Perfect Ten (23 page)

“Oh good. Another ally. Have you—”

“Faith! Joe! I’m so glad you two are here. I wasn’t sure if you’d come.” Cindy came running up and locked Faith in a bear hug. “Your sisters are at it already,” she whispered. “Let’s get drunk and piss them off.”

Benny caught my eye. “And you can keep your eyes off that one. Is it a deal, mate?”

I wasn’t looking at Cindy that way, but I agreed just the same. “Deal.”

We spent some time with Cindy and Aunt Alice, playing bocce ball and that beanbag toss game. Some of the other nicer family members joined us as still others congregated at the end of the dock with their feet in the water.

Afternoon turned into evening as Faith finally got brave enough to take her cover off, and we settled into one of the two hot tubs on the dock. Her head was resting on my shoulder as my fingers danced up and down her arm. “I’m getting pruny and hungry. How about we go grab some burgers?” My stomach let out a loud rumble, making Faith laugh.

“Yeah. I could use some food. Those Jell-O shots go down way too easy.”

“Are you drunk again, Faith? I’m only asking for my own safety. The last time you got drunk, you took advantage of me, if you’ll recall.”

“
I
took advantage of
you
?” She poked my chest and rolled over in the water so she was floating over me, her breasts tantalizingly close to my face, her ass just breaking the surface.

“Huh?” As usual, when I saw that much of her appetizing skin, all thought fled.

She looked down to see where I was looking and came closer until she was less than an inch away from my lips. Her whispered words teased me mercilessly. “Guess what I brought with me? I have four sets of furry lined handcuffs. Do you know what they’re for?”

“Tell me.” I tried to kiss her, but she turned her face. Teasing me some more.

“They’re for restraining. You. In my bed. I’m also going to put a blindfold on you, Joe. You’ll be at my mercy, completely and utterly. What do you think of that?”

“I think I love you.” Time stopped. I guess you can’t always pick the perfect time or way to tell someone that. I just couldn’t hold it in anymore. There she was, so sweet and sexy at the same time. She’d become my everything. I thought about her every waking moment. When I was with her, everything was right with the world, and when I wasn’t, I wanted to be.

“Holy cow. Say it again.”

I raised my hands to her face and gently kissed her precious lips. “I love you, Faith.”

Her arms went around my neck, and she pulled her legs in to grip my waist. “I love you too, Joe.”

The rest of the family had made their way back up to the house, getting food ready for the grill or chasing children, which is why no one had noticed the extra person walking the grounds.

“Isn’t that fucking sweet.” I whipped my head around to see Sophia standing behind us at the edge of the woods. “Joe, I really need to talk to you.” She walked out of the woods and didn’t stop until she was standing right next to us.

“Sophia! What the hell are you doing here?” She had to have followed us. There was no other way for her to know where we were.

She rolled her eyes. “I just told you. I need to talk to you. You don’t return my calls or my texts, so when I saw you leaving your place today to pick
her
up, I followed you. Come to think of it, I’m kind of surprised you didn’t notice me following you to her house and then all the way up here.” She was now sitting on the rim of the hot tub. I wasn’t sure if I was simply amazed or a little concerned that she’d actually followed us all the way up into the mountains.

Faith kept looking between Sophia and me. I had no idea what was going on inside her mind. Hell, I had no idea what was rattling around in mine. “I had other things to keep my eyes on. What do you need to tell me, Sophia? Tell me and leave.”

“It’s not going to be that easy, Joe. You see, I’m pregnant.”

My mind began to work furiously. It wasn’t possible! I always,
always
used a condom. I’d only fucked her twice, and once was in the ass. Can’t get pregnant that way. And then it hit me. I remembered that I’d already started coming the last time we fucked. When I whipped the condom off, some of my cum landed on her spread-open pussy. Could it possibly be? Fuck no! It wasn’t fair.

I took a deep breath as my mind cleared a bit. Sophia slept around. The father could be anyone. Hell, I’d seen her have unprotected sex with Vaughn. “It can’t be mine, Sophia. What game are you playing?” Before she answered, Faith questioned me.

“You told me you’d never had sex without a condom before me. Were you lying?” Faith stood up, and I simply watched as the water slid down her glorious body.
Christ! I could lose this.

“Condoms break.” Sophia smirked at Faith and ran a hand over her abdomen. “Right now, our child is growing inside me.” She looked back at me expecting God knew what. This day was going to hell in a handbasket when only a few short minutes ago, I told Faith I loved her for the first time.

“I’m going up to the house, Joe.” I didn’t do anything to stop her. Truthfully, I wanted her away from Sophia.

“I’ll go with you. Really, we should talk. Woman to woman.” Sophia followed Faith, who did her best to get away from her, short of running.

When they got to the top deck, as luck would have it, Marge was standing there. “Well, who is this, sister?”

Faith didn’t have a chance to answer. “I’m Sophia DeMarino. A client—well, more of a special friend I think—of Joe’s from Perfect Ten.”

Oh God…no.

“What’s Perfect Ten?”

Sophia, looking completely innocent, answered her. “The escort service he works for. He’s the best.” She winked at Marge and rubbed her belly again. “If you know what I mean. Full service.”

Faith spared me one backward glance and ran into the house, Cindy fast on her heels.

“Get out, Sophia. Go home.”

She must have known I’d reached the end of my patience with her. With a smirk that made my stomach turn, she waved and walked off toward the driveway. “See you later—Daddy.”

“Escort service? Daddy?” Marge stood to my left, a satisfied smile on her face. “I knew there was more to you dating Faith. How rich. She
paid
for you!”

Faith must not have gone too far into the house, because she came marching right back out after Marge spoke her overly loud comments. I’d never seen her so angry. She strode right over to her sister and slapped her face. “Enough! I’m sick of you and the others always putting me down. Joe dates me because he loves me. Period. We may have met a bit unconventionally, but you need to deal with it—or not! I don’t care.”

My heart flipped in relief, but it was short-lived. She looked over at me with uncertainty in her eyes and walked back into the house, leaving Marge sputtering while she held her red cheek in shock.

I wasn’t sure what to do at that point. Dale was standing on my right, and I turned to him, having no idea what he’d say.

“Just go after her, son. I’ve preached to her all her life about people deserving a second chance. I’m not going to change my mind now.”

“Thank you, sir.”

* * *

A
fter gently pushing
Cindy out of the room, Faith and I talked for hours.

“What are you going to do about the baby?”

She’d finally allowed me to hold her, and we were sitting together on the bed, she on my lap. “I really don’t know. If it’s true, and that’s a huge if, then I’ll take care of the baby. I wouldn’t turn my back on a child, but I don’t see how it’s possible. The condom breaking? I guess it’s possible, but I just don’t believe her.”

“I think we need to take a break. I think you need to find out what your responsibilities are before you can concentrate on us.”

“No. Please don’t let her do this to us.” It was so unfair. She was my life now. The only thing I truly wanted. I ran my hands up her arms, trying to evoke some sort of physical reaction to me. It was what I was best at—what I was fucking trained to do, I guess.

“No. None of that.”

“But I love you. That’s one truth I’m sure of. Very sure of.”

“I know.”

“Then let me love you. I
need
to love you.”

We didn’t make love, but she let me hold her through a restless night, and I drove us home the following morning. I have to assume that Dale threatened the rest of the family to ensure their silence, as not one word was spoken of the Sophia incident—or about Faith slapping Marge.

We had both skipped dinner the night before, but Faith didn’t want anything at breakfast. “Come on, sweetheart, eat something.”

“I’m not hungry, Joe. Okay? Just leave it alone.” She got up and hugged her father. “I’ll wait for you on the porch. Bye, Daddy.”

“I’m sorry. This is all part of my baggage. I’m so sorry, Faith.” She nodded and made her way out of the kitchen. What else could I do? I didn’t know what my next step was.

I said my good-byes to a handful of people, and then I took Faith home, feeling hopeless. Everything was my fault. We could have had a great week together.

When we reached her house, I took her bags in for her and left. Shortly before nine that night, she called me and asked me to come back. I knew she wasn’t sure what she should do with me, but hell, I didn’t know either. But when I got there, she met me at the door. I could tell immediately she’d been crying, and if possible, I felt even worse. With a barely mumbled “Hi” and a short pat on the head for Heidi, she led me back to the bedroom. Silently, she stripped and climbed into bed, where she promptly fell asleep. I climbed in after her directly.

Without even thinking about it, my hands roamed over Faith’s body, and her answering moans alerted me to the fact that she wasn’t entirely asleep yet. We didn’t fuck fast and furious like usual. Instead, I lifted her leg, slid into her delicious, warm heat from behind, and pumped my hips steady and slow until she climaxed around me, drawing my own orgasm into her.

Through a heavy sigh, she said, “I love you, Joe.” The sweetest words I’ve ever heard, and I was so glad she still felt that way.

“I love you too, and I’m so sorry about yesterday. I promise you that I’ll figure it out.”

T
he situation
with
Sophia still weighed heavily on my mind a couple of days later. Joe assured me that no matter what the outcome was, everything would work out, but I couldn’t imagine having Sophia in my life—and if Joe really was the father of her child, she’d be in my life as long as I had him.

We were sitting in the living room watching a movie, listening to his phone buzz every five minutes or so. “Why don’t you just answer it?”

“Because it’s Sophia.” He put his head in his hands and sighed. “Fuck. I don’t know what to do. We can’t even find out if the baby’s really mine until after it’s born. And if by some bizarre twist of fate it is mine, I’ll feel like shit if I didn’t make sure Sophia was okay during her pregnancy. But dammit, I don’t want anything to do with her. What do I do, Faith?”

“Oh no. I can’t tell you what to do about this, Joe. It’s hard enough for me to think about her being pregnant with your child. God.”

I felt for him. I really did, but I wanted to be left out of the whole thing even though that’s probably not a realistic plan since he was such a part of my life now. The whole thing just plain sucked.

His phone buzzed yet again, and he answered it, sounding weary. “Hello?”

“Hi, Joe. I wanted to know if we could get together. You know, to discuss what we might do.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary right now, do you? What do we need to discuss?”

It was quiet on Joe’s end of the discussion, and he finally agreed to meet her. “Okay. Meet me at the coffee shop in a half an hour.” More silence. “No, Sophia. I’m not coming to your place.”

He hung up the phone and looked at me with fear in his eyes. “I guess you heard. I’m going to go meet her to talk. She said she’s feeling scared and—aw, hell, I don’t know. I feel sorry for her. I’m a fool, aren’t I?”

I grabbed his hand, throwing him a lifeline. “No, Joe. As hard as this is for both of us, you’re not a fool.”

His thumb rubbed my palm in slow back and forth motions. “I don’t suppose you’d go with me, would you?”

A sarcastic laugh flew out of my mouth. “I’m doing my best to deal with all this, but hell no. I’m not going to go see her with you. I will ride with you, though, and do some grocery shopping while you’re talking.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

Little did I know, we were about to get another big surprise. What a roller coaster of a week!

* * *

I parked in the grocery store parking lot and gave Faith the keys while I walked a block farther to the coffee shop. Sophia was already there, smiling and waving to me as I walked through the door.

“Thanks for meeting with me, Joe.”

I didn’t say anything as I took the seat across from her at a high table by the window. She immediately grabbed my hands, and I just as quickly snatched them back. “What did you need to talk to me about?”

Her eyes widened as she sat up straighter in her chair. I didn’t take it as a good sign. “The least you could do is ask me how I’m feeling. I am carrying your child after all.”

“What makes you think it’s mine?”

Her face turned red at my question. “Because I know it is. The timing’s right.”

I still had my doubts. “How far along are you? What is your due date?”

“I don’t have an actual date yet. It’s been about three months since I got my last period.” As my brows drew together in thought, she glanced away, biting her cheek. None of this was adding up. She looked back at me after a few seconds. “No, no it’s more like two months, I think.”

“You think? You’re not sure? Sophia, if you’re not sure how long it’s been, can you really be sure who the father is? You’re not the most chaste woman I’ve ever met.”

That did it. She threw her coffee in my face. I’m very lucky it was an iced coffee.

She was furious, and more than a little off balance. Her eyes darted around the room, not focusing on anything. Just when I thought she was going to scream at me, she shook her head as if trying to clear it and sat down again, watching me mop up the coffee as well as I could. “Oh God. I’m sorry, Joe.” She sounded like she had control of herself again, but I kept my guard up.

“Listen. I don’t know what’s going on with you or what you’re trying to accomplish, but I don’t believe you’re pregnant with my child. I’m not even sure I believe that you’re pregnant. What are you doing, Sophia?”

Her shoulders slumped with defeat. “Okay, fine. I’m not pregnant.”

I closed my eyes as my own body sagged with relief. “Jesus, Sophia. Why are you doing this?”

“Because I want you, and I always get what I want. It doesn’t make any sense that you’d prefer that woman over me anyway. I’m not going to give up on this.”

I tried replaying our times together over in my mind to figure out what it was about me that she was so obsessed with. I came up blank. “You’re going to have to give up on this. I’m sorry, but our dates were just my job. If I had known that you’d take the sex to heart, I’d never have allowed it. You have my apology, but you need to leave me alone now.”

She gave me a condescending smile as she rose out of her seat. “Well, we’ll see what the future brings. For now, you take care of yourself.”

The way she ran so hot and cold was bothersome, but before I could assure her she would
not
be in my future, she patted my cheek and went out the door. I could only hope it was the last I’d see of her.

I walked back to the car feeling relieved but cautious. Time would tell whether Sophia would surface again, but for now, I was a happy non-father-to-be. Faith walked out of the grocery store with a few bags in her hand, and I took them from her to stow them in the backseat.

“You’re smiling. Can I assume your talk went well?”

“You can. She lied. She’s not pregnant.”

“Are you serious? That’s awful! I mean it’s great, but why would she lie about that?”

“She told me she always gets what she wants and that she wants me. I honestly think it’s as simple as that. The spoiled rich girl was told no. I’m hopeful I’ve seen the last of her.”

“So you think that’s it, then? It’s all over?”

“God, I hope so. I told her not to contact me again. She patted me on the cheek and left. I think it’s all I can do for now.” I kissed her long enough to cause her to lean into me. “Let’s go home so I can take your mind off all this.”

“Okay.”

* * *

Since I’d already taken the week off, Joe and I spent just about every minute together. Instead of it being too much, I loved it. As a matter of fact, I was ready to tell him that he could move in with me when he had to leave his condo. Heidi already loved it here. The backyard was like her own personal domain. She thoroughly enjoyed having some grass to run around.

It was nearing the end of the week, and things were running smoothly with no Sophia drama to ruin it. “What are you thinking about?” Joe’s legs surrounded mine as we sat in one lounge chair together, my back to his chest, his arms enclosing me in his embrace. “I can actually
hear
you thinking, Faith.”

He knew me well. I rested my head on his shoulder as we spoke, turning my head slightly toward him. “A couple of things, actually. First, I was thinking of having Thanksgiving dinner here. I need a break from my family. I’m not hiding from them, but I don’t want to share our first holiday together with them if there’s a chance of my sisters or mother being rude to you.” And for the first time in too long, I meant that. I
wasn’t
hiding from them. Being with Joe showed me how worthy I was. He showed me every day how I should be treated, and I’m not going to forget that. I’m also not going to let my sisters or my mother forget that. What an epiphany. My hand still tingles with pleasure when I think about slapping Marge. Maybe it wasn’t my finest moment, but damn it felt good. “I’m not going to let them ruin it. So how about we just invite your family, and maybe Essie too?”

“Are you sure, sweetheart? What about your father?”

“He’ll understand. He always does. I’m happier than I’ve ever been right now, and I don’t want my relatives to mar that. It’ll be fun. You can help me cook.” I’d never hosted a Thanksgiving dinner, but I was a good cook and I wanted to do it.

“My mom would love that. I’ll go call her.” He shimmied out from behind me to grab the phone as I reflected back to the first time I’d met her.

A few days ago, we were supposed to meet Joe’s mother and her husband at a small mom-and-pop Italian place she loved in the Hills. Joe and I got there a little early and were messing around in his truck. Honestly, we had a hard time keeping our hands off each other.

Well, the windows were plenty fogged up, and I had just wrapped my hand around Joe’s cock when we heard a tap on the window.

“Ignore it,” Joe said around a mouthful of my breast.

“Okay,” I panted, stroking him again. His fingers were inside my pussy, making my hips undulate in a most decidedly perfect rhythm. I kept rocking my hips and moaning his name, stroking him harder and faster until I felt his release coat my hand. Just the feel of his cum on me caused me to burst with a loud exclamation.

The banging on the window grew louder and we heard, “Uh, we’ll just meet you at home, Joseph.”

Neither of us said a word as we cleaned ourselves up the best we could with Dunkin Donuts napkins I had pulled out of the glove box. After a minute or so, Joe busted out laughing. “That was my mom. Oh my God.”

“Oh, she’s going to love me. God, Joe. She’s going to think I’m a slut! What were we thinking?”

“We have to go over there.”

“No way! We can’t go like this. Joe—we smell like sex. Hot, sweaty sex.” The look in his eyes told me he wanted more. “Let’s go home and get cleaned up first.”

“Okay.”

It took us a bit longer than expected, since we got cleaned up together. In the shower. Another orgasm later, and we were on our way over to his mom’s house. She never even gave me a nasty glance. The minute I walked through the door, she’d enveloped me in her sweet arms and welcomed me into her family. It was a moment I knew I’d never have with my own mother.