5

LEVI

 

Think Brynn and I needed to chat about her lying to me. Firstly, the girl was about as transparent with me as glass. Secondly, the little lies she fed me hardly had the desired effect. The lies were really just about deflection. Brynn was hiding something because she thought it might change the way we saw her. Nothing could change how I saw this woman.

Like how fucking perfect she looked right now. In my place, cuddled with my daughter in my favorite chair. Her thick red waves were tangled in a cute braid that Amelia would not leave alone. Her face was free of makeup, like it usually was, but her lips were full and pink and fuck, I wanted to kiss them. I watched as she pressed them lightly against the baby’s head. Brynn’s pretty jade eyes fluttered when she breathed Amelia’s sweet, fresh scent in.

“Always wonder why babies smell so good. They all smell the same, too. I mean, soon they get their own scent, your house, the shampoo you use, detergent. At first though, they all smell this way and it’s one of the most comforting smells ever.” Brynn trailed off, as if being so open had been an accident. I watched it though, saw her features soften, her voice go honey sweet and Jesus, it was beautiful.

“I don’t know if I ever smelled a baby before now. You are right though. Something about it is very comforting. Amelia seems to like how good you smell too.” I chuckled when her freckled face flushed soft pink.

I liked those freckles the moment I saw her at Hunter’s parent’s place. Brynn had fair skin, but it was creamy and perfect and those freckles were sprinkled just so across her nose and the apples of her cheeks.

I knew from experience not just the sun made them pop out. I knew if she got shy, or got turned on, they were impossible to miss. I spent three days doing adoring those spots and all the ways that made them show up. Brynn hated that they gave her away, I knew, like litmus on her skin.

Right now, they were prominent but no more so than the lovely pink tone to her creamy skin. Amelia nestled into her neck, fists clutching at the top she wore, face pressed into Brynn’s neck. Damn that sight, that beautiful woman holding that adorable little baby, my daughter, did shit to me I never expected.

Yesterday, it made me want to see Brynn pregnant. Crazy, maybe. Now I could almost see her belly round, tits swollen, perfect glow on her gorgeous face. The woman drove me crazy and I don’t think she had a clue.

“Don’t mind the cuddles, I can’t lie.” Brynn is in fact glowing, her smile wide and eyes bright.

I sink into the couch across from her, nodding towards the mostly unpacked baby haul from last night. I don’t know how to set up Amelia’s room, and truly wanted her input. Something tells me Brynn will set it up better for Amelia than I ever could. Bonus, I get her in my place for as long as I can make this task last. It’s a win-win.

“Think we can turn my spare room into something good enough for the nugget?” I smile when said nugget cooes up at Brynn.

“I for one, am willing to try. Because every little Princess needs her own domain, right? Hmm, Princess?” Brynn talks to her like they understand each other, and when Amelia giggles back, I think maybe they do.

“Got her bassinet set up in my room for now, and the spare room is mostly empty. If you want to feed her, I can finish moving what’s left to the garage. Then we can start with a blank canvas.” Brynn nods, twisting the baby on her lap and cradling her just so.

I bring the diaper bag to her, where there’s plenty of diapers, wipes and two bottles I prepped just before we left. I might not have a clue about how to be a father, not yet, but I’m a smart guy and just a little research told me how to prep that Owl diaper bag Brynn picked out last night. Baby steps, I can handle.

“Look at you Captain Prepared. I am impressed, Levi. Let me feed her then maybe put the little Princess down for a nap.” Brynn suggests, and I love that idea. I like having my nugget around, even though it’s all brand new, but a little alone time with Brynn sounds fucking awesome.

“Little thing does like her sleep. Think I got lucky with her.” I watch Brynn smile at me, a bright, full smile.

“Most guys might not agree, Levi. You are an interesting creature, aren’t you?” I lean forward towards her from my perch on the low, wide ottoman.

“You know I am, baby.” Our eyes meet, but I take in her reaction. The way her breath catches, the way her eyes darken just slightly. I love it. Love that look on her.

“Behave.” Brynn is still smiling as she settles back into the recliner, tucking her long legs beneath her.

Amelia takes the bottle Brynn offers eagerly. For a moment, I just watch them. Brynn clearly has some idea what she’s doing, more than me. I know part of this thing is selfishness on my part. I hope I can earn a second shot. But, seeing them together, I can’t help but feel it’s good for both of them, too.

Brynn softens the moment she sees Amelia, and my little nugget latches right on to Brynn. I might have said it as a way to convince her to stay, to angle myself that second chance, but I meant it. Amelia needs Brynn.

It takes some willpower, but I leave them be for a while. I began emptying my spare room last night, so there’s little left to do. I’d used it as a home gym before, a weight tier and a weight bench, a few free weights and a heavy bag took up the space.

It got little use and I was kind of looking forward to changing the space into Amelia’s space. Brynn didn’t know it yet, but this was her show now; I trusted her and hoped she could help mold not just this space, but myself into the right place for Amelia.

After my last trip to the garage, I found Brynn in the newly empty room. For a moment, I got to watch her without her realizing it. I savored it. Brynn tried so hard to be guarded, often failing with me, so to see her so open was beautiful. I could see her thinking, considering, creating the room that would be Amelia’s in her mind.

“Tell me what we should do, Brynn. Do we want to paint? I saw you kind of chose a theme, it would seem.” I nodded to the bags of baby items they had chosen yesterday.

Though I stood back and let them make most the picks last night, I paid attention. I might not know what some of it was, but I knew they thought we needed it. By the second aisle of shopping, Brynn had silently taken over the choosing of items.

There was an obvious Owl theme in her choices; the diaper bag, for instance, the pink and brown bedding she picked for the crib. I liked the idea that Brynn wanted to decorate how she saw fit. Didn’t make sense that I liked it, but I did. I’d tear the walls down and put them back up however Brynn wanted, for Amelia.

“Could we paint?” Brynn spun in the center of the room to face me.

“We can. If you want to, we will. Is the nugget sleeping?” I took two steps into the room, waiting for her to take the same back.

“Like a Princess.” Brynn whispers softly, her eyes changing once again.

Two more steps into the room I go. Brynn doesn’t retreat. The bags of baby items line the wall behind her. I only see her, though. Two more steps. I can feel the room thicken with every step I take. I see the tremor that works its way through her just before I’m right in front of her. Fuck, I love that.

“Behave.” Brynn says, her voice thick and really lacking any thread of conviction.

“I said I would try to behave, honey. This is me trying.” My eyes close as I breath deep; Brynn smells like vanilla cookies and babies and something spicy and sexy. Delicious.

Brynn doesn’t move away, so I press closer. My hands slide over the curves of her rounded hips, moving to her backside. You might call me an ass man. Except, Brynn’s ass, tits, hips, thighs, every part of her, does shit to me.

Makes me want things that would have her marching out right now. My fingers dig into her backside, hiking her knee length dress up with the move. I feel the heat of her thighs press against mine. I notch myself between her thighs and lower my head. Just enough I can look into her eyes.

“How...does this resemble you behaving, Levi?” Fuck, I love the way she says my name with that eastern accent.

“Oh, honey. If I was not behaving, I’d have these panties off and some part of me inside you.” My fingers yank at the lace that curves over her ass and she makes a sound. It’s not a moan of contempt, or even of pleasure. It’s a hiss, hot against my mouth.

“Levi. Don’t ruin...” The hard slap of my hand on her ass cuts her off and makes us both moan.

“I won’t, baby. I won’t ruin this. Not for her. Not for you. Just...know that it’s just some epic level willpower I am showing now. I fucked up once, Brynn. I won’t do it again. I don’t repeat my mistakes.” My mouth brushes over hers as I talk.

Fuck, I can taste her. Minty and sweet, like Doublemint. I feel her tongue come out to trace her full lips and I linger. Let it drag across mine too. Brynn gasps and my teeth nip at her bottom lip. Her hips are bucking slowly. Rocking her pussy against my aching dick. I don’t think she even realizes she’s moving. Or she’s a Goddamn minx who knows the power she wields over me.

“How about pink?” I whisper softly, hands still gripping her to hold her close.

I don’t want to ruin it for Amelia. I don’t want to ruin it for Brynn. And I sure as shit don’t want to ruin it for me. I’m thinking about paint colors and carpet and maybe a new light.

Anything to stop me; from doing what I threatened and ripping those lacy panties off and sinking deep inside her. Anything to stop myself from ruining it. I hold her close, though, because now that I’ve felt her against me again, I don’t know if I can let her go.

“Pink is good. With brown. Like the owls.” That voice of hers is husky still and my dick jerks in my jeans, but I behave.

I do not lower my head and lick her full, sexy fucking mouth. I do not hoist her up, force her long legs around me and pound up into her. I do not ruin this. I smile and nod as my thumbs circle the dimples on her lower back. I fucking love those, especially on her.

Her hourglass figure is perfection and it’s rubbing against me, and her pussy is so hot against my cock, and I know she’s wet, and fuck, I want her. But I want more this time. I nod again and lift slowly, so slowly I watch her eyes darken then go normal.

“Pink and brown it is then. Do we paint now or later?” I don’t move away from her completely, but let my eyes circle the room.

Right now, it is a light gray, almost white, with slate hardwood floors. Total bachelor room. The walls are bare and the two windows are covered with gray shades. Amelia’s room needs a feminine touch, I believe.

“How can we paint now?” Brynn quirks a brow and I reach a hand up, tracing its arch.

“I can hit Sherwin Williams down the block. Tell me what to get. You stay here with the Princess. I think the two of us can knock it out in a few hours, yeah?” My fingertips linger on her face, tracing her cute nose and the apples of her cheeks.

“Perhaps. Didn’t know I signed up to be a slave.” Brynn reaches out, the hands that had hung at her sides grasping both sides of my t-shirt and shoving playfully.

“Oh, baby, don’t talk dirty to me like that. Just thinking of you as my slave...” My fingers tighten around her neck, thumb pressing into the hollow as my hips thrust against her.

I might be wrong, but I feel like Brynn might like the idea as much as I do. Her breath is hot against my mouth as she lets out a sound that has my dick harder than I thought possible. Her tits are heavy and the nipples are clear through the thin cotton of her dress.

I consider dipping my head, letting my mouth suck them through the fabric. I don’t. I promised to behave. That would not resemble behaving. I swat my hand at her ass again, the crack echoing in the empty room. Her eyes flare, the pupils widening and I can feel her pulse thrum against my fingers.

We break away at the exact same moment. Amelia cries softly and Brynn is out the door and down the hall to her before I can blink. I take a moment, breathing in the air that smells like her still. That almost tastes like her. Not just her perfume or shampoo; the want and need that got hot between her legs.

I adjust myself and head down the hall, ducking my head in. Brynn is beside the bassinet, cooing and singing. Singing. To my daughter. Fuck me, I am toast.

 

 

After a trip to the paint store and a few more hundred dollars dropped, I come home to my girls. I find Brynn waiting in the baby’s room, every single package opened and the trash neatly tied in a black trash bag in the corner. I like this for two reasons.

One, I hate disorder, and my place shows it. Two, it means she walked around my place with ease, found her way through things. I like that. I also like how I find her when I step into the room. Gone is the dress that was driving me crazy. In its place?

One of my wife beaters and a pair of jogging pants. Fuck me.

“That was fast. I love to paint actually, so I am excited. Look at you coming back prepared, huh?” Brynn calls, rapid-fire, sitting in the middle of the room with instructions neatly lined up around her.

“Look at you, just as prepared. Not promising I can behave with you wearing my shit, Brynn.” I love the flush that tints her skin, from her ears to the swell of cleavage my tank top shows off.

“Attempt to anyway. Don’t ruin it, remember, Levi?” Brynn bounces to her feet, my eyes focus on her tits and she makes a face at me.

“I will attempt to, beautiful. I promise.”

I do my best, too. After I change into a similar outfit—tank top and basketball shorts—we get started. I lay out the drop cloths while she covers the new furniture we will assemble later. I don’t miss the sway of her hips or the way she looks bent over, but I behave. I pretend to miss the way she looks at me, her eyes linger at my shoulders and forearms. I still behave. Then we start to paint.

Brynn talks. A lot. I like it though. Its bouncy and soft, almost melodic as we paint. I listen to every word she says, filing every single bit of it away in my Brynn locker.

During our three days together four months ago, I started that file. I know she had just graduated with a degree in architecture. I know she comes from wealth and power but doesn’t seem too proud of it. I know she had a brother who died, and I know better than most how to handle that topic.

I also found out she hadn’t dated seriously in over a year, and sporadically at best before then. I know our night beneath the stars and the morning after meant as much to her as it did to me, even if I fucked it up after. Tonight, she serves up more bits about herself and I eat them up like a starved man.

“I guess I like putting things together. Building something. Lord knows my father tore enough down.” We have all but one wall complete when she says this, so we both pause.

Brynn also knows about me. Knows my parents are gone, and how. Why I became a firefighter. I told her how close I was to my parents, how badly I miss them and hope I made them proud. I see the guilt flash across her face so I move close, invading her space as I shake my head.

“Not all dads are my dad, baby. I hope to be like him. For her.” I look down the hall, where Amelia has slept soundly for almost two hours.

“Then be like him. For her and for you, Levi. Will you tell me why?” Brynn folds to the floor, setting her paint brush carefully in the roller pan.

“I will tell you anything you ask me, baby. But, which why, exactly do you mean?” I regret the words the moment I say them.

There are plenty of why’s between us, actually. Why did I let that morning happen? Why did I let the past four months happen the way I did? Why, when we were with the others, did I behave as if I wanted her, then let her know I took home other women? Plenty of why’s.

“Bigger than the ones you might be considering, Levi. Why Amelia? I mean...I know how you feel about family. I think I do, I guess. Did Isabel know too? Did you two plan a family? Most guys living your life, might not be setting up a nursery and hiring a nanny for the baby their ex-wife had behind his back and then dumped at his feet.” I winced, and she covered her mouth.

“Its fine,” I sink down beside her, sitting away from her as I set my roller aside, “I do want a family. No, we never discussed it. Yeah maybe I once thought it might happen with her, but I never truly hoped for a family with Iz. Before her, yes? Now,” My eyes focus on her and she squirms under the weight of my look, “hell yes. Most guys might not do right by a nugget they can’t say for certain is even theirs. I am not most guys. That Princess needed someone, but I think so do I. Not because it’s a part of Iz, because I don’t even know how true that is. Because it’s might be a part of me, and I don’t have anyone else. I know what it’s like. I can’t just do it the easy way, hand her off and not know what life she might live. I think she is mine, Iz lied a lot but not about the big shit. Except for the forever thing, of course.” I watch Brynn think this over, then bite back a smile as she inches closer to me.

“You got married for the right reasons, Levi. Maybe not to have a forever, but look at what you got out of it.” I nod my head and watch her hands trace the lines of the wood floor.

“I don’t think I did, Brynn. I got married because I didn’t want to be alone. Because Iz made me hot for a few months, and I thought it could be more. I didn’t love Isabel, Brynn.” Those green eyes go bright and wide, searching my face.

“How do you know?” Again, she inches closer, just slightly.

“It hurt, what she did. Because I trusted her, even if maybe I wasn’t in love with her. I thought that’s what you do, you know? You find someone who makes you feel shit, you get married. Make it work. Really, Iz knew better than I did because she said it would never work. There is no forever.” I bow my head a little because, for a while, I thought she might be right.

“Isabel was always a fucking liar.” Brynn’s voice startles me with its ire; it also stirs my dick, but that’s a common response to her.

“Yeah, I suppose so.” When my eyes lift to hers, she is so close now, our knees touch.

“Didn’t answer my question, Levi.” Brynn points out, eyes on my hands as they reach out, sliding over her thighs.

“Which one, baby?” I am watching the way her stomach tightens, the way her breasts bounce as I touch her.

The thick sweats are bunched at her knees, rolled at her waist. Plenty of skin to touch. I have behaved for hours. Now I can smell her, feel her warmth in the air and I can’t help myself. It could be so easy.

I could lift her into my lap, tear that tank—which she ruined with paint and her perfect tits—right off and have those sweats down in seconds. So Goddamn easy. I don’t though. I am working hard to be in control. Her fingers come out and trace up my forearms, flicking at paint spatters and the chords that jump beneath her touch.

“How do you know you didn’t.... with Isabel?” Brynn says her name the same every time. Icy and as if it tastes bad on her tongue.

“Because. I hurt for a while, yeah. Not because I lost her, really. Because I was alone. I had just gotten used to not feeling alone. And then...” My hands shove up her thighs, thumbs moving in slow circles, her breathing coming faster.

“And then...” Her voice shudders the same way she does every time I touch her.  

“Then I go to a wedding and meet this girl and I don’t feel so alone. I get two awesome days with her. A night under the stars. Then I screw it up. And keep screwing it up. Screwing it up with that girl, it hurt worse than losing my wife. That is how I know I didn’t truly love her; because our time together felt like nothing compared to the three days I got with that girl.” Now my hands are high on her thighs, thumbs still making lazy circles, my fingertips pressing firmly into her flesh.  

Brynn lets out a sound that echoes in the room; its gravely and sexy and I want to hear it on repeat. My thumbs meet between her legs, hovering just over the one place I know she wants those circles to continue. I note her rapid breathing, the way her nipples are visible through my tank top, how her body arches under my touch. Lightly, I let my thumbs press against her again, hard and direct and she moans. Fuck. Fuck, that sound.  

Before I can control it, I think I ruin everything. Because my hands hook around her hips, I lift once and she is against me, legs winding around my waist. Her fingers are in my hair, my head is yanked back and her mouth is on mine.

I realize with triumph that it’s her kissing me. I lifted her against me, but it’s her arms circling my neck, her legs going tight around me. Brynn presses her softness against me and that full, sweet mouth is wet and hot against mine and I fucking lose it.  

As her mouth claims mine, my fingers work in slow circles between her folds. I can feel how hot she is, how that shudder works its way through her. I want more. I want to see her come apart because of me. As her tongue tangled with mine, those soft sounds making my dick rock hard, I hear it. Brynn is kissing the shit out of me, I’m rubbing her to an orgasm we both want, when one sound brings it all to a stop.  

“Amelia.” Brynn whispers against my mouth, her voice flush with shame.  

“I got her, baby.” I lick her full, swollen mouth, kissing her once more before I let her go.  

I know it’s over, that we won’t be able to get the moment back. I know that. As I walk down the hall to tend to my daughter, I am grinning like an idiot. I adjust my dick, not caring that it’s aching and won’t get taken care of anytime soon. Because, Brynn gave me plenty of new morsels about herself tonight, but just now, she gave the cherry on top. 

Brynn was a total pro at being evasive, walled off. For four months, I ached over the morning that cost me a chance with her. I took what she gave me when the others were around but I always wanted more. Didn’t think I would get it, or even deserved it, but damn I had wanted it. Four months of wanting something I was certain I could never have again.  

Gotta say, I didn’t hate being wrong this time.  

“Hey, Princess.” I smile down at the sleepy baby peering up at me from her bassinet. 

After making quick work of changing her, something I was still getting the hang of, I scooped her up. Amelia clung to me, snuggling into my chest as I rocked her. I could get used to those cuddles. I took a moment to be with her, to calm myself before I faced Brynn again. My dick got the message the moment I had stepped in here, thankfully. Now I had to get the rest of me on board. Once I did, I made one quiet promise to Amelia. 

“I promise to give you everything I can, nugget. No matter what it takes. Including that perfect woman you already adore. Whatever it takes, nugget.” I was a man who tried to do the right thing.  

By becoming a firefighter as a way to serve my parents. Marrying someone I thought I could make a life with. Being there for my brothers at the firehouse. And taking a tiny baby who had no one and vowing to be someone for her. Vowing to give her whatever she wanted; including the woman who might be able to lie to herself, but who was transparent to me without meaning to be. Brynn wanted more, just like I did. I was going to be sure both my girls got what they wanted. 

Even if one of them couldn’t admit what she wanted was us.