Trevor
Bella made me sing Twinkle Twinkle at least a dozen times before she finally fell asleep, still holding her mom’s black T-shirt like it was her teddy bear. Irrational anger coursed through me.
Because how dare she.
How. Dare. She.
It played on repeat over and over again in my head until I was sick with it, and when I walked by Malcom’s room and noticed that he was already crawling out of bed, I crooked my finger toward him. “Let’s go, buddy, you’re sleeping in Eric’s room tonight.”
He froze and then, “Really?”
“Yup. We’re going to try to keep the smell minimal, and the only way to do that with you two boys is to keep you in the same small, controlled environment.”
Malcom sniffed under his arms. “I smell like Batman Blueberry Wash, Dad.”
“Now.” I grinned. “Just wait until tomorrow morning when it smells like a rat straight up sacrificed its entire family on the altar of your underwear.”
He let out a giggle. “Rat farts.”
“I asked for that one, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, Dad, you’re funny.” He sprinted past me and into his brother’s room. “Eric! I get to sleep on the bottom bunk!”
I leaned against the doorframe and stared at Eric’s thunderous expression and then almost laughed when he tossed a pillow toward Malcom’s face and said in an authoritative voice, “You better not fart.”
Ah, boys.
“Bed.” I tried my most commanding voice and pointed at both of them. As if a parent’s pointer finger was the one thing they couldn’t look away from, they both gave me wide eyes and nods, with unison “Yes, Dad’s.”
Finally.
I closed their door and slowly walked toward the master suite. One of the reasons I’d blindly chosen the beach house was because the master suite had a beautiful view of the ocean, was close to the studio, and had a fireplace in the bathroom with heated tile floors. It wasn’t as nice as my place in Malibu, but it felt more like home than that mansion ever had.
I opened the door to the master and shut it quietly behind me as the sound of the bath water running filled the air almost like an electrical charge.
The fireplace was running.
The curtains were pulled back, and HGTV was on in the background, though the flat screen TV hanging over the fireplace was at least turned down to almost silent.
I would have hated for anything to drown out the water.
Or the fact that she was either in it or about to get in it.
The smell of Bella’s bubble bath assaulted me as I made my way into the large marble bathroom with its custom crown molding and large bay windows and was stunned stupid.
Penny was lounging in the bathtub, her toes up on the edges. Her nails were pink, and I fixated on them like a man who’d never seen feet before.
But they were so feminine, so…normal.
Penny had the ability to make me feel both normal and like I could do anything in the world.
It was addicting, the way she smiled at me, the way she silently encouraged me even when she didn’t realize she was doing it. Damn, the woman communicated with her eyes just as well as she did with her words.
I wanted her story.
I needed it.
“Champagne?” I asked with a tilt of my head.
“Please.” She sucked on her bottom lip and then tugged it up with her teeth while I moved to the opposite end of the bathroom where the wet bar was located. I pulled a chilled bottle and two glasses and brought everything to the edge of the marble tub.
She was still staring at me.
And I was trying like hell not to burn a hole through all the bubbles that hid what I knew would be my favorite parts of her.
“So…” I grabbed a nearby towel and covered the cork, then quickly popped it off the champagne. “Are you feeling relaxed?”
“Relaxed and guilty.” She sighed as I handed her the champagne. “Aren’t you the sick one?”
“I’m feeling—” A bubble floated by her right breast, exposing more skin. “—fantastic suddenly.”
“Maybe you just needed the sleep?” She lifted the flute to her lips.
“Or maybe I just needed you,” I said honestly.
We locked eyes.
“You have to mean it,” she said in a quiet but stern voice. “I’m not…” She sighed. “I’m not like other women. I’m not from LA, I don’t do one night stands, and I truly don’t think my heart could take it if you said yes only to whisper no the very next day.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you.” I wanted to tell her that it was almost offensive she would think so, but I knew what my past looked like when I was a teen, I knew what people thought of celebrities with too much fame and money. “You don’t have to be afraid that I’m going to see you naked, kiss my way down your skin, then suddenly decide I don’t want more.”
Her lips parted. “I came here for a fresh start, you know.”
I pulled my shirt over my head. “Oh yeah? So far so good, then?”
She smirked. “Stop trying to distract me.”
I dipped my fingers into the tub, flicking bubbles in her direction. “I bet this isn’t what you had in mind when you moved here, hmm?”
She laughed. “More like…new scenery.”
I dropped my jeans just as she took a sip of champagne and choked.
“You all right?” I grinned.
“Yeah,” she croaked. “Perfect. Great scenery.”
I barked out a laugh. “Yeah, that’s what I was going for.”
Her eyes raked over me like she was giddy to get to know every inch of my body better.
I was done waiting.
I still tasted her.
I still felt her even though she was all wet and about to get wetter.
I pulled my boxer briefs down and then very slowly crawled into the huge tub.
She gaped like she’d never seen an aroused man before and then blushed like she was afraid I was going to pounce on her.
Not far from the truth.
Our legs slid against one another’s.
I let out a little moan when she reached for my foot and started massaging. “So you like baths?”
“If they all start like this and end with you in my bed, yeah, I fucking love baths.”
She dropped my foot. “Now I feel like you were faking your sickness.”
“Now I feel like I need to thank you for taking care of the kids, for being there for me, for being…unapologetically you.” I moved toward her, the water sloshing over the sides. I set her flute down on the side and covered her body with mine, my legs straddling her hips as I leaned in and stole a kiss, followed by another, and another, until she wrapped her arms around my neck and held on while our bodies slid against one another, bubbles moving away from the small waves, and then I was moving my right hand down her chest.
“Made for my hands, aren’t they?” I said gruffly against her mouth as I weighed her breasts in my hands then moved back so I could get a better look, so I could memorize the way her nipples seemed to strain toward me. Mouth swollen, she waited with a hooded expression.
“You all right?” I smiled as she gave her head a shake like she was under my spell.
“No,” she said, shocking me, and then she licked her lips as she grabbed my hands and pressed them back against her breasts. “I think I need more attention, here, here…” She moved my hands down her body. “And definitely down there…”
“So much for trying to go slow and be a gentleman.” I gripped her by the hips and slid my fingertips down her thigh.
“You don’t have to be, not right now, not with me. I just want you to be you.”
I smiled against her lips. “Just remember you asked for this.”
“For wha—”
I swallowed her shriek of pleasure as my fingers found her core, stretching her, flicking her sensitive flesh, demanding she come apart against me.
“This.” I went deeper, softer, faster, slower. I pulled out all the stops and changed with every inflection of her moan, with every tense movement of her body. When her head fell back and she collapsed back into the water, muscles relaxed, I knew I would never forget the look on her face, wet pieces of hair sticking to her neck, lips slightly parted, eyes closed.
Mine.
“I’m not letting you go.” I kissed her with every ounce of passion I had, with relentless conviction that this was where my path had taken me, straight into this woman’s arms. And I was suddenly thankful I’d gone through hell, because I’d finally discovered that heaven was real.
And it belonged to me.
“Come on.” I held out my hand. “I’m not done with you yet, and the last thing we need is a flood in the bathroom.”
“Flood?” She yawned.
“Are you seriously yawning right now?” I laughed, wrapping a towel around her as she stood.
“Sorry!” Her face flamed red. “It’s not you, I just, I can’t believe I just yawned. It was instinctual, you know like after you get the best orgasm of your life by a guy’s hand and suddenly go wow I’m so relaxed I could just dream of a few fingers for the rest of my life and die happy.”
Shit, my grin got more and more permanent the more she talked. “You’re good for my ego, you know that?”
“You almost made up for the ketchup on your shirt that first day,” she teased with a wink. “What’s this flood busin—Oh.” She stared down at the water then back up at me with wide eyes. “Was that from us?”
“You,” I corrected. “Apparently you have trouble sitting still when someone’s trying to bring you past the brink of sanity over and over again.”
She covered her face with one hand and held her towel up with another.
I dried myself off, then ran her towel down her body and pried it from both of her hands.
She seemed uncertain.
“Are you on birth control?” I asked.
“Y-yes.” She swayed toward me.
“I’m clean. Sadly I had to double check since some dick was dipping itself into my ex-wife, but know, I would never…put you at risk for anything. And the only reason I ask is because I’m a single dad who had no intentions of finding anyone like you. Ever. Not just in Seaside, but ever. I also haven’t been with anyone, including the ex in years.” Tears filled her eyes. “So I don’t have condoms here. Besides, there’s something very wrong about storing condoms next to the Legos.”
She burst out laughing.
“What I’m saying…” I pulled her naked body into my arms. “…is this isn’t a one-time thing, this isn’t something I do. This means more, all right?”
A smile broke across Penny’s face that made her glow, and she wrapped her arms around me. “And here every time I stared at your poster I imagined you as the guy who had a new girl every night.”
“I knew you looked at my poster. It would make my day to know you circled my face with a heart and imagined what holding my hand would feel like.” I lifted her into the air and set her down.
Penny laughed. “Sorry to say I didn’t heart your face, but I did wonder….”
I waited.
And waited.
“Wonder?”
“Mmmm…” She crooked her finger. “Not when I was a teen, but last year, when you guys had your tour and were at the Grammys…”
Oh God, I knew where this was going.
I couldn’t hide my smile if I tried.
“And you wore those leather pants.” She slowly moved to her knees in front of my bed. “If all the rumors were true, that you have to literally tuck in order to perform in tight pants, plus those pictures went viral really fast.”
“Some might say the hashtag bulge never had so much play.” I laughed, already painfully aroused.
“Yup.” She popped the P and lowered her eyes.
“Disappointed?”
“More like, how are you going to make sure you don’t puncture a lung?” She gripped my length with her hand and moved.
My hips jerked toward her. “Yeah, you shouldn’t do that to me if you don’t want me to toss you against the bed. Swear it will be the best five seconds of your life.”
She released me and burst out laughing. “This isn’t how I thought it was going to be.”
“So you thought about it?” I walked her backwards toward the bed.
“Yeah, just don’t put that in your recommendation letter. ‘Nanny thought about Dad naked, often.’”
“Often, hmm?”
“Here.” She handed me a pillow. “Just get it over with.”
“I’m not smothering you with a pillow.” I tossed it aside and lifted her onto the bed, my hands stilled on her hips. “Besides, I’m just as guilty. I knew I was fucked the minute I invited you into my house.”
“It was the pot roast.” She nodded her head seriously.
“It was your heart,” I whispered, devouring her next words before she could utter them. “And your crazy beautiful smile.” I pulled away and then kissed down her neck. “It was the way you treated my kids.” I slammed my mouth against hers and positioned myself near her entrance. “It was you being you.”
“Fresh start.” Our eyes met, time stopped. It was just us alone in the universe making love.
Two people on separate paths, somehow drawn together by sheer luck I would never deserve or understand.
“Fresh start,” she echoed, just as I slid into her body.
I knew the first time would be fast between us. I was already halfway there when I wasn’t even touching her.
“Next time…” I let out a groan. “Because you feel so damn good I don’t want to stop.”
She dug her hands into my hair and pulled me down for a kiss as our bodies moved in sync, not once fighting but joining like it was the only thing they knew how to do really well.
I had seconds left.
I wanted to stretch them, I wanted to live in those seconds and concentrate on every single nerve ending was exploding with pleasure.
I angled myself deeper, she nearly leaped off the bed beneath me, and I found the spot I wanted.
“Oh, God.” A muffled cry escaped her as she thrashed in pleasure under me. I felt her release shudder through her body and followed, unable to keep myself away from it any longer, away from her. She felt too good, it felt too right.
Panting, I flipped over onto my back and took her with me, still inside her, still feeling the aftershocks of our lovemaking.
It was on the tip of my tongue, but I wasn’t the guy to confess love.
I was that guy with Jo, and look how that turned out.
Now I was cautious. And yet the words lingered on the tip of my tongue, to tell her that time didn’t matter. I’d known my ex for a long time before we got married and look how that had turned out.
I knew Penny barely two weeks and already it felt different.
Because it was.
“Trevor?” She lay against my chest.
“Hmm?”
“I really like you.”
“I really like you too.” I played with her hair and then kissed her bare shoulder. “A lot.”
“Daaaaaaddy!” Malcom wailed.
I’ve never had a woman jump off of me so fast.
She gave me a look of horror.
I grinned and just shook my head.
Red faced, she tiptoed into the bathroom while I quickly wrapped a towel around my waist. “Coming.” I shrugged. “Duty calls.”