AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She said her mother told her that Emmett wasn’t her father.”
“And she told you this when?”
Tears threatened to consume Katrina once more. “When I was braiding her hair.”
He nodded and looked at his hands. “Does she...does she know it’s me?”
“Ren...if she saw you, she knows.”
“Do you think she did? Fuck, and I ran.”
“No, that’s...it wasn’t the time or the place for her to meet you.” Katrina looked around the tiny studio apartment and added, “Ren, what are you going to do?”
His sigh was long, shaky. “I don’t know. Find a two bedroom somewhere, I guess. I can’t exactly bring her here.”
“Do you think Emily’s going to fight you?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
“But she’s not a blood relative, so...so you have that going for you.”
He nodded once and crossed his arms, his shoulders curling inward. “I’ll have to get help. I can’t have her at the bar. Or after 11 I can’t. Maybe I can just shift my hours.”
“You are the boss.”
He grinned though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Damn right I am.”
She took a sip of coffee, surprised at the flavor. “This is really good.”
“Cinnamon hazelnut,” he explained. “I saw it and I thought...of you.” He shrugged. “Fuck, Trina, I had this all worked out in my head, you know? I was so sure you were going to be there for me.”
“I am here for you.”
“But you can’t...” He looked down at the ground. “You can’t accept my daughter. And that’s okay, for you. That’s okay, that’s too much to expect of you. But I had this vision in my head, the three of us. It’s stupid. I know it’s stupid. I just thought—”
She hadn’t meant to kiss him.
But she’d moved so quickly, placing her coffee on the table, turning his face towards hers.
She’d only meant to tell him what she’d said before, that Miranda should be theirs.
Instead, she’d watched his bottom lip quiver.
And she’d covered his lips with hers.
He’d hesitated for one moment.
In the next, his arms were around her, pulling her to him, kiss after kiss opening up, their first touch of tongues igniting the flame that always lingered between them.
“Fuck, Trina,” he murmured before kissing her again, deeper, his hands in her hair, holding her to him. She moved with him as he leaned back at first, and then forward, pressing her into the arm of the loveseat.
Still, he held her, his hands moving to her back, beneath the hem of her shirt as he kissed a trail down her neck, evoking sighs of contentment, of longing.
With his hands around her back, he stood, lifting her with him, her legs wrapping around his waist as he did. Perhaps he’d meant to take her to his bed, but instead, he pressed her against the wall, kissing her with abandon, taking her breath away. He leaned in, letting her feel exactly what she was doing to him, and her own hands moved between them, undoing his jeans, pulling them down as he tugged at her dress pants. She set her legs down and they fell to the floor with a swoosh.
“Fuck, Trina,” he growled once more into her ear when she wrapped her legs around him once more, as he moved against her, as she shuddered and sighed.
“Yes,” she breathed.
