I lean in and she whimpers as I brush my lips softly over hers.
“Don’t do this.”
“Why?” I whisper, then I slide my tongue into her mouth so she doesn’t have a chance to respond.
She tastes like orange Tic Tacs. Grabbing her face, I kiss her slowly as she grips my forearms. I suck on her luscious bottom lip and she wraps one of her long legs around me.
She turns her face away and shakes her head. “Stop. We have to talk.”
I sigh and try not to look too disappointed as I take a step back. “Let’s talk.”
“You said you’d give me anything I need,” she says, and the tough, sarcastic exterior she usually wears so well is peeled back for a moment. “I need to talk about this.”
Her brown eyes search mine for a sign of understanding, but I’m just frustrated. “Do you mind if I have a beer while we talk?”
I’m not sure why I’m asking her permission other than I don’t want to hear a snide remark or see her roll her eyes when I grab the beer out of the fridge.
“This is your domain. Don’t let me stop you.”
“You kind of just did that,” I remark as I take a step back, but she grabs the front of my Vandals T-shirt.
Before I can even question what she’s doing, my shirt is off and my hands are under her sweater, roaming over her soft, warm flesh. Her breasts feel bigger than the last time we fucked, and this instantly gets me hard. I kiss her neck as I move my hands down to grab hold of her ass. Then I scoot her forward on the barstool, so she can feel me hard against her.
“I don’t want to fuck you here,” I murmur into her ear.
“Why?” she whimpers as she reaches for the button on my jeans.
“Because I have something so much better planned for you.”
I grab her hand and lead her toward the French doors that lead out onto the patio and outdoor dining area. Just beyond and to the right of the dining area is an Olympic-length saltwater pool and jacuzzi.
“If you think I’m getting in the jacuzzi with you when it’s fifty degrees out here, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“Shh. We’re almost there,” I say as we pass the pool and the outdoor shower area. Finally, we reach a cedar-plank door in the rear corner of the house. I reach into my back pocket to pull out the door key and she shakes her head.
“You knew you’d get me back here.”
I smile as I turn the key in the lock and push the door open to the steam room. I left the lights on and put the steam going before she got here. I’ve had other girls in here. It’s nothing new to me. But I’ve yet to meet a girl who wasn’t pleasantly surprised by the overwhelmingly hot experience of sex in a steam room.
“I’m not having sex with you in a steam room. I’ve done it before and I nearly suffocated. I don’t want to know what will happen if I try to do it while pregnant.”
“Shit. I didn’t think about that. But, wait a minute, you’ve had sex in a steam room? When?”
“Uh … how is that any of your business?”
Closing the door to the steam room, I clench my jaw as I attempt to bite back my response. If a girl isn’t being needy and clingy, she’s playing hard-to-get. Why can’t they just chill out and enjoy the offer of commitment-free sex?
“Why do you look like I just crashed your car?” she asks as she follows me back to the patio. “I didn’t say we can’t have sex. I just said I we can’t have sex in the steam room. And, really, that’s just common sense.”
“Common sense?” I repeat this as I hold the patio door open for her to enter the great room.
“Yeah. I mean, why would I want to have sex in a steam room when I nearly passed out while throwing up this morning?”
“You what?” I bark this question at her and she appears startled.
“I was sick this morning before I got a chance to eat anything. I was dry-heaving so badly that I felt like I was going to pass out. It’s no big deal. I took a ten-minute nap in the dorm after Claire left for class.”
“No big deal? Don’t you think you should talk to your doctor about that? Have you even seen a doctor yet?”
“Fuck no! I’m still on my parents’ health insurance and they can’t know anything until we figure out what we’re gonna do.”
I try not to let her see the conflicting emotions and thoughts racing through my mind right now. I want to offer to pay for her doctor visit out of my own pocket, but I also want to hold off. This is a card I may want to hold onto so I can play it later when I lay down my whole hand.
I take a seat on the gray sofa in the living room and pat the seat for her to join me. “Can’t you go to the campus health center and get a free exam? Shouldn’t you be taking vitamins or something?”
She narrows her eyes at me as she sits. “Are you trying to tell me you want me to keep it?”
Her words make my breath hitch in my chest. The truth is I’m probably more prepared to take care of this baby than Senia. But being prepared doesn’t mean I’ll be any good at it. The last thing I need is to screw up my own kid the way I’ve obviously screwed up Molly. I had to pick her up from school early yesterday. She was suspended for cutting class two days in a row so she could smoke weed with her innocent friend Carissa at the park. It’s always the kids with the most clueless parents that seem to get into the most trouble. Maybe if I had been there for Molly this past year, none of this would be happening. I’m not ready to be a father.
But I don’t think I can pass up this opportunity. This is my chance to send Grandma off with a full heart. Who knows? She may even live long enough to meet her great-grandchild. I don’t think anything would make me happier than that.
“Yes. If you want to keep it, so do I.”
Chapter Fourteen
After a moment of awkward silence, I grab the remote and turn on the TV. “What do you want to watch?”
She stares at the TV for a moment as the picture materializes, then she turns to me. “I should get going. Claire will probably be getting back from dinner soon.”
“Did Claire-bear give you a curfew?”
“I don’t want her to ask me where I was tonight.”
I’m used to being a dirty secret. I’ve had affairs with plenty of girls, and women, who were otherwise attached. But this just pisses me off. There are very few things about my personal life that I feel comfortable sharing with anyone. But this … This is something I want to share, like a fucking Circle of Life moment, I want to shout it from the mountaintops. I made a human.
I’ve watched way too many Disney movies with Moon.
“Why are you wearing jeans today?” I ask so I don’t have to address the issue of when we’ll be sharing the news of our lovechild with our BFFs.
“It’s cold.”
“Can I tell you a story?”
She looks at me as if I’ve asked her if I could tap-dance for her. “Okay …”
I clear my throat and smile. “I was eight when Molly was born. I was still living with … with my mom.” Senia doesn’t need to know that I only refer to her as Elaine. “I was still living in Maine with my mom.” Man, it feels weird to call her my mom. “We were living in a shitty apartment in South Portland and I hadn’t slept the whole night, waiting for my mom to come home with Molly.”
“Who was with you?”
“No one,” I reply without thinking, and she looks at me with a sad look that I’m all too familiar with. “It’s not like it was the first time I had spent the night alone.” This doesn’t make the concerned look on Senia’s face dissipate, so I continue before she can ask any more questions. “Anyway, when my mom came home with Molly, I finally fell asleep on the floor next to her bassinet. I think that was one of the happiest moments of my life. So …”