Gabriel looked the room over. There was a single platform bed with drawers underneath, dressed with a pale yellow comforter decorated with large pink flowers, with matching curtains and throw pillows. The walls were painted in the same pale yellow, and in the corner, near the ceiling, was a shelf with a half-dozen stuffed animals sitting on it. There was a small dresser and chest of drawer in white to match the bed. Overall it was a clean and simple room that obviously belonged to a little girl.

 

“You have a daughter? Where is she?”

 

“She’s at my grandmother’s house,” Stella replied, wondering how he was going to react to the news.

 

“Ruby? Rose?” he asked, struggling to recall her name.

 

“Connie.”

 

He snapped his fingers. “Connie! That’s right. I remember now. I always liked her. How’s she doing?”

 

“Okay.”

 

“What’s your daughter’s name?”

 

“Katrina. Katrina Violet Hayes. She’s three, almost four.” She watched as he nodded and smiled, then a look of puzzlement came over his face.

 

“Almost four?”

 

She nodded, watching his face intently

 

He felt a sinking in his stomach. “Is she…?”

 

“Yours?” she asked, watching his face. He nodded, his eyes wide. “Yes.”

 

He stood there, dumbfounded, unable to breathe, unable to think or speak, the news shocking him to the depth of his being. After a moment a million questions flooded into his mind, but he shoved all aside to focus on the most important one of all. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked softly.

 

“I didn’t know until after you were gone.”

 

He continued to stare at her, his mind a whirling jumble of thoughts. He was elated and sick, joyous and crushed, all in equal measure. “You should have told me. This, this would have changed everything.”

 

“How? You made your feelings perfectly clear.”

 

“But, but this is different. I…you…” He paused as his eyes filled with tears. “You should have told me. I would have never left, not if I had known. I could have helped you. I…” He paused as he wiped his eyes. “You should have told me. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. How? You were on the pill.”

 

She shrugged. “Don’t know. Doesn’t matter. It happened.”

 

“I have a little girl,” he muttered as if in awe. “Does she know?”

 

“No.”

 

He licked his lips slowly. “What does this mean?”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

He licked his lips again, unsure of what to do. He wanted to take Stella into his arms and hold her, to never let her go, to make up for all the things he’d done wrong, but he wasn’t sure how she’d react. He wanted to see his daughter, but he didn’t want to disrupt the family dynamic between Stella and Katrina and cause either of them pain. He wanted so many things, so many wrongs he wanted to put right.

 

“I would like to see her, but…”

 

“But what?” she asked when his voice trailed away.

 

“But I don’t know if it’s the right thing. I don’t want to screw up again. I don’t want to upset her by being this guy who suddenly shows up.” He looked at her a moment, then pulled her into a hug, needing to feel her against him. “I never suspected,” he said softly. “I’m even more of a fuck up than I thought.”

 

She could hear the pain in his voice. “I’m sorry. I should have called you when I found out.”

 

He nodded and she felt a wetness on her temple. “Why didn’t you?” he asked, his voice so soft and full of pain that it tugged at her heart.

 

“I hated you. I didn’t want you anywhere near me or Katrina. I didn’t want to share her and I didn’t want you to hurt me or her. What if you did come back, then left again? I couldn’t have taken that and it wouldn’t have been fair to Katrina.”

 

He nodded, then sniffed, reeling in the tears he hadn’t been able to contain. “I deserved that.”

 

She wiggled out of his embrace, and seeing the tears in his eyes, her own eyes welled with tears. “No. I was wrong. I never gave you a chance. I shouldn’t have kept your daughter from you.”

 

He nodded. He wanted to tell her it was okay, but it wasn’t. They had both made terrible mistakes, but he’d started the chain of events that led to where they were. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything.”

 

She couldn’t hold her tears any longer and melted into him. “I’ll have to get up soon, but will you hold me until then?”

 

He nodded but said nothing, his cheek resting on her head as he held her in his embrace. After a time, he relaxed his embrace and pulled back, a hand sliding down her arm to take her hand and pull her along to the bedroom. They tumbled into the bed and he snuggled into a spoon, holding her close, enjoying the feel of her naked body against his own. Whether it was the coffee, the excitement of having Stella in his arms again, or the news that he was a father, he couldn’t quiet his mind. As she began to relax into sleep, a smile began to tug at his lips. I’m a daddy! he thought, and tightened his embrace for just a moment.

 

Well satisfied she lay quiet and still, her breathing slow and regular, her eyes closed as she began to the long slide into sleep. Gabriel—she couldn’t think of him as Royal—hadn’t reacted anything like she’d expected. She’d expected surprise, of course, but from there she didn’t know. Denial, maybe, or reluctant acceptance. It touched her that he didn’t even question if Katrina was his, and had immediately understood and accepted the responsibility. She was moved that his first thought was for the welfare of Katrina, and she realized how wrong she’d been to withhold the news of his child from him. She’d made as grievous a mistake as he had – maybe more so, because it affected a child. She should have given him a chance when Katrina was an infant. If he’d bailed and run, she wouldn’t have remembered him anyway, but if he’d stayed, she would have had a father these past three plus years. Like Gabriel, she thought she was doing the right thing at the time, but, in hindsight, she could see how wrong she’d been, just like him.

 

He was so different now. He’d matured and grown, and become comfortable with who he was and his place in the world. She felt sick at what she’d done. Grammy had urged her to call him time and time again, but she’d ignored the advice, always having an excuse, but they were just that: excuses. Maybe they should try again. If he could find it in his heart to forgive her, maybe she could find it within herself to forgive him. In the drowsy middle between awake and sleep, when everything seemed so clear, she decided she would like to try again with Gabriel, to give him another chance to win her and Katrina. She smiled slightly, enjoying the feel of him snuggled in warm and close, and thought of how they’d been so long ago.

 

***

 

Stella swam out of the darkness of sleep with a moan, inflamed with passion and so horny she was beside herself. As she came fully awake, aching to feel Gabriel inside her, she didn’t understand why she was wound so tight. She should be relaxed, or exhausted, or both, from the previous night, but then she felt his gentle caress of her womanhood. She was unable to stifle her soft whimper as his finger brushed lightly over her clit, and she understood.

 

“Oh, God, I want you so bad!” she moaned as he softly stroked her again, his touch electrifying. They were in the same spoon as when she went to sleep, so she reached between them and steered his throbbing hardness into her.

 

“Fuck,” he growled low and deep as she pushed back into him, his guttural snarl like a whip crack to her desire. He pushed into her hard and deep then began to drive his cock into her, gasping with every thrust. He appeared to be as taken with passion as she was, and his need drove her own desires even higher.

 

He thrust into her hard, every swift insertion sending searing pleasure burning through him. He’d slid into sleep while holding her snuggly to his chest, only to snap awake a few hours later, the bedroom window brightening with dawns first ruddy light. He didn’t know if it was the knowledge that maybe, just maybe, she was going to give him a chance to win her back, or she was the mother of his daughter, or their passionate encounter only a few hours earlier that had reawakened his feelings for her, but he wanted her unlike any other woman. He’d teased her awake with gentle touches, her soft sighs and slow squirms as she slept making him aching for her. Having her come awake only to immediately plunge him into her wetness had only ratcheted up his desire even more.

 

“Oh my God, that feels good!” she whimpered, her climax coiling up for an explosive release, his pants and grunts as he thrust into her making her burn with need. “Faster!” she begged, needing the hard, fast, pounding strokes to push her over the edge into sweet oblivion.

 

He rolled her to stomach, placing his legs outside of hers and entered her again, clamping his legs tight against hers. He groaned loudly as he began to drive into her hard and fast, his legs squeezing her tight around his shaft.

 

“You feel so big!” she wailed softly as he pounded into her. She’d fallen into a rut and had forgotten how exciting and satisfying sex could be with a dynamic and skillful lover. She moaned again as he drove into her hard and fast, her orgasm swelling within her.

 

He lowered himself, taking her lips as she twisted her head around, his left hand reaching around her to roughly massage her right breast as she twisted. It was what she needed and her climax rolled over her, her kiss becoming frantic as she burned with the intensity of the pleasure, their tongues dancing as he continued to pound into her.

 

She clamped down on him as she crashed into her orgasm, increasing her tightness even more. He flung his head back, barking out his release as he began to pound into her franticly.

 

His cry of pleasure and hard pounding strokes drove her orgasm on. Suddenly, he pulled out and flipped her to her back, handling her as if she weighed nothing, then plunged into her again, her knees caught behind his arms as he drove in deep. She flung her head back in pleasure, then snarled at him as she wrapped her hands around his head and pulled his forehead to hers as he slammed into her.

 

“Oh, shit! You’re going to make me come again! Fuck!” she growled, feeling wicked as he gasped and snarled while hammering into her, fucking her like she hadn’t been fucked in years.

 

He’d fought through the searing pleasure of his release, the brief pause as they changed positions enough to allow his orgasm to wash out of him. He released one leg, letting it fall away as he held her up with a hand between her shoulder blades. “I want to feel you come all over my cock,” he growled, his voice hard and demanding.

 

She moaned loudly, losing herself in the moment, his fast plunging cock shredding her with pleasure. “I can’t take it!”

 

“You have to take it!” he grunted, never slowing his driving hips.

 

“I can’t!” she cried softly, releasing his head and shaking her own head franticly as her orgasm spooled up.

 

“You’re going to take it until you fucking come!”

 

She pushed herself away from him and fell to the bed before placing her hands against the wall and pushing hard as she whimpered softly, her body alive with motion. He fell across her, supporting most of his weight on his elbows as he held her head and took her lips as he thrust himself in hard and deep.

 

She relaxed out of her orgasm with a long sigh of relief, her arms going around him to hold him into the kiss. “That was incredible,” she murmured, panting softly as the aftershocks of her orgasm ravaged her.

 

“You’re incredible.”

 

They lay in a cuddle a moment, kissing and touching, when she suddenly went rigid. “Do you have on a condom?”

 

He felt a flash of heat roll over him. “No. I didn’t even think about it.”

 

“Do I have anything to worry about?” she asked, all the warmth gone from her voice.

 

He swallowed hard. “I’m clean. Are you on the pill?”

 

She relaxed a bit. “Yes. You’re sure I don’t have anything to worry about?”

 

“The last time I didn’t use a condom was with you.”

 

She relaxed a bit more. “What would you have done if I hadn’t been on the pill?”

 

He touched her cheek and smiled. “Had another kid to love in a few months?”

 

She smiled at him. “You don’t love Katrina. You don’t even know her.”

 

“I know. But I hope to have a chance to get to know her someday.”

 

She smiled and touched his lips with a finger. “How about later this morning?”

 

He smiled, then it slowly faded. “I would like that, but what does that mean for us?”

 

She felt her own smile slowly fade. “I would like to try again, I think, but we have to take it slow, okay? We have a lot of history to overcome.”

 

He covered her lips with his own. “As much time as we need,” he whispered as he pulled back, watching her eyes, allowing her to see he was committed to doing whatever was necessary to make it work, to get to know his daughter, and to earn the trust and love of her mother.