“I don’t know about that. There were so many nights I thought about climbing out of my window and running away, before I smelled cigarette smoke from under my door, before he could use me as his own personal ashtray,” I say acidly, and let out a weakened breath. “But I couldn’t leave my mom with him.”
“Fran, it takes a lot more courage to stay than it does to run,” he says, placing a gentle kiss to my temple.
My tension releases with his kiss, calming me. “The one thing I do know is that after my dad committed suicide almost three years ago, both my mom and I were able to breathe easier. He was determined to find me, to have me in his life, and I told him I didn’t want anything to do with him. A little while later I found out he’d committed suicide…and I was relieved. I know that’s awful.”
He presses his lips to my forehead, determination in his voice. “I know he was your father, baby, but he wasn’t a good man. No one could ever blame you for feeling that way.”
“I don’t really want to talk about him anymore, if you don’t mind. Tell me about you. How was the rest of the conference?” I ask, brushing my fingers over his happy trail and loving that something else is happy down there, too.
“What is it you’re asking? You’re making it kind of hard for me to think,” he replies, chuckling and rotating his hips in my direction.
I let my fingers tiptoe back up his chest so he can concentrate a little better, although my eyes are drawn to the hard-on he’s sporting under the sheet.
“It was good. You missed my fabulous presentation. Although, I had some difficulty focusing.”
I lean up on my elbow so I can see his face. “Oh yeah, why is that?”
He rolls onto his side so we’re face to face, his deep blue eyes penetrating mine. “I was distracted by the thought of some girl with eyes the most stunning shade of green I’ve ever seen.”
“Some girl, huh? She sounds fascinating,” I reply, as he licks his lips before leaning in to sweep them over mine and I’m so ready to get lost in him all over again. My body instantly responds to the firmness pressing against my thigh, the ache between my legs starting up again.
His cell phone rings on the side table interrupting our moment of bliss. “Don’t get that,” I whisper against his lips, but then I listen to the song and start laughing when I realize it’s “ABC” by The Jackson Five. “Who is that?”
“GAH!” Matt groans in frustration and throws his head back against the pillow. “I have to get it. It’s Ma, I mean, Mrs. Brody, Caleb’s mom.” When he sees the confused look on my face he continues. “She loves The Jackson Five and when we were growing up we always had Sunday morning breakfast together. Whenever we’d walk into their house, there were only two things I’d notice, the smell of warm maple syrup and The Jackson Five playing loudly in the kitchen. She liked to dance while she was cooking.” He shrugs his shoulders with a sheepish smile. “So, it makes me think of her.”
He reaches for the phone and I can’t help but think that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard which makes me want to jump his bones right now. He’s so unexpected in such a good way, surprising me at every turn.
“Hey, Ma,” he answers with mischief in his eyes as he stares at my bare breasts until I clock him with a pillow. “No, it’s fine, it’s not too late.” He laughs, almost dropping the phone. “What’s up?”
They talk for a few more minutes and when he finally gets off the phone, he drops it on the bed and tackles me. “We need to get dressed. We’re going over to the Brody’s.”
His erection is pushing into me deliciously and the last thing I want to do is leave this bed, never mind this room.
“Is everything okay?” I ask, my eyelids flapping as his hand grazes the underside of my breast and a moan slips out. “If you want me to get dressed you better stop doing that.”
“Doing what?” he teases, circling his nose with mine and grinding against me. His tongue reaches out for me and we find one another, bathing in the warmth of our mouths and the friction of our bodies. He sucks on my bottom lip before he releases me. “Okay, I’ll stop…for now,” he says with a devilish grin, pushing off of me and bending down to pick up his clothes, giving me a great view of his ass. “And, yes, everything’s fine,” he replies, pulling a t-shirt from one of the drawers and sliding it on. “His mom needs some help moving some bookcases and Caleb is over at his brother’s tonight. I’d rather help her tonight because I plan on spending the whole day with you tomorrow.”
“Oh!” I shout out, remembering the gift that I bought for him. “I almost forgot. I got you something.”
He spins around in the midst of zipping up his jeans, his blue eyes flooded with excitement. “What is it?”
“Don’t move.” I flop off the bed and haphazardly dress myself, then collect my purse from the floor. Sitting back on the edge of the duvet, I hunt for my surprise and feel myself grinning like an idiot when I find it. I pat the space next to me and he comes to sit down. “It’s just a little something. It made me think of you when I saw it.”
The look on his face is priceless, wide eyes and a dimpled smile like a little boy who’s getting his first present ever. Strangely, my heart soars with delight at being able to make him happy.
“What on earth?” He chuckles, holding up the clown keychain and taking stock of its huge clown shoes, big red nose, and most importantly, the smile on its face.
“So here’s the deal. I thought it might help start to, you know, help you overcome your….” I snap my fingers and my eyes drift upward in an attempt to recall the word. “I can’t remember the name for it, well, your fear of clowns. Baby steps and all. Plus, he’s not scary.” I point to his mouth with my finger. “See, he’s smiling.”
He cups my cheek and touches his lips to mine. “I love it. Thank you, sunshine.”
My lips turn up in a huge grin when he takes his keys off the table and immediately puts them on the key ring. “He goes great with your Aston Martin, don’t you think?”
“He’s perfect,” he says, when he comes back to sit beside me. The moonlight coming through the window casts a glow on his face and a flicker of vulnerability exists behind his eyes, like he wants to say something else, but he doesn’t.
My mouth practically drops to the floor of the car when we pull up to Caleb’s house. Well, it’s not really a house. It’s more like a mansion. It doesn’t have a weathered front door, nor does it have overgrown weeds in the front yard or a cracked walkway that you can break your neck on if you’re not careful. This house is pristine in every sense of the word and looks like something out of a movie set. The driveway is lit up brightly on each side by tiny floodlights as is the curved stone sidewalk leading up to the entrance. Even at night, I can see the trees are pruned to perfection and the lawn is manicured. Set back from the street, the front yard alone looks to be an acre’s worth of land, and that’s from what I can see in the dark. The design is a burnt orange Spanish contemporary with windows galore.
“Holy shit, this house is enormous,” I exclaim when he comes around to open my door.
Matt chuckles and takes my hand to help me out. “Yeah, it’s big.” He stops in front of the three car garage. “I just want to let you know that Caleb’s parents are…kind of open about things.”
My eyebrows squish together in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“You’ll see,” he says with a smirk, and now I’m even more curious what he means by that statement.
“Matt.” I tug on his hand and step closer to him, trying to search for his eyes in the midst of the darkness. “That whole ringtone thing with Caleb’s mom, I think that’s really sweet.”