Unexpected Love (Timid Souls Book 3) (7 page)

Gabe

How had everything changed so drastically in just a few short weeks?

Because seeing my daughter walk out of that bathroom holding the hand of the woman I had been crushing on for the past several months changed something in me. The two of them looked nothing alike, of course, but something about the image of them walking hand-in-hand just looked right. The happiness emanating from both of their faces, it was like magic.

It had never been like that with Vanessa.

I didn’t want Penny getting too attached to Felicity since she and I hadn’t even established what we were to each other yet. I knew that for my daughter’s sake, I should probably have kept my distance from the woman—be responsible—until we had more direction.

But I couldn’t stay away from her anymore. Didn’t want to.

As far as I was concerned, we were in a relationship and I didn’t want out of it. I wanted to be committed to it, to her. And I was going to let her know it, make sure she felt the same way, and assure myself that she was all mine.

Starting now.

“I’m clean, Daddy,” Penny told me, holding her hands out for my inspection.

I quickly looked them over but immediately focused my stare back on Felicity. “Good job, Peanut. Did you help Felicity wash hers, too?”

Felicity bit her lower lip and her cheeks flushed. I could see Penny nod out of my peripheral vision and she grabbed one of Felicity’s hands to hold out to me. “Hers are clean, too,” she said. Then, she reached over and tugged on my hand, drawing my attention back down to her. “Can Felicity come over to our house and play horsies with me? Pleeease?”

I could see Felicity’s eyes widen and could sense the panic in her at my daughter’s question. I wasn’t sure where that panic was originating from, but I didn’t have a single problem with the idea. I met her gaze with a challenging expression. She usually rose to the occasion when I gave her that look and I definitely wanted her to this time. I wanted her to forget whatever was freaking her out and just have a night with me, just us.

“It’s fine with me,” I said to both girls, though my eyes never left Felicity’s. “Penny and I would love it if you came over for dinner tonight.”

She swallowed so thickly I could practically hear it as I waited for her answer. My daughter, however, was not as patient. She lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Felicity’s tiny waist and pleaded with her, “Yeah, you have to come over! Daddy and I cook dinner together and he lets me have ice cream for dessert sometimes. Please, please, please come!”

Felicity laughed as she hugged Penny back. When she raised her head to me again, I could tell that some of the tension had left her body.

“What do you say, Felicity?” I asked her, the challenge still in my voice. “Want to have a sleepover?”

She flashed me that sexy smirk that communicated seductive intention, letting me know things weren’t going to be so sweet and innocent when she got me alone. “You’re on.”

##

If I thought Felicity looked good walking side-by-side with my daughter, seeing her in my home was an even bigger punch to the gut. This was our temporary home, sure, and we would be moving into our real home soon. But it didn’t matter. She still fit in perfectly with the dynamic that Penny and I had created.

“See, you gotta do it like this, Felicity,” Penny instructed as she spread the ricotta cheese over the meat and noodles with a plastic spatula.

We were making lasagna. I watched in fascinated amusement as my little girl showed my woman “how Daddy said to do it” when creating the layers of meat, noodles, cheese and tomato sauce. I had always wanted Penny to have a well-rounded education, wanted her to be as self-sufficient as possible. And in my mind, that included knowing how to cook. So I always did my best to incorporate her “help” into every meal I made and ensured that she understood what I was doing.

And to see her take what she had learned from me and use it as guidance to teach Felicity the same thing made me a very proud father.

“Do you like to cook?” Felicity asked Penny as they laid the pasta noodles on together.

Penny nodded. “Daddy lets me help all the time. I like making cupcakes the best. They’re my favorite ‘cause I like to put the icing on.”

Penny’s ponytail swung in the air behind her as she talked excitedly, her head bobbing back and forth. Felicity had put her hair up for me because I was terrible with it. That had probably been the biggest learning curve for me as a new father. It wasn’t figuring out the quickest way to change a diaper or what the best method of discipline was. It was learning about girl stuff. How to do hair and what outfits look the best with what shoes and the kinds of toys little girls liked.

I had to admit that I still sucked at fixing Penny’s hair, and Felicity had outright laughed at my frustration as I struggled with a simple ponytail. She had immediately taken over and had even braided a section of Penny’s hair, which she loved and kept looking at in the mirror. The woman had done all of it in about forty-five seconds.

It just wasn’t fair.

Two hours later, our stomachs were stuffed full of lasagna and I was combing Penny’s long black hair, having just finished giving her a bath. She and Felicity had done the dishes together at the kitchen sink while I sat at the table drinking coffee, observing the heart-wrenching scene before me.

If I hadn’t known better, I would have said that they were mother and daughter with the connection they had.

They talked like they had been around each other all their lives. Felicity asked Penny about school and her friends and what she liked to do other than play with her horses. She never talked down to Penny, never treated her like she was a foolish child whose opinion didn’t matter. Penny laughed at Felicity’s jokes and had literally paused in her task of drying dishes to listen to Felicity’s stories of when she was in gymnastics.

I had a feeling that I was going to be enrolling her in gymnastics classes soon.

But the real kicker? The part that made my heart want to burst from my chest? Penny had asked Felicity to tuck her in. Felicity hadn’t even looked at me for approval. She had just taken off straight for Penny’s room with a loving smile on her face and I had suddenly felt like an outsider. Like I’d been intruding on their relationship somehow. Like I wasn’t allowed to interfere with the bond they were building.

And I didn’t mind at all.

In fact, it was a huge relief to me. Comforting that Penny wasn’t so withdrawn that she could no longer let people in. Come to think of it, the most withdrawn I ever really saw her was right before I dropped her off with Vanessa and right after I picked her up. That was as a clear message as you could have.

Penny didn’t like being around her mother.

I didn’t like it either and I was determined to change that forever so Penny wouldn’t have to endure being around such an unstable, unaffectionate individual.

I was standing at the large window in the living room, looking out at the Potomac River that our apartment building overlooked, when I heard a door down the hall close softly and quiet footsteps enter the room. I turned around to see Felicity standing there in those tight skinny jeans she’d had on all day and a loose-fitted tank top.

She might as well have been completely naked for the reaction my cock was giving her.

And that was when it hit me.

I’ve never seen her naked.

We’d had sex three times but each time had been with some form of clothing separating us, covering her, hiding her perfect form from my eyes.

And that was going to change.
Right now
.

“She was out within five seconds,” Felicity said as she slowly approached me.

I loved my daughter with every fiber of my being, but she was the last person I wanted to be thinking about while I imagined all the filthy ways I needed Felicity’s body wrapped around me, inside and out.

And now that Penny was in bed, the filter was tossed away and forgotten.

“I want you naked the next time I fuck you,” I said, my voice low and cracked.

Felicity’s feet paused on the plush carpet, halting her forward progress. The statement took her off-guard momentarily. But when realization sunk in, one side of her mouth quirked up in a grin and she continued her movements but in the opposite direction. She started walking backwards—toward my bedroom—facing me and never taking her eyes from mine. And this time she moved at a much slower, purposeful pace. She was absolutely putting on a show for me as she swung her hips in those jeans and pulled her hair back behind her shoulders, providing me with a much better view of those perky tits of hers.

“Well. If you don’t hurry I may start without you,” she replied huskily.

I was already moving across the room, matching her pace. “Oh, please do. I would love to see that.”

I walked through my bedroom door seconds after her while in the process of unbuttoning my jeans—my shirt already shucked somewhere in the corner of the room—when she came up behind me and shoved me onto the bed. I was unprepared for the force with which she used and immediately dropped to the bed, my ass landing right on the edge of the mattress. I had to hand it to her. For a pint-size little thing, Felicity had some muscle to her.

That was a huge turn-on.

Because although I had already known it, that show of strength only reaffirmed the fact that she could give as well as she could receive. And when she fell to her knees before me, placing her head right between my legs, the word
receive
was the only one flashing in my head like the bright lights of the Las Vegas strip.

Anything I received from Felicity Paxton was no doubt going to be spectacular. I had known that before I’d ever even kissed the woman.

“I believe I owe you somethin’,” she said as she began to work my jeans and underwear down my legs.

I wasn’t going to stop her this time. Shit, my cock was practically begging for her mouth and I wouldn’t deny him any longer. I lifted my hips to help her ease the denim down and off and a second later I was completely naked, spread out unashamedly as her heated eyes took in every inch of me.

Something is wrong with this picture.

I took the material of her tank top between my fingers and tugged. “I told you, I want you naked.”

She didn’t even look up at me. Her eyes were solely focused on the prize she had just unwrapped. I got even harder when her eyes stayed locked on my cock as I waited for her to take off her clothing,
any
of her clothing. She finally registered the silence in the room and the stillness in my body. Her head rose to see my expectant expression, zoned in on her prone body on the floor. She rolled her eyes and pulled her top over her head, revealing her bra-covered flesh to me.

Fucking hell.

I didn’t know the name or what kind of bra it was. All I knew was that it was bright blue, pushed her breasts up and out, and had rhinestones across the top that sparkled with every centimeter she moved.

It was probably the hottest thing I had ever seen.

I hadn’t noticed any of the bras she had been wearing during the times we’d had sex—I had been too focused on getting to the treasures underneath them. But if this was what I’d been missing, I really needed pay better attention.

“Better?” she asked.

For now
. I slowly nodded, never removing my eyes from those perfect breasts that I knew were tipped with the sweetest rose-colored nipples. “It’s a start.”

“Good. Now shut up and enjoy.”

No fucking problem.

When she bent down and her tongue connected with my head, that was all she wrote. I was done after that. This woman had taken me, twisted me in knots, and turned my life completely upside down. But when she finally put her whole mouth on me? I became undeniably hers. Hers to do whatever she wanted with and I wouldn’t complain. Hell, I was prepared to worship at her feet if she continued to make me feel this way.

At first glance, Felicity’s mouth looked soft, innocent, untouched by anything dirty or rough. But I knew better and I knew it was greedy, hungry. She was taking everything I gave her and demanding more. I grasped the sheets beside me, totally lost to the pleasure of her warm, wet mouth snaking its way down my hard shaft. Squeezing my eyes shut as I threw my head back and groaned, I did my best to prolong it. I wanted it to last as long as possible.

That wasn’t very realistic, though.

Because I had fantasized about this very thing for months and those fantasies hadn’t done her mouth justice. And oftentimes when a man had a fantasy fulfilled, the pleasure was quick to come.

Which it did, seconds after I warned her so, though she refused to let go. Her lips were clamped around me, her sucking noises driving me out of my damn mind as I bucked up into her mouth, my climax releasing down her throat.

“Oh,
yes
. Swallow it, Felicity.” I could feel her throat working around me, taking me down. “Fucking swallow it.”

It took me a few minutes to fully catch my breath after that. I quickly glimpsed down the length of my body, just in time to see her lick her lips and use her finger to wipe the corner of her mouth.
Good God.
She made it look like she had just finished her favorite meal. Talk about making a guy feel good.