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“Draaaaaake…” I drew his name out almost incoherently as he hit that sweet spot inside me time and time again. I couldn’t hold it back any longer and I came hard and long while repeating his name in a whisper.

“Anna, my Anna…” Drake said as he stilled and I felt him fill me up, the warmth seeping from him into me.

Chapter Two

Drake

I don’t know why I’m such a complete dick to Anna and Ayden sometimes. Today I didn’t meet them at the park because I was too busy to find time for my wife and son. I am ashamed that it happened and now I am laid in bed with my beautiful wife asleep in my arms, her head lying over my beating heart. I’m sure it’s been months since we last had such spontaneous and amazing sex. I forgot what it was like and my cock twitches at the memory of the feeling of coming apart inside her just a few minutes ago. She felt so good, so warm, wet, and tight, just like I remember. But I shouldn’t have to rely on memory, I should be back home every night to make love to the woman I waited so patiently to become mine.

I remember meeting her as though it was only yesterday, not nearly five years ago. I had worked for the company for a number of years before they asked me to lead a group of newbies in training. I positively hated the idea. It sounded like complete torture. I just wanted them to leave me to do my job in peace. I didn’t want to be a trainer, nor a team leader. But that all changed when I got to meet the group I would be leading and locked eyes with the most strikingly beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on. From that moment, I couldn’t wait to get to work each morning and my friends at work commented on the shift in my behaviour. I rebuffed it with good banter, but there was truth in what they were saying. I was happy to be coming into work and I had a permanent smile on my face instead of the usual scowl I wore.

Annalise. That was her name. She became my reason to get out of bed in the morning. She didn’t know it yet but she was the sun in my sky, the song the birds sang about. Soppy shit, I know, but man, meeting her had changed something fundamental inside of me. I knew I was her boss and she was on my new team, yes there was a fine line in the sand but damn it, some lines were made to be crossed. Some rules were meant to be bent and some were meant to be broken beyond recognition. For Annalise, I would bend and I would break. There was something about us that was intrinsically linked, whether she knew it or not.

Then came the day she kicked me in the nuts, sucker punched me right where it hurt. She was pregnant with her psycho druggie boyfriend’s baby. I was there for her, as her friend. Ultimately, she knew she needed to end this toxic relationship with Oliver and my job was to be there to make it as easy for her as I could. I sent her home early one day to pack her shit. I knew she didn’t drive so I sent her friend Ellie with her to take her wherever she needed to go. I gave them permission to leave work and not come back until the next day. I also gave Annalise my private number so she could text or call me if she need some extra time off.

Two weeks passed and there was a change in our relationship. I don’t know when the balance tipped in my favour but Annalise confessed she had fallen in love with me. We were sat in the poxy bedsit she had moved into after leaving Oliver. She told me all about the day she had packed and he hadn’t given a shit to try and stop her. He was a junkie twat and was more concerned with his pot and coke than he was the life that he and Anna had created. The last couple of weeks had seen a change for the better in her demeanour both inside work and at home. A weight had finally been lifted from her shoulders and she felt free for the first time in months. She confessed she had fallen out of love with him before finding out she was pregnant, but finding out had pushed them to the edge. The bastard had the nerve to tell her she should book an abortion. That was when Anna had finally woken up and found the courage to leave him with a little help from her friends. Ellie had taken Anna to her grandmother’s house and then helped her move into the bedsit over the weekend. The Monday morning saw her come into work with a smile on her face and a spring in her step.

As we sat in the beer garden of the pub we had driven to in order to escape the stifling air of the bedsit for a while, Anna had been looking at me in a way she hadn’t before. She was biting her bottom lip, licking her full lips, and playing with the piercing she had just under her bottom lip. It was driving me crazy and had my cock straining to be let free. I had to discreetly rearrange myself underneath the table. That’s when I felt Anna’s foot, free of her wedge sandals, caress my calf. I jumped, startled at the contact, and for a moment, she had withdrawn her touch. Soon, she resumed stroking my leg with her foot, climbing slightly higher, but not where I craved her touch. It was a physical ache and I needed to store the memory of these sensations for when I got home later.

But I didn’t go home that night. I stayed with Anna. We had both given in to the obvious connection we shared and made love for hours before falling asleep in a tangle of limbs.

***

I feel Anna stir in my arms and am reminded of how perfect she really is. What I am doing is destroying myself, my wife, and Ayden. I have to stop but there is nothing I can do when temptation comes calling. No matter how beautiful and perfect my wife is, she cannot stop me leaving for hours on end to go seek what I need to make me feel better. Things have been rough at work lately and Anna and I are arguing more frequently, but today has been the worst day. I received a phone call from my mother saying that my father had a heart attack and was no longer with us. Apparently, it didn’t look like he had suffered too much as the end came pretty quickly for him. He was retired and my mother had been at work all day, so hadn’t been there to save him.

I needed to seek comfort after work today. I wandered the streets for a while and then spent an hour at my mother’s, but I couldn’t help having to get out of there. Call me a selfish bastard, but at that moment, I could not bear the burden of my mother’s suffering as well as my own, so I gave in to temptation to fall back on my one weakness before going home. I forgot about the park and when I finally got to explain to Anna, I hoped she would forgive me. But she wouldn’t forgive me if she knew what I was doing when I wasn’t at work or with her and Ayden. She wouldn’t understand, she’s stubborn and found it hard to forgive when her trust had been violated.

She can’t find out what I was doing. It will be the end of us. Plain and simple. Black and white. She’ll scream and cry and eventually kick me out. So I have to keep it to myself and not let anyone get wind of what I was doing.

Chapter Three

Annalise

I woke in Drake’s embrace and smiled to myself. It had been too long since we had connected in such a way. I missed Drake. It’s odd to live with somebody, to spend so much time with them, and yet miss them. It felt like he had checked out. He was here physically but mentally he would rather be anywhere else. So my mission for the rest of the day was to keep him in the present, to live in this moment with me and his son. Surely that’s not too much to hope for?

I quietly slipped out of Drake’s embrace as he slept peacefully. I pulled my clothes on and tiptoed out of the room. Making my way quietly downstairs, I went to see if Ayden was ready to come home after playing with Kane. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep and guessed that it had been some time that Ayden had been round at his friend’s house. I made my way to the neighbour’s back garden, where I heard splashing coming from the pool. The boys certainly made a lot of noise when they were together.

After convincing Ayden it was time to come home, I thanked Dannii, Kane’s mother, for having him over. His little hand reached up for mine as we made our way home. Exhausted after his eventful afternoon, it wasn’t long before he was ready for bed. He’d taken a shower, pulled on his pyjamas, and snuggled up with his favourite teddy as I read him a few pages from
Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban
. We were making our way through his favourite series for the second time. Seeing his eyes drift closed, I bent over and kissed his cheek. I tucked his blanket round him then stood and whispered “I love you” as I left the room.

***

The next morning, I walked across the hall and peeked into Ayden’s room. He was still sleeping and mimicked the position his daddy slept in; hand tucked under his chin, his face relaxed in his peaceful slumber. With footsteps as quiet as I could make them, I went downstairs to the kitchen to turn my coffee machine on and make breakfast for my two favourite boys. I turned the radio on quietly, there’s nothing better than letting music wash over me as I quietly sing along and fry the bacon.

With the kitchen island ready for breakfast, I called out to my boys and Ayden came barrelling downstairs as he always does when he smells bacon and eggs. Drake walked behind him, looking like he wasn’t yet fully awake, so I poured him a mug of coffee.

I was suddenly wrapped in a tiny pair of arms and I turned to place a kiss softly atop Ayden’s head as he took a seat on a stool. I smiled at Drake across the kitchen as he entered. He stretched out and due to him wearing only low-slung jogging bottoms, I was treated to a view of the V that showed just above the waist line—the one thing that has always driven me wild about Drake is how he keeps himself in shape and that V is dangerously sexy—I like to glide my fingers or tongue delicately over it, knowing it makes him as crazy as it does me.

“Good morning, Daddy,” Ayden said as his dad ruffled his hair and walked towards me to accept the mug I held out towards him.

“Morning, buddy. What’s the plan for today?” Drake’s sleep-laden voice graced my ears and I couldn’t help but smile as he interacted with the gorgeous boy who was devouring his breakfast faster than I could drain my mug of coffee.

“What have you and Mommy got planned?” Ayden spoke fast between bites.

“Woah! Slow down there, buddy. You’ll give yourself a tummy ache.” Drake laughed as he closed the space between us and wrapped his arms around me. He took the mug from my hand and set it on the counter.

“Morning,” he mumbled as he nuzzled my neck.

“We haven’t got anything planned.” The lie rolled off my tongue. We’d had this day planned for weeks. Even when things weren’t great between the two of us, Drake and I had always put Ayden first and his birthday never went uncelebrated.

“But Mommy, it’s my birthday, remember?” he asked as though he thought I could possibly forget.

“No, that’s next week, buddy,” Drake said as he hid his smile in the crook of my neck.

“No, Daddy, it’s today!”

“Do you think Daddy and I would forget the day you came into the world, Ayden? It’s next weekend, like Daddy said.” I tried to bite my lip to stop the bubble of laughter from escaping.

“Don’t be silly, Daddy. I’ll prove it,” he said, jumping from the stool and grabbing Drake’s hand. He pulled him towards the living room.

What Ayden didn’t know was that his presents were in fact hidden. We had arranged a treasure hunt to find them, but Drake and I needed breakfast first as fuel for the day ahead.

I sat at the kitchen island and started to eat my breakfast, but I still heard the disappointment in Ayden’s voice. They re-entered the kitchen and Drake sat opposite me to eat his bacon and eggs before it got cold. Ayden looked from me to his Dad and back again, confusion written all over his face. It wasn’t as though we wanted to hurt him, we just had a plan in place.

As Drake went through the morning’s post, he saw the envelope with Ayden’s name on it and smiled. He was so handsome, even more so when he smiled and it touched his eyes like it did then.

“Seems to be a letter here for you, buddy,” Drake said to Ayden, who immediately stopped looking so confused and sad. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips and he rushed over to take the envelope into his little hands.

Tearing the envelope open, he found a note written by me:

To Ayden,

I know you like a treasure hunt, so…

You’ll find another envelope somewhere warm and full of soft things. That will lead you to another clue.

Other clues can be found in other envelopes. Some will be inside the house, some outside and some, Daddy and Mommy will have to drive you to find.

Good luck on your hunt.

~Pirate Pete~

Pirate Pete was one of Ayden’s favourite toys—he took him everywhere. Ayden showed the note to Drake, who helped him read it out, and I saw the excitement begin to build in him.

“Mommy, Mommy, Pirate Pete is sending me on a treasure hunt! I wonder if it’s to find gold,” he said as he stood there waving the clue at me.

“Maybe, but we’ll have to wait and see,” I said as I stood to clear the dishes. I loaded them into the dishwasher and turned back to my two boys, who were both smiling from ear to ear.

“Please can we solve the clues, Mommy?” Ayden asked, a note of pleading in his voice.

“Well, you’ll have to think of somewhere warm that’s full of soft things, won’t you?” I replied.

“Can you help me, Mommy? And you, Daddy?”

I saw a look cross Drake’s face that I might have been tempted to think of as sadness or guilt, but it passed so quickly I had no time to analyse it. A smile replaced the look as he ruffled Ayden’s hair.

“Of course we can, buddy, just let us get dressed first,” Drake said as he stood from his stool and walked to the bottom of the stairs.

“Hurry up Daddy!” Ayden squealed as Drake walked painstakingly slowly up the staircase.

The three of us got dressed in record time. Drake and I were just as excited as Ayden was.

“I hope he likes his surprise at the end,” Drake whispered to save being overheard by our gorgeous boy’s supersonic hearing—that boy could hear a pin drop from a mile away unless he was asked to tidy his bedroom.

“Oh he will,” I replied as I quickly straightened my hair and applied bare minimum make-up so as not to hold us up longer than necessary.

A persistent knocking on our bedroom door had us giggling. Drake opened the door and looked down at our precious boy.

“Woah, buddy, where’s the fire?” he asked as Ayden ran into the room and grabbed my hand, then Drake’s. He led us to the landing and stood still.

“I’ve been thinking, it could be the linen cupboard. It’s warm in there and it’s full of towels and sheets, they’re soft things.”

We’d tried to make the clues easy, but I hadn’t expected him to get it so quickly.

“Could be, little man, why don’t you check?” I said, taking hold of Drake’s hand and smiling at him.

He ran to the cupboard and opened the door. He started moving things and finally saw another red envelope. This one read:

Ayden,

Your next clue can be found somewhere cool on a summer’s day. Somewhere in the shade, where you might go to chill out after bouncing on your trampoline.

~Pirate Pete~

Racing downstairs without closing the cupboard door, Ayden made a beeline for the veranda on the back of our house. He nearly ransacked the whole place before finding the envelope behind a cushion on one of the chairs. This time it read:

Ayden,

The next clue can be found in a place you like to play in the summer or the winter, somewhere that has a sign that says
“No Parents Allowed.”

~Pirate Pete~

Wasting no time, Ayden raced straight over to his treehouse and climbed the ladder. He climbed carefully back down the ladder with the clue he had found between his teeth.

“Got it!” he shouted as he raced back over to us.

Tearing the envelope open, he read the next clue to us:

Ayden,

The next clue can be found where you put your bags to go on holiday!

~Pirate Pete~

“Daddy, I need your car keys,” Ayden said as he started to run through the house towards the driveway.

Retrieving his Dad’s car keys from the hook by the front door, he pulled the door open and raced outside. He unlocked the car and kicked the bottom of the rear bumper of his Dad’s Ford Kuga. The boot door opened and Ayden climbed inside. A red envelope awaited him:

Ayden,

This clue is a bit harder. This time, Daddy will have to drive you to your favourite place to play, but don’t forget to pick me up before you leave.

Your friend,

~Pirate Pete~

He raced back inside and I heard him thundering up the stairs to retrieve Pirate Pete from his bed. His footsteps receded as he got closer to his room.

“Ready?” Drake whispered as he pulled me towards him for a kiss.

My lips met his and a soft sigh emanated from my throat. Drake licked at the seam of my closed mouth and I granted him access, something impossible to withhold from doing when he was like this.

“Can we get in the car now?” Ayden shouted as he raced back out of the front door.

I reluctantly pulled away from my husband and went to lock the door so we could make our way to Pirate Pete’s Playground. Drake got in the car and started the engine as he waited for me. After making sure the house was safely locked up, I got in the car and looked back at Ayden as he excitedly chattered to Drake.

“It’s got to be Pirate Pete’s Playground, Dad. It’s my favourite place to play and why would Pirate Pete leave me clues if it wasn’t there?”

“If you’re sure you think it’s there, buddy, then that’s where we’ll go,” Drake said as he pulled out of our drive and made his way to the end of Ayden’s birthday treasure hunt. He seemed to have forgotten about his birthday in the excitement of the hunt. He wouldn’t be able to forget once we got there though.

***

After a tiring day of playing with his friends from school at Pirate Pete’s, we drove home to give Ayden his gifts. As we got home, I gave the birthday boy one last clue to open. He tore into it excitedly, still not worn out from the fun of the day.

Ayden,

Happy Birthday, little buddy. Here’s a key to open a door. Go and see what’s behind that door.

~Pirate Pete~

He slipped the key from envelope and turned it over in his hands. He looked up at me and I saw a confused look on his face.

“What’s up, little man?” I asked as I crouched beside him.

“This is the key to your office, Mommy. I’m not allowed in there.”

I looked at my boy and saw his bottom lip tremble slightly.

“You’re allowed in there today, birthday boy,” I said, giving him a big smile and a nod of encouragement.

“You didn’t forget my birthday?” he asked as he threw his arms around me, the key momentarily forgotten.

“Umm…let’s see…” I giggled as I peppered his face with kisses.

“Let’s get the door open, buddy, and see what lies behind,” Drake said as he came up behind us, reaching out a hand to help me up.

The door opened and a shout echoed around the large foyer of our house.

“
Presents!
”

Drake chuckled and slung an arm around my shoulders. We stepped into my office and saw Ayden’s face as he sat in the middle of a pile of presents.