Between getting caught up with work at home and the office, I was dragging by Wednesday evening. Before starting dinner, Brielle called my dad, as she’s taken habit to every night after we get home. She tells him about every little thing that goes on during her day, and he listens with equal enthusiasm.
Being away all weekend pushed my house chores back a few days. Shouldn’t seem so bad, yet I was up to my ears in dirty laundry. Most week nights I was too worn out after work, Brielle’s homework, dinner, and bath time to worry about keeping the apartment tidy. At least it’s summer break and homework is not on my long list of to-dos.
Like grocery shopping. A look inside my pantry reminds me I have to get that trip done very soon.
As something I have taken habit to, I speak with my dad on every phone call once Brielle’s through. The first question out of my mouth every time is how he’s feeling. He tells me honestly, but he hates the fuss I make. Most days are good for now. The bad ones are hit and miss. But he knows the clock is ticking. And that makes me sad. For as much as I had issues in the past with my dad, I’ve decided to overcome them and live in the now. For however long I have left with him.
I’ve peeled, cut, and boiled the potatoes, and now they are ready to be mashed. Brielle sits in the living room watching a movie, but this is a task she can do, and this Momma likes to take advantage of any extra help from her kid she can get.
“Bri, can you come mash the potatoes, please?” I call out.
“Yes,” her sweet voice travels back.
As I hear the rustling movements she makes on her way to the kitchen, a knock on the door shatters all my composure. We don’t get visitors. Hardly ever, really. It could be a neighbor, that is not too unlikely, but I still find it odd.
A second round of knocks tap against the door. Brielle and I are both staring at it like it’s an oddity.
I reach for the kitchen towel, wipe my hands, and cross the space through the dining room and to the front door. I lift up on my toes to see through the peephole.
A smile takes over my face.
“Who is it?” Brielle asks with impatience.
Sliding the lock, I open the door swiftly. I gape at Luke with shock.
“What are you doing here?” I acknowledge right away that doesn’t sound very welcoming, but I’m incredibly surprised to see him.
“Uncle Luke!” Brielle yells with glee behind me. She shoves herself between my hip and the open door, throwing her arms around Luke’s leg for a big squeeze.
“My girls,” Luke grins, hugging Brielle back and smiling wide at me. “Surprise.”
Brielle lets him go and bounces around us. Her smile is bright and contagious.
“Are you spending the night?” she asks happily.
“If that’s okay with you, yeah. Thought I’d come for a surprise visit.”
“Yay!”
He steps inside, and closes the door behind him.
“What are you doing here?” I ask again.
“I have a client I’m meeting tomorrow in Brandon. Usually, I’d do the meeting virtually with Paul being gone, but I wanted the excuse to come see you two for a few days.”
“Who runs the office if you’re not there?”
“Kris. If I’m needed, the calls will be forwarded to my cell. I brought my laptop, and it’s only for a couple of days. It’ll be fine,” he assures me.
“Uncle Luke, you wanna play my new card game with me?” Brielle asks, and then tears down the hall to her bedroom when he agrees.
The second she’s out of sight, Luke’s happy face falters slightly.
“We got to talk about Brady, too.”
“Why?”
“I spoke with him this week. He wants to meet Brielle.”
“Okay. I need to tell her about him first. I’m not just going to spring a visit on her with him.”
“Of course not. But there’s more about him I need to tell you.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“It’s Brady. Everything about him revolves around trouble.”
Tiny feet pound in the background.
“Now for a better greeting,” Luke says in a husky voice. “I missed you, gorgeous.”
Pressing his lips to mine, I return the kiss with a smile. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I comb through the soft hair at the nape.
“C’mon, Uncle Luke,” Brielle sulks, already done with us and our displays of affection.
Luke chuckles.
Lifting my chin, I whisper in his ear before he walks away, “One of these days I’ll top that greeting with a naked surprise.”
“Looking forward to it,” he murmurs, eyes darkening.
I leave the two of them at the table playing Uno when my washing machine buzzer goes off.
After transferring the wet clothes over to the dryer, I finish dinner. Between mashing potatoes and drawing four, Luke and I share heated, anticipating glances with each other. Those warm brown eyes are a perfect ending to a stressful day.
The three of us sit and eat dinner. It’s peaceful, comfortable. Afterward, when we’re all finished, Brielle convinces us to play cards with her instead of cleaning up the kitchen.
Hearing the laughter float around our small apartment is worth skipping out on her chores for a little longer. Luke learned just how ruthless us Benson girls can be in a simple game of Uno.
When he was done being skipped and forced to draw four, Luke called the game with an overly dramatic toss of his cards. Then together, we all cleaned the kitchen.
During bath time Brielle’s curiosity ran its course. As I conditioned her curls, she watched me with a bold look before asking her questions.
“Is Uncle Luke staying with you tonight?”
I thought it was an oddly worded question, but since when did a question from a little kid make much sense anyway.
“He’s spending a few nights with us.”
“I know that. But is going to be he sleeping in your room?”
Well, crap.
My mouth opened and closed. Time to put the Mommy Cap on and answer that in a way that was understandable to a five year old. Because simply answering that, yes, your Uncle is sleeping in Mommy’s bed in a non-platonic way, was not going to cut it.
Super easy.
Riiiiiiigghht,
“Probably,” I squeaked. Not my finest moment as a mother. Try again. “Bri, your uncle and I are dating. Do you know what that means?”
“Like y’all kiss and stuff.”
Kiss and stuff. Good assumption.
“Uh-huh, yep. Is that going to be weird for you?”
“No. I like Uncle Luke.”
“I know you do, but I just want to talk with you about this in case it’s strange since he’s your uncle.”
Her thick brown eyebrows dipped together in thought. I press in my smile when she puckers her lips, taking my question very serious before giving an answer.
“Maybe I should stop calling him Uncle Luke. That might be weird for the people who don’t know he’s related to my dad and not you.”
My laughter sneaks out anyway and fills the small bathroom. Grabbing her cheeks in both hands, I press a kiss to one side of her face.
“I love you, my sweet girl.”
“Love you too, Mommy.”
After her bath, dressed in princess pajamas, she grabs one of her stuffed animals from a pile in the corner and brings it with her to bed. Each night she picks a different one. I thought over time she would become attached to a specific teddy, but then one night she told me they all need love individually.
Before we climb in her small bed to read a bedtime story, Brielle bounces to her open doorway and calls down the hall. “Good night, Luke.”
“Night, sweetheart.”
She skips back to her bed and I tuck her in. We read through the short story, with her reading some of the pages along with me. Afterward, I turn out her light and go back to the living room with Luke.
There’s a baseball game on TV, which I find weird in itself. Majority of the shows played in this apartment are cartoons.
I sink into the cushion beside him on the couch. His arm is stretched out on the back looking all too inviting for me not to curl into his side. My head falls to the space between his arm and chest and I release a content sigh.
Luke turns his head to me, kissing my hair. His breath tickles between the strands at the top when he talks.
“Is she mad at me?”
“Brielle?” I ask with doubt.
“Yeah.”
Tipping my head back, I find he actually looks concerned.
“No. Why would you think that?”
“She didn’t call me Uncle Luke.”
I bury my face in his neck and smile.
“What? I like being Uncle Luke,” he claims, feeling the need to defend himself. “I just want to know what I did for her to drop it so quickly.”
I chuckle at his pouty response. Then I sit up, swing a leg over to his other side and straddle his lap. With both hands gripping his neck I stare in to his bold eyes. I kiss him once—but I just can’t stop there—and then say, “I told her we were dating.” Another soft kiss. “And because we ‘kiss and stuff’—her words—she thinks it would be better if she didn’t call you Uncle Luke anymore.” Another kiss. This one longer, with a flick of my tongue along his bottom lip.
Luke’s hands slide up my thighs.
“Well, I can’t argue with that,” he says in to my mouth, pressing my center to him with a firm thrust.
I whimper at the feel of him hardening under me.
“Would she be asleep by now?” he asks.
I shake my head no, unfortunately. It’s not unusual for Brielle to come back out of her room a couple of times before falling asleep.
He taps my ass and I climb off. I curl back into his side once again, but this time he takes my feet in to his lap and starts massaging one at a time. Between the massage and the boring game on TV I dose off in no time at all.
I’m jostled awake when Luke moves to stand up.
“Sorry, baby, go back to sleep. I have to use the restroom.”
I check for the time on the clock and see I’ve been asleep for only twenty minutes. It’s after ten. I groan and stand up.
“I need to get a shower, anyway.”
“What time do you leave for work in the morning?”
“Six-thirty. I have to drop Bri off at daycare.”
“My meeting is at nine. How ‘bout I pick her up early and she and I can hang out. I’ll watch her on Friday, too.”
“Won’t you have work to do?”
“Yeah, but I can handle both.”
I lift a brow at that. He’s obviously never tried to work with an easily bored child running around at the same time.
He smiles, reading my mind. “I want to help. You don’t have to do everything alone.”
“I’m used to it that way.”
“Now you have me, so get used to having someone around to help.”
Someone to help. To share my problems with, no matter how big or small. My thoughts, my worries, my hopes. Luke wanted to be my person.
“Go get your shower.”
I take a couple steps before stopping to face him again.
“What’s the other Brady stuff you needed to tell me about?”
“We can talk about that later.”
“Just tell me now. I prefer to not talk about him ever, so let’s get it over with now.”
Luke scratches at his head, sighing. “A couple years after you left Brady got in with a crowd of drug dealers. He smuggled the drugs into the cars he was working on at Neilands.”
“Drug smuggling,” I mutter in disbelief.
“Another mechanic caught on, and told Mr. Neiland. Brady was arrested and got put away for eighteen months.”
“Wow.”
“He got greedy. Saw the money he could make from it, and ignored the consequences. When he was released no one in town wanted to hire him. I found him a job on the oil rigs. It was a win-win for everybody because he leaves town for months at a time.”
“Should I be worried he’s still in that lifestyle? I don’t want my daughter around that.”
“No, he’s done with that. Doesn’t mean he won’t do and say other stupid crap.”
I nod my head in agreement.
“Go get a shower.”
I nod again. Then my foggy head clears.
“Only one bathroom. You can go first.”
He smirks, kissing me softly and hovering there as he whispers, “Really wishing you had a second bathroom in your room right now. I would join you in that shower.”
I groan, pouting with puckered lips as he stands and heads toward the hall. And because it’s there, I watch his ass as he walks away with blatant satisfaction. My pout instantly turns to lip biting. Damn, he looks good in dark denim.
When he steps out of the bathroom I’m at the linen closest getting myself a towel. “Do you need to shower tonight too?” He whispers back a yes, both of us keeping our voices low so not to wake Brielle.
Having another person in our home, someone else to speak with when I am usually alone in the silence, makes it even more obvious how small our place is. The two bedroom apartment is all Brielle and I need, but add another adult and I feel like we are living in a storage containment.
I’m quickly in and out, used to showering under ten minutes when there is a child either pestering you while you’re in the shower, or getting into God-knows-what during that time.
With wet hair clinging to my skin I walk out with a blue towel wrapped around me. I first notice the silence coming from the living room. Luke must have shut the TV off. The second thing that grabs my attention is a dark set of hungry eyes when I peer down the hall.
“I left a towel for you in the bathroom.”
He followed me into my bedroom. Setting down his travel bag by the door.
Based on the desire in his eyes Luke was either having a fast shower too, or skipping it all together.
I decided to help him go with option number two.
Dropping my towel, I cut across the room. My shoulder brushed the front of his shirt as I reached an arm out to close my bedroom door. There was a soft click from the lock, and then immediately thereafter a hard body pressing into mine.
Luke’s tongue licked off droplets of water running down my neck.
“Our one night together wasn’t enough, Liv,” he says, kissing my skin with his lips, tongue, and fingers. Every touch he made had the same effect. “I’ve been fucking hard as stone every minute since you left.”
“Sounds uncomfortable.”
I smirk when he glowers down at me.
Luke growls, picking me off my feet and tossing me on to my bed. I watch with eager eyes as he peels his shirt off.
He kneeled between my parted legs. Spreading my folds with his mouth, tonguing my dripping center. I gripped the sheets, his hair, pressing my lips tightly together, anything and everything I could do to prevent the sounds that were trying to break free. I didn’t want him to ever stop, but I also didn’t want to wake my daughter, or possibly our neighbors, with pornographic cries.
With reluctance he pulls away, reading my body language, and crawls over me. I wrap my hands around the arms cradling me.
“No jokes now?” he grins.
“We can stop and you can finish by yourself in the shower.”
“Should have known you would have a come back.”
“Get inside me already, Luke. I promise I’m a lot better than your hand.”
His eyes flash, then he does what I command.
When he kisses me I moan into his mouth, muffled, but finally able to release some of the pent up pleasure taking over me. Between us I fill my hand with his hard length through the outside of his jeans. Luke mimicked, and let out a groan of satisfaction.
I finagled his button loose with one hand, then slipped inside. Stroking his girth with greedy pressure, I bring him right to the edge. He tears his jeans and boxers down his thighs. With my help I push them to his ankles with my feet. It’s a frenzied, hurried, exciting chaos of limbs and mouths.
He cups my breasts, sucking hard enough to make me fight back more moans.
Luke’s mouth occupied, I reach an arm out to the night stand on my left. Condoms weren’t something I kept in an easy access with a child in the house, but after last weekend I stocked up.
Ripping the foil open, I took Luke in my hands and covered his cock in rubber. Then he was inside me, filling me, ramming in and out with demanding pumps. My feet latched around his back. His arm slipped beneath my clammy skin and fresh cotton sheets. Back arched, hips tilted, Luke held tight as he pounded into me with better impact.
He licked his way from jaw to ear lobe, and I panted. That all too familiar spark had started spreading throughout my body, my blood, my veins. Fire and ice colliding. The shards bursting into flames. My skin prickled. And when Luke bent his head and bit down on my nipple, I exploded.
Reaching for his face with a fierce tug, I kissed his mouth, letting go of what the orgasm refused to let me hold onto. His groans mixed with my own as he thrust three, two, one last time. I could feel the glorious bite of his fingers digging into my waist with his ferocious finish.
I watched him as he came, as we came together. His eyes never leaving mine. We remained connected, breathing violently.
I could not comprehend if I was being caught up in this spectacular moment of great sex, or if the sex was so great and spectacular because of who I was doing it with.
My heart beat triumphantly for the latter. My stubborn conscience reminded me I haven’t had this much sex since before Brielle was born.
It was my heart and body that teamed up awhile ago in regards to Luke Bennett. My conscience was the only barrier fighting them now.
As people we are built with many different facets. My pieces were in constant conflict. I’m an over-thinker who is stuck in her ways and hates relying on another person. If it’s not tangible, don’t try placing it in front of me to be surmised. Hypothetical notions weren’t my cup of tea.
That’s why I listened a good deal to my conscience. It would take time for her to catch up with the heart. But one area she agreed on—that was proven with touch—was Luke himself.