Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111732 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 559(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111732 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 559(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
As we eat our meal together, I ask for details about his afternoon with Ripley, and when he obliges me, I can’t stop laughing, melting, purring, and cooing throughout his adorable—and hot as fuck—telling. Max is the only man I’ve ever slept with who’s met Ripley; so before today, I had no idea it’d be such a massive turn-on to see a hot man being kind to my daughter. Now that I know about this newfound kink of mine, however, I’m having a hard time moving past it. In fact, I think I’m in very serious danger of throwing my “no-sex” rule out the window tonight.
“How’d she get you to play Cinderella with her?” I ask.
Max chuckles. “I honestly didn’t understand what I was getting myself into when I said yes. We’d already played Chutes ‘n’ Ladders three times. Colored in her coloring books. We’d played Simon Says and danced to ‘Barbequed-a.’”
“Oh, I wish I’d seen that.”
“We also played Hide ‘n’ Seek. She’s terrible at that game, by the way. I was hiding in plain sight, and she couldn’t find me until I started making a bunch of noise.”
I’m tempted to inform Max that I’ve never played Hide ‘n’ Seek with Ripley, for fear that she’d unwittingly hide somewhere dangerous, like the dryer, or maybe even run outside to hide, despite our firm rule that she’s never allowed outside without Mommy’s permission. But I figure I’ll save that explanation for a day when Max hasn’t been my knight in shining armor.
Max says, “By the time she pulled out that bag of makeup, I was so damned tired, I’d have said yes to anything she suggested.”
“You gave her one of the best days of her life,” I say. “And you really helped me out of a jam.”
Max is looking at me intensely again. The same way he did in the living room, when Ripley was crying in my arms, and I was soothing her. “Fake Max is madly in love with you, remember?” he says. “He’d do anything for you.”
“It was Real Max who came to my rescue today.”
“They’re one and the same for now, while we’re creating our back story and finding ways to make our relationship feel authentic.”
My heart is pounding. “I feel like we’re doing a pretty good job with that.”
“I do, too. A really, really good job.”
I’m not sure which of us starts leaning in first. But the end result is we’re both suddenly leaning in for a kiss.
“Mommy?” Ripley’s little voice says behind me, just before Max’s lips reach mine.
I jerk back from Max and leap out of my chair like it’s on fire. “Yes!” I shout. “Yes, honey?”
Ripley’s holding her teddy bear and her cheeks are stained with tears. “I had a nightmeero, Mommy.” I’ve never corrected Ripley’s pronunciation of nightmare because it’s so cute. In this moment, however, I’m not finding it cute because I’m not feeling like a good and nurturing mommy. Mommy wants to get fucked on the kitchen table, Ripley! Mommy wants to get her pussy eaten out! Mommy wants to get railed by the sexiest man she’s ever met in her life, by a goddamned country mile!
“Aw, poor baby,” I squeeze out.
As I comfort Ripley and ask what she dreamed, Max gets up with his hands squarely in front of his crotch. “I’d better get going,” he says stiffly.
Fuck my life.
“Do you want me to clean the dishes before I go?” he asks.
“No, that’s okay,” I reply, feeling my heart sink into my toes. Well, my vagina, anyway.
“Goodnight, Ripley,” Max says. “Sorry you had a nightmare.”
“Tank you. I love you.”
“Thank you.” Max flashes me a scorching look—one of such primal lust, it makes me whimper in return—and off he goes, striding out of the kitchen like his hair is on fire and he knows there’s a big ol’ trough of water on the other side of the door.
21
MAX
It’s just past nine on Wednesday morning, and I’m on the treadmill in my home gym. Try as I might, however, even when running at top speed, I can’t get this thumping, overwhelming, all-consuming craving for Marnie out of my system.
When I got home from swapping cars with Auggie last night, I headed straight into my home gym then, too, despite the late hour, and tried to sweat her out of my system by lifting weights. When that didn’t do the trick, I took a long shower and tried getting her out of my system through an organ other than my skin. But that didn’t work, either.
When I woke up today, I was hard as a rock and realized I’d been dreaming about Marnie, so I beat off to fantasies of her. But nothing changed.
Shit. I push the big, red button to stop the treadmill, suddenly having a horrible thought. What if it was only me who leaned in for that kiss last night, despite what I thought in the moment? What if I did that, unilaterally, in violation of Marnie’s clearly stated no-sex rule, and now Marnie is sitting at her house, feeling pissed at me for not respecting her non-negotiable condition for attendance at camp? Did I fuck up everything last night because I momentarily let my pulsing dick think for me?