WRIGGLING. SHE WAS wriggling against me, her body brushing against mine in ways that made the male part of me jump for joy. I smiled and pressed my face into her hair, breathing in the vanilla scent that made my skin prickle. Tightening my arms around her, I tried to keep her still so I could go back to sleep … but she was squirming, trying to get away.
“Jamie, I need to pee!” she whined.
I laughed and released my death grip, rolling onto my back and untangling our legs. My eyes cracked open just in time to see her spring from the bed and hotfoot it out of the room. I was still tired, so I settled back against her pillows, deciding on more sleep.
A minute later her bedroom door opened and she padded across the room. The bed dipped and then suddenly a heavy weight plopped onto my stomach, making me let out a soft groan because I wasn’t expecting it. She giggled, resting her hands on my chest.
Forcing my stinging eyes open, I looked up at the girl who made my whole body ache. She was straddling me, sitting on my stomach, smiling down at me. Her red hair hung loose around her face, tangles and snarls everywhere, her bangs flicking out the way she hated. In the sunlight that was streaming in through her window, she looked beautiful.
“You need to wake up, sleepyhead. I’m hungry,” she chirped. “Besides, it’s time you gave me my birthday present.”
FUUUUUUUUCK! Her present! “Oh shit, Ellie, I left it at my place. I didn’t know I was going to be coming over. I’m sorry.”
She rolled her eyes and bent forward, pressing her chest against mine, her face hovering close enough that I could taste her minty breath as it blew across my lips. She’d obviously taken the opportunity to brush her teeth while she was in the bathroom.
“Not that present, silly. This one,” she whispered. Her mouth claimed mine in a soft kiss that took my breath away. I kissed her back immediately, running my hand up her back and twisting it into her hair as the kiss deepened. She moaned into my mouth, so I rolled her underneath me and broke the kiss, tracing my nose up the side of hers.
“Happy birthday, little girl.”
She grinned and nodded, looping her arms around my neck. “Yep, it totally is.”
I laughed at her happy expression. “So, I get you for the whole day, and the night, that’s what we agreed, right?” I asked, taking a quick glance at the alarm clock. It was almost half past ten; we’d already wasted most of the morning.
“Right,” she agreed.
I sighed contentedly, just looking at her face. I didn’t need anything else in the world other than for that smile to always stay stretched across her full lips. “I love you, Ellie.” I loved finally saying those words.
She closed her eyes and snuggled closer to me, her finger tracing one of the scars on my chest. “Love you, too.” We made out for a couple of minutes before she pulled back and sighed. “Maybe we should go and get that parent bit out of the way now?”
I groaned and nodded, reluctantly releasing her from my embrace. She kissed my lips softly before pushing herself out of the bed and picking up my hoodie, which she’d thrown on the chair when we came to bed last night. As she put it on and zipped it up, I climbed out of the bed too, stretching before pulling on my jeans and T-shirt.
“Um … Jamie?”
I turned, concerned by the tightness to her tone. I realized what had caused it as soon as I looked in her direction. In her hands was my envelope from the boost last night. It wasn’t sealed, so you could easily see the bundled cash inside it. She was staring down at it with wide eyes.
“Uh, yeah,” I mumbled, rubbing the back of my neck nervously.
She gulped. “That’s not real money, is it? I mean, it looks like real money, but …” She shook her head and looked up at me with the cutest little bewildered expression I’d ever seen.
“It’s real,” I confirmed. “Doing what I did last night pays really well.” At my words she drew in a ragged breath, nodding absentmindedly as she held the envelope out to me. I sighed deeply. “Don’t freak out,” I pleaded.
She smiled weakly. “I’m not. It’s just … that’s a lot of money. I’ve never seen so much cash.”
“You can have it if you want. Buy yourself something with it? A new car, maybe, so I can stop spending my weekends fixing up your decrepit old one?” I suggested, laughing. I didn’t need the money at all; I already had almost forty thousand dollars sitting in the bank from the last few weeks. “I owe you anyway, for the alibi,” I added as an afterthought. She deserved that for helping me out last night.
Her forehead creased with a scowl as she closed the distance between us and slapped the envelope against my chest. “You think I want to be paid for that?” she snapped. “I don’t want your money. I just want you safe and not in trouble. Money’s not important, you are!” Her eyes flashed with passion as she spoke, showing me the truth of her words.
I didn’t have an answer for that, so I just wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to me roughly, making her squeal. Smiling, I dipped my head and kissed her passionately. I had no words to describe how that little speech had made me feel inside. She was just too incredible for me, but I selfishly hoped she never realized it.
She pulled away from me and grinned, taking my hand and tugging me toward her bedroom door, obviously eager for her birthday breakfast, which she said was always her dad’s famous deep-stacked pancakes. As we stepped out, I shoved the envelope into my jeans pocket. Ellie stopped almost immediately, making me walk into her back when I wasn’t paying attention.
Looking up to see what the problem was, I spotted it immediately. The problem was just walking out of the family bathroom across the hallway. Ruth seemed to be frozen, half out of the door, her eyes wide as she looked at the pair of us exiting Ellie’s room. Suddenly her posture changed, her shoulders pulled back, and her expression turned from disbelief to anger in a heartbeat.
“What on earth is this?” she snapped. Her voice was tight and accusatory as her death glare turned on Ellie.
Ellie’s grip tightened on my hand, almost crushing the bones in my fingers. “Um … I asked Jamie to stay over last night so that I could wake up with him on my birthday,” she lied.
Ruth’s eyes flicked to me, a disgusted expression on her face. “He stayed here … all night?” she pressed, her eyes wide.
Ellie nodded, and I hated myself for putting her in this position. I needed to say something, something that would make this better. “Nothing happened, I swear,” I assured her. That was the truth; we’d done no more than cuddle and sleep last night.
Ruth made a little whimpering sound as she closed her eyes, recoiling as if she’d just encountered something horrific. “I should hope not!” she barked, shaking her head fiercely.
I gulped, not knowing how to make this situation better. Ellie spoke first. “Sorry. I knew that if I asked you you’d say no, and I really just wanted to wake up in bed with my boyfriend to make my birthday more special. It is my eighteenth.”
Ruth snorted at the word boyfriend. “Of course I would say no! You can’t have boys over in your bed, especially not that boy,” she hissed, nodding her head at me distastefully.
Ellie’s back stiffened. “ ‘That boy’?” she repeated sarcastically. “Are you kidding me right now, Mom? Jamie’s not just some random guy, he’s incredible, and if you can’t see that then that’s your problem, not mine,” she retorted. “I’m not having this ‘he’s not good enough for you’ conversation again. You have no idea what you’re talking about as far as he’s concerned. You’ve never even tried to give him a chance; you’re just being judgmental, as always. We’re going to get breakfast!” She stepped away from me and tugged on my hand while her mom just stood there with wide eyes and her hands clenched into fists, looking like she wanted to skin both of us alive.
Oh shit. Damn, my girlfriend is feisty! I loved that she would defend me like that, even after what I’d told her in the early hours of the morning.
I followed her down the stairs with Ruth silently marching along behind us. I hated myself for causing this friction, especially since it was Ellie’s birthday. I’d wanted to make this day special, not cause a family argument. Her eighteenth was probably going to be memorable for a different reason than what I’d intended.
As we stepped into the kitchen, I smiled weakly at Michael when he looked up from his newspaper with a huge grin on his face. “Ah, the birthday girl’s finally up!” he greeted Ellie.
She laughed and nodded. “Yep! Do I get pancakes this morning?”
Michael bobbed his head in confirmation, his eyes settling on me. “Morning, Jamie. Didn’t hear you come in,” he said, pushing himself up from the chair and walking over, pulling Ellie into a hug.
“Of course you didn’t hear it. He snuck in last night!” Ruth bit out nastily.
Slowly, the smile fell from Michael’s face, and I knew that I should have just taken the risk of getting put back inside. I’d broken his trust, which was something that I never wanted to do. I loved that he trusted me with his daughter, was happy for us even, but right now he looked seriously pissed off.
“Last night?” he repeated, his tone hard and accusatory.
I smiled apologetically and nodded. “Yeah. Sorry.” I winced, waiting for his reaction. He was perfectly within his rights to throw me out of his house for taking advantage of his hospitality.
His eyes flitted between me and Ellie, a shocked expression on his face like he was only just now realizing that we were “together.” The look clearly told me that he thought his daughter was some sweet, innocent young child in a woman’s body. “You stayed with Ellie, in her bed?” His voice was tight and controlled.
Ellie stepped forward. “Daddy, nothing happened. I just wanted to wake up with him this morning. I asked him to come over. Stop looking at him like it’s his fault, it’s not. I practically had to beg him to stay because he didn’t want to go against your wishes.”
He frowned, running a hand through his hair. “You shouldn’t have had him over last night, Ellie. You have to be responsible and think of Kelsey. She wanted to come in and wake you up this morning. Thank goodness I stopped her! She’s only ten. Can you imagine what she would have thought if she’d gone into your room to find Jamie in your bed?” he scolded, shaking his head in frustration.
Ellie sighed and gave him the puppy-dog face; right then and there, the guy was done for; he stood no chance against that look. “Sorry, I didn’t think about Kels, I just wanted to have Jamie over for my birthday. I should have asked you, I’m sorry,” she pouted.
He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Just don’t let it happen again, all right? I’m not up for this staying-over thing, not with Kelsey in the house. I don’t expect this to be repeated.”
Ellie and I shook our heads in unison, confirming it wouldn’t.
Ruth was watching the exchange with wide eyes and an even wider mouth. “What? That’s it? She just gets to sneak boys into her bed, and you’re not even going to punish her for it? Wow, you really are a soft touch, Michael! I didn’t know you were so spineless,” she cried, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
Michael frowned. “It’s not like she does it all the time, and besides, it’s not boys, plural, it’s just Jamie. I don’t want it to happen again, but surely there can be a little lenience this time considering it’s her birthday,” he countered.
“Oh, we’ll see how lenient you want to be when he knocks her up and ruins her life!” Ruth snapped, slamming her hand on the table.
Michael’s eyes tightened at her words, and he looked up at me. I shook my head quickly. “Nothing happened, I promise. Ellie’s not getting pregnant,” I assured him, holding my hands up innocently.
He sucked his teeth with his tongue, seeming to think about it before he relaxed. He definitely wanted to believe that his daughter was still his little baby girl. Denial was a powerful thing.
Finally he sighed. “Just don’t do it again, all right? This was a one-time thing, a birthday thing, but I’m pretty annoyed that it happened.” He looked at Ellie. “Pumpkin, you know I like Jamie, but just … You need to respect that this is my and your mother’s house and, therefore, our rules.”
Ellie smiled innocently, batting her eyelashes to perfection, and I practically saw him turn into putty in her hands. “Okay, Daddy. Sorry. It won’t happen again,” she promised.
He rolled his eyes and stepped back, seeming to ignore the hard glare that was aimed in his direction by Ruth as he shoved the sleeves of his sweater up and grinned. “Who’s up for birthday pancakes?”
Ellie squealed and clapped her hands excitedly. “Yes! Me!”
Breakfast was beyond awkward. Ruth’s face was hard and angry the whole time, and she barely spoke except to throw some bitchy comment in my direction or answer a direct question when Michael tried to include her in the conversation. I honestly had no idea what a great guy like Michael could see in her. She was nothing like the rest of them.
After breakfast and watching Ellie open her presents from her family and friends, I headed home. I needed to get her gifts from me, and the day that I’d planned for us needed to start soon, too. We had a pretty packed day to get through.