” The sharpness of my demand startled us both. When I spoke again, I was back to begging. “Please.”

“I don’t know.” He slid his hand down my arm and closed his fingers around my wrist. “You’re being awfully demanding.”

“I am. Because I need you to fuck me.”

He smirked but didn’t quite mask the shiver. “Maybe you should get on top, then.”

“Do you
want
me on top?” I asked.

All at once, Don flipped onto his back, taking me with him. Grinning up at me, he said, “What do you think?”

I sat up. “What do I think? I think—” I pressed against his cock, pulling in a breath when Don closed his eyes and bit his lip. “I think I like having you like this.”

He put his hands on my hips. “Likewise.” Moistening his lips, he didn’t even try to hide the slow down-up look. Meeting my eyes, he growled, “God, you’re hot like this.” He reached up, grabbed a handful of my hair and brought me back down to kiss him.

Still gripping my hair and kissing me, Don slid his other hand between us. I raised my hips, and he guided himself to me. As soon as the head of his cock was against my pussy, I came down hard, taking every inch of him in one stroke.

Releasing my hair, Don broke the kiss with a gasp. His back arched beneath us. “Oh Jesus…”

Before he could catch his breath, I did it again. And again. I rode him hard, and when he reached for me, I grabbed his wrists and pinned them beside his head.

His eyes flew open. He tried to stare up at me, but every time I came down, his eyes rolled back.

“Holy…” He bit his lip again. In my hands, his wrists twisted and twitched, but I didn’t let him go. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen anything sexier than this: Don, on his back, completely surrendered and at my mercy. He didn’t fight; he just gave in and enjoyed it.

“Jesus Christ, you feel amazing,” he moaned. “Oh my God…”

I gave him even more, and he parted his lips, but no sound came out. Finally, he wrenched one arm free, then the other, and grabbed my hips. Screwing his eyes shut and grimacing, he fucked me from below, thrusting up into my pussy until it was so deliciously painful I thought I’d come again myself.

A soft, helpless sound escaped his lips. He pulled me down onto him and wouldn’t let me rise, gripping my hips as his cock twitched inside me.

Then he exhaled. One hand left my hip to wipe sweat from his forehead. The other stayed where it was, but loosened its grasp.

Our eyes met. Without a word, he reached for my face with a trembling hand and drew me down to kiss him.

I couldn’t say how long we stayed in bed. Ten minutes, half an hour, an hour. I couldn’t begin to guess. It seemed like an eternity, but when he finally got up and started getting dressed, I swore it hadn’t been nearly long enough. Before I knew it, and somehow a lifetime since we walked out of my parents’ condo, Don and I stood at my front door.

He smoothed my hair. “I’m sorry tonight didn’t go well.”

I smiled. “I don’t know. I think it could have been a lot worse.”

Don laughed. “True. But you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I do.” I put my arms around his neck. “Thank you. For everything.”

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” he whispered and kissed me. “I guess I should let you go. Before we have to explain something awkward to your sister.”

I laughed. “She’s on nights this week. She won’t be home for hours.”