“My dad thinks this could happen?” My voice is raised a notch. I’m scowling in disbelief.

“He’s saying to err on the side of caution.” Mason’s expression is hardening. I can see that he wants me on board with this and is prepared to argue the point. “We don’t know this girl, she’s distraught, she could be nuts, who knows what’s going on with her.” He pauses, looking intently into my eyes. “The main thing for me is, she couldn’t sign over her child fast enough,” he says, emphatically. “Does that sound like someone in a good place to you?”

“No.” I shake my head sadly. “But, how’d she know you’re in a good place? That’s what I wanna know. What guarantee did she have that her child would be safe with you? A DNA test doesn’t make you a good father.”

“Exactly. She thinks I’m just a programmer. So she knows I have a job, that’s all. The night we met, she came to my place with me. Not this place, my condo in downtown Columbus. It’s small but decent. I told her I own it. Apart from that, she doesn’t know me either.”

“Jesus. I wonder what her deal is? Mason, why didn’t you offer to help her?”

“I did. She refused. She does NOT want to have this child. Period. But if she finds out I have money…? Suddenly that might change. I don’t want the courts to give my son to a woman who only wants him because his father has money. Don’t you get that?”

“Of course. If my dad thinks it could be a problem, then, I believe him. I still think maybe you’re making too much of it. Not everyone is impressed with money.”

“Samantha? Trust me. We’re not making too much of it.”

As he speaks, he sits up straight and leans back. His eyes are fierce, boring into mine. For the first time, his voice is raised. He sounds very stern. Even, grim.

“Okay Mason. Okay.” I nod. “But I still don’t want to know who you are. Don’t tell me. I don’t give a shit anyway.”

He glares at me for another moment. Then his posture and his gaze soften. Papa Bear goes away and becomes Mason again. He blinks, regarding me with what looks, for all the world, like tenderness.

Affection?

Infatuation?

All I know is, I’m just as infatuated, if not more. His protective instincts are a good thing, a proper thing.

A manly, sexy, fuckable thing.

Now…I want him to feel protective about me, too. I can’t help it.

I want him to want me too. I want those arms around me, those lips on mine and those hands on my…I dunno, everywhere.

It’s not like I wanted or planned for this to happen. It just did.

This man is simply getting to me. Somehow, some way. Maybe it’s something in the stars. Maybe it’s chemistry.

I don’t know.

His hand reaches over and covers mine, lingering, his fingertips caressing my skin.

“The fact that you don’t care makes you one of the few people I feel like I can trust.”

He lifts my hand to his mouth and kisses it. Heat races from his lips through my flesh. “Sweet, beautiful girl. How the hell am I supposed to resist you? And just how the hell did you get under my skin so fast?”

“I…I could ask you the same,” I say, face burning…and lady parts getting a little warm, as well.

Holding my hand, he stares at me, his eyes burning with desire.

His touch, his words, the way he’s looking at me…it all slices through my being like a fiery sword, leaving me hot and wanting more.

Much more.

* * *

Suddenly, I’m nervous. Self-conscious. I mentally flail around for some way to put distance between myself and this overwhelming intensity I feel now with Mason.

“Let’s…clean up,” I say, my voice faint.

Still staring at me, he kisses my hand again, and then nods.

As we clean up the kitchen together, in silence, the air keeps throbbing between us.

Cleaning up is not distracting the mood though. The intensity is still climbing, not easing off.

Oh God.

I can’t look at him, can’t say a word. Every cell in my body yearns towards him.

How is it possible to be so instantly drawn to someone? This can’t be happening.

But it is.

Every time we get within a foot of each other, I feel a pull, like a force field.

I want his hands on me. I want to drop my clothes and rub my body up against his.

But I don’t. I don’t touch him.

Instead, he touches me, every time I’m in range. Light, barely-there touches, that somehow ignite a fire in my flesh at every point of contact.

A fire that blooms in my belly, too, and pulses and throbs in my center, making me feel loose and soft and wet.

We move around the kitchen. A soft brush of the back of his hand….a caress on the shoulder. A playful tug on my hair.

He leans back on the counter and frankly watches me putting the leftovers away.

I say nothing, just let the silence pulse between us.

The air in the kitchen seems thick with lust.

Wetter. Warmer.

I’m aching to kiss him. Aching to be kissed; by a man I just met…this morning!

I can totally see how he seduced the mother of his son. And in even less time than he’s had with me. They only sat together in a bar for a few hours.

I’ve been with him for the last twelve hours, many of those hours filled with unspoken sexual tension.

He could have whomever he wants. I have no doubt about that.

I wipe the table and counters down as Mason loads the dishwasher. We meet at the sink, me to wash out the cloth, Mason to rinse his hands.

Standing next to each other, even for a minute, is like fuel to the fire.

“I feel like I’m being pulled towards you,” he whispers, looking out the window.

Shock lances through me. Now he’s reading my thoughts?

I’m trying to remember what my mother told me only this morning. Watch yourself. There’s a child involved.

He slides closer, and now the length of his long leg is touching mine. He’s so much taller than me, my hip only reaches about halfway up his ass.

His tight, round, muscled ass.

I have to put a stop to this. I’m creaming my panties. I’m dripping.

“We should…we need to bathe the baby,” I say, a little hoarsely. I clear my throat. “Give him a nice warm bath, and…”

Standing next to me at the sink, he casually places his hand on the small of my back. Heat radiates from it and sinks into my flesh.

It feels incredibly good.

I can’t look at him.

His palm follows the curve of my ass to that tender spot down low, where my cheeks part on either side of my pussy. His fingers trail over those sensitive areas, his touch so light, so slow, yet its path seems to burn, focused and intense like the sun shining through a magnifying glass.

I can’t help it. I let out a low moan and my back arches to push my body into his touch, without any thought or volition of my own.

“Samantha,” he whispers. “C’mere.”

With his other hand, he grabs my waist and turns me towards him, pressing my body closely against his.

Electricity.

Both his hands are on my ass now, both cupping it low down, massaging and kneading it, holding me tightly, pressing his erection into my belly, so hard I can feel it throbbing against me.

My arms go around his waist and hold on tight. But I still…it’s too intense. I can’t meet his eyes.

He cuddles me close, one hand going to the back of my head, holding it against his chest. His mouth is on my hair, kissing my head, traveling down to my ear, now my cheek, and my jaw, his lips tracking heat as they seek out my own, his breath rising, coming faster.

My pussy clenches and throbs, my need making itself felt insistently. My nipples are like points, pressing against Mason’s hard, defined chest. Every movement we make stimulates them, sparkles of pleasure on a direct line to my clit.

My need is so insistent, it threatens to overwhelm me. I turn my head away, a last-ditch grasp at sanity, a last grab at my life as it was just yesterday… a last attempt to swim away from the heat that threatens to engulf me, that feels like it’ll burn me alive with lust.

Yet, I never wanted anything more.

“Ahhh, baby…” his lips on the tender skin under my jaw, making my toes curl and my hips squirm. “You’re so lovely, so lovely…”

Oh why is he doing this to me why, why? He’s calling me baby…I wanna be his baby..so bad…but we can’t, we shouldn’t…oh God!

“Mason,” I moan, my voice husky, senseless words spilling out, “please…don’t ‘baby’ me! This is…you have a child, we shouldn’t…” His hands rub my back, his body rocking mine. “You…you’re making me want you…but I…I…”

“I want you too,” he whispers…and his mouth is on me, breathing warm puffs on my hair and skin, kissing and nibbling my neck, and his rock-hard erection is prodding my belly.

I’m so hot now, so hot, my juices soak right through my panties.

My need is so profound, so intense, it rises from my spine, from my soul, making my body convulse in his arms.

My hand finds his cock and grips it. “Mmm,” he moans, swaying against me.

And his hands find my breasts in return, thumbing my nipples as his cock throbs in my grasp.

I’m panting…now, his hand goes to my cleft, fingers stroking, teasing, inflaming.

“Oh shit, Mason, I hope we’re not making a mistake…”

He hesitates, but, even as I say the words, my hands go under his arms, and my fingers dig into his back, holding him close, pulling his shoulders towards me…like I’ll never let go.

A growl rumbling deep in his chest, his hands are in my hair now, holding my head, raising my chin, his mouth chasing mine.

Our lip crash together in a searing first kiss, so deep, so good, tongue seeking tongue, all thoughts disappearing, burning in the raging fire.

Too late to stop. Too late now.

* * *

He takes me by the hand and together, we go to his bedroom.

We look in on the baby, who’s still sleeping.

Sweet, dear little lamb!

I am a complete pile of goo. This smallest of families, a man and his child, have totally captured my heart, in no time flat.

God bless this child, and his father. Hell, even his mother, whatever her issues are.

And may God bless me too because Mom was right.

I am falling in love with this man and his child.

Mason smiles at me, holds up a finger, then disappears into his bathroom before coming right back out, showing me the condom package he has in his hand.

I nod. I’m on the pill, but, better safe than sorry.

He cranes his neck to look into the bassinet once more. Still smiling, he holds his finger to his mouth “Shhh…”

Then, holding his arms way out from his body, he starts tiptoeing in a greatly exaggerated fashion, his smile turning in to a crooked, goofy grin.

His erection, still tenting his soft lounge pants, bounces comically.

I have to cover my giggle with both hands.

Still tiptoeing like something out of an old Spy Vs Spy comic, he grabs my hand, whispering, “Walk this way, please,”

Giggling quietly, together, we tiptoe like two comic-book spies all the way to the nanny’s quarters and the big waterbed.

We no sooner get next to the bed when Mason drops the comedian act and has me in his arms again, his erection pressing insistently against my belly.

“Samantha…what an amazing day this has been,” he whispers. “I can’t believe how much I’m enjoying your company. I’m so happy that you’re here!” He nuzzles me, letting out a little moan of pleasure. “I’m so glad I came to your home today instead of going to your dad’s office.”

“It is kind of cool, isn’t it, because otherwise, we’d never have met,” I say, between kisses. “My dad would never have told me about you.”

He hugs me tightly, then kisses me again, soft at first before becoming hungry and greedy again.

He holds me so firmly, yet delicately, he makes me know he means it, he wants me, no holds barred.

And when he mouths that tender and sensitive skin under my jaw, my legs go all watery and my pussy aches and throbs.

Hands under my shirt, his touch so incredibly soft and knowing. How does he know this exactly perfect way to touch my skin? His fingers unhook my bra and then reach under it to caress my naked breasts, rolling my nipples, every touch a tease.

He takes off my shirt and my bra follows, and as he bends to push my yoga pants down, he kisses and sucks each nipple as I lift my feet out of each pant leg.

“Mmmm,” he murmurs, pushing his own pants off and then stripping off his shirt.

I sit on the edge of the bed and let my eyes feast on his body. It’s lush, cut, defined. It looks almost perfect, like something out of a classic painting or a Greek statue.

Now I lay back, my motion making waves in the water-filled mattress. I’m nervous, being naked with a man such as Mason. Besides, he’s only my second partner, ever!

But I know I look as good as I can look - which is, not perfect, but hopefully, sexy enough.

“You’re stunning, Samantha,” he says, climbing onto the bed and laying himself alongside me, so that every inch of our bodies that can touch, are touching.

“Thanks,” I say. “I was just thinking the same about you.” His hand cups my face and we kiss, then our hands wander each other, mine admiring his muscles; while his travels over my curves, stopping to massage a breast, then dipping down to my cleft.

I grasp his cock, making him groan, close his eyes and push his hips towards me.

Kissing me, he pets my pussy, gently and lightly, one finger opening me and probing, finding me juicy and ready.

“You’re soaked,” he whispers, inserting a finger just inside my opening. I close my eyes and push my hips towards his hand, my body greedy for more. “Just lay back and relax,” he says. “It’s been a while. I can’t…I might not be able to last.”

“Me neither! Don’t worry about it,” I whisper, grinning, pushing a lock of hair away from his face. His warm brown eyes gaze into mine from inches away.

“Open your legs more,” he murmurs, cupping my pussy.

I do.

One thick, warm finger opens and enters me, very tenderly, stirring inside me, making my tunnel relax and clench and my teeth bite my lip.

That delightful digit of his now coaxes and spreads my juices from my opening to the hard ball of my clit.

The pleasure is immediate and intense. My legs, open like a book and bent at the knees, twitch, and my eyes roll up, half closing.

Adjusting his position, he uses his other hand to pull the hood of my clitoris back, exposing more of my secret flesh to his touch. Then, using just the tip of that one, incredibly talented finger, he strokes and rubs my button, flicking it carefully, watching intently as he does.

He keeps dipping his finger into the well of my wetness and slicking me with it, making my nub harder and even more erect, making my breath come faster as he strokes me in just the right way.

Flicking and sliding his fingertip around the sides of my clit, then slipping under the tender tip, keeping an even, steady pressure. Ahh, yeah…oh my god! How does he know…? It’s so nice, so wonderful…then he glides his finger over the very top so lightly, with perfect pressure and timing, making my opening clench and throb and my thighs jump and tremble.

By now, I’m holding my breath, getting close…oh what a talented, naughty, knowing finger he has!

“Come for me, sexy,” he whispers. “Come for me…oh yeah, so fucking hot…come on…come on…yeah…”

His whisper, so urgent, so sexy; his cock against my leg, hard and hot, seeping wetness that cools against my skin.

I couldn’t hold back if I tried.

My pussy is so creamy now, flowing and open and wet, and oh God…his finger…the friction…the heat…oh god oh god! My back arches and my body trembles.

“Yeah…” he murmurs, “yeah baby, come for me…” And a high moan surges from my chest, his finger stroking, faster, faster…and I’m coming, coming so hard, so much harder than I’ve ever made myself come, I’m moaning and grabbing at his hand, and he pushes that thick finger inside me at just the right moment, making my pussy suck on it like a hungry mouth and drawing a growl of lusty admiration from his chest. My back arches, my knees try to close and my hips jump as I orgasm in his arms.

He leans back now, breathing hard, and chuckling with satisfaction.

He bends to suck each nipple.

Then, licking his finger clean, his eyes close in pleasure as he tastes me.

Tearing the condom package open with his teeth, he rolls it over his hard-on and climbs between my legs.

“Oh baby, that was so hot! Lemme in there… I can’t wait to fuck you…”

I pull my knees back and watch as he pushes the tip of his cock into my soaked, swollen pussy, still tight and hot from my orgasm.

He slides into me slowly, hissing air between his teeth, stretching me and filling my body with pleasure.

I squeeze my eyes shut in ecstasy as he grinds it into me, burying himself fully, deeply, insistently.

Now he leans back, eyes lidded, and pushes my knees apart until I am fully open to his thrusts. He pulls partway out and slams it home, and now we’re belly to belly, slapping and rocking, his lips pulled back from his teeth and his eyes on my face.

Every stroke feels like honeyed pleasure, so forceful and filling and delicious.

His eyes on my face are intent with lust.

Then they squeeze shut, his breath catches and he slams it home and stills, exploding, grimacing and roaring between clenched teeth, hips straining and chest heaving, his cock swelling and pulsing until he collapses on top of me, spent.