Chapter Sixteen

        Thursday passed in much the same manner as the days before. Emma Jean made breakfast for Noah and herself in the morning. She worked through the day, eating her packed lunch in the break room and sending a quick text or two to Noah because he insisted on checking in at least once per day. That didn’t bother her as much as she thought it would because she could tell that he wasn’t checking in to keep tabs on her, he was doing it because he cared and also because he liked knowing that he was a part of her day in some way even when they were apart. She thought it was sweet. After work, he’d picked her up and they’d gone back to his apartment where she fixed them a dinner of pork chops with applesauce and salad. They snuggled on the couch after, watching another Hallmark Christmas movie, and while there was some kissing, their physical intimacy hadn’t moved beyond that and light touching. Emma Jean didn’t know what to think of that. For all his talk of chemistry and having sex on his desk, he hadn’t initiated anything more. If it wasn’t for his insistence on touching her at every opportunity, she might worry that he no longer found her attractive. So, she forced herself to stop worrying, even when they each went to sleep in their separate bedrooms.

        Friday morning was the same as the day before, but the afternoon proved itself to be full of surprises. First, she came back from her lunch break to find that someone had set a course catalog and enrollment paperwork from the University of Montana on her desk. She assumed it must have been Marissa, as she was the only one in the office she’d discussed her career goals with. She swept the application aside and picked up the mail she’d grabbed earlier but hadn’t yet had a chance to sort through. Again, she found a semi-threatening note addressed to her. This one said:  I won’t let you go. Just then, the bell over the door rang heralding a client. Emma Jean hastily crumpled the paper and shoved it in her pocket out of sight.

        She plastered a smile on her face to greet whoever had just walked in when her breath caught and her eyes widened in shock. Standing in front of her were her parents. Her surprise only intensified when she caught sight of the puppy in her mother’s arms.

        “Mom? What are you doing here?”

        Melissa struggled to keep her grip on the wiggling ball of fur as she spoke. “Well, dear, your father and I got this adorable little guy and thought we’d bring him in for a check-up.”

        “You got a puppy?” Emma Jean’s voice cracked as it rose slightly.

        “Yes. Isn’t he adorable? We’re naming him Max.”

        The puppy was indeed adorable. He looked like a mixture between a golden retriever and a terrier of some sort. Most definitely a mutt. “Where did you get him?”

        “Oh, from the shelter, of course. You know how I feel about those pet stores with their dogs from those awful puppy mills.”

        “Right.” That part didn’t surprise her. Their mutual love of animals was something Emma Jean and her mother had always had in common. Now, the fact that they actually got a puppy was surprising. They’d had pets when Emma Jean was a kid, but since their last dog died and Emma Jean had moved out, the Barkers swore off animals. Or rather, Emma Jean figured, her father swore off any more animals after her mother surprised him with a brand new litter of kittens someone had left in the grocery store parking lot. Her mother was a soft touch like she was. “You don’t have an appointment.”

        “Oh.” Melissa’s face fell and she looked to her husband for help.

        “It’s alright, Emma Jean, I can squeeze them in,” Dr. Fetterman called from the mouth of the hallway behind her desk.

        “Oh. Okay. Um, I’ll need you to fill out this paperwork.” Emma Jean slid a clipboard with the intake paperwork attached across the counter toward her mother.

        “Sure, sweetheart,” Melissa said, her face brightening. “Here, Brian, hold Max,” she said, shoving the wiggling puppy into her husband’s arms before situating herself in a chair along the wall.

        “You let her get a puppy?” Emma Jean asked her father.

        “Emma Jean, you know as well as I do; I don’t let  your mother do anything. Melissa’s always done what she wanted, and today she wanted an excuse to come see her daughter with her own eyes.” He gave her a pointed look, and despite the fact that Emma Jean was in no way prepared to face her parents after everything that had happened, she burst out laughing at the fact that her mother adopted a puppy just to have an excuse to come into Dr. Fetterman’s office to see her.

        “She’s crazy,” she sputtered, trying to catch her breath.

        “She loves you, and she worries.”

        “I know, Daddy,” she said, finally sobering enough to realize that her mother was gazing at her in wonder with tears in eyes. Likely because it had been a long time since Emma Jean had laughed like that and even longer since either of her parents had been around to witness it.

        Emma Jean leaned over the counter to give Max a scratch behind the ear before moving out into the lobby to sit next to her mother.

        “Hey, mama.”

        “Hey, baby.”

        “I’ve been callin’, every day, just like I promised I would.” Emma Jean’s voice held a small amount of censure, but there was no heat behind it.

        “I know, sweetheart, and thank you for humoring me, but it just wasn’t enough. Someday, when you’re a mother, you’ll understand. I had to see you for myself.”

        Emma Jean ignored the tightening in her abdomen at the idea of becoming a mother. She didn’t know if that dream would ever be attainable. It wasn’t something she’d ever wanted with Cody, at least not since the beginning of their relationship when she was young and naive and full of hopeful optimism. Now, she had other opportunities open to her, but she couldn’t allow herself to dwell on what those might be. It was too overwhelming.

        “And I’m not here to pressure you into talking about what happened,” Melissa continued, grasping Emma Jean’s hand and giving it a squeeze. “I just wanted to see you, that’s all, okay? No pressure and no expectations.”

        “Mom…” She owed both her parents an explanation.

        “No, Emma Jean, I mean it.”

        “I will tell you, I promise. Just not here. And not today.”

        “Fair enough, honey. Here,” Melissa said, holding out the clipboard, “I’m finished with this.”

        Emma Jean gave her mother one last amused look and took the clipboard back to Marissa, so she could prepare an exam room before coming back and snatching Max right out of her father’s hands. She was giving him snuggles and cooing about what a sweet baby boy he was when Marissa called them into the back. She handed Max back over to her mother before shaking her head and hurriedly snapping a photo with her phone to show Noah later. The puppy really was cute.

***

        

        “We should go visit them,” Noah was saying.

        Emma Jean had just finished telling him about her parents’ visit to the clinic that afternoon.

        “You want to visit my parents?”

        “Sure. Don’t you?”

        “Well, yeah, but why do you want to go?”

        “Because they’re your parents. And you’re mine. Makes sense to me.”

        “Huh,” she said thoughtfully, chewing her lip.

        “What?”

        “Nothing,” she shrugged. “It’s just that Cody never wanted anything to do with my parents for any reason.”

        “Well, I’m not Cody.”

        “I know that,” she blurted, afraid that she’d offended him once again.

        “And, I know if you stop to think about it, Cody not wanting anything to do with his woman’s parents-  especially Brian and Melissa Barker, who are genuinely warm and wonderful people- is more of an oddity than the norm. The fact that I do  want to see your parents should seem completely natural. Not the other way around.”

        “I know. You’re right.”

        “Can you do me a favor?”

        “Sure.”

        “I know he’s your only real relationship experience, but can you try to stop using Cody as a standard of measurement? No man worth his salt wants to be compared to a piece of garbage like Cody Sampson.”

        “God,” she sighed, embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Noah. Really.”

        “I forgive you, sunshine.” Noah tightened his arm around her shoulders as they sat on the couch. Pulling her into his side, he planted a kiss on her temple and handed her the remote. “Now, find us some cheesy Christmas movie to watch.”

        She did as she was instructed, and when it was over, she realized she’d missed the ending. In fact, she’d spent the last thirty minutes contemplating the width of Noah’s chest. Her head was on his shoulder, and her hand lay flat across his stomach where she could feel his abdominal muscles flex each time she moved her fingers. Each time she took a breath, she inhaled his sweet, spicy scent. A scent that she thought might be a combination of his deodorant and body wash but was all Noah.

        She knew she wanted him, and he said he wanted her. All she had to do was make the first move and hoped he took it from there because if he rejected her, she’d surely die of mortification. She had no other sexual experience other than her marriage to Cody, which, if she was honest, was lackluster. She rarely orgasmed with him, though he made sure he got off every time. Cody was selfish in all things, and the bedroom was no exception. With that in mind, there was one thing Emma Jean knew she was good at, and she was determined to prove it to Noah.

        She slid out from under his arm and dropped to her knees in front of him.

        “Baby, what are you doing?” he asked as she situated herself between his legs.

        She lifted a shaky hand to his waist, reaching for his belt buckle.

        “Woah, sunshine. As much as I like where this is going, tell me where your head is at.”

        Emma Jean eyed the bulge in his pants, evidence that he was telling the truth about liking where things were going.

        “Emmie?”

        She raised her gaze to meet his. “I want to do this.”

        “Okay, can you tell me why? Not that I don’t want it, baby, but this is a big step for us. I just want us to be on the same page.”

        God, he was so sweet to her. How could she ever express to him how much it meant to her that he handled her with such care? Taking a steadying breath, she confessed, “I want you in my mouth because you’re amazing to me, and I want to show you how much I appreciate it.”

        “Ems, you don’t owe me anything,” he said, looking annoyed.

        “No! No, I know,” she rushed to assure him. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that...I want to be with you.”

        “You’re sure?”

        “Yes.”

        “ You only do as much as you feel like. If you want to stop at any point, you do so. Got it?”

        “I’ll stop when you come in my mouth.”

        “Jesus, Ems,” he groaned, letting go of her wrist so she could finish unfastening his pants.

        Once she had his erection in her hands, she wasted no time. She sucked the head into her mouth slowly, using her tongue to trace around the rim and smiling to herself when Noah’s head hit the back of the couch and a low groan filtered past his lips. She used her hands to stroke him, his girth too wide for her to fit just one hand around. Her head bobbed up and down as she sucked, licked, and stroked until Noah’s hips lifted up off the couch, seemingly against his will. Peeking up at him from under her lashes, she could see that he was lost to the haze of lust. She slipped one hand down to cup his balls, giving him a gentle squeeze. His head came up and his eyes snapped to hers.

***

        “You’re killing me, sunshine,” he rasped.

        He slid his hands into her hair, not to guide her, for she was doing so well on her own, but to anchor himself in her. He wanted to watch her. He reveled in the fact that this was his Emma Jean. His sunshine. And she was doing incredible things to him. He was the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet at that moment, and he’d never forget it.

        “I’m gonna come, baby,” he warned her, trying to pull her mouth away.

        She shook her head, not letting him dislodge her, determined to taste him deep in her throat.

        He let her take all of him, and she swallowed every bit of it, even licking the few wayward drops from her lips and making sure he had nothing left of himself on his own skin. When she was satisfied with her handiwork, she sat back on her heels and watched him as he caught his breath before tucking himself away.

        “You are the most magnificent creature I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, and it does mad things to me seeing you on your knees and taking me like you did.”

        She smiled widely at his praise and moved to get up.

        “But it’s my turn now, and I’m going to give it back to you in a way that you’ll forget anyone who came before me.”

        Her eyes widened and she let out a yelp as he scooped her up off the floor and carried her like a bride toward the hallway that led to his office. “Noah! What are you doing?”

        “Well, sunshine, I do believe I made you a promise.”

        “A p-promise?”

        His hum was low. “One that’s about to be fulfilled on my desk.”

        “Noah...I’m not sure…”

        He set her down in front of his desk and bent his neck to look her in the eye. “We’re not going to do anything you don’t want, baby, okay?” He wait ed  for confirmation that she was hearing him.

        “Okay.”

        “I want to taste you. The way you tasted me. Can you give me that?”

        “Um, I don’t...no one’s ever…” Her coloring resembled that of a tomato as she spoke. An overly ripened tomato.

        Noah’s fists clenched. That worthless husband of hers had never tasted her? So, the asshole wasn’t just abusive, he was selfish and stupid as well. Good thing Noah knew treasure when he found it. “You’re going to love this, I promise. Love it so much you’ll beg me for more. And I’ll gladly give it to you.”

        He tucked his thumbs in the waistband of her pants. “May I?”

        “Yes,” she whimpered.

        He peeled her pants, panties, and socks from her, leaving her completely naked from the waist down. With his hands on her trim waist, he set her on the edge of his desk and then set himself in the adjacent chair. Bending over to grasp her ankles, he lifted until both legs were bent at the knees and her heels were planted on the edge of the desk, exposing paradise to him. He traced her outer lips with a fingertip, brushing through the light curls that framed them.

        Looking her in the eye, he said, “If I do anything you don’t like, you tell me to stop, and I will.”

        She nodded.

        “If I do something you do  like, you tell me, so I can do it some more.” He smirked.

        She nodded again, and he lowered his head, his mouth instantly connecting with her clit.

        Emma Jean gasped as he licked, sucked, and nipped at her, taking in her nectar and moaning at the sheer beauty of Emma Jean’s reaction. Her head was thrown back, and he could barely see the rapture on her face as she came for him. She had one hand in his hair, the other behind her for support. The hand in his hair tightened as she moaned, “More.”

        Noah chuckled. “You want to come again?”

        “I want more of that. All day, every day.”

        His chuckle turned into a belly laugh. “Easy there, tiger.”

        Once she came down from her high, she seemed to realize how exposed she was. She brought her knees together, effectively cutting him out of her post-orgasmic glow as she struggled to cover herself.

        “Don’t be embarrassed,” he admonished. He wanted all of her, and because of that, the last thing he wanted to see what her trying to hide from him.

        She gave him a small smile. “Could you hand me my pants, please?”

        He bent over to pick them up, handed them to her, and bent back down to scoop up the piece of paper that had fallen from them. In her haste to get dressed, she didn’t notice him smoothing out the crumpled paper and reading what was scrawled there.